Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding. 

For nearly 60 years, CRS has taken the lead in responding to natural and man-made disasters affecting Ethiopia's most vulnerable communities. Moving beyond emergency response, CRS' disaster mitigation and recovery projects in drought and flood-prone areas have rebuilt individual and community assets through non-food aid in the form of agriculture, livestock, health, nutrition, and water and sanitation assistance. CRS's humanitarian work in Ethiopia also provides livelihoods support to farmers and entrepreneurs, promotes gender equality, mobilizes for immunization and mitigates the impact of HIV.

As part of CRS family, you will join the more than 5000 strong and vibrant individuals working globally to accomplish the mission of CRS. CRS/Ethiopia invites you, the qualified candidate, to apply for the following position.  

Position Title:          Program Manager I – Evaluation, Quality Improvement, and Accountability

Department:                Programing-RFSA

Duty Station:                 CRS Ethiopia/Addis Ababa

Employment Term:       Definite term (i.e. up to June 30, 2026)

Reports To:                     Deputy Chief of Party I-MEAL

Application Deadline:   March 04, 2023

Job Summary:

You will manage programming in the Country Program (CP) for RFSA, designing and implementing projects advancing Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) work in serving the poor and vulnerable. Your management skills and knowledge will ensure that the CP delivers high-quality programming and continuously works towards improving the impact of its programming. You will lead the design and implementation of RFSA’s quality verification and improvement strategy that aims to ensure consistent quality of implementation across all key interventions. You will also lead the team in setting up and implementing feedback and response mechanisms that are accessible to all target clients equitably. You will work with external evaluators, the donor, USAID – BHA and Ifaa staff to ensure effective design and execution of evaluation events including impact evaluation, process evaluation and outcome evaluations during the life of activity. Ifaa is being evaluated using a randomize control trial (RCT) approach and you will work with the respective stakeholders to ensure implementation is in line with the RCT evaluation protocols. You will work with the rest of RFSA team to ensure results from evaluation, QI, and accountability efforts are used for program improvement.

 Job Responsibilities:

Evaluation

• Design and implement strategies and tools that ensure all staff comply with impact evaluation expectations from CRS and the donor (BHA). This includes conduct bi-annual assessment to ensure fidelity of implementation to the impact evaluation approach among other strategies.

• Support external evaluators in conducting all evaluation events including process evaluation, and outcome evaluation and impact evaluation in line with BHA guidance for Conducting a Formative Process Evaluation on Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance Activities.

• Organize pause and reflect events with staff and other internal and external stakeholders to facilitate use of evaluation results from the impact evaluation, process evaluation and outcome evaluation.

 Quality Improvement and Accountability

• Manage and implement quality improvement and accountability initiatives within RFSA throughout relevant project cycles - project design, start-up, implementation, and close-out - to ensure efficient and effective implementation in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, USAID-BHA requirements, and good practices. Ensure project team and partner staff use the appropriate systems and tools.

• Champion learning with project staff and partner teams. Analyze and evaluate quality improvement and accountability performance data following MEAL policy. Proactively identify issues and concerns and use participatory processes to overcome implementation obstacles.

• Act as a key resource person in project design and proposal development in quality improvement and accountability, gap-filling and taking on growth responsibilities, as needed.

 General

• Effectively manage talent and supervise. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching, strategically tailor individual development plans, contribute to the recruitment process of project staff, and complete performance management for direct reports.

• Coordinate the identification of staff capacity and technical assistance needs of partner organizations and capacity strengthening and required interventions to support quality project implementation.

• Coordinate and monitor financial and material resources relevant to project needs. Through planning and oversight ensure efficient use of project resources

• Help identify, assess, and strengthen partnerships relevant to RFSA, applying appropriate application of partnership concepts, tools, and approaches.

 Scope: Supervises the quality improvement and accountability senior officer.

Job Requirements

Typical Background, Experience & Requirements:

Education and Experience

• Master's degree in international development, International Relations or in the field of results-based management. Professional training on accountability and protection principles is an added advantage.

• Minimum of 2-3 years of work experience in a project management position with an international NGO.

• Progressive experience in a field related to quality improvement and accountability.

• Experience in participatory action planning and community engagement.

• Project management experience in evaluation, quality improvement and accountability is highly desirable.

• Experience engaging with partner organizations

• Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals.

• MEAL skills and experience

• Proficient in using statistical analysis software such as R Studio, SPSS, or STATA.

• Proficient in using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.

 Personal Skills

• Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment.

• Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with culturally diverse groups.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to write report

• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented

 Required/Desired Foreign Language

 Travel Required (50% travel to implementation areas)

 Key Working Relationships:

Supervisory: Supervises One Accountability Senior Officer and One Quality Improvement Senior Officer.

Internal: CoP, DCoP Programming and Youth/Gender, DCoP MEAL, RFSA MEAL Managers, MEAL Officer, Accountability Officer; CRS Ethiopia MEAL Manager and ICT4D unit

External:  Implementing partner organizations, Government staff managing respective MIS, other organizations working in ICT4D

  Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff):

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

·       Serves with Integrity

·       Models Stewardship

·       Cultivates Constructive Relationships

·       Promotes Learning 

How to Apply

Register using the following LINK

Note: Qualified women & persons with disability are highly encouraged to apply