Senior Project Officer – Food Security Analyst

About CRS

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 equality and inclusion, and mitigates the impact of COVID-19.

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.

Job Title:                      Senior Project Officer – Food Security Analyst

Band:                                  VIII

Required number:           One

Employment Term:         Indefinite Term contingent on funding of the JEOP Program

Reports To:                  Program Manager II – Early Warning and Disaster Risk Reduction

Country/Location:            CRS Ethiopia/Addis Abba

The Program Background

The Joint Emergency Operation (JEOP) is a food assistance program operating in Ethiopia since 2012. JEOP works closely with the National Disaster Risk Management Commission (NDRMC) and other stakeholders to provide timely food assistance to disaster affected people in Ethiopia. JEOP engages in need assessments of affected areas and supports the targeting process of the affected people. Strengthening the Government of Ethiopia’s early warning system (EWS) is one of JEOP’s strategic investment areas, as the program seeks to enhance local capacity to collect timely quality data and conduct food security analysis to inform emergency food need estimation.

JEOP has been implementing an EWS in its operation woredas across five regions (Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, Sidama, SNNP) and Dire Dawa City Administration. Activities include collection of EWS data, analysis, and reporting; empowering kebele DRM committees around risk monitoring, providing risk education training to communities and mobilize for risk actions; and enhancing the local capacity through training and active engagement at local level in food security assessments. JEOP is planning to cascade the food security analysis at woreda and zonal levels as part of continuous commitment to strengthen the Government of Ethiopia’s EWS - with a focus to local level structures and responding to capacity gaps.

 Job Summary:

As a member of Joint Emergency Operation (JEOP) project team, you will facilitate the achievement of project objectives through coordinating and reporting on all project activities and providing technical guidance and advice to staff and implementing partner(s) advancing Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) work serving the poor and vulnerable. Your coordination and relationship management skills will ensure that the project for which you are responsible applies best practices and constantly works towards improving the impact of its benefits to those we serve.

 Job Responsibilities:

• Organize and lead implementation of all assigned project activities as outlined in the detailed implementation plan in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices.
• Lead JEOP’s food security assessments and quarterly household early warning surveys, including adapting questionnaires and survey design to local contexts; liaison with JEOP Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) team to integrate activities, and redesign surveys for changing context.
• Support and coordinate capacity building and technical support activities to ensure JEOP partners and woreda Disaster Risk Management teams collect quality data and apply data analysis tools appropriately at Woreda level.
• Timely extract household survey data from CommCare, conduct analysis, and share JEOP’s analysis report to woredas where limited capacity to do so.
• Provide continuous technical guidance and oversight to partner, woreda food task force, and zonal DRM on JEOP’s approach for food security assessment, survey, and people in need estimation process.
• Work closely with JEOP MEAL team to put in place a quality checking process for collecting valid and reliable Early Warning data.
• Review food security analysis conducted by JEOP partners, and woreda food task force/Early Warning technical committee.
• Prepare a monthly JEOP early warning report and share out to JEOP’s partners, and other stakeholders
• Provide technical guidance and oversight to the food security analysis exercise conducted at woreda and zonal level.
• Liaison with other organization doing a food security analysis e.g., WFP, FEWSNET, EDRMC, for data exchange and joint analysis.
• Closely work and collaborate with partners, and zonal level DRM to prepare a risk communication messages in a standard format as an outcome of zonal level review meetings.

Typical Background, Experience & Requirements:

Education and Experience (required)

• University degree in project management, rural development/development, Agriculture, Early Warning, Disaster Risk Reduction, food security/resilience/livelihood, or other related field.
• Minimum of four years of work experience in areas of early warning, disaster risk reduction, resilience and climate, or market monitoring with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO. Some experience may be compensated by additional academic background and vice versa.
• Knowledge of technical principles and concepts in disaster risk reduction, resilience, and humanitarian principles. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, leading remote trainings, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks, data collection platforms (e.g. iFormBuilder, KOBO, CommCare), statistical analysis and visualization software (e.g. SPSS, STATA, R, Power BI).
• Strong data collection and research skills and ability to interpret and analyze data.
• Presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills

 Education and Experience (desired)

• Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.
• Knowledge of and experience with capacity strengthening best practices; experience with capacity building, including training, mentoring as well as developing training materials; good oral presentation skills.
• Two years’ experience with partnership activities and institutional strengthening – experience with church partners a plus.
• Experience in gender/protection sensitive programming is advantageous
• Experience with program monitoring and analysis.

 Personal Skills

• Strong relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision, work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings, and with local partners in a collaborative way, prioritizing subsidiarity
• Ability to work under remote supervision as part of the team in fast-paced emergency environment according to CRS Standard Operating Procedures; willingness to travel.
• Good strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
• Strong technical writing skills
• Proactive, resourceful, and results-oriented
• Attention to details, accuracy, and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities

 Required/Desired Language: English, Amharic. Advantageous if applicant speaks Afan Oromo, Somali, Tigrigna, and other Ethiopian languages

 Travel Required 25%-30%

 Key Working Relationships:

• Supervisory: none
• Internal: JEOP team, Country program staff, other CP early warning/resilience staff (ICT, RFSA, other program departments), CRS Technical Advisors (EARO, HRD and others)
• External: JEOP consortium members, RFSA projects, donor representatives, UN stakeholders (OCHA, WFP), NDRMC, other humanitarian stakeholders and Government of Ethiopia sector office at different level.

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