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.

Band: VIII

Department: JEOP

Employment Term: Indefinite- contingent upon funding of JEOP 2.0 project

Reports To: PM I- (Roving)-Commodity Risk and Compliance Monitoring

Job Summary:

The Senior Project Officer for JEOP commodity compliance will be responsible to manage the program compliance team to ensure follow us visit for JEOP consortium partners on reported monitoring finding and to make sure last mile program implementations are in line with the JEOP program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practice. You will also be responsible to lead the investigation of reported incidents by working closely with the partner and respective government counterparts in support of Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) work serving the poor and vulnerable. Your thorough and service-oriented approach will ensure that the project consistently applies best practices and constantly works towards improving the impact of its benefits to those we serve.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities:

• Ensure the last mile JEOP commodity handling and managements implementations are in-line with the donor requirement, international and national standards.
• Provide technical assistance, accompaniment and mentoring to JEOP compliance officers, implementing partner staff on commodity management to ensure adequate capacity in commodity management.
• Consistently updating partners about their risk level and performance status using of the follow-up sheet from the JEOP working platforms
• Provide support visit to locations having sensitive cases that includes high risk level, high ranking commodity management gaps
• Assess, identify and provide comprehensive guidance on the reason of the recurring reported gaps to help management decision making
• Support accountability through coordinating project evaluation activities and assisting partners in their efforts to collect and analyze project data per specified mechanisms and tools.
• Participate in a joint assessment with partners on the specific issues; like reported incidents, to set a comprehensive solution. Identify and indicates symptoms that may bring risks that cause similar results.
• Collaborate with the commodity risk monitoring team on implementing and strengthening standard commodity management implementation by all JEOP consortium.
• Collaborate with JEOP operation and grant section to ensure the last mile project payment for scoopers and porters are in accordance with the agreed standards and ensure all the support documents are properly kept by the consortium partners.
• Maintain strong working relationship with partners at different levels (Sub Offices, Coordination offices and Head offices)
• Monitor and report any challenges and/or gaps identified to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules. Assist partners in their efforts to reflect on project experiences.
• Collect information on staff capacity needs and technical assistance needs of partner organizations and monitor capacity building and technical support activities to ensure effective impact.
• Share good practices, commodity management rules and regulation on a formal training.
• Complete project documentation for assigned activities. Assist with identifying information for case studies and reports on promising practices.
• Supervise and provide managerial support and guidance to commodity compliance PO.
• Undertake other duties assigned by the supervisor.

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.

• Integrity
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Builds Relationships
• Develops Talent
• Strategic Mindset
• Accountability & Stewardship

Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

Job Requirements

Education and Experience

• MA/MSC Degree in Business Studies, Accounting, Economics, Management, and related field of study with 2 years’ relevant experience or min 5 years relevant experience for BA degree
• Experience in the field of Commodity Compliance and for an NGO would be a plus.
• Additional education may substitute for some experience.
• Experience in participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Experience monitoring projects and collecting relevant data preferred.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

Personal Skills

• Observation, active listening, and analysis skills with ability to make sound judgment.
• Good relationship management skills and the ability to work closely with local partners and community member.
• Attention to details, accuracy, and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities.
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented

Required/Desired Foreign Language: – English, Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Somali, Hadiya, Sidama, Tigrenga

Travel Required: Extensive field travel to partner activity sites for up to 50% of work time.