Program Manager I/ Nutrition Technical Advisor at Catholic Relief Services (CRS): (Deadline 16 September 2022)

Program Manager I/ Nutrition Technical Advisor at Catholic Relief Services (CRS): (Deadline 16 September 2022)

Job Title: Program Manager I/ Nutrition Technical Advisor

Department: Programming, Rwanda, CARO

Band: 9

Reports To: Deputy Chief of Party II/Head of MCCH Division at RBC

Country/Location: Rwanda (Kigali)

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.

Country Background:

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has been working in Rwanda since 1961. CRS Rwanda’s key programing areas include agriculture, early childhood development, economic strengthening, justice and peace building. To achieve this, CRS collaborates with the government of Rwanda, donors, the Catholic church, private sector, and civil society organizations. CRS Rwanda has an annual budget of over $8 million USD and is comprised of 59 staff.

Job Summary: 

The Inclusive Nutrition and Early Childhood Development (INECD) activity will promote nurturing and responsive care practices, especially in the areas of health, functioning, nutrition, and early childhood development (ECD) for caregivers and children. Specifically, the activity aims to improve health and nutrition outcomes among women of reproductive age and adolescents and improve infant and young child feeding practices. It also aims to address child development gaps and significant unmet physical rehabilitation and assistive technology (rehab/AT) and social inclusion needs for infants and children. The activity will focus on community-level service delivery, community-health facility linkages and district level capacity development, as well as address issues of inclusion and participation, including access to programs and services for children and adults with disabilities, in line with Government of Rwanda priorities.

You will provide technical advice to RBC to improve Maternal, Infant, Young Child, and Adolescent Nutrition (MIYCAN) at health facilities (Health Centers, Hospitals) and at community level in line with nutrition policy and Maternal Newborn and Child Health Strategic Plan 2018-2024.

You will collaborate with the INECD Nutrition Advisor for a range of program design and implementation issues in inclusive Nutrition, ECD for children 0-3 as well as 4-6, adolescents in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your advice, knowledge, and support will contribute to determining how effective, adaptive and innovative CRS’ inclusive Health, Nutrition, and ECD programming is.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Bring technical expertise to MCCH division on nutrition planning, M&E and innovative tools to monitor interventions received by targeted beneficiaries in the community with following activities but not limited to:

• Provide technical support to the MCCH for planning, delivery, and coordination of prioritized nutrition actions at the national, district, sector, cell, and village level related to community-based nutrition program (CBNP)
• Provide technical support for the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of Maternal, infant, young child, and adolescent nutrition (MIYCAN) interventions
• Conduct regular joint supportive supervision to mentor and motivate on the effective use of data for decision making in the hospital and health facilities
• support activities around MCH week preparations and communication,

• Build capacity of community health workers and local leaders (mentorship, supportive supervision, training and oversight) for new and innovative tools to monitor health and nutrition interventions and strengthen data use in preventing and reducing stunting
• Assess CHWs skills and knowledge on provision of services to women of reproductive age and adolescent girls at the community
• Provide/Refresh CHWs skills and strengthen capacity to facilitate early identification of pregnant women and referral to health facilities for ANC services
• Promote data usage and digitalization of nutrition tools to reduce the workload to the CHWs
• Monitor the technical quality of program implementation in the field. Provide technical solutions to project & cluster and district-based teams, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools and M&E, helping to ensure high-quality implementation.
• Support capacity strengthening initiatives in inclusive Nutrition and Health programming for GoR, INECD staff and partner through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and coaching.
• Collect and analyze program data, capture and share lessons learned and best practices for the projects to facilitate improvements in decision-making and contribute to the inclusive nutrition, ECD and Health learning agenda.

• Contribute to maintaining relationships with other GoR institutions such as NCDA, donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions, participate in forums in the areas of inclusive nutrition, ECD and Health to collect and share best practices and promote Gikuriro Kuri Bose work.

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Nutrition, public health or related field required.
• Minimum of seven years relevant work experience in nutrition programming in Rwanda, maternal and child health, with progressive responsibilities.
• Experience working with multi-stakeholder platforms and processes, or other complex collaboration platforms across sectors
• Strong Knowledge and previous experience in capacity strengthening best practices.
• Experience with program monitoring and evaluation and analysis.
• Experience and skills in networking and relations with other GoR Ministries such as MINISANTE, MINEDUC, MINALOC, MIGEPROF, MINAGRI and MINEMA and donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.

Required Languages – Strong oral and written skills in both English and French/Kinyarwanda

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 50% throughout project sites.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities 

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with ability to make sound judgment and decisions and offer innovative solutions
• Strong relations management abilities. Ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally. Strategic in how you approach each relationship.
• Good presentation and facilitation skills
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented and results-oriented

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

Supervisory Responsibilities: None

Key Working Relationships: 

Internal: Nutrition Advisor, Deputy Chief of Party, Chief of Party, RBC.

External: Ministry of Health and Health facilities, Other GoR institutions: NCDA, Minaloc/Districts and local authorities, other USAID-funded projects nutrition staff and FNTWG members.

***Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. We welcome as a part of our staff people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need. CRS’ processes and policies reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

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

CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer. CRS is committed to providing equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, or any other socio-economic status.

How to apply

Interested and qualified candidates should complete the attached application form, Self -Declaration Clause and submit them together with one page Cover letter plus updated CV (maximum three pages) all in/as one document – via email only to: [email protected] not later than Friday September 16, 2022, at 5:00pm.

Please, include below statement in your motivation letter:

“By applying to this job, I understand and acknowledge that CRS requires its staff to treat all people with dignity and respect and to actively prevent harassment, abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking. Further, I understand that if I am a successful candidate, I will be subject to a comprehensive background check, and my personal/professional references will be asked to evaluate my behaviors related to the above safeguarding-related topics”

Also include your full names and title “Nutrition Technical Advisor” in the subject line. Due to anticipated high interest in this post and the expected number of applicants, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Kigali September 7, 2022

Jude-Marie Banatte

Country Representative

CRS/Rwanda Program

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