CRS Moldova is hiring Senior MEAL Officer

 About CRS 

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) 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. In Moldova, CRS is implementing Changing the Way We Care^SM (CTWWC), a global initiative to promote safe, nurturing families for children from residential institutions and children at-risk of family separation.  This work involves coordination among a variety of government and non-government stakeholders at the national and regional levels to advance childcare reform and strengthen families.  CRS is also working to support the capacity strengthening and organizational development of Moldovan NGOs inclusive of training, on-the-job coaching, and accompaniment.

Job Summary

As a member of the CTWWC Moldova team, you will facilitate the achievement of CTWWC’s goal to ensure children grow up in safe and nurturing families through coordination and reporting on all project MEAL activities and providing MEAL-related technical guidance to the CTWWC team and implementing partners.  As Moldova is a demonstration country within a learning initiative, MEAL serves an important role to drive adaptive management and to capture learning that can be shared to influence regional and global care reform.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

• Organize and lead the implementation of all assigned MEAL activities as outlined in the CTWWC Moldova’s annual Detailed Implementation Plan and in line with CTWWC’s MEAL plan and quality principles, standards and MEAL policies, procedures, and practices; donor MEAL requirements; and industry good practices. This may include but is not limited to management of CTWWC’s performance indicator tracking, data quality assessments, reporting and reflection in Moldova; compliance with MEAL policies and procedures and engagement in initiative-wide self-assessment; periodic evaluations and advancing the CTWWC learning agenda in Moldova.
• Ensure learning properly accompanies project activities throughout the project cycle. Support accountability through coordinating project evaluation activities and guiding partners in their efforts to reflect on project experiences. Analyze implementation challenges and report any inconsistences and gaps to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules.
• Provide guidance to partner MEAL activities (including digital data collection) and provide guidance and capacity building support to partners in their efforts to collect and ensure timely analysis of data per specified mechanisms and tools. Collaborate with local partners to prepare MEAL-related aspects of their work and report per established reporting schedules.
• Participate as a member of CTWWC Global MEAL team through monthly team meetings, collaboration with colleagues in other parts of the initiative (demonstration countries and regionally and globally), contribute to initiative-wide MEAL planning, implementation and reflection.
• Build and support a MEAL community of practice across partner organizations in Moldova to achieve MEAL activities in the Detailed Implementation Plan as a team.
• Collect information on MEAL capacity needs and technical assistance needs of CTWWC and partner organizations and monitor MEAL capacity building and technical support activities to ensure effective impact.
• Complete project documentation for assigned MEAL activities and ensure adequate filing for effective knowledge management. Assist with identifying information for case studies, reports on promising practices, and other communications materials that advance the learning agenda, program objectives, and/or fundraising efforts.
• Support program learning and decision making by posing thoughtful questions, engaging with project data, reflecting upon and sharing with project management the information gathered from community members and partners.
• Ensure compliance with the CRS data protection and privacy policies and procedures.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree required. Master’s Degree in the field of Statistics, MEAL or related field would be a plus. Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• Minimum of 3-4 years of work experience in project implementation, ideally in the field of MEAL and for an NGO.
• Experience working with stakeholders at various levels and strengthening community partnerships.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
• Experience working with partners, participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Experience monitoring projects and collecting relevant data.
• Experience utilizing ICT4D platforms and solutions.

Required Languages

Fluency in Business English and Romanian.                                                            

Travel

Must be willing and able to travel to locations in Moldova up to 15% and occasional participation in international meetings outside of Moldova.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• 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, national and regional stakeholders, and community members, and international colleagues

• Attention to details, accuracy and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities
• Proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages, especially Excel for managing data, and ideally other applications (Word, PowerPoint, Access, Forms).
• Experience collecting data through online platforms such as Kobo, Survey Monkey etc.

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

No supervisory responsibilities.

 Key Working Relationships

Internal: Country Program MEAL Manager and Community of Practice, CRS Moldova country program staff, CTWWC MEAL Director, CTWWC Global MEAL team, CRS regional and global technical advisors for MEAL, CRS’ regional MEAL community of practice.

 External:  CTWWC sub-recipient partner organizations (management, MEAL focal points, and other technical staff); representatives of national, regional, and local government relevant for project implementation; other CTWWC partners (NGOs, faith-based organizations, private sector) that are not sub-recipients; vendors related to execution of MEAL tasks (i.e. database developers, consultants, etc.)

MEAL Competencies (for CRS MEAL Program Staff)

Each staff member in this position is expected to have basic knowledge and ability and, with guidance, be able to apply the following competencies in common situations that present limited difficulties:

• Monitoring
• Evaluation
• Accountability
• Learning
• Analysis and Critical Thinking

In addition, each staff member in this position is expected to have elementary understanding of and to demonstrate a willingness and potential to learn about:

• MEAL in Design
• ICT4MEAL
• Management in MEAL

***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

Interested candidates are welcome to apply by sending their CV with email to crsapplicationsmd@crs.org mentioning in the subject line the title of the position “Senior MEAL Officer”.