Social Cohesion Senior Project Officer

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.

Through the Shared Future project, a 7.25 year project CRS Iraq’s social cohesion component seeks to build mutual understanding, tolerance, and trust among religious and ethnic groups in five project locations in Ninewa: Bartella, Bashiqa, Qaraqosh, Telkeif, and Nimrod.

Job Summary:

The Social Cohesion Senior Project Officer (SPO) will support the Social Cohesion and PYD Program Manager to manage, coordinate, and monitor activities for youth, religious and community leaders across five locations, Telkeif, Bartella, Nimrodd, Qaraqosh and Bashiqa, in the last year of the project. As a lead for the project team in Qaraqosh, Nimrod, and Bashiqa, the SPO 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. The SPO will serve as the main liaison to youth, religious and community leaders and other key stakeholders in the project locations to promote the project, ensure buy-in from the community, and facilitate smooth implementation. The SPO will also work closely with other project consortium members to foster synergy across project objectives. The SPO’s coordination, relationship management skills, and knowledge of the program area, and community mobilization/volunteerism/ community activist/sustainability skill set will ensure that the project applies best practices and constantly works towards improving the impact of its benefits to those CRS serves. The contract duration will be 10 months with the possibility of renewal and the position will be based in, Mosul.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Coordinate and oversee working relationships with all local project stakeholders and serve as the liaison between them and the project team to mobilize local actors and promote project activities and impact. This will include establishing and maintaining relationships with youth, religious and community leaders in the project locations as well as developing relationships with other local youth organizations to ensure participation and buy-in across ethnic and faith backgrounds.
• Organize and lead the implementation of all assigned project activities related to youth, religious and community leaders as outlined in the detailed implementation plan in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices.
• Support the timely preparation of high-quality donor reports, quarterly performance indicator tracking tables, baseline and final evaluation reports, as well as other reports as needed/required by the local government, donors, the region, or headquarters.
• Effectively manage talent and supervise a team of three project officers from CRS. 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.
• 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 inconsistencies and/or gaps to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules.
• Supervise and perform ad-hoc inspections of various processes and resources at project sites to ensure timely implementation of project activities and adherence to established process standards and procedures. Ensure proper tracking of resource use for project activities through periodic budget reviews and follow-up with and assistance to the implementing partner.
• Support and coordinate capacity building and technical support activities to ensure assigned project activities are implemented per project guidelines and standards.
• Coordinate provision of any logistical and administrative support to staff and partners.
• Ensure project documentation for assigned activities is complete with all required documents and is filed per agency and donor requirements. Assist with preparation of trends analysis reports and documentation of case studies and promising practices.
• Ensure project officers are coordinating with field assistants and community mobilizers to periodically identify the priorities, resources, needs, and solutions of youth and community and religious leaders to support improved social cohesion within communities
• Ensure project officers are coordinating with field assistants and community mobilizers to routinely monitor contextual changes at project locations to ensure social cohesion interventions are appropriate and responsive to evolving dynamics within communities.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree required. Master’s Degree in International Relations or in the field of International Development or Social Cohesion, preferred. Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• Minimum of 4 years of work experience in project management, with at least 1-2 years’ experience in social cohesion programming for an NGO, community mobilization, governance, and social cohesion voluntary work

Required Languages – Spoken and written English and Arabic fluency is required. Knowledge of Assyrian, Shabaki, Turkmen, or Kurdish is a plus.

Travel – The position is based in Mosul, with up to 40% travel to project sites in Ninewa, as allowed by local and national health regulations. Minimal regional and international travel for training or project activities, as needed.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Analysis, problem-solving and critical thinking skills with ability to make sound judgment.
• Good relationship management skills and the ability to work closely with local partners.

• Proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented.
• Attention to details, accuracy and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with partners, participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Experience working with youth, religious and community leaders in Ninewa Plains
• Staff supervision experience a plus.
• Experience monitoring projects and collecting relevant data.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, MS Teams).

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:

Three CRS Project Officer.

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: Project Director; Social Cohesion and PYD Program Manager; Social Cohesion Quality SPO, MEAL Program Manager Head of Programming; Procurement and Finance staff

External: Caritas Iraq; project partners; other operational partners and colleague organizations; local government; UN agencies and relevant sector leads

***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.

Protection Acknowledgment: CRS prohibits all forms of abuse and exploitation towards children and vulnerable adults. As a professional candidate, you commit to adhering to the Agency’s policy on protection, rights and dignity of children and vulnerable adults and to safeguard them from abuse and exploitation as defined in CRS’ Safeguarding Policy.

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

Please submit your CV as a PDF, other formats rather than PDF will consider corrupted and will lead to neglect application.

You can apply via the link below:

https://crsiraqcareers.crs.org/job?id=236