Program Manager I-Venezuela

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/Program Background

The EMPOWER program is a joint initiative (FY18 – FY22) of the CRS Latin American and Caribbean Regional Office and the Humanitarian Response Department (HRD). It focuses on partner capacity strengthening in emergency response in the Caribbean, South and Central America and Mexico. The objectives of the program include 1) strengthening local partner participation in networks/coordination platforms 2) strengthening local partner organizational capacity to respond quickly and effectively to emergencies 3) seeking and garnering funding for partner led emergency responses.

Caritas Venezuela is implementing programs focused on food security, nutrition, health, and WASH throughout the 17 dioceses in Venezuela. Currently, CRS is supporting CV in the implementation of TENGO II a cash and voucher program which complements the food security and nutrition work in 10 dioceses. To date, CRS’ Humanitarian Response Department/EMPOWER has been partnering with Caritas Venezuela and has provided both technical and operational support to Caritas to contribute to the implementation of the program in quality and efficiency, building on Caritas’ existing skills and knowledge.

Given that CRS is CV’s Facilitating Partner for the Emergency Appeal with a mandate and Terms of Reference from CI, the HRD is seeking a Program Manager I to provide ongoing support and accompaniment to Caritas Venezuela in the areas of detailed implementation planning, MEAL, protection mainstreaming, internal controls and financial management for its emergency programming.

Job Summary:

The Program Manager I – Program Quality Management (PQM) will provide program management support to Caritas Venezuela (CV) for their CI Emergency Appeal focused on food security, nutrition and WASH; advancing Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) work in serving the poor and vulnerable. Her/his management skills and knowledge will ensure delivery of high-quality programming and continuous work towards improving the impact of it. S/he will organize capacity building and accompaniment of Caritas, with the goal of ensuring emergency relief and recovery activities undertaken are compliant with CI Management Standards, Sphere and other international standards and donor regulations.

Under the supervision of the EMPOWER TAII, the Emergency Program Manager will provide accompaniment to Caritas Venezuela in the design, implementation, monitoring and reporting of the Emergency Appeal as well as other projects funded by CRS.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Manage and implement all activities throughout relevant project cycles – project design, start-up, implementation and close-out – to ensure efficient and effective implementation in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices. Ensure project team and partner staff use the appropriate systems and tools.
• Effectively manage talent and supervise. 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 a quality partnership between CRS and local EMPOWER partners, in line with CRS and Caritas Internationalis (CI) partnership principles.
• Promote the capacity of CV to adhere to CRS and Caritas Internationalis (CI) guiding principles and program quality standards through the use of CRS Program Quality tools and manuals, including the Project Management Standards (PMS), Safeguarding and Protection Mainstreaming Guidelines, and Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) in Emergencies.
• Effectively manage talent and supervise. 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.
• Support CV to implement an Improvement Plan for Sub Recipient Financial Management as well as the CIMS Self Evaluation.
• Champion the mainstreaming of accountability, gender equity, and protection principles in all steps of the project cycle.
• Work closely with Caritas Venezuela to address on the findings of evaluations of previous Emergency Appeals.
• Support Caritas Venezuela to implement their Emergency Appeal and other CRS funded projects, including but not limited to the development and management of a detailed implementation plan, MEAL plan and a transition to CommCare.
• Champion learning with project staff and CV team. Analyze and evaluate project performance data following MEAL policy. Proactively identify issues and concerns and use participatory processes to overcome implementation obstacles.
• Support Caritas to develop high quality emergency proposals for submission to donors and then support all stages of implementation of those proposals.
• Support Caritas in all reporting (including situation reports) for emergency programs.
• Strengthen the capacities of partner team to be accountable to donors, local communities and beneficiaries.
• As required and as a support function, represent Caritas Venezuela in coordination forums.
• Ensure strong communication and collaboration with other members of Caritas Internationalis and representatives in the country who are also providing support to Caritas Venezuela.
• Support the CI Working Group for Venezuela on implementing their action plan for the response.
• Coordinate the identification of staff capacity and technical assistance needs of CV and capacity strengthening and required interventions to support quality project implementation.
• Coordinate and monitor financial and material resources relevant to project needs. Through planning and oversight ensure efficient use of project resources

Required Languages– Oral and written language proficiency; capable of conducting trainings, writing reports and proposals, holding meetings, conducting interviews and communicate with partners in English and Spanish is a requirement.

Knowledge of Portuguese, French or Haitian Kreyol are desired.

Travel– Must be willing and able to be based in Caracas, Venezuela. 50% travel in country with some opportunities to travel in the region.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Extremely flexible and able to cope with stressful situations in emergency environments.
• Excellent relationship management skills with ability to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings
• Strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to write reports
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented

Preferred Qualifications

• Project management experience in emergencies is highly desirable.
• Experience engaging with partner organizations.
• Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals.
• MEAL skills and experience preferred.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.
• Working knowledge of humanitarian standards, management standards including CIMS, Sphere
• Experience in project design, grant management, budgeting, preferably with multi-donor public grants
• Experience in capacity building of local partners especially related to digital tools and feedback and response mechanisms
• Strong demonstrated skills in grant management, including project design, budget preparation, expenditure control, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
• Strong partnerships and localization approach. Knowledge of church networks and Caritas Internationalis is an advantage.
• Experience working in Level 3 security environments
• Experience in working on the Venezuelan migrant crisis preferred.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, knowledge-sharing networks.
• Candidates from Latin America/Caribbean region would be preferred.

Work Conditions/ Environment Conditions

Venezuela is a Level III country, restrictions and protocols need to be followed accordingly. CRS personnel embedded into Caritas Venezuela must respect partner’s work hours, codes, and protocols.

Supervisory Responsibilities: None

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: EMPOWER Team Members, HRD (S)TAs especially LACRO point persons, LACRO RTAs

External: Local partners, Caritas Internationalis, Caritas Member Organizations, other humanitarian actors in target countries (INGOs, NGOs, UN Agencies, Donors)

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s degree in International Development or related fields required. Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• Minimum of two years relevant field-based experience in coordinating or managing light to moderately complex projects required, ideally with an international NGO in emergency programming.