Project Officer – MEAL – CAPACities

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.

CRS has been operating in Indonesia since 1957 under the Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Social Affairs to provide both humanitarian response and long-term development to the most vulnerable communities. CRS Indonesia’s current strategy includes emergency preparedness and response, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and integrated agriculture and livelihoods. In line with its long-term country strategy, CRS Indonesia is looking to expand programming in the area of climate change in urban contexts.

CRS/Indonesia is currently looking for Project Officer – MEAL for Climate Change Adaptation & Mitigation project, **Job Code: MEAL CAP.**The position will be based in Kupang City and report to Program Manager.

Job Summary:

As a MEAL Officer, you will provide city level support to the five-year Caritas Australia-funded project Climate Action Partnerships in Asian Cities (CAPACities), which aims to strengthen inclusive climate change governance and adaptive capacities of Kupang City to manage the impacts of climate. Working in close coordination with the Program Manager II Climate Change and other programming staff, and with city government and city stakeholders, you will assist in operationalizing monitoring, evaluation accountability and learning (MEAL) systems in support of CRS’s work to serve the poor and vulnerable. You will help ensure that relevant data are collected, documented, managed, and made accessible to project stakeholders, as appropriate. You will support MEAL-related capacity building efforts for CRS and city stakeholders, as needed.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the coordination and implementation of all assigned project MEAL activities as outlined in the Detailed Implementation Plan in line with CRS program quality principles, standards and MEAL practices; donor MEAL requirements; and industry good practices.
• Monitor and report any MEAL-related challenges and gaps identified to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules. Assist LGU and relevant city stakeholders in their efforts to reflect on project experiences.
• Lead the roll-out and implementation of the project’s feedback, response and complaint mechanism (FCRM). Support actively seeking and responding to feedback from all members of targeted communities and other stakeholders as defined by the FCRM.
• Support field-level project MEAL activities (including digital data collection) and assist city LGU and relevant city stakeholders in their efforts to collect and ensure timely evidence-based analysis of project data per specified mechanisms and tools. Collaborate with city government to prepare MEAL-related aspects of reports per established reporting schedule.
• Collect information on staff MEAL capacity needs and technical assistance needs of targeted local government units, communities, relevant research institutions, private sectors, religious institutions, media, and local leaders and monitor MEAL-related capacity-building and technical support activities to ensure effective impact.
• Complete project documentation for assigned MEAL activities. Assist with identifying information for case studies and reports on promising practices.
• 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 LGU, city stakeholders and community members.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in the social sciences or other related fields required. A Master’s degree in relevant field is an advantage.
• Minimum of three years’ experience in M&E work.
• Experience in participatory action planning and government engagement.
• Proficient using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint.

Required Languages – Proficiency in English and Bahasa Indonesia

Travel– Must be willing and able to travel up to 30%.

Duty Station – This position will be based in Kupang. However, in the event of a disaster where CRS launches an emergency response, all CRS staff will be required to support the response and may be deployed to the response areas as necessary.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Observation, active listening and analysis skills with ability to make sound judgement.
• Good relationship management skills and the ability to work closely with local government CSO, private sector, academia, media and community members.
• Attention to details, accuracy, and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities.
• Proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented

Preferred Qualifications

• Excellent understanding of local NGOs and government system, with knowledge and appreciation of the vision and mission of CRS.
• Knowledgeable in participatory development processes.
• Acceptance of cultural differences among the target communities.
• Experience monitoring projects and collecting relevant data; experience in qualitative methods preferred.
• Experience with electronic data collection software and systems.
• Skilled in developing monitoring and evaluation forms.

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: MEAL Manager, SPO MEAL, PM II Climate Change, CAPACities Resilience Officer CAPACities Philippines staff**,** Regional Technical MEAL and other program staff**.**

External: LGU partners, city-stakeholders (CSO, private sector, academia, media), and peer agencies.

MEAL Competencies (relevant for specific position)

• MEAL in Design: Developing project-level Theories of change, results frameworks, Proframes, related MEAL system tools and competencies (Introductory)
• Monitoring: Implementing monitoring activities, including timely collection of quality data, set up and maintenance of databases, facilitation of participatory reflection on monitoring results, and submission of timely progress reports. (Basic)
• Evaluation: Supporting project and program evaluations and reviews by ensuring the quality of evaluation methods, tools, and data and facilitating the use of evaluation results to inform decision making and enhance learning. (Basic)
• Accountability: Improving our accountability to a range of stakeholders through increased participation, transparent communication, responsive feedback mechanisms, and adherence to internal and external quality standards and requirements (Solid)
• Learning: Promoting excellent knowledge management and collaborative learning processes at the project, program and institutional levels, generating robust evidence for project and programmatic learning that leads to action, decision-making and influence (Introductory)
• Analysis & Critical Thinking: Engaging with data, challenging biases and assumptions, posing thoughtful questions, pursuing deeper understanding of evidence through reflection and perspective-taking, and making informed programming decisions. (Basic)
• ICT for MEAL: Applying knowledge on information and communication technologies (ICT), both hardware and software, for opportune and accurate data collection, database management, conducting analyses, and making information easily accessible (Introductory)
• MEAL in Management: Managing financial and human resources in a way that optimizes the quality, effectiveness, and utility of MEAL systems (Basic)