Company Profile

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 Ghana was established in 1958, a year after Ghana gained independence. In Ghana, CRS works with local partners to tackle poverty on several fronts including improving health and nutrition; increasing access to safe water and improved sanitation; promoting agriculture to enhance food security; and increasing financial assets through Savings and Internal Lending Communities. 

Job Description

• Department: Programming
• Band: D
• Reports To: Agriculture Program Manager
• Country/Location: Ghana, Tamale
• Start Date: March 2019
• End Date: November 2021

Job Summary
CRS, with funding from Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), has joined a consortium with the Directorate of Agricultural Extension Services of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA DAES), The Hunger Project (THP) and Farmerline to increase productivity and incomes for smallholder farmers in the Brong Ahafo and Northern Regions by supporting them with access to quality extension services, improved technologies and good agronomic practices through the “Ghana Extension Systems Strengthening Project (GESSiP)”. GESSiP will use a two-tiered approach based on AGRA’s Village Based Advisor (VBA) model to strengthen both public and private community-based extension services in Ghana over a 36-month period from December 1, 2018 to November 30, 2021.

As a lead for GESSiP team, the position 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 CRS’ work serving the poor and vulnerable. This position’s coordination and relationship management skills will ensure that GESSiP applies best practices and constantly works towards improving the impact of its benefits to those we serve.

Job Responsibilities
Provide project management and technical leadership for the implementation of the Ghana Extension Systems Strengthening Project (GESSiP) in 14 districts of the Northern Region of Ghana.  Specifically:

• Organize and lead the implementation of all assigned project activities as outlined in the detailed implementation plan in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices.
• 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. 
• 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.
• Supervise and perform ad-hoc inspections of various processes and resources at project sites to ensure timely project activities implementation 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 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 AGRA requirements. Assist with preparation of trend analysis reports and documentation of case studies and promising practices

Scope
(Number of employees supervised or revenues responsible for. If appropriate and available, then include them, otherwise state “Not Applicable”) - Not Applicable

Key Working Relationships

• Internal: Agriculture Program Manager; Senior Project Officer-Agric.; Finance Manager; International Development Fellow
• External: GESSiP consortium implementing partners (The Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Directorate of Agricultural Extension Services; District Departments of Agriculture; The Hunger Project; Farmerline); and other partners

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. 

• Serves with Integrity 
• Models Stewardship 
• Cultivates Constructive Relationships 
• Promotes Learning 

Required Skills or Experience

• Master’s Degree required. Degree in the field of agriculture, agronomy, community-based development or other related field would be a plus.
• Minimum of 5 years of work experience in project support, ideally in the field of agricultural or community development work for an NGO.
• Proven knowledge of community-based agricultural extension delivery systems; improved farming technologies and good agronomic practices; and savings for access to finance through CRS’ Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) or other Village Savings and Loan Associations approach desired.
• Experience working with partners, participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Staff supervision and partner engagement experience a plus.
• Experience monitoring projects and collecting relevant data.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

• Analysis and problem-solving 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

• Sets clear goals and works towards achieving them
• Collaborates effectively with staff and stakeholders
• Manages financial resources with integrity
• Applies program quality standards to project design and organizational learning 

• 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.
• Analysis and 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.
• 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.