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

• Reports to:  WASH Program Manager
• Department:  Programming-WASH
• Salary Grade: 9

Job Summary:
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has been working in Ghana since 1958 in Health, Agriculture, Peacebuilding, Water and Sanitation, Microfinance and Education programs. CRS seeks a Project Manager to lead a team in the management and implementation of one or more WASH project activities. CRS WASH projects generally seek to improve the health and wellbeing of women, men and children, using behavior change communication and WASH services improvements at households, schools and health care facilities to eliminate open defecation, increase safe water access and use, and improve hygiene practices. The Project Manager will manage, coordinate, monitor and report on all project activities and relationships with partners and other project stakeholders to assist the achievement of project objectives advancing Catholic Relief Services’ work serving the poor and vulnerable.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Provide overall guidance in planning, designing, budgeting, implementing and monitoring core strategies and activities of WASH project.
• Ensure optimal project quality and efficient delivery of project activities according to the decisions made by senior management of CRS Country Program and the Regional Technical Advisor for WASH.
• Ensure accurate and timely reporting of program finances and progress status, review actual financial performance against the budget, and explain variances on a regular basis.
• Ensure that field staff and partners adhere to their assigned scopes of work and memorandum of understanding/agreements, and all members of the project implementation team work cooperatively and productively to achieve project objectives.
• Participate in the recruitment and evaluation of consultants and contractors for the project within the framework of CRS policies and national regulations.
• Facilitate and oversee the dissemination of best practices and lessons learned from the project sites locally and nationally as a way of enabling the visibility of the project model and the donor.
• Conduct periodic reviews of staff performance in keeping with CRS' performance management system and mentor staff to ensure high levels of motivation, commitment, capacity, and teamwork.
• Facilitate for mainstreaming of gender equality and social inclusion, and good governance into WASH interventions.
• Maintain smooth coordination and networking with relevant government organizations and other WASH and Health related stakeholders at national level.
• 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.

Supervisory Responsibilities: Responsible for supervising 7 Senior Project Officers

Key Working Relationships:

• Internal: Country Representative, Head of Programs, WASH Program Manager, Business Development Specialist, International Fellow, Finance Manager, Senior/Regional Technical Advisors: Water Environment & Sanitation (WES)
• External:  Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Services, District Assemblies, and other partners

Required Skills or Experience

• Master’s Degree in Water and Sanitation/Environmental/Sanitary Engineering or Water Resources Management, Hydrogeology, Social Science, Community Development or Development Studies or relevant WASH discipline.
• Minimum five years of work experience in rural water, sanitation and hygiene promotion
• Additional experience may substitute for some education

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Critical thinking and analytical problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment
• Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with local stakeholders
• Experience in budgeting and budget management
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, cultural sensitivity, ability to work with people, good judgment and commitment to the Agency's mission
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented
• Attention to detail, accuracy and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities
• Willingness to travel in-country and internationally as required by the Agency
• 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 and community members.
• Attention to details, accuracy and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities.
• Proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented.
• Excellent facilitation and presentation skills.
• Knowledge of local level issues.

Preferred Qualifications

• Minimum of two years of supervisory experience and experience with leading and managing studies and consultants
• Excellent knowledge and experience on the social aspect of WASH, community led total sanitation (CLTS) approach, Mensural Hygiene Management, School WASH, WASH in Health and child to child approaches and hygiene promotion through behavior change communication and gender transformative WASH programming.
• Knowledge of principles, policies, guidelines, and practices of WASH sector.
• Experience of managing WASH projects will be added advantage.
• Ability to contribute to the development of technical proposals, a plus
• Proven team coordination skills and ability to work independently.
• INGO work experience preferred.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
• Knowledge of local languages in northern Ghana (Dagbani, Mampruli, Talen, Frafra, etc.) would be an advantage.
• Experience working with stakeholders at various levels and strengthening community partnerships

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

Required Languages – Fluency in English required

Travel - Must be willing and able to travel up to 40%.