Project Officer - Communications at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is an international non-governmental organization supporting relief and development work in over 99 countries around the world. CRS programs assist persons on the basis of need, regardless of creed, ethnicity or nationality. CRS works through local church and nonchurch partners to implement its programs, therefore, strengthening and building the capacity of these partner organizations is fundamental to programs in every country in which CRS operates. CRS has worked in Nigeria for more than 25 years.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Project Officer - Communications - (Nigerian Nationals Only)

Job Identification: 3000309
Location: Kaduna
Job Schedule: Full time
Job Category: Program Management
Job Shift: Day

Job Summary

• The Project officer - Communications will provide coordination and technical support to implement CGPP's Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) interventions.
• This will include but is not limited to leading advocacy, communication, and social mobilization (ACSM) towards promoting good healthcare-seeking behavior to increase the uptake of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), other Child Routine Immunization vaccines, and COVID-19 vaccines for eligible adults.
• She/he creates content and uses effective communication methods and channels to reach a number of different audiences and help increase the project’s visibility in the state. Likewise, She/he will work closely with the Partner Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) across the focal LGAs to ensure quality implementation and reporting of CGPP RCCE interventions across the project’s portfolios of Polio, Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) and COVID-19.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

• Oversee and facilitate the planning, implementation, and reporting of CGPP RCCE interventions across its portfolios in the state.
• With guidance from the State Team Lead (STL) and working closely with the CGPP Secretariat Communications officer, will provide onsite technical and organizational development support to the CBO Partners to strengthen and improve RCCE interventions not limited to advocacies, compound meetings, dialogues etc.  
• She/he will work closely with the One Health line Ministries, Primary Health Care Management Board, Polio EOC, and other related agencies and development partners at the state and LGA level under the guidance of the STL to process, analyze and use communications information to improve activities in focal LGAs.
• With guidance from the STL and working closely with the M&E Team, contribute to analyzing public health, animal health, wildlife, and environmental services to identify vertical and horizontal linkages useful to support community engagement activities, including surveillance to maximize efficiencies, cooperation, and improved outcomes.
• Work closely with the state MEAL officer to analyze and evaluate communications data to ensure compliance and record achievements across all reporting indicators.
• Work closely with the STL and CBO Partners to ensure timely reporting of project activities from focal LGAs, particularly communications not limited to weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, and other related reports.
• Work closely with the CBO Partners to oversee the activities of the community volunteers to ensure activities conducted are of high quality in compliance with the donor's RCCE and behavioral change strategy.
• Promote and influence behavioral change at individual and household levels towards increased community participation in Polio and other related programs.
• As guided by the STL, conduct monthly supervisory visits to focal LGAs and Partner CBO offices to monitor and mentor program activities and make recommendations as appropriate.
• Coordinate and facilitate all evidence-gathering activities on communications, including success stories, program evaluations, research activities, and case studies.
• Write and design creative and compelling project communication content such as success stories, photos, videos, fact sheets, brochures, powerpoint presentations, etc. – for various audiences; the donor, state government, local Church, partners, CRS's Yammer community and others as needed.
• Work closely with the STL and other team members to develop training materials and activities to build the capacity of the volunteers, and community leaders, which include traditional and religious leaders, health workers and caregivers on community participation, behavior change communication and CGPP RCCE strategy.
• Advice and guide on implementing community feedback mechanisms to ensure community concerns and misinformation are being addressed and coordinated with governments and partners.
• Document lessons learnt on the project and track intervention results and outcomes to better inform programming.
• Participate in ALL program activities not limited to review meetings, campaigns, technical working group meetings, and as delegated.
• Attend to other duties as assigned by the STL and or program's management.

Key Working Relationships:

• Internal:  State Team Lead, Senior MEAL officer, MEAL officers, MEAL Assistants, Program Manager, Deputy Head of Program, Program officers, Deputy Country Representative, and Country program operations and finance team.
• External: CGPP Secretariat, WHO, UNICEF, SPHCDA, NCDC, SOLINA Health, LGA PHC Team, Ministry of Agriculture, WHO, CBO Partners

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Communications, Health related discipline.
• At least 3 to 5 years of working experience Risk Communication and Community engagement activities on health programs. Immunization and Animal health experience will be an added advantage.
• Good knowledge of RCCE, SBCC, ACSM, One Health concepts including social development activities.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills; ability in consensus building and constructively leading a team
• Possession of analytical, problem-solving, and strategic planning skills
• Excellent interpersonal, organizational, and written/verbal communication skills, including in cross-cultural settings
• Fluency in English.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with relevant donors' regulations is a plus.
• Proficient in Excel and experience with Word and PowerPoint.
• Knowledge of financial reporting software a plus.

Required Languages:

• English is required, Hausa is an added advantage.

Travel:

• Must be willing and able to travel up to 75%.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to detect and report inconsistencies.
• Excellent organizational skills with great attention to detail.
• Ethical conduct in accordance with recognized professional and organizational codes of ethics
• Proactive, resourceful, solution-oriented and results-oriented.
• Ability to work collaboratively.

Application Closing Date
7th December, 2022 (06:27 PM).