Country: Uganda
Closing date: 18 Apr 2016
About CRS:
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome, as a part of our staff and as partners, people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.
Background:
CRS Uganda is the prime agency implementing the Sustainable Outcomes for Children and Youth Project in 17 districts in central and southwestern Uganda. The Project is designed to improve the health, nutrition, education and psychosocial wellbeing of 625,000 orphans and vulnerable children and their caregivers, as well as reduce abuse, exploitation and neglect among this population. The Project will improve outcomes for vulnerable children and youth by strengthening the systems that surrounds them; caregivers will have greater economic opportunities, which will increase their resilience and make them less susceptible to shocks, local government structures and CSOs will be strengthened to provide services targeting the diverse needs of vulnerable children, and health and social service agencies will strengthen their coordination and referral systems to provide integrated care along the continuum of response. By strengthening these systems, the project will achieve the following results:
• Orphaned and vulnerable children, youth and their caregivers are economically empowered to effectively access core services.
• Local governments and CSOs have increased availability and improved the quality of core services for orphaned and vulnerable children, youth, and their caregivers.
• Service providers have improved the coordination of community-based clinical and socio-economic services for efficient and effective referrals along the continuum of care.
The Project will strengthen OVC community programming around sustainability planning including household economic strengthening, case management and referral of OVC and vulnerable households to health facilities for services and HIV testing. In three districts, the project is implementing parenting and socio-economic activities that focus on protecting adolescent girls and young women against high risk behaviors under the DREAMS Initiative. The Project will also support the development of a HIV-sensitive social service system. In line with PEPFAR 3.0, the project will have an increased focus on linking OVC and their caregivers to HIV testing and counseling (HTC) as well as particular focus on treatment and outreach to adolescent girls to prevent new HIV infections.
Job Summary:
The OVC Specialist will provide technical leadership for the Sustainable Outcomes Project around strengthening HIV sensitive programming parenting with a focus on creating opportunities to more effectively and holistically address the needs of adolescent girls’ age 10-18 years. Working collaboratively with the Deputy Chief of Party, the Household Economic Strengthening, and the Health Linkages Technical Leads, the OVC Specialist will ensure continuous refinement and effective roll out of HIV sensitive programming and ensure that the program is well aligned to PEPFAR strategic priorities. These priorities include increased testing of OVC and their caregivers and ensuring reduced incidence of HIV amongst adolescents (particularly girls). This position will increase awareness within the Sustainable Outcomes team and CSOs about principles of adolescent girl programming and support partners to adapt the principles to their context. S/he will liaise closely with the Household Economic Strengthening Technical Lead to identify ways to address structural/household economic issues (e.g., pulling girls out of school) that put adolescent girls at risk and support appropriate programmatic response. This position will also work closely with the Health Linkages technical Lead to support CSOs to identify opportunities for more robust case management and referral networks to address the needs of these populations and create stronger linkages with health services. The OVC Specialist be responsible for monitoring program quality through the use of Site Improvement through Monitoring System community tool.
Specific Responsibilities:
- Provide conceptual and technical guidance for the development and refinement of standard operating procedures (SOPS) for key program interventions, ensuring that they are evidence-based, HIV-linked and in line with PEPFAR priorities.
- Monitor program quality and impact through the use of PEPFAR’s Site Improvement through Monitoring System (SIMS).
- Oversee the project’s learning and adaptation agenda by supporting evidence gathering, documentation, and dissemination.
- Synthesize best practices and develop guidelines and training to support local CSOs to incorporate robust prevention interventions into their programs.
- Stay abreast of new thinking and developments in quality and innovations related to HIV sensitive programming and share relevant information as appropriate.
- Support documentation of project results including but not limited to drafting project briefs, project reports, developing conference and/or webinar presentations and articles for peer reviewed journals.
- Ensure approaches meet and are aligned with CRS’ programming guidelines and policies.
Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)
These are rooted in the mission, values, and principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and to achieve the desired results.
• Serves with Integrity
• Models Stewardship
• Cultivates Constructive Relationships
• Promotes Learning
Program Manager Competencies
These are rooted in the mission, values, and principles of CRS and used by each Program Manager to fulfill his or her responsibilities and to achieve the desired results.
• Sets clear goals and manages toward them
• Collaborates effectively with staff and stakeholders
• Manages financial resources with integrity
• Applies program quality standards to project design and organizational learning
Supervisory Responsibility:
• Consultancies and short-term technical assistance.
Key Working Relationships
Internal: Chief of Party, Deputy Chief of Party, Sustainable Outcomes technical leads; Uganda Programming, Finance, Procurement, and HR/Admin teams.
External: Sustainable Outcomes consortium and CSO partners, Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development, USAID, OVC IP partners.
Qualifications:
- Master’s degree in social work, social sciences, education or a closely related field.
- Five to six years professional field experience in ECD, youth and/or parenting programming in an HIV/OVC context.
- Familiarity with child development and its application in a programming context.
- Familiarity with the development and use of youth-serving programming approaches, tools and strategies.
- Experience working with local partners and participatory methods for youth integration and promotion of positive parenting.
- Experience working in consortiums with both international and local NGO partners.
- Excellent written and oral communications skills in English
- Strong interpersonal, cross -cultural and training/mentoring skills
- Advanced computer literacy.
Travel: The OVC Specialist will be expected to travel within Uganda and potentially outside of Uganda to attend conference, workshops or other activities related to the project.
Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.
CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.
Equal Opportunity Employer
How to apply:
Apply online: https://www5.apply2jobs.com/CRS/ProfExt/index.cfm?fuseaction=mExternal.showJob&RID=2868&CurrentPage=1