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.

CRS has worked in Uganda since 1965, initially providing emergency assistance to Sudanese refugees living in the north. Over the years, CRS has expanded its programming to address needs across the country. CRS’ projects in Uganda currently include agriculture and value chain, landscape restoration and climate change adaption, health and health systems strengthening, microfinance, and DRR, humanitarian response and recovery. CRS Uganda implements its programs through partnerships with other organizations, including the Catholic Church, faith-based organizations, international and Ugandan NGOs, government ministries, private sector companies and academia, for maximum impact and sustainability. CRS Uganda employs around 180 staff and has its main office in Kampala, with sub-offices in Moroto, Yumbe, and Kikuube districts. With our more than 30 partners, we served over 1m Ugandans in 2021.

Job Summary:

You will manage and provide technical oversight of the development and implementation of a Land Restoration Initiative in Uganda under the Restore Africa Program of the Global Evergreening Alliance (GEA), of which CRS is a member. CRS in Uganda serves as the Lead Implementing Organization for the Land Restoration Initiative, in a standing partnership with World Vision Uganda and CARE International Uganda. The team is completed with ICRAF, ECOTRUST, the Uganda Landcare Network, and CARITAS. The Chief of Party II will manage the large and complex project, ensuring effective systems and processes are in place that supports high-quality programming advancing Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) and Alliance members’ work in serving the poor and vulnerable. Your management skills and knowledge will ensure that the CP delivers high-quality programming and continuously works towards improving the impact of its Land Restoration Initiative.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

Lead all aspects of the development, implementation, and consolidation of the Land Restoration Initiative in Uganda, including sharing how the project contributes to the thought leadership of the industry.
Serve as the primary point of contact to GEA’s Program Coordination Unit.
Ensure the project is designed and implemented to meet donor expectations in terms of timely and quality results and budget, including strategies for phase out and sustainability. Ensure coordination between program and operations leads. Ensure the CRS program quality standards are adhered to per MEAL policy and procedures, and that project Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of the carbon component is met.
Provide management, guidance, and technical oversight of the Land Restoration Initiative throughout the project cycle to ensure project design, start-up, implementation, and close-out are in line with CRS quality and compliance principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices.
Ensure programmatic integration of Land Restoration Program approaches in Uganda in close collaboration with CRS, Government of Uganda and partner staff. Ensure national representation of the project with various Government of Uganda departments and other stakeholders.
Manage relationships within Uganda GEA consortium partners as chair of the steering committee comprised of senior leadership from the partner agencies.
Manage the Program Management Unit and the integration of a team of multi-agency, multidisciplinary staff in line with CRS partnership principles.
Effectively manage and supervise CRS talent for the Uganda Land Restoration Program team. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching, strategically tailor individual development plans, and complete performance management for direct reports.
Lead the development of program learning - identify opportunities for learning, research and publications in the area of sustainable agriculture practices and implementation of MEAL policy as well as ensure feeding of Uganda relevant MEAL into the global GEA MEAL system. Facilitate the dissemination of promising practices and lessons learned to contribute to the agency and GEA knowledge management agenda. Ensure integration of innovations and best practices.
Contribute to the proactive pursuit of opportunities for new funding to ensure the growth of the Evergreening Initiative portfolio in line with agency, regional, and CP, Government of Uganda and GEA strategic priorities. Contribute to technical design and technical writing for the CP to ensure quality proposals per agency and donor standards. Contribute to budgeting and staffing plans and activities for proposals.
Oversee technical assistance and capacity-strengthening activities in sustainable agriculture practices for staff and partner organizations to enhance program quality and impact.
Oversee the identification, assessment and strengthening of partnerships relevant to Evergreening Initiative and the appropriate application of partnership concepts, tools and approaches.
Ensure timely and appropriate project expenditures and partner advances and liquidations in line with financial plans and efficient use and stewardship of project material sources.
Manage and mitigate risk through monitoring national and regional issues that may impact staff and programming. Ensure all staff understand and adhere to CRS staff safety and security policies and plans and ensure the updating of such plans.