Senior Project Officer – Disability Inclusion 464 views

Job Title: Senior Project Officer – Disability Inclusion
Reports to: Project Manager – Disability Inclusion
Department: Programming
Salary Grade: 8

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 The Gambia since 1964. Over the years, CRS’ focus shifted from direct relief and food distributions to a comprehensive development program that works with partners and enhances the local capacity. CRS The Gambia program now supports, community-based efforts to increase household incomes, improve family health and sanitation, education, and enhance agricultural livelihoods. 

CRS is anticipating funding from the European Union(EU) to implement a project on Advancing the Rights of Persons with Disability in The Gambia. 

 Recognizing the socio-economic challenges faced by families of children with disabilities, the project seeks to take a holistic approach by enhancing early intervention services, training rehabilitation workers, and providing critical assistive devices such as wheelchairs, hearing aids, and communication tools to project participants, including Children Living with Disability. 

Job Summary: 

As a lead for disability inclusion within the anticipated EU Social Protection project, you will facilitate the achievement of the initiative’s objectives through designing, implementing, coordinating, and reporting on all activities related to disability inclusion and provide technical oversight, guidance, and advice to staff and implementing partner(s) advancing the European Commission and CRS work in serving the poor and vulnerable. In this role, your coordination and relationship management skills will ensure that the project activities for which you are responsible apply best practices in disability inclusion and constantly work towards improving the impact of its benefits to those we serve.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• 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 disability inclusion activities throughout the program cycle from design to scale. Support accountability through feedback mechanisms, lived experience participation, helping to coordinate project evaluation activities and guiding partners in their efforts to reflect on project experiences, particularly related to disability inclusion. Analyze implementation challenges and report any inconsistencies and/or gaps to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules. 
• Work with other staff members and partners to develop and roll out disability messaging to address stigma and discrimination. 
• Provide disability lens review of key technical documents and provide content for disability inclusion training and sensitization. 
• Coordinate and oversee working relationships with all local CRS stakeholders, including organizations of persons with disabilities, disability service providers, and disability-related government authorities and self-advocates. Serve as the liaison between them and the team to mobilize local actors and promote project activities and impact that is diversity inclusive. 
• Supervise and perform ad-hoc inspections of various processes and resources at project sites to ensure timely project activities implementation and adherence to established priorities, principles, 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.
• Identify capacity needs of staff and partners and support and coordinate disability inclusion capacity building and technical support activities to ensure assigned activities are implemented per project guidelines and standards.
• Identify and communicate any short-term technical assistance needs and work with global technical advisors to roll out disability training and guidance. 
• Coordinate the provision of any logistical and administrative support to staff and partners.
• Ensure project documentation for disability-inclusive approaches, outcomes, and lessons learned is complete with all required documents and is filed per agency and donor requirements. Assist with the preparation of trends analysis reports and documentation of case studies and promising practices aligned with the learning agenda.
• Ensure the safeguarding of all project participants and that any staff working with participants understand safeguarding policies and procedures.
• Seek opportunities to bring in the “voice” of persons with disability and support them to be self-advocates and lend their experience and voice.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree required. A degree in Special Education, Social Work, Public Health, or in the field of disability inclusion would be a plus.
• Minimum of 4 years of work experience in project support, ideally in the field of disability inclusion and for an NGO.
• Experience working with organizations of persons with disabilities and relevant government ministries 
• Experience delivering training/mentorship on disability inclusion to NGOs and community volunteers
• Experience developing or delivering disability awareness and anti-stigma campaigns. 
• Experience identifying and addressing participation barriers of people with disabilities, a plus

Required Languages – Able to communicate in written and spoken English 

Travel – Must be willing to travel up-country up to 50% of the time 

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities 

• Track record of working with and promoting the participation of people with disabilities 
• Familiarity with the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities 
• Understanding of disability-inclusive development practices
• Familiarity with disability identification and assessment tools 
• Familiarity with principles of accessibility 
• Analysis and problem-solving skills with the 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

Preferred Qualifications

• Project management experience in disability inclusion is highly desirable
• Experience incorporating disability indicators into monitoring and evaluation systems and using disability disaggregated data to inform decision-making, a plus
• Experience working with partners, participatory action planning, and community engagement
• Experience monitoring projects and collecting relevant data
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

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

Supervisory Responsibilities: None

Key Working Relationships: 

Internal: CRS EU Disability Inclusion Project Manager, CRS Program Quality Manager, CRS Finance Manager, CRS EU Project Grant Accountant.

External: EU and other external stakeholders, Private Sector Providers, Community, relevant Government departments and disability organizations 

***Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. We welcome as a part of our staff people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need. CRS’ processes and policies reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation. 

CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

Applications should be submitted by email to: GM_HR@crs.org with the subject; APPLICATION FOR THE POSITION OF Senior Project Officer – Disability Inclusion.

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer