About CRS

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, health, agriculture, natural resource management, food security, education, microfinance and peace building.

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. 

Job Summary: 

Degradation of land is a leading cause of hunger and poverty. The vast majority of people living in developing countries depend on agriculture for their food and income, and 80% of smallholder farmers rely on rain-fed agriculture and are especially vulnerable to environmental changes affecting water and soil. CRS has identified and implemented successful, evidence-based models for land restoration that reduces hunger and improves livelihoods of farming families.

The Job holder will provide technical advice, guidance, and support to operationalize the Landscapes and Livelihoods Strategic Platform vision at the country level in the Ethiopia country program.  The technical knowledge, relationships, advice and guidance will contribute to determining the success of CRS and its platform allies to achieve landscape restoration at scale.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

 1.Mobilize and support CRS Ethiopia country program (CP) and key stakeholders in the scaling of land restoration models for resilient livelihoods within an agricultural landscape perspective to improve food, water and livelihoods security

• Contribute to the development and implementation of strategies, standards, tools, and best practices to Transform Agricultural Landscapes and Lives that effectively engage partners, donors and governments
• Provide technical assistance to understand the policy environment and dynamics of land degradation, map key stakeholders and identify entry points to dialogue with government
• Provide technical solutions, remotely and on-site, for strategic and field level agricultural landscape restoration planning and scaling concepts based on best practices and partnership principle
• Support CP agriculture and livelihood program to evaluate and address issues related to the enabling environment required for scaling of land restoration models
• Contribute to capacity strengthening initiatives in landscape restoration programming for CRS staff and platform members by developing learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and mentoring and coaching
• Lead operation research, documentation and learning, and cross cutting landscape related initiatives including enhancing communications and visibility
• Support CP in resource mobilization, including through proposal preparation/review and donor positioning
• Provide technical support during assessments, studies and backstop landscape restoration approaches as required including business development activities.
• Serve as focal person within the CP to collate data and information for the different landscape restoration activities conducted by the different programs within the CP (eg. DFSA, LRO, AgLH).
• 2.     Develop and implement effective government and multi-stakeholder platform engagement strategies for influencing and scaling of land restoration approach within an agricultural landscape.
• Map key public and private stakeholders, including donors; assess national climate change and restoration commitments; analyze agricultural/environmental/climate change policies and programs
• Identify, catalyze and represent CRS, along with other CP program staff, within key national and regional platforms dedicated to land restoration within an agriculture landscape perspective
• Convene key stakeholders and contribute to defining mutually agreed upon and obtainable landscape vision, goals and objectives, and catalyzing landscape level planning activities at scale
• Develop and reinforce strong relationships and linkages with key government (local and national) and private sector, and civil society actors
• Identify and build coalitions of like-minded multi-sectoral actors to develop and operationalize strategies to scale integrated landscape restoration
• Build partner advocacy and representational capacity to connect local action to national goals to influence scaling of land restoration based on evidence and best practices.
• Advocate/influence at appropriate GoE levels and with service delivery mechanisms such as PSNP to strengthen coordination and action based on evidence
• Represent CRS, along with CP program staff, at global, national and regional restoration events, seeking out speaking opportunities/panel participation – eg.  AFR100, Global Landscapes Forum, etc.
• Coordinate land restoration related policy analysis, identifying gaps and developing policy advice.
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• 3. Promote a Strategic Agricultural Landscape Restoration Monitoring and Learning Agenda
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•  Work with MEAL team to provide support to developing and operationalizing online monitoring and evaluation systems as basis for performance monitoring of land restoration interventions within an agricultural landscape
• Provide support to ongoing efforts to develop a suite of mobile data and GIS application and learning tools for data gathering systems, geospatial analysis, and knowledge sharing mechanisms that underpin the scaling of land restoration with an agricultural landscape perspective.
• Ensure the routine collection, assembly and reporting of related climate change indicators and environmental/agricultural information concerning services provided and their subsequent impacts
• Support learning methods and associated data from agricultural landscape interventions to strengthen existing and new initiatives in this approach including regional learning alliances
• Contribute to refinement and application of land restoration metrics, working closely with program and monitoring/evaluation teams
• Use data to understand obstacles to uptake and related enabling environment/ policy constraints.
•  Contribute to knowledge management and learning, capturing and sharing lessons learned and best practices, supporting communication strategies, applied research and internal report development.)
•  Establish database for the different land restoration activities ever conducted by the CP and for future land restoration programs.
• Assess and document scalable land restoration best practices implemented with CRS projects and other programs within the country and develop land restoration best practices compendium.

Basic Qualifications

• BSC or Master's Degree in Natural Resource Management, Soil and Water conservation, Forestry, Environmental Science and Climate Change, Agro ecology or field(s) related to Landscape Restoration required.
• Minimum of Eight years relevant international working experience for BSC or 5 years for MSC graduates in an advisory or management role with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with minimum of three years working for programming interventions in Land Restoration or Natural Resource Management.
• Significant leadership experience and capacity to build relationships leading to alliances. Ability to motivate and bring together diverse actors.
•  Experience and skills in networking and facilitating inter-institutional coordination among donors, peer organizations, faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles, with emphasis in the agricultural sector.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.

Required Languages – English fluency required

Travel - Must be willing and able to travel up to 30%.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities 

·         Excellent relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.

·         Ability to try out / test new ways of engagement and communications. Openness to different and new ways of doing things; willingness to modify one’s preferred way of doing things.

·         Ability to work effectively with diverse groups of professionals towards common goals

·         Strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment

·         Strong written and oral communication skills

·         Strong presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills

·         Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented

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