Technical Advisor III-Emergency MEAL and IM Team Lead

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, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding. 

The Humanitarian Response Department (HRD) provides leadership and support to CRS emergency programming. The HRD strengthens CRS’ impact through high quality, innovative programs; improved technical and management capacity at the field level; and active engagement in global efforts to promote excellence and learning in humanitarian response. The HRD has technical staff that supports emergency program planning, rapid response, and capacity strengthening of staff and partners worldwide.

Job Summary:  

You will contribute to strategy development in emergency response and recovery at a regional or global level and provide technical advice and leadership in aspect(s) of a Monitoring, Evaluation Accountability and Learning and Information Management (MEAL/IM) at a regional or global level, including as a focal point for a geographic area as needed, in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to Technical Advisors and Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your expertise, advice and influence will significantly contribute to determining how effective, adaptive and innovative CRS' Emergency Response and Recovery MEAL and IM approaches are.

This includes managing a team of MEAL and IM focused technical advisors on the HRD, to provide effective support in emergency MEAL/IM to Regions, Country Programs and partners. The HRD MEAL/IM team:

• provides rapid deployment leadership focused on MEAL and IM for breaking and ongoing humanitarian responses, including emergency programming in conflict-affected areas as well as responses to natural disasters such as floods, drought or food crises; 
• guides CPs and partners to incorporate relevant MEAL/IM into humanitarian proposal design/development, in coordination with regional teams and relevant HRD technical advisors;
• leads knowledge management and capacity building efforts on ERR program quality, MEAL and IM, to ensure best practices and learning are shared across the CRS regions/country programs; and 
• engages with PIQA, IDEA and regional colleagues to bring a humanitarian lens to discussions on broader MEAL and IM initiatives
• Supports MEAL and IM for HRD-led humanitarian projects, as requested.

Roles and Key Responsibilities: 

• Contribute to the design, advocate for, and ensure implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in Emergency MEAL and IM  that effectively engage partners, donors, and governments. Ensure a cross-sectoral approach that integrates gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
• Provide technical solutions globally, for regional and/or CP teams for strategic planning and how to best apply and adapt emergency MEAL and IM program design and implementation standards, best practices, partnership principles, and tools in emergency response and recovery programming. Guide country program and partner teams in the development of emergency project MEAL and IM systems that meet donor requirements and adhere to the agency’s MEAL policies, procedures, and practices. Contribute to the customization and design of digital tools for data collection and the design of approaches for data visualization that facilitate use of data and quality reporting. 
• Take on acting emergency MEAL and IM leadership roles and support the set up and/or management of MEAL and/or IM systems and structures as requested during field deployments.  Support CRS emergency Country Programs in expanding their role in humanitarian coordination/IM, when relevant.
• Contribute to HQ, regional, and country program staff efforts to pre-position CRS for strategic growth opportunities in Emergency Response and Recovery, with a focus on MEAL and IM. Provide technical guidance in proposal development and project design with a focus on complex projects to ensure innovative programming solutions and technical excellence including defining appropriate monitoring systems, indicators and information management systems. Support CPs to appropriately staff project teams.
• Oversee and lead the delivery of capacity strengthening initiatives in Emergency Response and Recovery MEAL and IM globally for staff and partners through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums; organizin