Administrative Officer (Mubende) Full Time

Title: Administrative Officer

Department: Programming (Restore Africa)

Report to: Administration Manager

Duration: Full-time

Job Location: Mubende, Uganda

Vacancies: One (1)

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.

CRS’ Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Portfolio

Under the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation strategic priority area, CRS aims to ‘drive uptake and scaling of nature-based solutions and novel financing mechanisms to support national and community level efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change’. CRS currently has three projects which fall explicitly under this strategic priority area, and is in discussions with other donors to start additional and related programs:

• Restore Africa, which aims to restore 560,000 hectares of land with 352,500 smallholder farmers across 31 districts (Climate Asset Management funded)
• Accelerating and Scaling Climate Smart Jobs within Restore Africa – Market Linkages for Livelihoods and Land Restoration (M4R – FCDO funded) in 17 districts, focusing on 60,000 small-holder farmers and 40,000 hectares also engaged in Restore Africa.
• Mixed-Use Agroforestry in Refugee Hosting Districts (World Bank / MinWE funded), targeting 17,550 hectares and 87,782 smallholder farmers

These projects aim to assist smallholder farmers, with an average landholding of 2 hectares (minimum 0.5 hectares, maximum 20 hectares) to diversify production within their agroforestry systems, including through payments for carbon sequestration through integration of trees into their plots. The projects also aim to incentivize smallholder farmers to be able to invest in activities which restore health to their soil and increase productivity over time, as well as meet their own food security and economic needs.

Job Summary:

The Administrative Officer will coordinate the provision of responsive, effective, and efficient administrative services in support of Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) mission to serve the poor and vulnerable. The role will ensure that stewardship of resources and a high-quality service approach are consistently integrated into administrative systems, policies, and procedures.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Communication Management: Facilitate communication within all organizational units and with external stakeholders as relevant. Receive, send, and distribute all incoming and outgoing mail, faxes, letters, and documents.
• Administrative Support: Perform specialized administrative tasks, including translating, typing, proofreading, formatting documents, recording and transcribing meeting minutes, and drafting correspondence.
• Transaction Coordination: Prepare transactional documents to support general operations processes, including payment requests, travel authorizations, travel advances, and visa processing.
• Compliance and Policy Adherence: Ensure administrative systems, processes, and policies comply with agency standards, donor requirements, and local regulations.
• Vendor and Service Engagement: Engage with service providers on assigned administrative matters, ensuring all required authorizations and documents are current.
• Asset and Facility Management: Ensure efficient use of CRS assets and rented facilities. Support compliant procurement of office materials and oversee asset management processes, including property receipt, distribution, labeling, and physical inventory counts.
• Data Management: Compile, enter, and verify data related to general administration processes, such as contact lists, employee leave balances, staff attendance, vehicle log sheets, and visitor welcome packages.
• Safety and Work Environment: Help identify and address safety issues, contributing to a safe and secure work environment.
• Travel and Logistics Support: Coordinate travel arrangements and logistics support for staff and visitors.
• Event Coordination: Assist with planning and coordination of events, including delegation visits, trainings, and workshops.

Basic Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration or relevant field preferred.
• Minimum of 3-5 years’ work experience in administrative support functions, with increasing responsibility.
• Experience with a local or international NGO a plus.
• Additional education may substitute for some experience.

Preferred Qualifications and Experience

• Experience in typing/word processing, data entry into online databases and forms, and operating various office equipment.
• Proficiency in MS Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio) and familiarity with information management systems, with strong skills in Word.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong planning, organizational, and time management skills.
• Excellent customer service orientation, with effective communication and interpersonal skills.
• Commitment to ethical conduct and ability to maintain confidentiality.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-orientated, and results-driven approach to work.

Required Languages: Excellent command of written and spoken English; knowledge of local languages from districts where RESAf is implemented is an advantage.

Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 30% in the CRS field location.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)

Agency competencies clarify expected behaviors and attitudes for all staff. When demonstrated, they create an engaging workplace, help staff achieve their best, and help CRS achieve agency goals. 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.

• Personal Accountability—consistently takes responsibility for one’s own actions.
• Acts with Integrity—consistently models values aligned with CRS Guiding Principles and mission. Is considered honest.
• Builds and Maintains Trust—shows consistency between words and actions.
• Collaborates with Others—works effectively in intercultural and diverse teams.
• Open to Learn—seeks out experiences that may change perspective or provide an opportunity to learn new things.

Agency Leadership Competencies:

• Lead Change—continually looks for ways to improve the agency through a culture of agility, openness, and innovation.
• Develops and Recognizes Others—builds the capacity of staff to reach their full potential and enhance team and agency performance.
• Strategic Mindset—understands role in translating, communicating, and implementing agency strategy and team principles.

Key Working Relationships:

• Supervisory Responsibilities: Will oversee coordination of Community Based Facilitators.
• Internal: Operations staff,Restore Africa project staff and other CRS staff.
• External: Partner staff, service provider.

“Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.”

Tagged as: Catholic Relief Services, Uganda