Project Manager (Mubende) Full Time

Title: Project Manager

Department: Programming (Restore Africa)

Report to: Project Manager II – Implementation (Project Management Unit)

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:

As the Project Manager overseeing the implementation of the Restore Africa Project in the central districts of Mubende, Kiboga, Kassanda, Lyantonde, and Ssembabule, you will manage, coordinate, and monitor all project activities.

This role involves supervising Project Officers in each district, providing strategic and technical support on agroforestry, overseeing planning, monitoring, and evaluation, and ensuring effective collaboration with stakeholders.

The Project Manager will report directly to the Project Management Unit, under the Project Manager II – Implementation and will contribute to strategic decision-making and adaptive management.

Through strong project management skills and sound technical expertise, you will ensure the delivery of high-quality programming and continuous improvement of the project’s impact, advancing Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) mission of serving the poor and vulnerable.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Project Management: Lead technical, budget management, monitoring, and reporting activities throughout all phases of the project cycle; start-up, implementation, and close-out, ensuring alignment with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and best practices.
• Team Leadership and Supervision: Effectively manage project staff, team dynamics, and staff well-being. Provide coaching and mentorship, develop tailored individual development plans, support recruitment processes, and conduct performance management for direct reports.
• Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL): Ensure that learning accompanies project activities across all stages of implementation. Coordinate evaluation and accountability activities in line with the CRS MEAL Policy. Proactively identify challenges and report them to guide adjustments to plans and implementation schedules.
• Partnership Management: Foster and strengthen partnerships relevant to the Restore Africa Project, applying appropriate partnership principles, tools, and approaches.
• Representation and Stakeholder Engagement: Represent CRS in engagements with local partners, government authorities, and community stakeholders in the areas of project implementation.
• Resource and Financial Management: Oversee planning and use of financial, material, and human resources to ensure quality project implementation. Conduct regular budget reviews and follow up with partners for timely submission of financial reports to ensure proper resource tracking and accountability.
• Capacity Strengthening: Identify staff and partner capacity needs, provide technical assistance, and contribute to capacity-building interventions to enhance project quality and sustainability.

Regional Coordination and Leadership

• Provide overall leadership and coordination of land restoration activities across the six project districts.
• Supervise and support Project Officers to ensure timely and high-quality implementation of activities.
• Consolidate district-level plans into a cohesive regional work plan aligned with overall project objectives.

Basic Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in project management, international development, International Relations or in the required field. Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• Minimum of 5-8 years of work experience in project management, ideally in the field of agroforestry and community mobilization for an NGO.

Preferred Qualifications and Experience

• Master’s degree in international relations or in the field of agroforestry would be a plus.
• Ability to contribute to the development of technical proposals, a plus.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Proven staff supervision and stakeholder management experience, with the ability to build and strengthen effective partnerships with communities and local stakeholders.
• Strong analytical skills, including experience in data analysis and contributing to evaluation and written reports.
• Proficient in MS Windows and MS Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
• Excellent critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and sound judgment abilities.
• Strong relationship management and representation skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across diverse teams and contexts.
• Highly proactive, results-oriented, and service-minded individual with strong attention to detail, accuracy, and timeliness in executing responsibilities.

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

Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 50% 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: Supervise 5 district coordinators.
• Internal: Project Management Team and other CRS staff.
• External: Partner staff, staff from other peer agencies.

“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