Senior Project Officer- Livelihoods (Fort Portal, Uganda) Full Time NEW

Job Title: Senior Project Officer- Livelihoods

Department: Programs

Report to: Technical Advisor I – MSME Strengthening

Duration: Full-time

Vacancies: One (1)

Job Location: Fort Portal, Uganda

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.

Background

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’. Within the Program Management Unit focused on scaling nature-based solutions and novel financing mechanisms, CRS has established a Market System Development unit. This oversees the FCDO-funded project entitled ‘Market Linkages for Livelihoods and Land Restoration (M4R)” (2024-2027). The specific objective of the M4LLR project is to establish market linkages for smallholder farmers participating in land restoration initiatives in Uganda.

The project strives to facilitate the integration of climate-smart and sustainable land restoration practices within profitable and diversified agroforestry production systems. The M4R project concentrates its efforts on 18 districts located in the Midwest, Rwenzori, and Elgon regions of Uganda, and links closely with the Climate Asset Management funded ‘Restore Africa’ Initiative. These areas present substantial opportunities to involve private sector participants and farmers in both landscape restoration and the development of sustainable and diversified production systems across a variety of value chains, leveraging and building on CRS and consortium partner activities, structures, and partnerships.

Job Summary:

Based at the offices of one of M4LLR’s local partners, you will support the achievement of project objectives by coordinating, monitoring, and reporting on all project activities. You will provide technical guidance to partners’ livelihood officers, community mobilisers, and MEAL officers on M4R project interventions.

The role includes identifying and supporting strategic partnership opportunities to address systemic constraints to land restoration within a market development approach; overseeing activities implemented through private sector partners; and contributing to business development services for groups engaged in land restoration initiatives. You will also oversee group capacity building in marketing, financial management, inclusive governance, and readiness to manage future carbon finance.

Through strong coordination and relationship management, you will ensure the project applies best practices and continuously improves the impact of its benefits for target communities.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Plan, coordinate, and lead the implementation of assigned project activities in line with the detailed implementation plan, CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices.
• Identify, map, and engage formal SMEs, financial institutions, and other market actors across target districts/regions to build a pipeline for SCRF grant funding and Business Development Services (BDS) support.
• Leverage engagement with RESAf smallholder farmers and farmer groups/cooperatives to facilitate linkages with private sector partners (e.g. offtakers, input and service providers) and identify eligible actors for SCRF and BDS support.
• Facilitate co-creation processes with private sector partners (e.g. coffee and spice exporters) and provide technical support to promote production diversification and integration of agroforestry crops among smallholder farmers.
• Coordinate with market actors to develop agroforestry business models for typical smallholder farms, incorporating short-, medium-, and long-term cash flows, seasonal and multiyear income streams, and nutrition-sensitive agroforestry opportunities.
• Support and coordinate specialized training and capacity-building initiatives for farmer groups, focusing on financial management, business planning, partnership development, governance, and readiness for carbon finance engagement.
• Conduct capacity and gap assessments, including gender-sensitive self-assessments, for groups with Carbon Development Agreements (CDAs) to ensure inclusive governance structures that actively involve women and youth.
• Conduct routine field monitoring, support visits, and ad-hoc inspections to track progress, ensure adherence to standards, troubleshoot implementation challenges, and verify appropriate use of project resources.
• Promote continuous learning, accountability, and adaptive management by coordinating evaluations, supporting partner reflection, analyzing implementation challenges, and recommending adjustments to plans and schedules.
• Ensure effective layering and coordination of M4LLR and Restore Africa interventions across all target geographies, including facilitating quarterly review meetings with implementing partner field staff.
• Coordinate and oversee field-level implementation, reporting, and stakeholder engagement; serve as the liaison between local stakeholders, implementing partners, and the project team to mobilize actors and promote project impact.
• Work closely with implementing partner coordinators and technical staff to ensure timely allocation of logistical, administrative, and financial resources; review and consolidate field and technical reports.
• Ensure complete, accurate, and compliant project documentation for all assigned activities in line with agency and donor requirements, and support preparation of trend analyses, case studies, and documentation of promising practices.

Basic Qualifications and Experience

• A minimum of a bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural economics, Agribusiness, or related studies with specialized study in Market Systems Development or relevant field.
• A minimum of 4 years of work experience in project support, in the field of livelihoods, business development support, agriculture or agroforestry. Experience working with an NGO is a significant advantage.
• Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• Experience working with Private sector actors is a must.

Preferred Qualifications and Experience

• Experience working with partners, participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Staff supervision experience a plus.
• Experience monitoring projects and collecting relevant data.
• Prior experience in business development services and/or in financial services is a plus
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Analysis and problem-solving skills with 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
• Deep commitment to land restoration.

Required Languages:English fluency, including excellent oral and written skills, required. Fluent in local Ugandan dialect spoken in the Rwenzori region.

Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 50 %.

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: None.
• Internal: All staff.
• External: Partners and stakeholders.

“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