Program Manager I - MEAL (Health Systems Strengthening)

About the role

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is hiring a Program Manager I - MEAL for an anticipated five-year health systems strengthening project in Uganda, open to Ugandan nationals only. The project supports the sustainability and resilience of faith-based health services through stronger institutional capacity, better community health financing, improved governance and locally led solutions. The successful candidate leads the design, implementation and management of MEAL systems, monitors project performance and quality, generates evidence, ensures accountability and learning, and adapts the project in line with CRS MEAL policies and donor requirements. Recruitment is contingent on the award of the project.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the development and rollout of project MEAL systems at start-up, including performance monitoring plans, indicator tracking tables, data collection instruments and detailed implementation plans.
• Lead MEAL technical, budget management, monitoring and reporting activities across the project cycle, in line with CRS program quality standards and donor requirements.
• Manage and supervise the MEAL team, coach staff, tailor development plans, help recruit project staff and handle performance management.
• Coordinate monitoring activities (including ICT4MEAL), analyse quantitative and qualitative data, and run annual data quality assessments.
• Support learning and accountability by coordinating evaluations, developing evaluation terms of reference and leading the design and rollout of the feedback and response mechanism.
• Coordinate the resources needed for MEAL, review MEAL budgets and follow up on financial reporting.
• Strengthen partnerships, identify capacity needs of partners and contribute to their capacity building.
• Help prepare trend analysis reports, ensure the project file is complete, and support Country Program MEAL activities.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Statistics, Public Health, International Relations, Social Sciences or a related field; Master's degree in MEAL preferred.
• At least 5 years of work experience in project management, ideally in MEAL, health and NGOs.
• Experience working with stakeholders and strengthening community partnerships; experience writing technical proposals and analysing data for evaluation reports is a plus.
• Strong written and spoken English; willingness to travel up to 40%; no supervisory responsibilities.

Required skills

• MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) and data analysis software such as Power BI, SPSS, STATA, R or similar.
• Relationship management, communication and presentation skills, attention to detail and accuracy.