Project Officer

The Project Officer will be based in Woldiya and serve as IRC's primary focal point for oversight, coordination, monitoring, stakeholder engagement, and compliance management of an integrated Health, Nutrition, and Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) project.

The position will act as the key liaison between IRC, ORDA, government authorities, humanitarian coordination structures, financial service providers, and other stakeholders to ensure effective implementation of project activities in accordance with donor requirements, IRC standards, and the sub-award agreement.

Major Responsibilities:

Partnership Management and Sub-Award Oversight

• Serve as IRC's primary focal point for day-to-day oversight of ORDA's implementation of Health, Nutrition, and MPCA activities.
• Monitor partner performance against approved work plans, project targets, budgets, implementation schedules, and donor commitments.
• Conduct regular field monitoring visits to verify implementation progress, quality standards, beneficiary reach, and compliance with project requirements.
• Review partner reports, indicator tracking tools, means of verification, and supporting documentation to ensure quality and completeness.
• Facilitate regular implementation review meetings between IRC and ORDA.
• Identify implementation bottlenecks, risks, and capacity gaps and support timely corrective action.
• Support strengthening of the partnership relationship between IRC and ORDA through continuous engagement and technical coordination.

Stakeholder Coordination and Representation

• Serve as IRC's regional focal point for project-related coordination in Amhara Region.
• Maintain productive working relationships with Regional and Zonal Health Offices, Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Offices, Woreda administrations, Health Extension Workers (HEWs), community leaders, humanitarian partners, UN agencies, and relevant coordination platforms.
• Represent IRC in coordination meetings, technical working groups, assessments, monitoring missions, and stakeholder consultations as delegated.
• Facilitate communication and coordination between IRC, ORDA, government stakeholders, and humanitarian actors.
• Support visibility and representation of IRC and project activities at regional and local levels.

Program Quality, Compliance and Monitoring

• Monitor implementation quality of partner-led Health, Nutrition, and MPCA interventions.
• Ensure project activities are implemented in accordance with donor requirements, national standards, humanitarian principles, and IRC policies.
• Verify that beneficiary targeting and selection processes are transparent, accountable, and inclusive.
• Monitor compliance with safeguarding, accountability, protection mainstreaming, and gender-sensitive programming requirements.
• Conduct routine monitoring and verification visits to project locations and service delivery points.
• Track implementation progress against agreed indicators and project milestones.
• Support identification and mitigation of operational, programmatic, safeguarding, and compliance risks.

Reporting and Documentation

• Compile and review project updates submitted by the partner.
• Support preparation of weekly, monthly, quarterly, and donor reports.
• Maintain accurate project records and documentation in line with IRC requirements.
• Document project achievements, challenges, lessons learned, success stories, and best practices.
• Support donor monitoring visits, evaluations, assessments, and audits.
• Ensure timely submission of required reports and supporting documentation.

Accountability, Learning and Risk Management

• Monitor implementation of Feedback and Complaint Response Mechanisms (FCRM) and Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) approaches.
• Review Post-Distribution Monitoring (PDM) findings and beneficiary feedback related to MPCA interventions.
• Ensure identified concerns, complaints, and recommendations are appropriately followed up.
• Support learning and adaptive management by documenting lessons learned and recommending program improvements.
• Contribute to project risk tracking and mitigation planning.

Safeguarding Responsibilities:

• Promote and actively participate in initiatives and efforts to build team engagement, inclusion and cohesion in IRC.
• Foster ongoing learning, honest dialogue and reflection to strengthen safeguarding and to promote IRC values and adherence to IRC policies.

Job Requirements:

Educational Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in public health, Nutrition, Health Sciences, Development Studies, Social Sciences, Economics, Project Management, Business Administration, or a related field.

Preferred experience & skills:

• Minimum two (2) years of relevant experience in humanitarian, development, or community-based programming.
• Experience supporting project implementation, monitoring, coordination, or reporting activities.
• Experience working with NGOs, community-based organizations, government institutions, or implementing partners.
• Familiarity with humanitarian or development programs in sectors such as Health, Nutrition, Cash Assistance (MPCA), or Emergency Response is desirable.
• Strong stakeholder engagement, coordination, and communication skills.
• Ability to conduct field monitoring visits, compile reports, and maintain project documentation.
• Good analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
• Experience working in displacement, emergency, or conflict-affected settings is an advantage.
• Basic understanding of donor compliance requirements, accountability mechanisms, and humanitarian principles is desirable.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, particularly Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

Language Skills:

• Excellent written and spoken English.
• Fluency in Amharic is required.
• Knowledge of Tigrigna is an added advantage.