Database Assistant Job at Catholic Relief Services

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is an International non-governmental organization supporting relief and development work in over 99 countries around the world. CRS programs assist persons on the basis of need, regardless of creed, ethnicity or nationality. CRS works through local church and non-church partners to implement its programs, therefore, strengthening and building the capacity of these partner organizations is fundamental to programs in every country in which CRS operates. CRS re-established presence in Nigeria in 2000 and currently focuses on agriculture, HIV and health extractives and governance, and peace building programming.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Database Assistant

Location: Maiduguri, Nigeria
Department: Programs
Reports To: B-2 Database Manager   

Project Background
Since the crisis in Northeast Nigeria escalated in 2013, the food security situation has continued to worsen. Emerging data of June 2016 has revealed that the severity of the food and nutritional crisis is well beyond emergency thresholds in Borno State.  The Federal Government has declared a food and nutritional crisis in Borno, where over 750,000 people are severely food insecure; including 180,000 in Maiduguri’s outskirts, 120,000 camp residents and approximately 275,000 IDPs in newly reopened areas. A growing number of people are in urgent need of food assistance, and alarming rates of acute malnutrition have been reported. 

The re-opening of Local Government Areas (LGAs), many which have been inaccessible for an extended period of time, has led to the identification of new IDP locations in Borno State, while ongoing conflict between the military and Boko Haram has resulted in the influx of more IDPs into Maiduguri metropolis and the establishment of several spontaneous camps. The number of IDPs in both Maiduguri, Jere and other LGAs continue to increase – with the current reports indicating a total of 1.6 million IDPs in Borno State alone. 
 
In this emergency context, IDP households are among the worst affected populations as displacement has resulted in the loss and destruction of key assets and the interruption of livelihoods. Furthermore, in Maiduguri center, the majority of IDPs families have found refuge with host families, with whom they share already scarce natural resources such as shelter and water. As per CRS’ needs assessments, these communities are in immediate need of food, WASH, emergency shelter, NFIs save lives and restore dignity. CRS has also identified agriculture and livelihoods as a key need and gap in the ongoing humanitarian response.

In order to effectively respond to the crisis, CRS Borno’s emergency and early recovery programs are focused on food security, NFI, WASH and shelter, for both IDPs and host families. Where possible, CRS will seek to maximize project impact, efficiency and effectiveness by adopting market based approaches – through e-vouchers and the RedRose OneSytem platform – privileging integrated programming and empowering targeted communities through participatory approaches.

Primary Function

• The Database Assistant (DA) is responsible for the organization, maintenance and updating of existing emergency project databases and management information systems (MIS) and providing support to projects’ MEAL staff and to the Database Manger. 
• As may be required from time to time, she/he will develop computer programs and troubleshoot databases to generate data, data tables and reports in order to respond to program and donor reporting requirements, on schedule and as the need arises. 

Job Responsibilities

• Provide overall technical support on database organization/design, maintenance, development and update, to the emergency project MEAL officers and emergency program managers.
• Support the planning and delivery of trainings, workshops and other capacity development interventions for emergency program staff and MEAL team.
• Support emergency MEAL officers in ensuring that the information needs of project stakeholders and donors are met and adhere to system requirements.
• Provide technical support for the running of the emergency projects’ Red Rose platform (including troubleshooting, software and hardware updates, liaise with the Red Rose technical team, etc.)
• Provide support for collation and processing of data reports and other related reports from the programming team.
• Provide coaching and mentoring to programming and MEAL staff on the application and use of the available software/databases to ensure that high standards of program implementation are provided at all times.
• Support MEAL officers in the management of programs’ databases, ensuring that these are routinely updated and liaise Program Managers to ensure that quality data is reported to the donors.
• Provide support for the training for enumerators and daily workers on data collection using ICT.
• Support the collection of GIS coordinates of project site locations and the development of service maps as needed.
• Support the preparation of monthly, semi-annual and annual and ad-hoc reports to donors with strict adherence to standards and timelines.
• Maintain an inventory of data collection and monitoring visits to partners on a regular basis to monitor M&E systems.
• Support the development and testing of electronic data entry questionnaires using the iFormBuilder (or other software as needed) during periodic surveys and data analysis using appropriate statistical package.

Key Working Relationships:

• Internal: Emergency MEAL Officers, MEAL Director, Emergency Program Officers, Database Manager, Operations Staff
• External: Local partners, Red Rose team, external consultants and other key stakeholders

Travel:

• Travel up to 20% of the time as needed.
• Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)
• 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.
• Serves With Integrity
• Models Stewardship
• Cultivates Constructive Relationships
• Promotes Learning

Qualifications and Skills

• Bachelor’s Degree in Social Science with emphasis in rural development, public health, statistics or a development related fields.
• Demonstrated skills in MEAL, data management and quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.
• At least 2 years of professional experience in implementing M&E for emergency programs related to food and nutrition security programming, WASH, and/or shelter of which at least two years with a NGOs.
• Experience in creating and managing M&E databases.
• Demonstrable computer literacy in MS Office - Excel, Power Point and Word.
• Demonstrable experience working with Information and Communication Technologies (software and hardware)
• Experience in data analysis in Access and at least one of the following: CSPro, SPSS, EpiInfo or STATA is an added advantage.
• Ability to work effectively with government and civil society partners and communities as well as transfer knowledge to diverse audiences through workshops, training and meetings using participatory methods and adult learning principles.
• Ability to support partners working at a distance to achieve results against program objectives/targets.

Disclaimer Clause:

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

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should download the Application Form using the link below and send with a detailed 3-page Resume in a single file MS Word document to: NG-HR@global.crs.org

Click here to download the Application