Organization: Adeso - Africa
Development Solutions
Position Title: Senior Project Officer (2)
Reporting to: Technical Advisors.
Working with: REGAL IR Team
Programme / Duty Station: Garissa
(1) Isiolo (1)
Starting Date: Immediate
Salary Grade & Salary Range: Grade B, Kshs.185, 963 - 208, 945
Gross Monthly plus other competitive benefits
Organizational Context: Adeso is an expanding and vibrant
African-based international organization, working with communities to create
environments in which Africans can thrive.
We work to
prevent and overcome situations that adversely affect community well-being by:
reinvigorating the economy, developing skills for life and work, providing
humanitarian aid, and influencing policy.
Our belief
that economic, social and environmental security is the bedrock of a healthy
community drives the nature and intent of our programming.
Adeso has
been strengthening rural livelihood and delivering innovative humanitarian aid
and development programs for the past 20 years. Currently, we have programs in
Somalia, Kenya and South Sudan.
Adeso is an
exciting, dynamic organization experiencing managed rapid growth.
Employment
with Adeso offers opportunities for personal growth and development.
Project Summary: The REGAL IR program is a 5 year
initiative aiming to reduce hunger and poverty, increase social stability and
build strong foundations for economic growth by strengthening social, economic,
and environmental resilience in pastoral and transitioning communities in
Kenya’s arid lands.
It has six
strategic objectives including diversifying livelihoods, improving value chain
inclusiveness, natural Resource management, conflict management, disaster risk
reduction, and improving nutrition.
The program
is based in Isiolo County respectively and implementing activities in Isiolo,
Garissa, Wajir, Marsabit, and Turkana.
Position Purpose
- Lead teams of Project Officers (PO) and Community Facilitators (CF).
- Ensure regular planning and high quality project implementation in line with the overall REAGL-IR strategies, approach and methodology.
- Implement project work with communities.
- Ensure regular monitoring, documentation, and reporting.
- Liaise and coordinate with government, development and humanitarian agencies, private sector, and other stakeholders at county level.
Specific Roles and Responsibilities
1. Lead teams of Project Officers
(PO) and Community Facilitators (CF)
- Support recruitment of POs and CFs and ensure adequate implementation structures are fully operational that are capable to implement project operational plans in time and with high quality.
- Ensure that all POs and CFs are sufficiently skilled to perform their work. Assess POs’ and CFs’ capacity building needs, jointly develop capacity building plans and supervise their implementation.
- Train POs and CFs. Provide on-the-job capacity building for POs and CFs.
- Supervise and backstop POs regular field work.
- Organize (in cooperation with TAs) PO exchange visits and learning trips.
- Coordinate directly with Field Operations Assistant, Technical Advisors, Operation Manager, Communication Officer, M&E, and other REGAL-IR staff to ensure smooth technical field implementation and operation.
2. Ensure regular planning and high
quality project implementation in line with the overall REAGL-IR strategies,
approach and methodology.
- Lead regular monthly planning as well as development and use of weekly work plans by all Project Officers.
- Support POs to develop CFs’ work plans.
- Ensure that all work plans in the county are in line with the overall REGAL-IR work plan.
- Ensure that work plans (of all REGAL-IR implementers) are coordinated across all implementation sites in the county for avoiding duplication and for making use of complementarities and synergies.
- In cooperation with Technical Advisors ensure that all field work is implemented in line with REGAL-IR’s approach and implementation methodologies. Ensure high quality standards of field implementation that achieves measurable impacts at target group level.
- Establish transparent and accountable mechanisms for targeting and ensure appropriate targeting as per REGAL-IR strategy. Report errors of inclusion and exclusion.
- Ensure that project implementation is community-led and driven and follows evidence-based better practices and approaches.
- Make certain that the project implementation approach reduces dependency syndromes.
- Ensure mainstreaming of gender equality, focusing on the enhancement of women’s economic and social empowerment.
- Lead sector/theme integration at field level.
- Support needs assessments and other missions for the development of additional proposals, which are integrated in REGAL-IR, e.g. Crisis Modifier.
- On the basis of the REGAL-IR sustainability strategy, ensure project implementation adequately incorporates impact sustainability.
- Contribute to internal learning, quality enhancement (technical, operational) and cross county learning through feedback, sharing of better practices and lessons learned as well as suggestions for improvements.
3. Implement project activities with
communities.
- Liaise with elders and other community representatives.
- Facilitate PLPA processes with communities.
- Lead transparent and accountable participatory targeting of project target groups and beneficiaries.
- Assess capacity building needs.
- Organize capacity building events and processes.
- Conduct trainings.
- Provide technical advisory assistance.
- Initiate and provide technical support to Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) and experimentation by community members.
- Organize exchange visits.
- Conduct regular supervision and monitoring of field implementation.
- Identify and select Community Facilitators (CF).
- Build CF’s capacities in order to enable them to catalyze community learning and action plan implementation, including planning, facilitation, monitoring, and documentation.
- Liaise with other POs for cross-learning.
4. Ensure regular monitoring,
documentation, and reporting.
- Lead field work for baseline, annual/mid-term/end-term evaluations and other surveys at county level.
- Lead regular project monitoring at field level. Coordinate monitoring with M&E and other Technical Advisors.
- Lead project documentation (e.g. success stories, photos, case studies) at field level. Coordinate documentation with Communication Officer and Technical Advisors.
- Ensure timely, comprehensive and complete monthly reporting from POs and CFs.
- Review and validate PO reports.
- Prepare project monthly county reports and other documents. Ensure reports and documents reach the M&E TA and/or other users as per agreed deadlines.
- Lead regular and timely early warning information sharing.
- In cooperation with M&E TA ensure up-to-date and accessible county data base for all project activities and sites. Take appropriate measure to avoid data, information and document loss.
- Translate conversations and documents for non-local language speaking staff to English when required.
5. Liaise and coordinate with
government, development and humanitarian agencies, private sector, and other
stakeholders at county level.
- Liaise regularly with communities, elders, local authorities, private sector enterprises and other agencies operational in project counties in North Eastern Kenya to ensure coordination and effective implementation of intervention activities.
- Participate in stakeholder coordination meetings and pro-actively contribute to county coordination.
- Ensure harmonization and/or integration of CDAPs (community development and action plans) with/in Ward Development Plans and CIDP (county integrated development plans)
- Represent REGAL-IR at county level.
- Lead practical cooperation between REGAL-IR and government programs, REGAL-IR and other USG-funded projects as well as REAGL-IR with other projects in the county.
- Lead organization of visitors’ and other trips at county level.
- Lead organization of workshops and meetings.
Skills and Qualifications
- University degree and or Diploma in Agriculture, Livestock, Micro-entrepreneurship, NRM, DRR or related livelihoods field and at least 2 years’ experience working in similar projects.
- Minimum 2 years practical work with NGO/ Government or UN experience in pastoral ASAL is required.
- Ability to multi-task and effectively handle stressful situations.
- Ability to manage own workload and juggle competing priorities in order to meet deadlines.
- Strong proficiency in providing capacity building, training and mentoring to project staff and partners.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Fluency in English and fluency in the specified County dominant language is essential.
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective working relations within a team and with other stakeholders.
- Proven problem-solving and negotiation skills, and evidence of successful team leader and player;
- Proficiency in computer applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, power point, etc.
- Strong report writing skills;
- Ability to live and work in an isolated ASAL area in conditions of limited comfort.
- Willingness to travel frequently.
Application Process
This is a
challenging opportunity for a dedicated and highly motivated professional.
If you
would like to join this dynamic team, please submit your application to jobs@adesoafrica.org quoting the
position and the location preferred in the email subject matter by 25th June,
2014.
Each
application should be addressed to the Regional Human Resources Manager and
include the following:
- An updated CV; and
- An application letter which should include cover letter, remuneration requirements and contact information for three work-related referees.
Applications
not including all of the above information will not be reviewed.
Only short-listed
candidates will be contacted.
Adeso is an
equal opportunity employer and female candidates are strongly encouraged to
apply.
