Programme Officer - Great Lakes Job in Nairobi Kenya

Overall Objective

Under the supervision of a Programme Manager, the Great Lakes Programme Officer will help manage and lead the strategic development and implementation of DRC’s Great Lakes Programme in six countries of operation.

Background

DRC’s Great Lakes Programme aims to support and enhance the involvement of civil society in promoting the implementation of the international commitments made by States for protecting and assisting displaced persons in their countries.

The aim of the programme is to promote the strategic engagement of CSOs in promoting the implementation of provisions pertaining to displacement contained in the Great Lakes Pact and other relevant regional instruments, in particular the IDP and Property Protocols of the Great Lakes Pact and the AU Kampala Convention, with activities ranging from research and data collection at the local level, to advocacy and policy formulation at the national and regional/international levels.

The programme works in six countries of the Great Lakes region (Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, DR Congo, CAR and Sudan) and addresses the issue of displacement from a conflict prevention/resolution perspective.

The objective is to offer targeted and needs-based technical and/or financial support to civil society organisations seeking to promote the implementation of displacement-related provisions contained in regional legislation by carrying out activities of sensitisation, research, monitoring or advocacy.

In addition, an important aspect of the programme is its objective to build, over time, a regional expertise on displacement by conducting joint work on a regional basis and learning lessons from the different programme partnerships.

Furthermore, the work carried out by the programme partners combines rights-based approaches to displacement (using the legal instruments contained and referenced in the Great Lakes Pact and other relevant regional frameworks), with conflict transformation tools for analysis and programming (looking at the impact of displacement on local peace and conflict dynamics and seeking an integrated response to displacement taking into account social, political and economic dimensions in policy-making).

Key Responsibilities

1) Ensuring, in collaboration with the Programme Manager, that the programme’s strategic objectives are met for the period 2011-2012. For this, the programme officer will have specific experience in:

Project management
Project portfolio analysis and review
Budget monitoring
Financial/narrative reporting

2) Developing, in collaboration with the Programme Manager and partner NGOs, programmes of action in Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic to achieve programme goals, and providing necessary support for their implementation. Such assistance might include:

Advice and information about regional mechanisms and their relation to national processes;
Research and analysis on refugee/IDP protection issues;
Development of advocacy strategies locally and nationally;
Production of advocacy and communications material;
Planning and elaboration of project-based activities;
Compilation of narrative reporting

3) Maintaining relationships with NGO partners in Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, DR Congo, South Sudan and CAR, providing strategic and technical guidance to them in collaboration with the programme team and conducting field visits to discuss the project objectives and outputs;

4) Assisting in the management of ongoing research and capacity-building projects at the country and regional levels, ensuring the timely delivery of DRC’s technical inputs to the partners and of the partners’ narrative and financial reporting obligations to DRC:

Identification and documentation of capacity-building needs
Contracting of consultants for the delivery of technical support
Monitoring of capacity-building outcomes and impact

5) Maintaining positive relationships with collaborators and other stakeholders at the local, national and regional level:

Participating in national and regional information-sharing and advocacy initiatives
Documenting DRC’s work and producing briefing notes to be shared with collaborators

6) Informing him/herself of regular context analyses to ensure optimal relevance and impact in the six countries of operation :

Producing briefing notes/contextual analyses to inform programme documentation.

7) Contributing to DRC’s accountability to the programme’s donor(s) by reaching the objectives set out in the programme documents and inputting into the provision of timely narrative and financial reports.

Qualifications

Academic background in International Law and/or International Politics;
At least 4 years’ professional experience with an international NGO working on project management;
Capacity to manage the project cycle, including monitoring and reporting, narrative and financial;
Proven experience working with civil society organisations in Africa on policy development and advocacy;
Practical experience in capacity-building of CSOs, research, and policy formulation;
Full proficiency in both spoken and written English and French;
Ability to communicate in both English and French with national CSOs, INGOs, Ministries, national and international policy-makers;
Capacity to write reports and briefing notes in both English and French;
Preferably experience in at least one country of the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Conditions

Availability: April 2011

Duty station: The duty station for this position is based in Nairobi. This is a non-family post.

Contract: One year with possibility of extension.Salary and other conditions in accordance with the Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for Field Recruited Expatriates recruited by the Horn of Africa (HOA) Regional Office in Nairobi, Kenya.

For general information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult www.drc.dk.

General

Commitments: DRC has a Humanitarian Accountability Framework, outlining its global accountability committments. All staff are required to contribute to the achievement of this framework (http://www.drc.dk/HAF.4265.0.html)

DRC is an equal opportunity employer.

How to apply

The deadline for applications is March 12, 2011.

Applicants should send a 1-page cover letter that clearly states how they are qualified, and why they are interested in the post and their CV (maximum 4 pages) to: drcjobs@drckenya.org.

Please indicate “Programme Officer Great Lakes” as the subject heading.

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