Position: Senior Program Officer -
AHADI PREG Counties
Background Information: The Agile Harmonized Assistance for Devolved
Institutions (AHADI) is a five year USAID program implemented by the State
University of New York (SUNY’s) Center for International Development
(CID).
- Targeted counties to provide higher quality
services through improved governance,
- improved representation of citizen interests
and oversight of targeted county government performance and functionality
and
- effectiveness of the devolved system increased
through improved intra-government engagement and cooperation.
The program is currently seeking a
skilled, diplomatic, effective, and highly motivated Senior Program Officer to
support AHADI activities in counties under the Program for Resilience and
Economic Growth (PREG).
Position Summary: AHADI is designed to focus on strengthening the capacity of county governments to effectively deliver services, strengthen intergovernmental collaboration and to enhance public engagement and accountability.
In partnership with the USAID office of
Economic Growth, part of the support is specifically targeted at strengthening
the Resilience and Economic Growth in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands in Kenya.
In that regard, the supports five (5)
Counties (Turkana, Marsabit, Wajir, Isiolo and Garissa) in the Arid and
Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) areas to reduce vulnerability and improve resilience
livelihoods for pastoral communities.
The Resilience Agenda is anchored in
the Ending Drought Emergencies Framework (EDE). The framework is a common
programme for drought risk management.
The interventions proposed for the
five counties are designed to complement ongoing efforts under the EDE
Framework. AHADI’s work is mainly anchored on supporting an enabling policy
environment, enhancing planning, improving the institutional capability and
management in the specified counties.
Specifically, AHADI seeks to respond
to the general principles that guide the EDE framework, which include: focusing
on the structural causes of vulnerability to drought, including inequalities in
power and resources, strengthening devolved county governance, collaborating
among partners through established coordination mechanisms and increasing the
learning agenda on improving resilience among the dry land communities for
better and sustained adaptation.
The Senior Program Officer (SPO) will conceptualize, design, and coordinate a range of interventions to build the institutional capacity of county governments, key national government institutions and other governmental entities to strengthen the resilience agenda.
The SPO will contribute to developing
and designing activity streams that primarily support county governments in the
following areas: developing policy frameworks, structures and streamlining of
the public administration for effective implementation of the resilience
agenda.
This is aimed at strengthening
livelihoods through the emphasis of improving and accelerating economic growth
in the specified counties.
The SPO is expected to design the
above activities using a sectorial approach with activities that focus on
transforming resilience.
The identified activities should
offer practical solutions to problems that threaten the lives and livelihoods
of the vulnerable populations in the ASALs areas within the five specified counties.
The conceptual development work is to be complemented by a well thought out coordination and implementation framework which addresses all the challenges: water conservation; food security; value chain inclusiveness in the livestock sub-sector and mitigation against the impacts of climate change and disaster risk reduction.
AHADI’s support to the county
governments will involve equipping them with institutionalized mechanisms and
structures that include resources, tools and knowledge to mitigate the risks of
droughts.
Ultimately the support by AHADI is
expected to strengthen the county governments to increase their capability and
capacity as well as strengthen systems to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from
shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and
facilitates inclusive growth.
The SPO is expected to build
synergies and work within the resilience partnership focusing on establishing a
constructive engagement amongst AHADI beneficiaries and other partners.
Notably, the SPO is expected to be
AHADI’s main interlocutor with the Partnership for Resilience and Economic
Growth in Kenya (PREG).
PREG brings together humanitarian and
development partners to build resilience among vulnerable pastoralist
communities in northern Kenya. It includes both USAID programs and implementing
partners.
USAID PREG works with the Kenya
National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) and county governments to
coordinate resilience and economic growth activities.
The SPO will support the Chief of Party, Deputy Chief of Party, Technical Program Director, and Senior Grants Manager in the technical support of grantees, partners and other beneficiaries to ensure quality performance and timely delivery.
Reports to: Technical
Program Director
Interrelationships: Chief
of Party, ; Deputy Chief of party, Technical Programme Team, Logistics and
Procurement Manager; Senior Grants Manager, Communications Specialist ,M&E
specialist; and administrative staff as necessary.
Employment Terms: Open contract subject to availability of funding
Qualifications:
- Five or more years’ experience interacting
with government officials and politicians; ability to deal fairly and
evenly with all political parties and factions in Kenyan politics, and a
reputation for doing so.
- Advanced degree and professional training in
desired substantive areas primarily economic development, politics,
economics, law.
- Demonstrable experience of strengthening
government’s public administration and bureaucracy and outstandingly
competence in coordinating sectors (ministries) program.
- Knowledge and proven practical experience in
policy/strategy design with a great emphasis on policy and programs
implementation with government system
- Experience in policy understanding of the
broader agricultural sector and a majority of the following sub-sectors,
agriculture, water, sanitation and hygiene, livestock, climate change and
political economy of development in the context of resilience.
- Capability to understand and conceive policy
or reform strategies and clarity in defining sector policy priorities in
the context of strengthening resilience.
- Proven ability to identify sector priorities
for resilience building and conceptualizing interventions that relate to
institutions and building and governance.
- Ability to conceptualize interventions and
clarity in articulating the assignments & task and development of
lucid technical terms of reference.
- Superior understanding of and ability to
communicate clearly the activities of the county governments and issues of
Kenyan politics to local and international consultants and others.
- Track record of successful implementation of
program activities relevant to the AHADI area of focus – strengthening
institutions and governance framework for enhanced resilience.
- Proven experience in developing capacity
building initiatives including organizing and leading training and sharing
knowledge and experience. Other activities can include leading and putting
up training seminars and workshops.
- Excellent oral and written communication
skills (English and Kiswahili) with experience and demonstrated competence
in public speaking.
- Ability to perform under pressure, e.g. to
prepare written reports and public presentations on short notice and to
write clear and concise reports.
- Ability to work independently, as well as in a
team; excellent planning, exceptional coordination of county government
sectors/departments and other partners supporting government, good
organizational capabilities, problem-solving skills, and a demonstrated
ability to work in a fast-changing political environment and manage
multiple stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities:
- Support the implementation of AHADI’s work
with Kenyan institutions and organizations, including their committees and
technical departments, to support devolution processes and outcomes main
focus being capacity building of governance institutions for resilience.
- Support county governments to coordinate
resilience and economic growth activities
- Manage relations as the key AHADI interlocutor
in the Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth in Kenya (PREG)
- Contribute to the development of grants
strategies and negotiates technical scopes of work for grants; and
coordinate support to governmental and other partners.
- Work with the Grants Management team to ensure
partners implement activities on scope, on time and at cost.
- Prepare regular brief activity reports and
updates, and contribute to activities under his/her purview to AHADI
progress reporting and activity/M&E.
- Develop implement and monitor technical
program activities, including training seminars, workshops and the
production of technical reports to support AHADI tasks and interventions.
- Provide direct training to beneficiaries with
these consultants or individually.
- Established and maintain good working
relationships with State, non-state partners, and counterparts including
but not limited to the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, the Council of
Governors, National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) the County
Executives; the County Assemblies and the County Assemblies Forum, as well
as with the institutions that serve as resources for them, such as
training and civil society organizations and the private sector.
- Respond to requests for TPD and AHADI COP to
support AHADI’s program implementation.
Location and Duration: The SPO will be based in the AHADI Nairobi
office.
This job description will be valid
for one year and upon the end of the contract period (of one year) may be
revised and/or renewed by SUNY/CID.
Travel: Travel in country is required. Transportation, accommodation and per diem will be provided in accordance with AHADI and USAID regulations. It is anticipated that travel will be roughly 50 percent.
Do you have the above qualifications and skills?
Please send
(1) a Cover letter
(2) CV and
(3) References from three past
supervisors to Hr@ahadi-devolution.org
Closing date: 23rd October 2015.
Please note only short listed
candidates will be contacted.
Female candidates are strongly
encouraged to apply.
Kindly put the subject line as
“Senior Program Officer- AHADI PREG Counties”.
Position: Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist
Background Information: The
Agile Harmonized Assistance for Devolved Institutions (AHADI) is a five year
USAID program implemented by the State University of New York (SUNY’s) Center
for International Development (CID).
AHADI seeks to strengthen the
governance systems of counties, making them more competent, transparent,
accountable and inclusive in their governance and service delivery by pursuing
the following objectives:
- Targeted counties to provide higher quality
services through improved governance,
- improved representation of citizen interests
and oversight of targeted county government performance and functionality
and
- effectiveness of the devolved system increased
through improved intra-government engagement and cooperation..
The AHADI program is currently
seeking a skilled, diplomatic, effective, and highly motivated Monitoring &
Evaluation Specialist.
Position Summary: The Specialist will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, Learning and Adapting (MERLA) for the project, including designing and putting in place robust MERLA systems, tracking indicator data for the prime contractor and partners, data quality control, drafting required reports, and facilitating mechanisms for programmatic learning and adapting.
Reports to: Chief of Party
Supervises: Data analyst, M&E officers
Interrelationships: The M&E Specialist liaises and coordinates with
the Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP), the AHADI Technical Advisors, the
Communications Specialist, AHADI partners and other program staff as
appropriate in the course of his duties.
He is a member of the management team
assisting the Chief of Party (COP) in the overall results monitoring, learning
and communications efforts of the AHAID program.
Employment Terms: Open contract, subject to availability of funding.
Qualifications:
- Five
years’ experience in written communications and M&E,
- Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs,
Data Management, Journalism, Public Management or related field relevant
to the position requirements,
- minimum three years working in international
development,
- excellent oral and written communications
skills (English and Kiswahili).
Required competencies include the
ability to write clear and concise reports, the ability to work under minimum
supervision, to work in a fast-changing political environment and manage
multiple stakeholder relationships.
Responsibilities of the M&E
Specialist:
The M&E Specialist (hereafter
“Specialist”) will report to the AHADI Chief of Party and work in close
collaboration with the Home Office (SUNY/CID) M&E Reporting Officer.
The Specialist will manage M&E
Officers in the field, as well as the data analyst. The Specialist will work in
close collaboration with the Communication Specialist in terms of information
dissemination to USAID, USAID Implementing Partners, AHADI partners and
stakeholders.
The specialist will be responsible for AHADI’s Project Management Plan (PMP) and M&E activities and will support project learning and adapting.
He/She will chair meetings to discuss
what is working and what is challenging and to identify lessons learned. In
addition, the specialist will liaise with the AHADI partners to advice on
M&E capacity development small grants partners and government partners
respectively.
Throughout the year, the specialist
will visit each field office and meet with M&E officers to review their
portfolios; discuss their M&E support to project partners and small
grantees and to review the M&E framework, indicator monitoring and report
writing.
In addition during these field
visits, the specialist will conduct any necessary training and perform ad hoc
data quality assessments to ensure data validity for AHADI project staff and
partners.
Specifically, the Specialist will be responsible for the following:
- Support the drafting of the final PMP
framework and M&E Plan
- Collaborating with the USAID Impact Evaluation
Partner on final Project Evaluation Plan
- Designing Indicator Protocols and data
collection tools and databases
- Managing baseline data collection and analysis
(in collaboration with the USAID IE team and the AHADI Research &
Learning Team) and indicator target setting
- Collaborating with AHADI staff and partners to
draft and support the AHADI learning agenda
- Training field M&E officers on project
PMP, data collection and protocols
- Serving as a key member of the AHADI research
and learning team.
- Overseeing the data collection and analysis
for quarterly and annual reports;
- Ensuring that the M& Systems are working
and that staff is able to get and generate the correct information
- Any other task as assigned by COP or DCOP and
AHADI Reporting Officer (SUNY/CID staff)
Do you have the above qualifications
and skills?
Please send
(1) a Cover letter
(2) CV and (3) References from three
past supervisors
to hr@ahadi-devolution.org
Closing date: 23rd October 2015.
Please note only short listed
candidates will be contacted.
Female candidates are strongly
encouraged to apply.
Kindly put the subject line as
“Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist”.
Applications without the subject line
will not be evaluated.
