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Job Title:  Conflict & Governance Specialist – Kotido

Organisation: Mercy Corps

Duty Station: Kotido, Uganda

 

About US:

Mercy Corps is an international non-profit organization which implements high-quality, analytical development programmes in very difficult places. Mercy Corps has been operating in Uganda since 2006. It has and continues to implement programs in Acholi and Karamoja sub regions. Mercy Corps is taking a community-led, market driven approach to address poverty and food insecurity needs through interventions that get to the root causes and contributing factors of economic vulnerability.

 

About CCLAP Program:

Climate Change Leaders Advancing for Peace (CCLAP) is a two-year (October 1, to September 2025) funded activity by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA)will support women and girls to overcome structural barriers to gender equality, contribute to sustainable Natural Resource Management and strengthen climate resilience for peace in Kaabong and Kotido Districts of Karamoja and neighbouring communities in Turkana County through cross-border collaboration (Goal). Specifically, the project will build women, girls’ and CSOs’ capacities by increasing awareness of climate resilience and NRM and tackling structural barriers to change (Outcome 1); and build peace and security in the region by encouraging women and girls to take the lead in resolving and mitigating climate and NRM-related conflict (Outcome 2). The project will target women, adolescent girls, men, and boys in conflict-affected communities.  The activity will be implemented by Mercy Corps in Kotido and Kaabong in Uganda and Moroto – Loima in Turkana – Kenya in partnership with NARWOA, KAPDA and SAPCONE.

 

Job Summary:   The conflict and Governance Specialist for Mercy Corps will be responsible for building local partner capacity and serve as key advisors to Youth CSOs/CBOs as those organizations on conflict and governance efforts. The incumbent will work to improve private-sector performance through, among other interventions, the fostering of a Karamoja private sector body that can unite the concerns and aspirations of local people as they relate to governance and conflict-related issues. Lastly, the Conflict and Governance Specialist will work in coordination with the other sector teams to enhance sector efforts to achieve its desired objectives/goals. The Conflict and Governance Specialist (CGS) will provide technical, operational, and strategic vision to the implementation of the conflict prevention and mitigation component by working with the project staff and national partners to ensure that the program meets performance-based targets on-time and within budget, as per Mercy Corps and donor requirements.

 

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Programme Quality Oversight:

• Provide leadership and strategic vision to Conflict mitigation technical components of CCLAP program, including work plan development, conflict and stakeholder analysis, mediation and peacebuilding training, partnership selection and management, and overall sector strategy.
• Ensure stakeholder engagement and trust building activities abide by governance and conflict best practices including Do No Harm and are conflict sensitive in close partnership with the Programme Manager and Gender Specialist.
• Provide direct oversight to CCLAP Learning and Program Monitoring and Quality Technical Unit.
• Encourage systematic opportunities to use data for learning and improvement, and to focus on learning lessons throughout the life of the program.

Technical Leadership:

• Provide technical leadership and guidance in the implementation and management of innovative conflict mitigation and governance initiatives aligned to the Program logical framework and project impact goal.
• Provide sector oversight and guidance in the implementation of conflict mitigation and governance activities aligned with the project log frame and budget.
• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed.

Program Implementation:

• Work with Consortium Partners and other implementing partners on the conflict mitigation and governance components of the project.
• Conduct periodic field visits to ensure the quality and integrity of project implementation, including adherence to technical guidelines, administrative systems, and established deadlines.
• In collaboration with the Program Manager strengthen sustainable management and enhanced collaboration over natural resources between farmers and herders’ communities in the crisis-affected areas in a conflict-sensitive manner.
• Integrate community approaches, conflict and gender sensitivity and capacity building into conflict mitigation and governance activities as appropriate.
• Provide technical and sector inputs to/ during planning, organizing and coordination of project monitoring processes, assessments, surveys, research and evaluations.
• Support the Field Manager in ensuring that the overall goal and specific objectives align to the conflict mitigation, resolution and prevention components of the project.
• Develop a detailed activity plan identify and implement immediate conflict prevention or mitigation measures and submit to the field manager for review and re-alignment with the main work plan within the first month of employment.
• Compile and submit in time for review; evidence based weekly, monthly, quarterly, bi-annual and annual technical reports and activity plans.
• Develop and submit weekly and monthly activity plans in time for review and prior to implementation.
• Ensure integration and coordination with other components within the project for the attainment of holistic project impact.

Capacity Building and Learning:

• Develop a clear capacity building plan to build the technical capacity of project staff on Conflict prevention and mitigation skills that are relevant to the project through training and continuous mentoring.
• Provide conflict-sensitive and governance analysis, trainings and technical assistance to team and Consortium partners.
• Contribute to the development and standardization of best practices, in collaboration with Consortium partners.
• Disseminate key findings and lessons learned to internal and external stakeholders, in collaboration with Consortium partners
• Strengthen linkages with other internal resources, including the LMS, Digital Library, Hub, and Connect, to enhance organizational learning where relevant to M&E.

Team Management:

• Sustain a work environment of mutual respect you and other team members strive to achieve excellence.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews.
• Provide other team members with information, tools and other resources to improve performance and reach objectives.
• Gender and Youth Integration
• Ensure that program activities apply gender equity and youth empowerment principles, and meet the varying needs of men and boys; women and girls; and other vulnerable groups

Monitoring and evaluation

• In close coordination with the M&E team implement M&E protocols and procedures to ensure accurate reporting of data against program indicators
• Support data collection for governance related learning questions to the ADA learning agenda and support data collection, analysis and write up of this data
• Documentation and Knowledge Management
• Regularly document activities, success stories and administrative issues (e.g. distributions or transfer documentation) in soft and hard copy
• Implement a document management system to ensure compliance
• Contribute to reports as required by Mercy Corps and its donor.
• Generate and share success stories

Compliance

• Implement activities in a way that it is compliant with ADA rules and regulations
• Adhere to Mercy Corps policy and procedures, in particular related to finance and operations

Representation and Coordination

• Liaise with local government officials, local CSOs and NGOs, local religious leaders and others to ensure support for and acceptance of Mercy Corps.
• Maintain close working relationships with donors, other humanitarian and development organizations, and local partners, including representing Mercy Corps at local coordination meetings as required.
• Act as a point of coordination between local partners and other CBOs working in the same District and/or technical sector.

Coordination with District Implementation Team

• Build the capacity of the members of the implementation team on their sector through orientations, one on one discussions and demonstrating in the field.
• The district implementation team after conducting a needs assessment will decide an intervention to be layered. The district implementation team will require support in developing a sector specific plan for a particular community. The member of the technical team will support the district team to plan the intervention that is related to the sector and purpose.
• The district implementation team member will mobilize the extension service agents which will go on to mobilize the community groups to provide the services to conduct the activity in the field. The member of the technical team will coordinate with the district implementation team to conduct the activities in the field.
• The technical team member will monitor the activities conducted in the field and provide feedback to the technical extension service agents to improve the quality of implementation of activities.
• The technical team member will meet quarterly with the district implementation team to review the activities conducted in the field and reflect with the team to understand how the quality of implementation of activities would be improved.
• Collaborate with the MEL team on the design and implementation of the ADA CLA/Learning Agenda

Ethics and Integrity

• All Mercy Corps staff are expected to behave ethically and demonstrate highest integrity in their professional and personal life. Mercy Corps has zero tolerance to any form of fraud, corruption, abuse, harassment or exploitation. Any breach of our policies or misconduct will lead to disciplinary action or may lead to termination.

Security

• Ensure data protection policies are adhered to, establishing security controls for software, hardware and archive beneficiary databases.
• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies

Organizational Learning  

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.
• Participate in the agency-wide governance practitioners cohort and engage in learning and sharing events facilitated by the Governance and Partnerships Technical Support Unit

Accountability to Beneficiaries

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
• Sensitise communities on ADA’s CARM system and encourage them to share feedback through the promoted channels.

Other:

• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission.
• Other duties assigned.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• The applicant should preferably hold a bachelor’s degree in governance, Law, Civil Society Development or related field.
• Three years of experience focused on governance and civil society development in Karamoja.
• Experience supporting community mobilization process and building inclusive governance structures
• Excellent negotiation and representation skills and the ability to work comfortably with an ethnically diverse staff in a sensitive environment.
• Effective verbal and written communication; strong skills in organization and prioritization
• Good knowledge on Microsoft Office applications (Word, excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) are a requirement.
• Excellent English language skills essential (verbal and written), with Ngakarimojong skills preferred.

 

How to Apply:

All candidates should submit their applications online at the link below.

 

Click Here

 

Deadline: 19^th October 2023

 

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