Project Officer – Livelihood job at Save the Children

Description

Project Officer – Livelihood (3) National Role

Country/Region: Uganda

Location: Kasese

Organization: Save the Children International

Join us to lead sustainable change for children:

• Be part of a GLOBAL and DIVERSE technical community
• Get EXPOSURE in many different contexts
• Test and scale up INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS
• Influence policies that affect MILLIONS OF CHILDREN

OVERVIEW

Are you passionate about being an advocate for children? Do you want to use your expertise to bring about lasting change for children and be a part of an inspiring, dynamic global movement?

THE ROLE:

The job holder is primarily responsible for planning and ensuring quality and timely implementation of building the resilience of vulnerable households to impacts of shocks and disasters through improved income and food access within the designated district/ sub-counties. S/he is expected to implement the program in a manner that promotes integrated programming with other core programs of Livelihood and Nutrition and cross cutting themes such as gender, disability, child protection and rights programming. The Job Holder is also expected to liaise with implementing partners, provide input into resilience programme design, monitoring implementation progress; write reports, facilitate project implementation meetings and workshops and maintain relationships with key stakeholders in the district. He/she should implement the project in a manner that fosters networking and collaboration with local government officials, Sub-county stakeholders (i.e. Communities, local capacity meaningful active participation of children, accountability (internal and external to Save the Children).

The job holder may be called upon as and when necessary to support the emergency team in cases of humanitarian crisis.

Sounds interesting? Read more below

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Programme

• Responsible for the implementation of Save the Children’s (SC’s) Food Security and Livelihood interventions (including nutrition sensitive livelihoods), ensuring that the highest technical standards are respected
• Liaise regularly with communities/sub-counties and work with the technical extension agents and village agents to build household capacity in managing risks in agriculture/livestock production
• Ensure the local government extension workers (Crops and Livestock staff) and village agents (where possible) on Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) for local adaptation are equipped with the right skills
• In close collaboration with community leaders, local government and village agents, mobilise households into small, localized producer organization for training and knowledge sharing:
• Ensure technical government extension workers provide periodic training and visits to farming households on CSA including water management, adaptation of farming technologies (selection and development of agriculture/livestock products), pest/parasites and disease management, micro-gardens among others including Infant & Young Child Feeding (IYCF) sessions for caregivers, mothers of U2
• Ensure provision of training on livestock husbandry, especially small ruminants, poultry and apiary to farmers
• Ensure stakeholders conduct participatory monitoring and evaluation of the climate change adaption plans developed prior to the training
• Facilitate the process of targeted farmers acquiring quality farm inputs
• Ensure establishment of strong and functional farmer’s producer organizations
• Facilitate private sector engagement for marketing services through training for farmers’ organizations to understand and analyze market opportunities
• Facilitate the strengthening of local agricultural financing systems of the community
• Train farming households in savings and credits as a means of improving financial management and investments in agriculture
• Strengthening capacity of Village Savings and Loans Associations and support their activities
• Facilitate the process of exchange visits for learning and experience sharing among farmers
• Ensure field days and graduations of farming households are conducted

Programme Support:

• With the Project Manager/Program Coordinators, finalize implementation plans for each project activity, and draft weekly and monthly work plans in line with the implementation plan
• With the support of the Project Manager/Program Coordinators, lead the implementation of FSN programme through local partners including identification, assessment, capacity building, monitoring
• Liaise regularly with communities/sub-counties and ensure community participation especially children, youth and women in all steps of project cycle, and grant acceptance of SC’s FSN programming
• Participate in training of FSN staff (coordinators, officers and assistants) to ensure they have solid understanding of key programme documents and tools, including MEAL tools
• Work with supply chain and programming staff to select service providers of livelihoods services including private sector providers and technical consultants.
• Produce timely reports for internal use on the status of on-going programming; and contribute to donor reporting

Programme Management:

• Identify institutional capacity building needs for partners and provide training materials to strengthen capacity to implement FSN enhancement activities in line with SC strategies.
• To coordinate all the project activities in the project sub-counties in Moroto as are provided in the project documents and budget
• To link and work with the District Local Governments with respect to district development plans
• Attend to food security working group meetings/ as will be called by the district
• Keep the district abreast with the progress of the project in the district

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

To be a strong supporter and advocate for children in this role you will need to have;

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, Environmental Management, Social Sciences, Development Studies or related field, or equivalent accrued working experience;
• Minimum of three years working experience in Disaster Risk Reduction, food security, and community-based adaptation, livelihoods and Nutrition programming in Uganda (preferably with an International NGO)
• Ability to speak the local language is of added advantage
• Extensive knowledge and experience in application of participatory tools and methodologies in programming
• Experience of working with local partners and District Local Government in Child Rights Governance, Health, Nutrition, Education, HIV/AIDS or Child Protection is an added advantage
• Motorcycle Riding skills are a must
• Sound written and oral presentation skills
• Ability to establish and maintain conducive collegial relations and perform effectively as a member of a team
• Willingness to travel and work in hard-to-reach areas, occasionally under strenuous conditions
• Computer literacy and excellent documentation skills are a must. Microsoft office especially word, spreadsheet (Excel) and other applications
• Availability and willingness to work extra hours during times of humanitarian responses
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures
• Ability to intervene with crisis management or troubleshooting as necessary
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching
• Excellent time management and planning capacity

• Responsible for the implementation of Save the Children’s (SC’s) Food Security and Livelihood interventions (including nutrition sensitive livelihoods), ensuring that the highest technical standards are respected
• Liaise regularly with communities/sub-counties and work with the technical extension agents and village agents to build household capacity in managing risks in agriculture/livestock production
• Ensure the local government extension workers (Crops and Livestock staff) and village agents (where possible) on Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) for local adaptation are equipped with the right skills
• In close collaboration with community leaders, local government and village agents, mobilise households into small, localized producer organization for training and knowledge sharing
• Ensure technical government extension workers provide periodic training and visits to farming households on CSA including water management, adaptation of farming technologies (selection and development of agriculture/livestock products), pest/parasites and disease management, micro-gardens among others including Infant & Young Child Feeding (IYCF) sessions for caregivers, mothers of U2
• Ensure provision of training on livestock husbandry, especially small ruminants, poultry and apiary to farmers
• Ensure stakeholders conduct participatory monitoring and evaluation of the climate change adaption plans developed prior to the training
• Facilitate the process of targeted farmers acquiring quality farm inputs
• Ensure establishment of strong and functional farmer’s producer organizations
• Facilitate private sector engagement for marketing services through training for farmers’ organizations to understand and analyze market opportunities
• Facilitate the strengthening of local agricultural financing systems of the community
• Train farming households in savings and credits as a means of improving financial management and investments in agriculture
• Strengthening capacity of Village Savings and Loans Associations and support their activities
• Facilitate the process of exchange visits for learning and experience sharing among farmers
• Ensure field days and graduations of farming households are conducted
• With the Project Manager/Program Coordinators, finalize implementation plans for each project activity, and draft weekly and monthly work plans in line with the implementation plan
• With the support of the Project Manager/Program Coordinators, lead the implementation of FSN programme through local partners including identification, assessment, capacity building, monitoring
• Liaise regularly with communities/sub-counties and ensure community participation especially children, youth and women in all steps of project cycle, and grant acceptance of SC’s FSN programming
• Participate in training of FSN staff (coordinators, officers and assistants) to ensure they have solid understanding of key programme documents and tools, including MEAL tools
• Work with supply chain and programming staff to select service providers of livelihoods services including private sector providers and technical consultants.
• Produce timely reports for internal use on the status of on-going programming; and contribute to donor reporting
• Identify institutional capacity building needs for partners and provide training materials to strengthen capacity to implement FSN enhancement activities in line with SC strategies.
• To coordinate all the project activities in the project sub-counties in Moroto as are provided in the project documents and budget
• To link and work with the District Local Governments with respect to district development plans
• Attend to food security working group meetings/ as will be called by the district
• Keep the district abreast with the progress of the project in the district

• Motorcycle Riding skills
• Sound written and oral presentation skills
• Ability to establish and maintain conducive collegial relations and perform effectively as a member of a team
• Willingness to travel and work in hard-to-reach areas, occasionally under strenuous conditions
• Computer literacy and excellent documentation skills
• Availability and willingness to work extra hours during times of humanitarian responses
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures
• Ability to intervene with crisis management or troubleshooting as necessary
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching
• Excellent time management and planning capacity

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, Environmental Management, Social Sciences, Development Studies or related field, or equivalent accrued working experience;
• Minimum of three years working experience in Disaster Risk Reduction, food security, and community-based adaptation, livelihoods and Nutrition programming in Uganda (preferably with an International NGO)
• Ability to speak the local language is of added advantage
• Extensive knowledge and experience in application of participatory tools and methodologies in programming
• Experience of working with local partners and District Local Government in Child Rights Governance, Health, Nutrition, Education, HIV/AIDS or Child Protection is an added advantage