Advocacy and Governance Advisor at Search for Common Ground (SFCG)

Search for Common Ground (SFCG) is an international non-profit organization that promotes the peaceful resolution of conflict. With headquarters in Washington, DC and Brussels, Belgium, Search’s mission is to transform how individuals, organizations, and governments deal with conflict – away from destructive approaches towards cooperative solutions. With more than 600 staff worldwide, Search implements projects in more than 30 countries across the globe.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Advocacy and Governance Advisor

Location: Yola, Adamawa
Job Type: Full Time – Local

Position Summary

• The Governance and Advocacy Advisor will provide technical, management, and strategic vision to the implementation of the governance and advocacy component by working with the project staff, national partners, to ensure that the program meets performance-based targets on-time and within budget, as per EU requirements.
• S/he will coordinate governance and advocacy programming in the building of community trust; develop and deliver on advocacy objectives.
• S/He will work closely with the project team to strengthen the linkages between formal governance structures and community conversations.

About the Project

• Search with support from the EU is starting an 18 months project titled “Contributing to the mitigation of conflict over natural resources between farmer and herder communities in Adamawa State, Nigeria (COMITAS)”. The project pursues four specific objectives: First, it will aim to strengthen traditional conflict resolution in the targeted locations in Adamawa state to support conflict prevention and mitigation efforts. Secondly, this project will aim to improve trust in authorities’ commitment to providing security and adequate resource management to help prevent communities to turn towards violence. The third specific objective of the project is to address the root causes of conflict between farmer and herder communities over natural resources and lastly, the fourth specific objective of this project is to improve intra and inter-communal perceptions. The project will be implemented in Demsa, Girei, Numan, Lamurde, and Song local government areas in Adamawa State, Yola in Adamawa State.
• This project” will work to contribute to the mitigation of conflict over natural resources.
• Search and her partners will work with authorities first at the lowest level (local administration, authorities, the judiciary) and other higher levels (State, Federal) where necessary. This approach, as developed has successfully applied, in USAID-funded “Building Bridges Between Herders and Farmers in Plateau, Nasarawa, and Kaduna States” program in the Middle Belt, consists of conflict prevention, dispute resolution, and sustainability beginning from the local level and conflict-affected people themselves.
• The project will support community-based Early Warning and Early Response (EWER) to identify risks and partner with civil society, security or government actions to institutionalize strategies and approaches that will build community capacity and skills for sustainable peace.
• Additionally, the project seeks to ensure conflicts identified through the EWER feed into multi-stakeholder forums for dispute resolution and higher-level policy change and create open and neutral spaces for farmer and pastoralist community members and leaders to identify collective solutions.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Provide strong coordination support to NGOs, partners, and national authorities through establishment of wider consultation and collaborative processes on the governance and advocacy component of the project.
• Ensure proper implementation of the governance and advocacy activities and ensure continued alignment with the project log frame and budget.
• Build the technical capacity of project staff in governance and advocacy skills that are relevant to the implementation of the project through training and continuous mentoring.
• Conduct periodic field visits to ensure the quality and integrity of project implementation, including adherence to technical guidelines, administrative systems, and established deadlines.
• Provide technical and sector inputs to/ during planning, organizing and coordination of project monitoring processes, assessments, surveys, researches and evaluations.
• Support the project management in ensuring that the overall goal and specific objectives to the governance and advocacy component of the project are achieved.
• Develop a detailed activity plan for the Governance and Advocacy component and submit to the Head of Office 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
• Ensure effective application of results-based management methodologies 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.

Note: As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above key duties.

Requirements
Educational Background:

• Advanced university degree in Political Science, International Relations, International Development, Development Studies, Management, Social Sciences or other relevant fields
• Additional education in conflict management, advocacy and governance for peacebuilding, communication for social change would be a strong asset;

Required Experience:

• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience, including solid experience in managing international programmes and projects in policy, advocacy and governance
• Proven experience in the EU compliance issues
• Working experience in international or non-governmental institutions, United Nations, and in particular European Union advocacy and governance-related projects and programmes is considered as an advantage;
• Proven high-level knowledge and experience in providing expert advisory and/or consultancy services in the area of advocacy and governance;
• Experience in report writing in a concise, lucid, and comprehensible manner;
• Wide-ranging experience in development project implementation at the national and regional levels;
• Experience working in North East Nigeria strongly preferred.

Additional Relevant Experience:

• Good knowledge of the local languages will be an asset.
• Knowledge of civil society organisations, government agencies, private sector companies and international development agencies, with experience of working in partnership within some of these sectors;
• Written and verbal communications skills including the ability to synthesise complicated policy issues into digestible products and to deal with both elite and popular media and specialist and non-specialist audiences;
• Experience of partnership building, with experience of influencing stakeholders and establishing and maintaining strong partnerships;
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment and strong interpersonal skills;
• Commitment to SFCG’s aims and a clear understanding of the links between policy, lobbying, campaigning and media work and of how policy change can be achieved through effective advocacy;
• Organisational skills and attention to detail;
• Ability to responding flexibly to opportunities and requests sometime with little notice;
• Ability to manage competing priorities in a rapidly changing environment;
• Demonstrate capacity to adapt to a multi-cultural context, and tolerance and respect to issues related to gender, religion, race and nationality;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism and solves problems in collaborative ways.

Application Closing Date
15th December, 2020.