Governance Officer - Mubi, Adamawa

Job Description

Background/IRC Summary: The International Rescue Committee, one of the world’s largest humanitarian agencies, supporting victims of natural disaster, oppression, and violent conflict in over 40 countries to survive, recover, and gain control of their lives. IRC entered Nigeria in October 2012 in response to a widespread flood disaster. Since then, the IRC has expanded its scope and size of the programs in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe States. The IRC’s response includes integrated health and nutrition services, reproductive health care and women protection services, Environmental Health, Child Protection, Economic Recovery and Development, Education, General Protection, and Governance. IRC’s programming in Northeast Nigeria is supported by a team of more than 700 staff. Together, we aim to provide the best possible impact for some of the most vulnerable children, women, and men. In all that we do, IRC strives to deliver through IRC’s core values of Integrity, Accountability, Service and Equality.

Job Overview/Summary: The IRC is seeking a Governance Officer to lead Governance programming in Mubi, Adamawa / Damaturu, Yobe. Governance programming seeks to amplify the voices of people whose lives have been affected by conflict and crisis. We support them to regain control of their future by championing their right to influence the issues and programming that affect their communities. To achieve this, we: (1) Strengthen the ability of people affected by conflict and crisis to have a voice in how decisions are made in their communities; (2) Enable governments, civil society organizations, community representatives, and the IRC to respond to their voices and provide effective and inclusive services; and (3) Promote communications between leaders and the people they represent so that actions are meaningful and lasting. As Governance Officer, you will work with Governance staff based in Maiduguri and cross-sector staff based in Mubi / Damaturu to organize and plan capacity development activities for government, civil society, and community representatives.

Major Responsibilities:

Overall Project Quality and Strategy

- Oversee the successful delivery of the project and overall governance programming within the field office. - Liaise with staff from other IRC sectors to ensure relevant support, tools and resources are being provided and integrated into project activities. - Ensure activities are in line with the principles of social accountability, disaster risk management, resilience, and community led development. - Oversee the development and implementation of community-led disaster risk management plans within 1-2 communities, ensuring active participation and inputs from a diverse range of community members.

Plan and Support the Facilitation of Capacity Development Activities

- Together with Advocacy Manager and Health Governance Manager, develop and implement capacity building approaches and activities, including for accountable leadership, good governance, and other technical and operational capacity needs. - Keep good relationships with local authorities and other beneficiaries/participants of the capacity development activities. - Manage logistical and financial aspect of the activities and set-up the working environment for successful capacity developments and trainings. - In collaboration with the M&E Officer, ensure the monitoring of the trainings.

Health System Strengthening

- Conduct a thorough capacity and gap analyses of State, Municipal, and Local level health actors to better understand where and how the project can support health system strengthening. - In collaboration with the Mubi-based health team, develop action plans to respond to gaps identified. - And all other duties as assigned by the supervisor.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Advocacy Manager, based in Maiduguri

Position directly supervises: n/a

Indirect Reporting: Governance Coordinator, based in Maiduguri Other Internal and/or external contacts:

- Internal: Supply Chain and Finance - External: Service provider, Traditional and Community Leaders, Local Government Authorities, Government Ministries/Agencies

Qualifications

- Over two years of professional humanitarian/development experience; Experience in capacity building and conducting trainings required. - Experience with community engagement and participatory processes. Knowledge of disaster risk management concepts a plus. - Experience with health system strengthening programming highly preferred. - Strong presentation skills and writing ability. - Strong interpersonal skills, autonomy, proactivity, and solutions orientated. - Able to solve complex problems through a reciprocal and consultative approach - Prior experience working with government actors and/or community leaders is required. - Strong program/technical and budget management skills, planning, reporting, monitoring and evaluation skills. - You have a solid work ethic and desire to work every single day for the improvement of the lives of the people we serve. - Excellent relationship-building, interpersonal skills and the ability to effectively represent IRC at forums and with donors. - Strong negotiation skills essential with experience in conflict resolution desirable. - You have a positive attitude towards work, and are a self-starter, highly motivated, inspired, and collaborative. - You promote teamwork, thrive in a multi-cultural environment, are flexible, and handle pressure with professional grace. - You don't shy away from a challenge and are excited by the idea of piloting a new way of working in humanitarian contexts. - You are patient with difficult processes and take time to collect feedback even if it slows down your work plan. - Fluency in spoken and written English and Hausa is required. Additional fluency in Kanuri is preferred. - Full professional competency in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

Working Environment: The IRC is a team-work environment and requires a person who will work with colleagues from many cultural backgrounds, understand and contribute to the organization’s goals, work well as a member of a group/team, and respect the thoughts and opinions of others in the team. The security situation in North East Nigeria continues to be volatile with security level currently at 3 (orange), though subject to change

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation