Community Mobilizer (Social Cohesion) at Search For Common Ground’s International

Location: Maiduguri, Borno

Position Summary

• A Community Mobilizer that will work under the Social Cohesion Project Manager to implement the community sensitization, mobilization and community strengthening activities including psycho-social support to vulnerable populations and community dialogues to support equitable access to natural resources.
• S/he will organize awareness sessions and community-based outreach to sensitize and raise community awareness of the project and its objectives.
• S/he will help monitor and support all program activities in the field, conducting regular meetings with Target groups, psycho-social workers, local community leaders; community based social cohesion mechanism to identify issues and proposing solutions to address them.
• The Community Mobilizer will ensure that project activities are consistent with Search’s programming principles and approaches, draw on relevant best practices and lessons learned, enable children to attain their rights and are compliant with donor regulations.
• S/he will work under the direct supervision of the social cohesion Project Manager. The position will be based in the respective LGAs in Borno state and will include frequent travels to communities.

About the Project

• The Lake Chad Inclusive Economic and Social Recovery (RESILAC) is a 4-year project developed by Action Against Hunger (AAH) in consortium with CARE and Groupe URD. The project aims to contribute to the economic recovery and to the strengthening of the resilience and the social cohesion of the territories of the Lake Chad basin most impacted by the Lake Chad crisis and the climate change.
• The project targets four regions (i) Cameroon, the Far North, (ii) Niger, Diffa region, (iii) Chad, Lake region and (iv) Nigeria, Borno State. Search for Common Ground (Search) is an implementing partner to AAH in Nigeria to implement the project’s pillar #1 focused on strengthening human capital, social cohesion and collective and sustainable management of natural resources in selected LGAs in Borno state.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Provide support to the social cohesion Project Manager to prepare work plans and project implementation strategies;
• Mobilize communities (leaders, etc.) and disseminate information about the project to promote community support; Implement community sensitization and awareness activities in the target communities and LGAs as per the project work plan and strategies;
• Hold regular meetings with stakeholders including community based protection mechanism, psycho-social support services, and other organizations serving Target community populations to familiarize them with the projects and its objectives and engage them in the process;
• Engage community-based organizations (CBOs), local traditional and religious structures, government structures involved in Natural Resource Management, and psycho-social support structures in the project activities (such as psycho-social support, community-level research, and community dialogues) as facilitators and interlocutors to the communities and to deepen the community engagement;
• Facilitate community meetings and dialogues to identify key community needs that can be addressed through the project’s community strengthening initiatives;
• Mobilize and facilitate active participation of target populations to participate in planning, monitoring and implementation and evaluation of project initiatives;
• Support the communities to implement and monitor the progress of the micro-projects in the selected communities;
• Support the DM&E teams conducting LGA-level conflict asessments;
• Work closely with psycho-social workers to identify target populations to benefit from psycho-social engagement;
• Collect monitoring data from the field in line with program indicators and submit regular updates, reports and case studies on success stories and lessons learned;
• Prepare activities reports on regular basis and contribute to the period progress reports;
• Keep proper records of field expenditures when appropriate and report on these to the Project Manager;
• Track information and report about other related activities implemented in the LGA as part of the project; and
• Keep abreast of local context and security situation to provide feedback on Search’s weekly context analysis.

Qualifications
Education:

• At least a Diploma certificate in any field (but, a university Degree in peacebuilding, social science, security may be preferred)

Required Experience:

• At least 1 year working experience in an active and well-connected community-based association/organization ( or a non-profit NGO) as full time staff may be preferred
• The ability and willingness to work across diverse cultural and religious line to foster peace (essential)
• Excellent knowledge of the local context and language i.e. Fulani, Kanuri and Hausa (essential)
• Good reputation as a wide promoter of peace and non-violence and attested by all community stakeholders (essential)
• Outspoken and can engage with all community stakeholders across ethnic and religious lines
• Demonstrates integrity, financial prudence and management;
• Ability to lead a community and also provide support to program participants;
• Demonstrated ability to contribute to community development;
• A demonstrated commitment to high professional ethical standards and a diverse workplace;
• Ability to prioritize, plan and organize workflow to tight timeframes, handle multiple tasks, and be flexible with changing priorities; and
• Understanding of the social, political and economic context of the state and how it impacts on conflict drivers and conflict in the state and targeted communities.

Other Relevant Requirements

• Highly organized and systematic with excellent attention to detail.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and oral.
• Excellent cross-cultural communication and working skills, enjoys a multicultural work environment;
• Should be an Indigene of any of the following LGA (Jere, Mongonu, Mafa, Kukawa) in Borno state
• Highly disciplined and of good conduct (essential);