Conflict Specialist at DAI

Background

• The purpose of the five-year (2020-2025) “State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness” (“State2State”) Activity is to increase the accountability, transparency and effectiveness of selected state and local governments (LGAs) in Nigeria.
• This will be achieved by: strengthening governance systems (with a focus on public financial management [PFM] and procurement, as well as monitoring and evaluation) related to the delivery of services in key sectors (basic education, primary health care, and water, sanitation and hygiene [WASH]); increasing government responsiveness to citizen needs and priorities; and improving government and civil society capacity to manage conflict (through work on prevention, mitigation and reconciliation with the same sectoral partners, not stand-alone assistance to the police or judiciary).
• State2State will achieve this purpose by facilitating the strengthening of subnational governance systems in a sustainable manner, supporting the efforts of local reformers and building on locally-derived solutions including, to the extent possible, reforms already working in other parts of Nigeria.

Position Objectives

• The Conflict Specialists will be embedded in the state-level offices and are responsible ensure the high-quality and timely implementation of the conflict mitigation activities in the state.
• S/he will be provide technical expertise regarding conflict monitoring, mitigation, and prevention. S/he will remain informed about the evolving reform needs of each state and communicate to the wider team.
• S/he will tap the latest approaches in all areas of conflict for application in states.
• S/he will serve as a connector by collecting and sharing capacities and knowledge and linking State2State staff and partners across the state, and collaborate with the other team members as they identify, test, and refine innovations.

Responsibilities

• The Conflict Specialist will contribute significantly to State2State conflict analysis guided by USAID’s Conflict Assessment Framework (CAF) and DAI’s experience achieving governance and service delivery results in conflict environments.
• The Conflict Specialist will support training of trainers to state-level staff and partners on data collection and analysis, including identifying specific actionable recommendations for state and LGA programming; opportunities to leverage other USAID- and donor-supported activities; state and LGA rapid-response activities for building social cohesion; and sentinel indicators to monitor and forecast changes in conflict dynamics.
• The Conflict Specialist will work with project team to design and lead conflict mitigation training at the state-level, including specific activities to build capacity to mitigate conflict related to state resource allocation, state service delivery in key sectors, with institutions involved in conflict mitigation, and with local leaders.
• The Conflict Specialist will support state-level staff to design rapid-response activities to understand and respond to conflict flare ups and.
• The Conflict Specialist oversees and ensures quality all the day-to-day state conflict activities and ensures deeper citizen/government awareness/involvement in addressing conflict.

Reporting:

• The Conflict Specialist will report to the State Lead, working closely with the Conflict Advisor in the Main Office.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant field such as Finance, Business, Accounting, Social Sciences, Law, Development Studies, etc. required. Master’s Degree preferred.
• Minimum of 9 years relevant work experience with at least 5 years of demonstrated expertise in conflict mitigation, peace-building, community cohesion capacity building in Nigeria.
• Experience in the successful implementation of international development activities, with preference given to democracy and governance and/or conflict mitigation activities.
• Experience working in the democracy and governance sector in Nigeria. Experience in the state highly preferred.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills. Fluency in local languages of the state preferred.