Senior Community Mobilization Officer at Search For Common Ground’s International

Locations: Maiduguri, Borno
Reports to: Deputy Project Manager
Direct Reports: Community Mobilization Assistants

Position Summary

• The Senior Community Mobilization Officer whose primary aim is to mobilize and facilitate the active participation of beneficiary children, caregivers, community leaders and other stakeholders in project activities, dialogue meetings of the target population to participate in planning, monitoring and implementation and evaluation of project initiatives on the “Supporting the Socio-Economic Reintegration of Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups including the Civilian Joint Task Force in North-East Nigeria” programme. 
• The Senior Community Mobilization Officer will contribute to detailed planning and implementation of project mobilization activities in line with Search’s Conflict Sensitivity and Common Ground Approach, always ensuring that Children’s Best Interests are promoted.

About the Project

• In the past decade, states in the North East region of Nigeria have faced frequent attacks by Boko Haram militants leading to widespread displacement, violations of national laws, international humanitarian and human rights laws, and a deepening humanitarian crisis. Children, who are the most vulnerable members of society, have suffered the worst impacts as pre-existing problems of access to social protection, education and healthcare increase, new threats emerge, and the systems to protect children fail.
• This project aims to ensure that children verified and separated from CJTF receive a comprehensive child protection package including counselling, psychosocial support and socio-economic reintegration and that their communities understand the importance of their separation and reintegration. Search will work closely with the children, their families and communities, and CJTF to address the psychosocial and economic needs of the children and to influence the attitudes of communities and CJTF so they understand the negative impact of associating with armed groups on children and prevent the CJTF from using children. By increasing the resilience of children associated with CJTF and increasing their employability, this project will facilitate the lasting reintegration of these children and amplify positive narratives around their role in communities as productive civilian actors and agents for peace.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Develop a work plan, implement and monitor all activities related to community strengthening activities; Supervise the community mobilization team. 
• Develop and maintain a good relationship with the Project Advisory Committee (PAC) and organize periodic meetings with the committee members.
• Facilitate community engagement and dialogues to identify key community needs that can be addressed through the community-strengthening initiatives; Support the communities to implement and monitor the progress of the selected community-strengthening initiatives;
• Coordinate the mobilization of the community members for the various project activities ensuring age gender and diversity inclusion.
• Develop a feedback mechanism for communicating Search for Common ground programmes and receiving feedback from the communities.
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with key stakeholders including government actors, UN agencies, international and local NGOs and other relevant actors.
• Prepare activity reports, monthly reports and make inputs to quarterly and final narrative reports.
• Keep abreast of local context and security situations to provide feedback on Search's Weekly context analysis.
• Represent Search in external meetings, including Child Protection Working Group Meetings, Reintegration Technical Working Group or other meetings, as requested.

Requirements
Education:

• University Degree or equivalent in Social Science, Education, Psychology, or a related field.

Required Experience:

• Minimum of 3 years experience in the field of community work, particularly with children.
• Experience working with Children Associated with Armed Groups, and other vulnerable children.
• Experiencing coordinating activities within a large project.

Other Relevant Requirements:

• Familiarity with principles including the best interest of the child, do no harm, humanitarian principles, amongst others.
• Strong cross-cultural communication and interpersonal skills.
• Highly organized and systematic, with excellent attention to detail. 
• Experience working in emergency settings
• Experience working in different communities in Borno State
• Experience working with refugees, IDPs, host communities, and other vulnerable populations 
• Excellent analytical and writing skills
• Knowledge of a local language (Hausa, Kanuri, Shuwa) is a must.

Desirable:

• Good analytical, problem solving and project planning skills. 
• Ability to prioritize, plan, organize workflow to tight timeframes, handle multiple tasks, and be flexible with changing priorities. 
• Community-oriented and respect for local culture.
• Good IT skills, particularly with MS Office - Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint.
• Strong command of both written and spoken English.
• Holds self and others to account to deliver on agreed goals and standards of behaviour.
• Demonstrates a high degree of professionalism/integrity.
• Provides good administrative and logistical support to a team.
• Strong attitude towards teamwork and collaboration. 
• Actively seeks support in addressing difficulties in the execution of duties.
• Strategic thinking and effective contribution to own work and organisational development.
• Sound judgement and decision-making in complex situations.
• Strong emotional intelligence including self-awareness.
• Leads by example to motivate high performance of others.
• Strong commitment to continuous learning.