Job Openings at Search for Common Ground (SFCG)

Location: Yola, Adamawa

Position Summary

• A training coordinator with proven experience and skills in and training of conflict transformation, conflict resolution, conflict sensitivity and do no harm (DNH) principles along with human rights. The candidate will have skills in training government actors at the local and state level that includes security personnel in the Common Ground approach to conflict resolution and human rights; the candidate will also have experience working with youth and on farmer-herder issues and leading interfaith dialogues.
• The primary purpose of this position is to both coordinate all training and facilitate workshops in the NorthEast Region where Search operates in the Common Ground approach on all project training. The position holder will work with key stakeholders that include community leaders, the security sector, government officials, women and children, internally displaced peoples (IDPs), and understand cycle programming and the importance of building confidence and fostering good relationships.
• This position holder will report to the Head of Office and be functionally managed by the Senior Training Coordinator. The position holder will be based in Adamawa State.

About the Project

• Search for Common Ground with support from the EU is starting a 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

• Develop and implement an effective training coordination strategy for the project across in the Adamawa office
• Work with the project teams to ensure all training needs are planned and met and;
• Support implementation of all SFCG training activities in Adamawa State, either in –person, other SFCG staff or through hired training consultants;
• Work with Senior Training Coordinator to establish a pool of qualified training consultants;
• Coordinate the hire of training consultants where need be, in close collaboration with the HR department.
•  Design each training to be culturally identifiable to the context; Search’s programs, and for the participants attending the training;
• Design training material, methodology, training guides and reporting templates;
• Coordinator is expected to be delivering trainings that will focus on: Principles of Common Ground in conflict transformation; Conflict resolution and mitigating strategies; Conflict sensitivity and Do No Harm; Dispute resolution; Human rights; Non-adversarial Advocacy; Transformative dialogue and interfaith dialogues processes and; Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR ) co-facilitating with trauma lead.
• The coordinator will be using Search’s Common Ground Approach manuals and other Search-developed manuals as a basis for adapting the training curriculum to the projects’ needs
• Write a monthly summary report highlighting training, lessons learned, and challenges, and recommendations including success highlights, feedback from participants, and recommendations for the next stages of Search’s program (sent to line supervisor).

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:

• A degree in Conflict Resolution, Peace Studies, Peacebuilding, Conflict Management or relevant field;
• Additional education in conflict management, media for peacebuilding, communication for social change would be a strong asset.

Required Experience:

• At least 3 years’ experience as a trainer. 2 of those years should be in the non-profit and NGO sector in relevant topics (as per above-mentioned list) for a diverse range of audiences (from communities to authorities);
• Have facilitated/ co-facilitated at least 10 trainings to key stakeholders that include: security, local and state-level actors and community leaders with excellent command of trainees in relevant fields;
• In-depth knowledge of the North East and Middle Belt regions,

Other Relevant Requirements:

• 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 a 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.

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Location: Yola, Adamawa

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.

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Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Job type: Full Time - Local

Position Summary

• The Project Officer  is to provide programmatic support, including planning, organizing, and coordinating communication and project activities. The position is full time, based in Abuja, Jos, Maiduguri, or Katsina with frequent field visits within these cities.
• The position holder will work under the direct supervision of the Project Manager and closely with all other departments .

About The Project

• This project will strategically invest resources into creating a comprehensive and actionable toolset on DDR / SPRR[1] and PVE for diverse stakeholders to operationalize at the country level in Nigeria, with subsequent potential for replication and scale up across the region.
• Goal: To improve community centered DDR, SPRR and PVE processes across Nigeria’s Northern geopolitical zones.

Objectives and Activities

• Objective 1: To develop a toolkit for PVE and reintegration across Nigeria’s northern geopolitical zones.
  • A1.1.1: Develop National Toolkit on PVE and SPRR
• Objective 2: To foster cross-sectoral coordination among and between diverse national, zonal, and community level stakeholders for PVE and the reintegration of ex-combatants and defectors of VEOs and armed groups.
  • A2.1.1.: Zonal and Community Level Multistakeholder Validation Workshops and Strategy Planning.
  • A2.1.2: National Validation Conference and Strategy Planning on DDR / SPRR and PVE

[1]Screening, Prosecution, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (SPRR) is the terminology used in the context of violent extremism / terrorism rather than disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR).

Roles and Responsibilities

• Support the Project Manager and the DMEL Team on all aspects of the participatory research process and development of the toolkit, with a particular focus on supporting the logistical requirements of this process;
• Support the logistical planning for the Validation Workshops and the National Validation Conference;
• Produce activity report after each activity implemented, including documenting lessons learnt, feedback from participants, pictures;
• Track attendance to each activity and document it with attendance lists;
• Keep track of project progress and feed in Search’s monitoring and evaluation system;
• Writing and producing reports that include but not limited to activity reports, context updates, monthly reports, quarterly reports, success stories, and case studies;
• Analyze the context within the scope of the project and provide inputs for regular context updates;
• Support in the reporting on project activities, ensuring timely grant reporting and compliance with contract and donor guidelines in coordination with the consortium partners;
• Participate in monitoring and evaluation activities through data collection;
• Provide support to the Project Manager in identifying key relevant stakeholders;
• Develop and nurture relations with relevant state, NGO, religious bodies and other stakeholders at the local, state and national level;
• Create and maintain a database of all relevant contacts
• Communicate with relevant project stakeholders and mobilize them to ensure their participation in the project’s activities;
• Represent Search to local authorities meetings, when delegated;
• Identify and work with local influencers such as religious, tribal leaders and associations, to  ensure meaningful participation to all activities, including by most hard-to-reach communities and groups;
• Provide support to the Project Manager in conducting and facilitating all project activities; and
• Organizes all logistics related to the implementation of project activities (hall rental, catering, invitations, etc.)

Required Qualification

• Bachelor’s degree in Peace Building, Conflict, Security Studies, Political or Social Science, International Studies, Public Administration, Development Studies, Monitoring and Evaluation,  and experience in a related area.
• Additional extensive training in at least one of the areas of SFCG thematic work- Peace building, conflict transformation and resolution is an added advantage.
• A minimum of 2 years’ experience in implementing project with a special focus on research, conflict analysis, social cohesion, crisis prevention, early warning and early response and/or  farmer-herder Project engagement
• Experience working in an NGO. Experience in an INGO is a plus;
• Past working experience in projects research/M&E inclined focus
• Experience implementing complex activities with limited supervision;
• Experience in a delicate conflict context with difficult and hard-to-reach stakeholders;
• Experience working in large multicultural environment and in a diverse team;
• Knowledge of English and Hausa is required and knowledge of an additional local language is a plus (Fufulde, Kanuri, Tiv, Shuwa Arab, etc.)