National Professional Volunteer - Social Accountability Specialist at Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO)

Location: Abuja with possible travels to State’s.
Type of Role: Advocacy policy and research
Duration: 9 months - start date July 2019 to March, 2020
Start Date: 1st July, 2019.

Job Purpose

• VSO Nigeria is recruiting an international volunteer to grow and develop VSO’s work on social accountability at country level and across selected State’s.
• The role will provide technical support in participatory approaches, programme design, and methodological support in social accountability analysis.
• Additional support in other areas, such as: power analysis, stakeholder mapping, Gender, inclusion & citizen led accountability tools and strategies, advocacy strategies and stakeholders engagement towards active citizen empowerment.
• The role will support across thematic areas of education, livelihoods, health and youth programming with close engagement with the PMs.
• It will involve some training and capacity building of volunteers, Primary Actors, partners and CSOs in line with VSO’s global social accountability approach and People First Principles.

Job Responsibilities

• Champion the Social Accountability (SA) work in Nigeria and engage with programme managers to integrate and support the integration of social accountability within their signature programmes and Volunteering for Development (VFD) plan.
• Support and facilitate the  political economy context analyses to feed into the implementation of  Signature  programmes 
• Conduct  training and provide accompaniment support to country staff, partners, volunteers and youth networks  in SA concepts and tools such as community scorecards, social audits, participatory budgeting etc. in line with VSO’s global Approach 
• Support the roll out and implementation of SA Action Plans in all project areas.
• Support the Country program team to plan workshops, identify participants and develop relevant contents for promoting VSOs work across the core approaches with focus on SA.
• In collaboration with SA advisor, build the capacity of youth networks/platforms to create inclusive enabling environments where young people’s voices can be heard in new or existing, formal and informal spaces and platforms.
• Ensure visibility of our work and liaise with the global communications lead on the best methods to communicate their activities and campaigns.
• Build youth capacity to use various Citizen-Led Monitoring (CLM) tools to monitor SDGs implementation on their priority topics, engage with duty bearers and influence change
• Support the preparation of guidance and practice notes that programme teams can use to inform their SA work and practice in the field. 
• Identify and advise on the development of partnerships with other key agencies in the development sector that  are aligned  with VSO’s global approach and could help with strengthening of VSO’s competency around SA 
• Review SA Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks for Signature Programmes and key projects to ensure they effectively capture social change as a result of SA programming
• Participate in and contribute to global, regional and country forums and activities that advances the general work of VSO on social accountability 
• Programme Funding- Support the development of funding opportunities and bids that may contribute to growing the portfolio of SA work in-country
• Ensure the SA programmes and projects are delivered in a primary actor-driven way in line with People First Framework principles and the SA planning cycle. 
• Other Duties: Liaise with the Social Accountability Lead Adviser from time to time as is necessary to support the quality assurance and technical alignment with VSO’s Social Accountability work. 
• Submit monthly plans and reports to VfD Project Manager and participate in project planning and review meetings

Key Performance Indicator:

• Staff, partners and volunteers are inspired to engage with SA and build it within their practice and demonstrate a shared understanding and commitment to SA  Social accountability and thematic signature programmes including VFD plans in Nigeria meet quality standards and aligns with People First Framework principles, and the SA Global Theory of Change (TOC)  
• Number of VSO programme team members, partner staff and primary actors trained/coached in SA and project plans implemented.
• Availability of strong youth platforms for youth voice.
• Ability of youth to use CLM tool,  engage and hold duty bearers to account 
• Number of guidance and practice notes developed
• Number of relevant organisations and best practices identified  to support VSO Nigeria’s work on SA 
• Social Accountability M&E and Learning frameworks are robust and consistent with global evidence and learning agenda around SA
• Active participation in global SA activities and efforts to support technical alignment between national and global SA work
• Evidence of contribution to the development of programme funding to support the expansion of SA  portfolio
• Evidence of contributing to the development of VSO culture and way of working in line SA and with People First framework 
• Number of monthly plans and reports submitted and approved by manager

Competencies:

• Building and Sustaining working relationships - The social skills to build and actively maintain working relationships that foster teamwork and collaboration with others for the benefit of a common goal.
• Open Minded and Respectful - A non-judgemental approach that values other people and culture.
• Seeking and Sharing Knowledge - Recognition that learning is a twoway and continuous process.
• Facilitating Positive Change - The ability to analyse problems and develop lasting solutions in line with VSO approaches.
• Adaptability - A flexible approach and the ability to adapt behaviour to different situations.
• Resilience - The self-confidence to work with a variety of situations, diverse people and ambiguity.

Skills and Knowledge:

• Experience of social accountability/ governance programme design, implementation  and Monitoring and Evaluation
• Policy, Social Accountability & Governance Knowledge of policy, governance, and social accountability issues which are common to communities in developing countries. 
• Commitment to community-led development processes of social change. Understanding of participatory approaches to working with communities
• Strong understanding of rights based approach to development. Recognition of the role of power and politics (vested interests) in constraining locally-led change. 
• Direct and substantial experience of working cross-culturally and able to communicate to a range of audiences and promote sharing and learning between cultures.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills in English; experience of developing compelling, high quality documentation: guidance and practice notes; concept notes; case stories, presentations for different audiences. Strong representation skills.
• Leadership experience at senior levels, building effective inter-organizational relationships, and working collaboratively with other organizations.
• Able to develop clear and realistic plans to deliver agreed objectives within deadlines, involving key individuals in the process. 
• IT (MS office) proficiency.
• Able to travel, including work away from the home base for up to 50% of time, both within the country and occasionally internationally and some weekend and evening work. 

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Public Policy, Governance, Law, Development Studies or other relevant subject
• Training in Policy/Advocacy, fundraising, or M&E  
• 4 years+ experience of community development /social accountability, or policy/governance work 

Desirable:

• Knowledge of Political economy analysis would be an asset. 
• Experience of preparing compelling, high quality documentation; concept notes & proposals, presentations, budgets, reports, etc.) for different partner and donor audiences 
• Volunteering experience and working cross culturally

Allowance

• As a VSO volunteer, you will be sharing your skills with local communities on a full time basis. VSO will cover your travel, vaccinations, accommodation, and medical insurance costs, along with a local living allowance which will be paid in local currency.
• This allowance meets reasonable living expenses in country, but will not be enough to send money home.
• You will also receive some financial support to contribute to your on-going expenses at home.