CARE Ethiopia Program

 CARE started working in Ethiopia in 1984 in response to severe drought and famine that devastated the population and claimed the lives of nearly one million people. Since then, the organization’s activities have expanded to address the root causes of poverty and vulnerability.

In 2008, CARE Ethiopia’s office moved from a project-based approach to a more focused and strategic program-based approach. Over the eight years since that transition, CARE Ethiopia has implemented a series of programs with successful outcomes, while simultaneously impacting the policies and practices of government, serving as a thought leader amongst NGOs, and bringing transformative change to rural communities. These broader and deeper impacts go beyond the direct impacts of its programs and are a result of CARE Ethiopia’s overall country strategy, which enables CARE to design for scale.

CARE Ethiopia works in various sectors but has particularly targeted the following: Food Security and Resilience; WASH+; Nutrition; Dignified Work; Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Humanitarian Response as cross-cutting (focusing on the above sectors). 

I. Job Summary

The Lead Community facilitator reports to the DFSA woreda team leader with dotted line supervisory with institutional capacity strengthening officer at field office level. S/he will primarily lead all DFSA efforts at woreda and kebele level on both internal and PSNP implementing organizations’ institutional strengthening effort. S/he provides technical leadership to systematically identify institutional capacity gaps, capacity development planning and implementation as per the guidelines and direction from the field office. The position holder coordinates with other DFSA community facilitators and PSNP implementing institutions for capacity building assessments, designs and implementation. 

II. Roles and Responsibilities

1. Provide technical assistance for institutional strengthening (planning and implementation) (50%)

·         Establishes all necessary relationships with stakeholders including concerned government sectors at grassroots to ensure that major capacity gaps are systematically identified;

·         Closely works with other Community Facilitators (CFs) to provide high  quality technical support to PSNP institutions and  project participants in institutional capacity strengthening planning;

·         Leads  data collection,  design and implementation of institutional capacity strengthening, partnership and accountability mechanisms as per the guidance from field office;

·         Actively participates in DFSA detailed implementation planning (DIP), and annual reviews to ensure the identified institutional gaps are planned  throughout the life of the project and properly implemented;

·         Works closely with PSNP institutions to ensure that review meeting are planned and executed in a manner that adds value to the DFSA project and enhances mutual respect and trust;

·         Coordinates with extension agents, community leaders and kebele level government institutions to facilitate community meetings;

·         Supports with the implementation of appropriate monitoring systems and compile report on program activities that relate to capacity building, partnership and accountability. 

2. Partnership and accountability (30%)

·         Ensures productive relationships are established and maintained with all  kebele and village level stakeholders;

• Closely works with government institutions, CBO’s and communities at kebele and village levels to ensure adequate linkages are established;
• Ensures active participation of PSNP participants, kebele leaders, government development agents and CBOs in DFSA designing, planning, implementation and monitoring;
• Actively involves and compiles reports on Community Score Card and other accountability tools;
• Ensures all DFSA major events are well planned and informed to local stakeholders and concerned community members/PSNP targets. 

3. Reporting, Learning, Documentation and Sharing (15%)

• Prepares weekly, monthly and quarterly reports and submit to her/his supervisor;

·         Proactively develops and maintains a robust learning platform with all grassroots stakeholders and ensure that good practices are shared widely;

·         Facilitates experience sharing visits among DFSA targets and other model PSNP participants;

·         Prepare and maintain up to date information on the capacity building activities, results and community based accountability systems of each operational area;

• Supports and facilitates community involvement in annual innovation and  knowledge fairs;
• Collects basic information, best practices, case studies and lessons and report to her/his supervisor;
• Undertakes personal professional development initiatives identified with his/her supervisor. 

4. Perform other duties as assigned by immediate supervisor (5%)

III. Qualifications 

A) Education/Training

Required: BA/BSc in Social Science, community development or related fields 

Preferred: BSC in community capacity development/building. 

B) Experience 

Required: 2-4 years of work experience related to community capacity development, development facilitation at grassroots, partnership and/or accountability. 

Desired: Interdisciplinary experience in programs of different nature and previous work experience on PSNP, food security program, DFSA, agriculture extension is a plus. 

C) Technical Skills

Required:

·         Excellent planning, organizational, analytical and decision making skills;

·         Good verbal and written communication skills in English, Amharic and Afaan Oromo;

·         Excellent- demonstrated analytical skill in the field of partnership, understanding of different stakeholders and a progressive worldview of mutual respect, downward accountability, social justice and equality;

·         Effective interpersonal skills, maturity, intuitive, tact and a high sense of responsibility, 

·         Ability to work harmoniously with people of different educational, cultural and technical backgrounds;

Desired:                                                             

§  Demonstrable community development facilitation skills, sound judgment and prior engagement on multi-lateral or large scale capacity building programs;

§  Proven training and capacity development skills at grassroots;

§  Expertise in assessment, analysis and report writing. 

D)      Competencies: CARE core values (respect, accountability, courage, and excellence), building partnerships, and managing performance for success, initiating action, interpersonal skills, contributing to team success, pro-active problem solving and organizing, good temperament and good sense of humor. 

IV. Contacts/Key Relationships:

S/he will also be expected to have productive and professional relations with various technical and operation staff within CARE and across stakeholders. These include CFs, local community and government institutions and DFSA staffs at FO level. 

V. Working Conditions and Level of Travel Required.  

This position is based within DFSA target communities as assigned by the field office and DFSA project management.