CARE is an international NGO with local staff and community partners in more than 90 countries. We create local solutions to poverty and inequality, and we seek dignity for everyone every day and during times of crisis.  These solutions have a broad range, from clean water to access to education; from microfinance to ensuring that everyone has nutritious food; from agriculture and climate change to disaster response. CARE puts women and girls at the center of everything we do because they have proven to be the best hope for creating lasting change in the world.  Our staff live where they work, which makes us effective at understanding the challenges they face. We’ve been doing this for over 70 years, since World War II. It started with the world’s first CARE Package® of food for the post-war hungry in Europe.  Our work today is as important as ever, we believe that poverty and inequality are historic injustices that we can end within a generation, for good. If you share our core beliefs: poverty is an injustice; poverty is solvable; and together, we have the power to end it, join us.

JOB SUMMARY

The Senior Governance Advisor position focuses on providing capacity building, expert technical support, oversight, and direction of the Governance thematic area of RIPA North Activity. The Senior Governance Advisor will be responsible for developing and implementing the Governance activities in coordination with the three regional government stakeholders including project staff. This is a 20-month position, so the focus will be on building the capacity of government stakeholders. Activities will include developing and rolling out a comprehensive program strategy to build the operational and technical capacity of local implementing partners, engage government and increase coordination among formal and informal stakeholders, and mobilize communities to undertake collective action.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS

Job Responsibility #1:  Leading the implementation of Program principles and Program quality issues (30% of the time)

• Develop a strategy for influencing government institutions to invest in community DRM and rangeland management plans.

• Develop a strategy and roadmap for government ownership and financing of climate information services.

• Review the sustainability prospects of key community governance institutions (e.g., DRM Councils and Rangeland Councils) and develop a strategy for improving sustainability.

• Collaborate with field cluster managers in day-to-day and ongoing coordination with regional government officials and community structures on program delivery, coordinated activities, joint planning, capacity strengthening strategies and activities, and measurement.

• Support integration of cross-cutting aspects of the program such as gender equality, peace building and social cohesion, youth, climate adaptation, and resilience into country-level institutional strengthening strategy.

• Support the Field cluster manager and RIPA Lead in the socialization of the program with local and country Government stakeholders, traditional leaders, local civil society organizations, and other relevant stakeholders, to ensure support for and acceptance of RIPA programs, and pursue necessary approvals and collaboration as required.

• Lead implementation of country-level context and government capacity assessment processes, including managing staff or consultants, coordinating across Mercy Corps/CARE and consortium partner teams, and/or joint mapping of formal and informal governance structures with key stakeholders.

• Prepare regular county context updates including analysis of governance planning and budgeting cycles and political windows of opportunity and advise how these may affect the implementation of the RIPA North activities in the country.

• Refine and implement regional-contextual strategies for community mobilization and engagement in governance processes.

• Work with the RIPA component Leads and CoP to develop and/or refine, to strengthen community mobilization, civil society strengthening, or the capacity of government officials in community engagement skills, including facilitation, consultation, negotiation, and participatory planning and budgeting.

• Ensure all interventions adhere to CARE and Mercy Corps Gender Policy, Do No Harm principles, and beneficiary accountability standards.

Job Responsibility #2:  Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Sharing (30% of time)

• Mentor participating officials in good governance skills, including planning and conducting regular awareness-raising and consultative meetings with government and communities on issues related to DRM, NRM, Gender and Nutrition planning.

• Support the Institutionalization of Learning Systems Strengthening in providing strategy and direction for country-level program implementation. Maintain a monitoring system to measure the overall performance of the governance system of the field office.

• Design and facilitate community and government learning events to review progress, highlight challenges and identify solutions.

• Contribute country-level information on complementary activities by partners and collaborating agencies to support program coordination at the household and community levels.

• Convene and facilitate meetings between governance structures at different levels and across geographies to promote communication and collaboration within and between government authorities.

• Leads governance knowledge management-related activities with CO and field offices including documentation.

• In coordination with the collaboration, Learning and Accountability (CLA) team, support documentation of information regarding governance practices and outcomes.

• With input from the Mercy Corps CLA team, produce written reports on program activities, capturing the impacts of activities.

• Participate in the agency-wide governance practitioners learning exchange network.

• Proactively ensures networking and sharing of lessons from CARE and Mercy Corps programs with strategic governance and other stakeholders including government.

• Ensures the communication of governance concepts within the organization, with partners and other stakeholders.

• Organizes feedback sessions and other platforms at the CO and field office level with partners, beneficiaries, and stakeholders (private and public sectors), and, with the assistance of the Managers, ensures responses are provided timely.

Job Responsibility #3: Technical support and capacity strengthening (25% of the time)

• Provide training for community governance institutions (e.g., DRM councils and rangeland councils) to improve their capacity to advocate for their priorities to government institutions.

• Support regional team in providing technical assistance – including targeted training, mentoring, and strategic planning support – to increase the capacity of targeted governance structures to share information and promote participatory decision-making processes involving a wide range of stakeholders.

• Identifies training needs on governance, assist field office Component 1 (C1) and Component 4 (C4) staff in organizing governance-related capacity-building workshops/trainings for staff and partners.

• Build the capacity of all relevant team members to develop and maintain an excellent governance system, including regular reflection and analysis of program governance monitoring and production of evidence-based recommendations and reports. 

Job Responsibility #4:  Accountability to partners (10 % of the time)   

• Expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of our field projects.

• Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, policies, procedures, and values always.

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit RIPA North as well as themselves.

Job Responsibility # 5 Other Duties (5% of the time)

• Perform other duties assigned by the supervisor.

III GENDER EQUALITY

• Understanding and demonstrated commitment to the importance of gender, youth, and social inclusion issues.

• Demonstrated commitment to principles of Gender Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and PSHEA (safeguarding), as evidenced in previous positions/programming.

IV PROBLEM SOLVING (Thinking Environment)

• While the incumbent will face all three levels of problem-solving, the biggest challenges belong to category number three.  The incumbent must use interpersonal skills to pick and choose the right strategy to address a given problem and has to deal with variable solutions, which need analysis, problem definition and development of alternative solutions.

Job Requirements

IIV QUALIFICATIONS (KNOW-HOW)

A. EDUCATION/TRAINING

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in political science, Social Sciences, Democracy and Governance, International Development

• Environmental Science, Natural Resource Management/ Disaster Risk Management, Social science, Statistics, International Development or other related field or equivalent combination of education & work experience.

Desired:

• MA Degree in Political Science, Social Sciences, Democracy and Governance, International Development, Environmental Science, Natural Resource Management/ Disaster Risk Management, Social science, Statistics, International Development, or related field with required or demonstrated equivalent work experience in the field.

• Knowledge and working experience with various levels of Ethiopian Governance System.

• Ability to work in a consortium led program.

B. EXPERIENCE

Required:

• 4 to 5 years of proven relevant field management in the area of governance system.

• Strong track record of managing programs with engagement with or work through the governance system and addressing relevant cross-cultural issues.

• Demonstrated experience working in, collaborating, or partnering with different government offices or departments and ability to represent the organization professionally and appropriately. 

Desired:

• Working in development programs that engage with the governance system, including training facilitation of participatory processes for government or civil society development.

• Working knowledge in chronically vulnerable pastoral communities 

C.  TECHNICAL SKILLS

Required:

• Highly organized which gives attention to detail and analytical skills.

• Training and facilitation skills tailored to different cross-cultural contexts.

• Computer skills particularly Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and others

• Strong oral and written communication skills in English including report development, writing, and editing.

• Ability to meet deadlines and follow procedures; work independently and cooperatively with team members.

• Demonstrated interpersonal skills in working with multi-disciplinary teams.

• Firm belief in teamwork, gender equality, sensitivity to HIV/AIDS, participatory approach and sustainability.

• Proficiency in English, both in verbal and written communication, multi-tasking, organizational & prioritization

Desired

• Utilizing programming and statistical software to compile data and information for various systems and knowledge of basic PME and research tools.

D. COMPETENCIES

•  Respect, accountability, courage, excellence, analytical ability, initiating action, interpersonal skills, developing teams, decision making, information monitoring, facilitating change, proactive problem solving, planning, organizing and communicating with impact.

V CONTACTS/KEY RELATIONSHIPS

•  The Senior Governance Advisor will directly report to the C1 lead.  The Senior Governance Advisor maintains effective relationships with partners, the CLA team, field office Project/Program managers and technical staff. 

V WORKING CONDITIONS AND LEVEL OF TRAVEL REQUIRED. 

• The post is in Addis Ababa, with 40% of field travel to project sites.

How to Apply

If you are interested to be part of our dynamic team, exciting work environment and contribute to CARE Ethiopia’s mission and vision, please send your CV (not more than 3 pages) and cover letter (not more than one page) through THIS LINK

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Passionate and dedicated candidates who meet the requirement are strongly encouraged to apply, especially women!

CARE seeks to improve the lives of the most marginalized, particularly women and girls. Our diversity is our strength. We encourage people from all backgrounds and experiences to apply.

CARE Ethiopia is committed to preventing all unwanted behavior at work. This includes sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, and child abuse. We expect everyone who works for us to share this commitment by understanding and working within the CARE Safeguarding Policy and related framework. CARE Ethiopia has a zero-tolerance approach to any harm to, or exploitation of, a vulnerable adult or child by any of our staff, representatives, or partners.

CARE Ethiopia reserves the right to seek information from job applicants’ current and/or previous employers about incidents of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment the applicant may have been found guilty to have committed or about which an investigation was in the process of being carried out at the time of the termination of the applicant’s employment with that employer.

By submitting the application, the job applicant confirms that s/he has no objection to CARE Ethiopia requesting the information specified above. All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks