Regional Social Accountability Advisor ( Internal & External)

Organizational Background

HUNDEE-Oromo Grassroots Development Initiative is a local NGO established in 1995. It has strong aspiration that equality and dignity of all human persons are respected and protected. This is clearly and adequately reflected in its organizational vision that is centered on human dignity and prosperity. What underpins this vision statement is that poverty is understood not only as material deprivation but also as power imbalance in social, economic and political spheres. Poverty affects women and men, boys and girls, but the impacts are different based on their sex, age, social and economic status, literacy and disability. Our strategy focuses on the outcome areas of: (1) Food Security and Agriculture Development Program; (2) Community Mobilization and Citizens Engagement Program; (3) Child, Youth and Women Development Program; (4) Livelihoods,

Resilience Building and Humanitarian Response Program; and (5) Health, WaSH and Nutrition Program. Currently, we operate in Oromia National Regional State of twelve zones and working with a diverse base of donors that includes the German Agro Action (GAA), Kerk in Actie (KiA)/Cordaid, USAID/ISHDO, Cafod/Sciaf/Trocaire (CST), Kindernothilfe (KNH), World Bank /MA, Dan Church Aid (DCA), CGWE, UN/OCHA, Christian Aid Ethiopia (CAE), Mercy Corps, Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI)/ Caster Card Foundation and other foundations. HUNDEE has been working secured funding support from USAID under the lead of Mercy Corp for the implementation of a project Highland Resilience Activity (HRA) that will contribute to the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) 5s Big Push initiative and support these households in moving above the graduation threshold

Project Summary

The USAID-funded Highland Resilience Activity (HRA) - will contribute to the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) 5s Big Push initiative and has the overarching goal of strengthening resilience among vulnerable households in Ethiopias Highlands, resulting in 120,000 PSNP households reaching the graduation threshold. HRA will support these households in moving above the graduation threshold and to where they no longer require social safety net programming for household food security and have the capabilities and assets to withstand regular and predictable shocks. The Activity will achieve this goal by directly supporting households in increasing their on-farm, off-farm, and employment incomes while facilitating improvements in the market systems required to increase demand for goods and services in PSNP communities. HRA is a five-year program that starts in January 2024.

Job Summary

The purpose of the Social Accountability Advisor is to provide a technical assistance and capacity building for the project team, stakeholder and target group. The position holder will assist in refining the program design and implementation of all components of the project related to the intersection between social accountability, Agribusiness, Economic strengthen and nutrition in the target communities. The position holder will coordinate social accountability study and training materials/guidelines development. The Advisor will inform the formative research in social accountability areas to identify key issues, social norms, and barriers and to make recommendations on how to address Economic empowerment and government responsiveness-related concerns and challenges. The Social Accountability Advisor is also expected to ensure effective design, implementation learning extraction and dissemination of a program. The incumbent is also responsible to extract, document and share good practices within the organization, stakeholders, and its partners. The Accountability Advisor will work closely with other technical advisors and program staff to ensure program quality and impact in line with the goals and objectives of the program. The position holder will also support report preparation and budget management related to social accountability. This position will be supervised by project Coordinator.

Roles and Responsibilities

Responsibilities and Key Result Areas

Technical support on planning and program Implementation

Develops contextualized social accountability strategy and implementation manual in collaboration with other project staff;

Closely follow up, Lead and ensure the implementation of strategies mainly in the area of social accountability.

Lead the implementation of Social Analysis and Action (SAA) approach for challenging and transforming positively social norms in favor of womens empowerment; income generation, Nutrition and Agribusiness

Technically lead the social accountability approach of the program to improve the governance of the program and nutrition services with the food security.

Ensure and lead the program social inclusion / diversity / programming, like youth, girls particularly, food insecure community and disabilities,

Develops social accountability sensitive indicators to measure results in collaboration with learning, design and measurement M &E team;

Designs concepts, and inputs into problem identification, causal and problem analysis to support operationalization of Social Accountability strategies and plans;

Supports definition of areas (and appropriate methodologies) in all facets related to social accountability, community empowerment and economic empowerment;

Facilitates the adoption and ensure implementation of national social accountability guidelines, international standards and Donors requirement;

Establishes all necessary relationships with stockholders and government to ensure that gender and social accountability issues can be shared.

Monitor progress and provide ongoing feedback and recommendations to the project management;

Lead preparation of report in the thematic area that s/he is assigned to lead;

Training and Capacity Building

Established ongoing training processes on social accountability-focused program quality;

Develops and implements follow-up coaching plans to sustain staff expertise and commitment to apply new skills in relation to accountability;

Conducts capacity assessment and based on the results, prepares plans and advises the consortium on key learning competency and skill requirements in staff pertinent to social accountability.

Leads the development and facilitation of trainings for staff and government stakeholder development on social accountability specific initiatives.

Works with the relevant government structures to facilitate social accountability -related activities and monitoring in the operational areas;

Advises and helps promote appropriate community mobilization strategies around gender and social accountability;

Documents and shares lessons/results of social accountability, and Other -related work and strategies in project operational areas.

Monitoring, evaluation, assessment, learning and reporting

Support adherence to social accountability mechanisms aligned with M&E system, indicator and tools in project implementation areas.

Technical support and closely collaborate with M&E team and partners to develop a monitoring system to collect periodic data for tracking progressive changes;

Collaborate with measurement team in developing progress monitoring and learning extraction tool in the area of social accountability.

Identify/extract good practices and learning related to social accountability for further program quality improvement.

Record and document lessons from program processes and achievements;

Prepare reports on social accountability intervention areas.

Partnership, and Networking

Establish and maintain productive relationships with government offices, non-government organizations, and expert institutions and draw different experiences to be shared with project staff;

Liaises with relevant government institutions and authorities to keep updated information on new or improved policies, strategies, guidelines, related with the program to inform project strategies and activities accordingly.

Provides linkage support to networks with other organizations working on gender social accountability issues;

Identifies, establishes and maintains productive relationships with like-minded non-government organizations;

Actively participate in social accountability forums to facilitate learning and scaling up of good practices;

Leadership and Representation

Contribute to transparent and participatory management and decision making;

Coach the field level staff to build their technical and function capacity in social accountability intervention;

Actively participate and support programmatic coordination and synergy;

Contribute to healthy work environment;

Promote transparent and accountable system;

Represent the organization and the project team on different social accountability forum and review meeting

Participate in project management meetings and be a team player and team builder;

Exhibit model behaviors consistent with principles, values, vision and mission of the organization;

These essential functions are not to be interpreted as a complete statement of all duties performed. Employees will be required to perform other job-related duties as required. Perform other duties, as assigned.

Required education and qualification

BSc/BA or MSc/ MA degree in Sociology, Social Works, Developmental Studies, Business Administration/Management, Leadership, or other Social Science from recognized universities or colleges.

Work Experience

Minimum of 6/8 years proven work experience respectively, of which 2/4 years in social accountability program, preferably in NGO

Skill and Personal Qualities Required

Strong communication, interpersonal and report writing skills, technical competence and ability to work in harmony with co-worker;

Proven knowledge of working with Microsoft packages (ability to prepare various reports using Excel, Microsoft Offices, PowerPoint and etc)

Language Ability

Proficiency in Afaan Oromo, Amharic and English languages is mandatory