Community Engagement Advisor

Community Engagement Advisor

ROLE PURPOSE:

Breakthrough ACTION (BA) is a cooperative agreement funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to lead its social and behavior change programming around the world. Led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP), Breakthrough ACTION partners include Save the Children, ideas42, Think Place, Camber Collective, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), and Viamo.

Breakthrough ACTION-Kenya is USAID’s Flagship Social Behaviour Change mechanism covering SBC work for malaria, AYSRH, Nutrition among other thematic areas. The program is designed to manage implementation of high-quality activities that influence positive behavior change to protect at risk populations from preventable malaria morbidity and mortality. The project will also strengthen the institutional and technical capacity of the Ministry of Health to design, implement, evaluate, and coordinate effective social and behavior change (SBC) programs.

Save the Children is recruiting a Community Engagement Advisor to provide technical leadership for the implementation of community level social and behavior change (SBC) strategies under the Breakthrough ACTION Kenya project. S/he will ensure that all SBC activities support the achievement of project targets, at the community level. S/he is responsible for strategic planning, coordination and monitoring & evaluation of SBC strategies and interventions for the project’s community level activities. The Advisor will also take a technical leadership role in coordination with all project staff and partners in the consortium to adhere to the community level SBC strategy and approaches. S/he works closely with related sector technical advisors.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: This position reports to Save the Children’s Programme Manager at the Bungoma Regional Office and indirectly for day-to-day basis this position reports to the Breakthrough ACTION Kenya Chief of Party.

Staff directly reporting to this post: Provides technical supervision to Community Engagement/SBC Officers employed by Johns’ Hopkins CCP on community engagement work.

Country Dimensions: Save the Children has been operational in Kenya since the 1950s, providing support to children through developmental and humanitarian relief programmes delivered both directly and through local partners. Current programming focuses on child protection, child rights governance, education, health, HIV/AIDS, livelihoods, nutrition and WASH. In 2012, as part of a global reorganization process, Save the Children combined the programmes of SC UK, SC Canada and SC Finland to create a single operation in Kenya. In Feb 2014, we completed a second transition, which saw us join forces with the British INGO, Merlin, and merge their health and nutrition programmes with our own. Save the Children now has an operational presence in Bungoma, Dadaab Refugee Camp, Garissa, Mandera, Turkana, Wajir, Samburu and Nairobi; we work through partners in many other parts of the country

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Technical Leadership and Innovation.

• Collaborate with the Breakthrough ACTION Kenya Chief of Party and SBC Advisors on overall program strategy and implementation.
• Provide strategic and cutting-edge leadership and innovation for community level mobilization interventions.
• Work closely with Save the Children US backstopping team to receive technical guidance on the design, implementation, and monitoring of technically sound and state of the art community level interventions.
• Collaborate with Breakthrough ACTION Kenya management team to cultivate strategic relationships with government ministries, and other stakeholders for the smooth implementation of program activities.
• Participate in the annual work planning process in close collaboration with DNMP, County health teams and the project staff.
• In collaboration with Breakthrough ACTION Chief of Party, support shifts in approach as needed based on the reports and data
• Respond to USAID requests related to progress against targets and provide other programmatically relevant information in a timely fashion.
• Ensure that gender is at the forefront of all community level mobilization activities, including design, planning, implementation, and monitoring.
• Ensure the timeliness and quality of all SBC community mobilization content for reports and meet all reporting requirements.
• Lead community mobilization technical contributions for the development of the project’s strategic documents including work plan and quarterly, semi-annual and annual reports.
• Prepare narrative reports for the donor(s) and Save the Children as required, ensuring these are of a high quality and submitted for review in a timely manner.

Representation and advocacy

• Attend meetings and represent the SBC community mobilization initiatives of the project in all relevant levels of government officials, partners, donor, NGO and private sector representative.
• Represent the project at relevant forums at regional and national level including relevant sector conferences.
• Represent Save the Children in relevant internal and external fora including donor meetings (as appropriate).
• Work closely with the Save the Children Kenya Program Manager from the Bungoma Office, Head of Health and Nutrition, Head of Advocacy and Campaigns, PDQ and operations teams to complement ongoing advocacy initiatives aimed at ensuring best practices are institutionalized and scaled up
• Work with consortium members to further Save the Children’s mission for children

People management, mentoring and development

• Work with Breakthrough ACTION Kenya senior management to recruit, on board and train for county level staff (if needed)
• Provide mentorship to technical project and partner staff on community mobilization approaches
• Ensure all staff have the technical knowledge to complete their job duties
• Lead and motivate the team to ensure effective project implementation.

Knowledge management

• Facilitate appropriate dissemination of research findings and good practices documentations in the project internally and externally to donors, governments, consortium partners and other key actors
• Work with technical resources among Save the Children members to facilitate sharing and learning in SBC and leverage on their support to strengthen knowledge management capacities at project level.

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children and Breakthrough ACTION values
• holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children and Breakthrough ACTION, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

Contract Duration: 10 months

Number of Vacancies: 1

Work Location: Bungoma

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• A Master’s degree in Social Sciences, Public Health, Communications or other relevant degree or a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field with a minimum of 10 years of professional experience in delivering community centred public health interventions and professional experience working in mid to senior management positions
• Extensive experience implementing community mobilization, health promotion, social and behaviour change, or similar programs in Kenya;
• Good understanding of the health system and policy processes; health sector programs and significant players in the community health, community mobilization and Malaria programming in Kenya
• Proven experience in training staff and community members and strong knowledge of community capacity building for team members, government and community counterparts
• Experience of working with local/national governments and capacity building of systems, partners and staff
• Understanding of USAID policies and procedures (highly preferred)
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international and matrix management environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures
• Demonstrated ability to lead and work effectively in team situations
• Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mind-sets.
• Ability to present complex information in a succinct and compelling manner
• Demonstrated problem solving skills, collaboration experience, creativity and willingness to innovate.
• Willingness to travel within the country as needed
• Fluent oral and strong analytical, written English communication skills is required
• Fluent oral Kiswahili is required
• Proficiency in the languages of western Kenya highly desirable
• Good computer skills (particularly Word, Excel and database)
• Demonstrates Save the Children’s core values of accountability, collaboration, integrity, ambition, and creativity.

THE ORGANIZATION

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated