Community Engagement Advisor at Save the Children

Role Purpose

Save the Children is recruiting a Community Engagement Advisor to provide technical leadership during implementation of community level social and behavior change (SBC) strategies for Breakthrough ACTION Kenya. Breakthrough ACTION-Kenya is a two-year USAID/Kenya/PMI funded malaria project. 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 Division of National Malaria Program (DNMP) to design, implement, evaluate, and coordinate effective social and behavior change (SBC) programs. The role holder will ensure that all SBC activities support the achievement of project targets, at the community level. S/he will be 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 will supervises and works closely with related sector specialists. In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

Contract Duration: 12 months with possibility of extension.

No of Vacancies: One (1) Position

Reporting to: Breakthrough ACTION SBC Advisor in Kenya/ Save the Children Director Programme Operations

Location: Nairobi

Nationality: Kenya Nationals only

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Technical Leadership and Innovation 

• Collaborate with the Breakthrough ACTION Kenya Chief of Party and SBC Advisor on overall program strategy and implementation.
• Provide strategic and cutting-edge leadership and innovation for community level mobilization 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 country lead, 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 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

Qualifications and Experience

• A Master is degree in Social Sciences, Public Health, Communications, other relevant degree, or a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
• Minimum of 10 years of professional experience in delivering community centered public health interventions and professional experience working in mid to senior management positions.
• Extensive experience implementing community mobilization, health promotion 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

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children.  We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.