Program Officer at International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)

Job Description

The IRC is seeking a REBUILD Livelihoods Assistant, based in Nairobi, for a Euro 30 Million five year, urban Livelihoods program; Refugees in East Africa: Boosting Urban Innovations for Livelihoods Development (RE:BUILD). The program is funded by the IKEA Foundation and will be implemented in Kampala and Nairobi. IRC is the Lead Partner and will coordinate a consortium of local and international partners to deliver the program. RE: BUILD seeks to support urban refugees and vulnerable host residents to achieve economic self-reliance and benefit from strengthened urban economic, regulatory and social environments. RE:BUILD will seek to enable change at varying levels, from better access to livelihoods opportunities and inclusive services within communities, to improved refugee-related policies and more targeted and effective service delivery from national, regional and global actors. Key features of RE: BUILD’s approach include flexible funding, adaptive design and knowledge and evidence generation.

Key Responsibilities will include:

• Conduct interviews and assessments for vulnerable clients to be registered for various interventions.
• Assist in conducting information sessions to clients before they join different services.
• Supervising students and Apprentices in both Vocational training and Apprenticeship host organizations.
• Work together with Livelihood Officer to ensure that clients access relevant skills trainings
• Assist in Facilitating the formation and monitoring of VSLA groups.
• Support in assembling success stories and detail them.
• Reviewing business plans, selecting business grant recipients and supporting disbursement of grant funds.
• Help in developing, monitoring and data collection processes and carrying out regular monitoring visits to beneficiaries and partners to supervise program progress.
• Support in developing, running and keeping track of activity work plans and training implementation schedules to ensure timely delivery of services and achievement of objectives.
• Work closely with the Client Responsiveness Senior Officer to collect feedback from client service delivery and client and community perception to help improve design and implementation.
• Fully align with IRC safety and security procedures and provide input to security monitoring and assessments to allow and promote a safe and secure environment for program implementation.
• Ensure confidentiality and ethical data collection throughout the monitoring and reporting phase.
• Other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Humanities/Social Sciences, International Development, Political Science, Management or other relevant field.
• Minimum of 2 years professional experience in livelihoods and enterprise development approaches.

Required Experience & Proficiencies:

• Experience of working with forced migrants is desirable.
• Experience in youth outreach and private sector partnerships.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, effective in representation and liaison with external parties.
• Strong program/technical and budget management skills, planning, reporting, monitoring and evaluation skills
• Strong leadership, analytical and organizational skills. Ability to quickly assess priorities and efficiently handle a variety of activities at a time while paying appropriate attention to detail.
• Personal qualities: Works well in and promotes teamwork, comfortable in a multi-cultural environment, flexible and able to handle pressure well.
• Validated practical experience in partner engagement and management.
• Ability to work and adapt in high passed environment.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Strong organizational and interpersonal skills.
• Computer literate (word processors, spreadsheet, database, CAD and statistical packages, etc.)
• Fluency in English and Swahili.