Project Officer-Rural Women Cultivating Change (RWCC) at Hivos East Africa

About the project

Hivos is anticipating receiving financial support from Global Affairs Canada through SeedChange (as the Lead partner) to implement a six-year project that will contribute to “Rural Women Cultivating Change” in Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania. The project will be implemented by a consortium of seven partners with Hivos, Seed Savers Network, GROOTS in Kenya, Women Empowerment-Action (WE-Action), Institute of Sustainable Development in Ethiopia and Participatory Ecological Land Use, Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) and Canada’s Coady International Institute. The main goal of the project is to enhance gender equality and empowerment of diverse young and adult rural women (women smallholder farmers, female heads of households and survivors of gender-based violence) by shifting cultural attitudes and structures that limit them to take control of their lives, advocate for themselves and others and take leadership within their communities and beyond.

Job context

Hivos East Africa is looking for a Project Officer (PO) for the new project to lead and manage Hivos’ implementation in Kenya.

We are interested in a person who shares our values, with great and inclusive leadership skills who can lead this new program with passion and commitment.

The PO supports the setting up and proper running of the project in Kenya, as well as the development, approval and implementation of organisational level and joint project proposals, and ensures these processes are developed in line with agreed procedures. S/he/they ensures sound project implementation as well as checks on progress and deliverables.

The PO coordinates the delivery of comprehensive country level narrative plans and reports, that visualise activities and results of Hivos’ implementation and / or in collaboration with the other Local Implementing Partners(LIPs). These contribute to the overarching RWCC Project plans and reports. In doing so, s/he/they will closely work together with the Hivos financial officer, as well as the DMEL officer, amongst others.

S/he/they will be actively engaged in project decision making related to: project design (gender and human rights analysis, Theory of Change (ToC), Logic Model (LM), Performance Measurement Framework (PMF), project planning (collaborative work planning and budget determination), project management (monitoring via national steering committees) project reporting (semi-annual and annual financial and narrative reports to SeedChange), and project monitoring and evaluation (baseline, mid-term and endline survey design, data collection and analysis, and final report submission).

In addition, the PO will be an integral member of the National Steering Committee and National Technical Committees. Next to that, the PO will share progress and results of the project to the regional management team as well as Hivos colleagues in the regional Hub. S/he/they is also responsible for the preparation of stories and content for website, media and other channels and the organization of internal and external events. The PO will assist the Design, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (DMEL) officer in outcome harvesting, narrative assessment and other reporting needed. The PO will work as a team with the DMEL officer, the financial officer, the linking and learning specialist, amongst others.

Your responsibilities

 Project or subproject design

• Develops detailed work plans (results, budget, and risks).

Implementation work plan

• Realizes successful implementation in accordance with the specific goals, working methods and budgets of the projects.

Coordination and collaboration

• Ensures and promotes collaboration and coordination between all actors at the national level, and actively participates in coordination at the regional and international level.

Monitoring & control

• Monitors and reports on results in relation to objectives and means.

Sharing, learning, and quality improvement

• Identifies, analyses and highlights success and good practices, as well as potential risks and problems, contributes to identifying and sharing positive stories. Proposes solutions for identified problems and follows-up on those. Participates in reflection and learning on both the project and institutional level.

Engagement of project teams

Contributes to definition of SMART project proposals and evaluation of output. Proactively consults and engages other team-members, and contributes and supports teamwork, for example on advocacy or on capacity strengthening.

Your profile

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent experience) in social sciences,  law, international development or related area
• Minimum of five years of relevant working experience.
• Work experience in working with civil society, in project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and working in teams.
• Experience with managing multi-stakeholder initiatives including civil society, government, oversight authorities and private sector.
• Experience in facilitating training, policy and advocacy interventions in Kenya and/ or in the region.
• Clear understanding of gender, human rights, and issues surrounding empowerment of   rural women and girls (especially in agriculture/ farming – this will be an added advantage).
• Work experience in a consortium environment.
• Full professional proficiency in English and Kiswahili.

This is a medior position for Kenyan nationals. We particularly welcome applications from young women. Salary scale is at a maximum of KES 276,728  per month.