Senior Development and Democracy Advisor at SoCha

The Senior Development and Democracy Advisor will:

Program Monitoring, Assessment and Advising (20%)

• Play a lead role in monitoring and advising senior leadership on the Mission’s activities, with a focus on democracy and election activities (e.g., contracts, cooperative agreements, grants to public international organizations, and government-to-government mechanisms).
• Undertake proactive engagement with other democracy, human rights, and election experts (both within and outside USAID), and keep abreast of the latest developments, studies, and academic research in the fields of democracy and election matters in Kenya.
• Identify and synthesize best practices for international and regional elections.
• Identify and codify election related lessons learned to improve knowledge management and learning within USAID/KEA and the agency.

Program Monitoring, Assessment and Advising (40%)

• Responsible for tracking legal, policy, political trends, as they relate to democracy and elections and provide strategic advice on the same.
• Distill and shape information into succinct policy and/or programmatic recommendations.
• Contribute to the development of strategic and operational documents including elections reporting, performance reports, white papers, lessons learned, and other ad hoc reports as required.
• Review and advise on proposals and reports from partners/contractors, and documents recommendations for improved DGPS and mission operational effectiveness relating to elections
  programs.

External Consultations & Partnerships (20%)

• Establish and maintain effective working relations and coordination with other donors, civil
  society, private sector, media, and academic/research bodies on matters related to DG initiatives,
  especially elections.
• Add value to existing partnerships, and exercise initiative in establishing new ones,
  with international, regional, and local partners in support democracy and election interventions.
• Collaborate with USAID/Washington’s DRG Center, bilateral missions and other Agency
  affiliates in democracy and election programming and learning.

Advice and Guidance (20%)

• Serve as a key Agency advisor on various programs and mission wide events, with a focus on DGPS.
• Counsel senior management staff and officials at multiple levels of USAID, senior staff of other Federal and private sector clients, and vendors on Agency and DGPS matters.
• Advise on the appropriate methods and techniques to use in order to achieve program goals and objectives.
• Serve on inter Agency, national, and/or international special work groups, task forces, or expert panels on special projects or studies.
• Communicate with the Bureau for Africa Front Office on the status of different work activities and efforts.

Minimum Qualifications and Experience:

• Master’s degree or above in development studies, conflict mitigation, peacebuilding and or other technical areas such as engineering and/or economics is required.
• A minimum ten years of progressively responsible work experience in fields related to democratic development (governance, elections, devolution, political parties, human rights, rule of law, civil society, etc.), public administration, or management is required. Experience must include working for a Government Institution, International Development Agency, Non Governmental-Organization or Embassy in democracy and election efforts.
• Demonstrated technical expertise on issues pertaining to two or more subjects in the DG field (for example: elections and human rights, civil society strengthening, devolution, public outreach and
  behavior change, political party engagement, media, and rule of law, etc.).
• Advanced knowledge of democracy and election trends, comparative examples in other countries,
  relevant civil society organizations, influential religious and GOK stakeholders, is required.
• An understanding of USAID business practices and procedures is required.
• Experience as a senior manager in USAID missions is required.
• Experience working in Kenya and on Kenyan political development is required.
• Familiarity with peacebuilding and preventing & countering violent extremism (P/CVE)
  approaches and their relationship to elections and post-elections is highly desired.
• A strong understanding of elections and post-election related conflict is highly desirable.