Community Engagement Advisor, East Africa at RTI

Responsibilities

RTI is seeking a Community Engagement Advisor for the East Africa Energy Program under the Power Africa initiative by USAID. This person will be responsible for helping interface between electric utilities and communities, to improve understanding and communication about energy-related issues. The advisor will help utilities communicate important issues like tariff changes, and help communities lobby for better access to reliable power. The community advisor will also help identify and advocate for solutions to the challenges frequently faced by the energy sector (land rights issues, siting of equipment, electricity theft). The advisor may hold meetings to understand the issues communities face in terms of service delivery and energy access, and will help communities take charge of planning for their own energy needs and requirements, and working with government officials to have those plans incorporated into higher level plans.

This position will also require communicating sensitive information in order to solve broader issues in an energy system (e.g. electricity theft, tariff increases) and facilitating compromises between the utility and communities, when possible. This position may have occasional responsibilities in other East Africa region countries (Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania), but will be based in Nairobi, Kenya for consistent work with Kenyan utilities.

Specific Responsibilities

• Contribute to project efforts to enable citizen engagement in planning and monitoring of service delivery.
• Support project staff members to connect with peers through networking and find innovative ways to enable project to engage with civil society for social accountability.
• Identify, strengthen and develop mechanisms and social accountability tools civil society dialogue, advocacy and oversight.
• Identify strategies to promote civic participation and oversight at the project level, institutionalizing participatory processes that promote civil society engagement, and work on developing and promoting social accountability tools

Required Minimum Qualification And Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in social science, business, or other relevant field.
• 4-6 years of experience working with the local governance energy projects in Ethiopia to strengthen and develop mechanisms for engagement of civil society in advocacy and oversight.

Knowledge, Skills And Abilities

• Exceptional and demonstrated ability to influence and build consensus across diverse groups perspectives.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in Amharic required. Strong proficiency in English will be preferred and Kiswahili is also very desirable.