Program Officer, Africa, Sustainable Livelihoods, ERD

Department: Episcopal Relief and Development
Date Posted: 10/12/2007

Job Description

ERD recognizes that across sub Saharan Africa sixty percent of people live in extreme poverty. With our partners, the Anglican Church and specifically its development agencies we seek to work with communities to identify, develop and implement strategies aimed to increase income and assets in order to ensure food security, meeting the basic needs of families and to bring hope and choices for their future.

The role of the Program Officer will be to work with the Program Department of Episcopal Relief and Development in implementing poverty reduction and sustainable livelihood programs in Africa. In the face of natural disaster, civil strife, or complex humanitarian disasters, the Program Officer will identify strategies that will allow communities to recover and move towards attaining development goals.

DESCRIPTION

The Program Officer works with the Program Department of Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) to implement the programming objectives for food security in Africa, as set by the Board of Directors, and ERD Administration. As such the Program Officer will be asked to do the following:

Africa Program, Food Security:

At present ERD’s Africa program is predominantly serving rural populations. Although all contexts differ in terms of opportunities and constraints offered by the land and access to markets, the overall strategies ensure that additional income streams are identified and exploited. This can involve, among other things, adopting improved agricultural techniques, crop processing, new or improved livestock management, employing micro credit to develop off farm income. ERD supports strengthening the role of women to improve their economic and social situation. The program officer will offer partners technical support in these areas. The program officer will work with partners to develop a rational and participatory monitoring and evaluation framework to ensure that programs are effective. The program officer will work with ERD’s Research and Evaluations Officer to ensure that such field data can be incorporated in ERD’s global monitoring and evaluation framework.

In country, our implementing partners will be (for the most part) our sister Anglican Church and the department of their church that is actively involved in health and social development. ERD and our partners recognize that meaningful poverty reduction will include not only economic development initiatives but also ensuring access to clean water, and primary health care, disease control and prevention, including HIV and AIDS and malaria. The Program Officer will work alongside the Africa Program Director, with responsibility for primary health, to support partners in achieving integrated community development programs.

Food Security/Sustainable Livlihood Programs will be managed on a day to day basis by the Program Officer .This will involve managing budgets, cash flows and procurements; receiving and analyzing country reports; field trips to support partners; preparing and presenting reports for donors; meeting the informational needs of fundraising, public relations etc.

Emergency Response

Contribute to planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of emergency programs in the face of natural disasters and complex humanitarian emergencies.

Program Strategy

To contribute to the visioning and strategic planning process of the overall program; to prepare position papers on sustainable livelihood and poverty reduction issues, in collaboration with the research and evaluations Officer. Where appropriate, to conduct research within ERD programs to demonstrate best practice/program efficacy to enable ERD to contribute to anti poverty debates and advocacy.

Job Requirements

Masters degree in international development, rural development or agronomy and/or equivalent experience

Minimum 5 years experience working on sustainable livelihood programs in developing countries (Africa experience highly preferred)

Proven success in conducting and coordinating asset-based participatory capacity building trainings for grassroots partners

Proven track record of coordinating technical support for large, complex, multi-year, projects involving multiple external collaborators (including previous budget oversight responsibilities)

Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a multi-site initiative and in a team-based structure

Demonstrated capacity to collaboratively establish baseline collection and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

Ability and willingness to travel internationally up to 40% of the time

Ability to write clear and concise program reports and updates for a wide variety of audiences

Ability to support the development from concept to production of public relations/educational materials in support of the initiative

Must be diplomatic, patient, respectful, and open-minded

Fluency in written and spoken English.

Commitment to social justice.

Additional Qualifications

Organizational skills and attention to detail a must

Other languages (French, Swahili, Portuguese) a plus

Experience working with a wide diversity of people with different work styles

Must demonstrate flexibility to adapt to changing requirements

Good sense of humor

Work Environment

REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS
This position will report directly to The ERD Senior Program Director Africa, and be responsible to
the ERD Senior Program Director Africa.

Salary and Benefits

Salary is commensurate with experience and includes a generous benefits package. EOE, m/f/d/v encouraged to apply.

How to Apply

Submit a cover letter with salary requirements and a resume to erdjobs@er-d.org and indicate in the subject line the position for which you are applying. Please, no telephone inquiries. Qualified candidates will be contacted.

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