Governance & Rights Coordinator in Kenya

Working with the supervision and guidance of the Deputy Director - Programs (Kenya), the Governance & Rights Coordinator will be a key part of the Kenya programme. This position will involve close collaboration with other program departments, technical units and field offices to support IRC’s governance programming in Kenya. A particular focus of this position will be to provide leadership around the development of programming and intervention strategies to support Kenya’s devolution process and contribute to strengthen service delivery at the local level. In particular, the position will be primarily responsible for developing and implementing governance in service delivery projects across the Kenya country program and for developing the ability of the programme to conduct context and conflict analysis. In addition, the position will be responsible for developing partnerships with civil society, government and private sectors and for overall technical support and guidance around IRC’s Partnership framework. Another important responsibility will be to support the safe programming / protection mainstreaming activities conducted across the programme.
She/he will be required to work in collaboration with other sector coordinators and field teams to ensure that the Governance and Rights program activities are implemented according to the IRC Country Strategy Paper and related approved work plans, the global Governance & Rights Sector Framework and in accordance with the global IRC strategic plan and program framework.

The ideal candidate for this position will have good experience in public administration and will have demonstrated capacity at strengthening decentralized government structures and service delivery in health, water or education. Key Responsibilities

General: - Business Development/Fundraising: pro-actively look for funding opportunities for Governance and Rights programming in Kenya; write timely and qualitative proposals in collaboration with the field and technical heads; ensure program continuation; develop budgets in IRC formats for new opportunities. Work with TUs to identify potential donors and design ideas; - Technical support: provide guidance, training and mentoring to programme staff around governance issues, public administration, service delivery and context and conflict analysis; - Staff management – provide technical and overall management support to appointed staff to ensure high quality program implementation; - Representation of IRC at various meetings – represent IRC at various meetings, as identified by the supervisor, in a professional manner. Operations • Review and approve all sector purchase requests for governance related project costs. Finance and Grant Management • Monitor monthly budget versus actual data to ensure spending for all Governance and Rights related projects are in line with approved budgets. • Assist in the development of annual program budget for all sites in partnership with other coordinators. Communication and Reporting • Represent IRC on all technical Governance & Rights related matters to national and international sector agencies as required • Maintain excellent relationships internally within IRC and with all IRC's partners, such as WFP, UNHCR, CDC, UNICEF, UNDP and local authorities. Attend all Governance & Rights related meetings in Nairobi, and internationally as directed by the CD Human Resources • Provide orientation to all newly hired IRC staff on Partnership approaches and Governance and Rights and Civil Society related issues. • Line manage staff working in any other areas related to Governance & Rights in IRC Kenya - Identify capacity building needs amongst the team and identify opportunities both internally and externally and across programs.

Program objectives and responsibilities

a. Governance – 70% • Directly support the implementation of the Governance strategic objective – by contributing to the design and implementation of innovative projects and programs addressing governance issues in a service delivery context – in collaboration with other program sectors and field heads. • Fundraising: Lead in the identification of potential funding opportunities and the development of project proposals that will lead to the advancement and the implementation of Governance programming in IRC Kenya. Ensure timely and quality proposal design. • Coordination, Learning and Management: provide leadership and direction for standalone programming and the integration of governance into other sectoral programs. Contribute to developing the knowledge of sectoral program staff within IRC Kenya around public administration, decentralization and other governance issues and directly support project implementation and learning around this theme. • Context and Conflict Analysis: Support IRC Kenya program’s capacity to conduct context and conflict analysis with a view to identify promising entry points and adapt program strategies and implementation from a do no harm perspective. Of particular interest will be to develop a political economy analysis of the Governance environment in Kenya with a particular focus on the devolution process. This initial analysis should then be regularly updated through briefing and guidance, as requested by the supervisor. The position will also be responsible for the development of tools, guidelines and training around conflict analysis that would anchor conflict sensitive programming for IRC Kenya.

b. Partnership - 15% • Tools development: the G&R Coordinator will develop partnership tools including those related to strategy, assessment, capacity building, mapping among others that would anchor and improve partnership as an approach in IRC Kenya and support the application of the partnership framework across the program. • Staff capacity Development: Design and implement staff training plans for national team members and refugee incentive staff for both IRC and other participating agencies. Conduct trainings when needed, especially in terms of working with civil society partners. Skills set development should also be related to general training skills, how to form an organization, facilitation skills, etc. • Partnership Review and Reflection: Organize periodic partnership reflection and review forums to encourage reflection on how IRC Kenya is managing its partnership and identify ways and means of improving this. • Partnership innovation – provide guidance and advice for the technical and field heads to identify new and capable partners and ensure more sustainable solution is found for IRC’s work in the field, including refugee environment. Be on the lookout for new partners through regular mapping. • Work with relevant TUs for exploring partnership with civil society, the government and the private sector – work with CYPD and G&R to get guidance and put together a plan for working with those potential partners. Explore opportunities in country for lessons learned and operational support that is adequate to the Kenya context.

c. Safe Programming (protection) – 15% • Overall management – ensure successful management and implementation of the existing program and provide direction for future program designs in country. • Technical oversight: Provide technical oversight in the development and implementation of protection mainstreaming in IRC Kenya programming through supervision, visits, capacity building and analysis. Work with relevant TUs to ensure the best technical capacity is provided and endorsed into program design and implementation. • Staff Capacity Development: provide support and oversight for staff training in protection mainstreaming for larger IRC Kenya team. • Staff management: Supervise and support field based Safe Programming staff and provide innovative solutions when staff are not on the ground.

Required qualification /experience & Competencies:

• University Degree in Development, Economics, Public Administration, Business Administration or Social Science. Masters Degree preferred. • Minimum five years of experience in developing, managing and coordinating Governance in service delivery, Government Capacity Building or Civil Society programs in developing countries and or refugee settings. Experience in strengthening the capacity of decentralized government structures especially desirable. • Solid analytical skills and demonstrated abilities in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and especially knowledge and capacity to conduct Political Economy and Conflict Analysis; • Strong program management skills, including assessment, planning, budgeting and monitoring skills • Good organizational, interpersonal, and people management skills • Strong communication, presentation and training skills • Demonstrated proposal writing and reporting skills – Fluency in English • Ability to work under pressure in an unpredictable security environment

How to apply:

Full Job descriptions can be downloaded at http://ch.tbe.taleo.net/CH02/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=IRC&cws=1&r... Please apply on or before January 20, 2013 IRC leading the way from harm to home

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability.