Conflict Transformation Advisor

Country: South Sudan

Post: Conflict Transformation Advisor (preferably South Sudanese national)

Duty station: Juba, South Sudan


Organizational Background

Cordaid combines more than 90 years’ experience and expertise in emergency aid and structural poverty eradication. We are one of the biggest international development organisations with a network of almost 1,000 partner organisations in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Cordaid is also a member of Caritas Internationalis, a worldwide network of Catholic organizations involved in emergency relief, rehabilitation and development.

Cordaid has been active in South Sudan for more than 20 years, focusing on civil society capacity-building via technical advice, accompaniment, lobby & advocacy, linking & learning as well as strategic financing. During this period we have developed a vast network of local and international partner organizations from the grassroots up to the national level. In South Sudan Cordaid works exclusively through local partner organisations, supported by a team of in-country advisors and programme officers based at Cordaid HQ in The Hague. Our current programme in South Sudan focuses on four thematic areas: 1) conflict transformation; 2) healthcare; 3) emergency preparedness/response and disaster risk reduction; and 4) entrepreneurship.

Focus of the Position

The Conflict Transformation (CT) Advisor is responsible for designing, managing and coordinating two of Cordaid’s CT subprogrammes in South Sudan: 1) community security; and 2) women, peace & security, and supporting the capacity-building of local partner organizations in these two areas. Occasionally, the advisor can also be asked to support the third CT subprogramme on fair and sustainable extractives.

The community security subprogramme focuses on strengthening relationships between different types of stakeholders at the grassroots level to enable local communities to deal with societal conflicts in a non-violent way. It offers services, methodologies and techniques of conflict analysis, peace-building, reconciliation, early warning and community protection, particularly for vulnerable groups like women and children. In many of these activities, community-based radio and social media play a key role.

The women, peace and security sub-programme recognizes that there is an under-representation of women in local and national-level decision-making processes in South Sudan. It therefore concentrates on the strengthening of women leadership (youth and adult women), the provision of legal aid to victims of gender-based violence and women human rights defenders, the training of community and traditional leaders on women’s rights, integration of women perspectives in peace and security strategies and practices, as well as multi-stakeholder collaboration and lobby and advocacy on the implementation of UNSCR/National Action Plan 1325 and CEDAW.

The CT Advisor will report to the Cordaid Head of Mission (HoM) in Juba and liaise closely with relevant programme officers of the Conflict Transformation sector at Cordaid HQ in The Hague.

General objective of the position

₃ Support capacity development of local partner organizations in the area of conflict transformation (CT), in particular community security, and women, peace & security (occasionally: extractives);
₃ Identify, develop and support new CT proposals and projects with partner organizations;
₃ Networking, representation and acquisition/fundraising on CT-related issues.





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Specific objectives:

Capacity Development on Conflict Transformation (particularly community security and women, peace & security):
• Help organize and facilitate (leadership) trainings for partner organization staff in CT;

• Provide technical assistance on CT and accompany staff of local partner organizations to enable long-term skills-transfer;
• Support partners in applying and documenting conflict transformation skills and processes;

• Improve learning, linking and coordination to strengthen (women) networks, maximize mobilization efforts and establish community-based action plans;

• Facilitate development and use of participatory conflict analysis activities, support reflection on strengths and areas of development with Cordaid partners and communities (particularly women’s groups);

• Support documentation of human interest stories, lessons learned, best practices and strategic opportunities related to Cordaid / partners’ programmes and projects.

Identify, Develop and Support CT Proposals and Projects:
• Support partners in writing proposals (work plan / budget / logframes) for CT efforts;

• Support proposal development for EC, UN, WB, DFID, NL MFA, private foundations and/or other donors on CT capacity building programmes;
• Support programme development and project identification in the two CT areas of community security, and women, peace & security;

• Support partners to prepare and submit timely and quality financial and narrative reports;

• Regular visits to project sites to verify reports submitted to Cordaid HQ and donors.

Networking, Representation and Acquisition:

• Identify and establish contacts with relevant organizations and stakeholders as strategic to Cordaid’s CT interventions in South Sudan;

• Explore potential areas for collaboration and mobilize opportunities and resources to support program partners;
• Provide regular conflict analysis updates;

• Represent Cordaid in CT discussions in relevant Caritas, UN and other peace-building coordination / thematic cluster meetings – in consultation with and as delegated by Cordaid’s HoM.

Qualifications
• Academic degree in development or conflict studies, or other related fields;

• At least 5 years proven experience with developing, managing and monitoring CT programmes, preferably focusing on community security and/or women, peace and security;
• Experience with conflict analysis and facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes;

• Strong (financial) project management, analytical and problem-solving skills;

• Experience of working with internationally-funded programmes, including coordination, reporting and monitoring according to different donor templates (e.g. EC, UN);

• Experience in working with communities, local civil society organizations and government actors in conflict-affected states in Africa, preferably South Sudan;
• Experience in working with faith-based / church and/or women organisations is an asset;

• Knowledge of South Sudan’s socio-political environment is an asset;

• Be diplomatic, culturally sensitive, result-oriented and a team player;

• Excellent English writing and communication skills. Juba Arabic language skills is an asset.

Specifics of duty station and position

The CT Advisor will be based in Juba, South Sudan. He/she will have to travel regularly to Malakal, Wau, Yambio, as well as other cities in South Sudan for project monitoring, consultation and coordination meetings. The safety and security situation in South Sudan remains volatile but is constantly monitored by Cordaid and appropriate policies are in place.

The position is preferably filled by a South Sudanese national. Qualified South Sudanese women are particularly encouraged to apply.




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Contract information

The contract period is for 6 months initially, with the possibility of extension, starting as soon as possible. We offer a Cordaid contract with a competitive salary and a benefit package which includes comprehensive insurance cover, social security, pension contribution and a travel allowance.

Further information & how to apply

Applications including a motivation letter and extensive CV in English, including the contact details of at least three professional references, should be sent before 20 April 2012 to hr.juba@cordaid.net with “application CT Advisor” clearly marked as subject of the message. Please note that only short-listed applicants will be contacted, that applications will be reviewed in the meantime and that given the necessity to fill this position asap, we may offer this post before the closing date. An assessment might be part of the procedure.