Community coordinator

Organization Overview

Tostan’s mission is to empower communities to develop and achieve their vision for the future and inspire large-scale movements leading to dignity for all. Tostan is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Dakar, Senegal and operating in five West African countries.

Tostan’s flagship model, the three-year Community Empowerment Program (CEP), has already reached thousands of communities in both West and East Africa since 1991. Impacts that change lives are in areas such as education, health, economic empowerment, governance and the environment. Tostan has been particularly proud to play a significant role in the large-scale empowerment of women and girls and the community-led abandonment of harmful practices such as female genital cutting and child marriage.

Strategically, the organization is committed to continuing to develop its core competency of empowering education and to documenting and scaling the sustainable impact it creates across a range of issues. Tostan is currently engaged in a strategic planning process that will shape the organization’s strategic direction from 2023-2030.

Role Overview

In partnership with civil society leaders around the world, Tostan is co-creating a new community of practice (CoP). The purpose of the CoP is to enable alumni of Tostan’s training programs and Tostan staff to effectively enable community empowerment approaches that foster sustainable community well-being.

Following global standards of practice, Tostan and a group of alumni are co-creating the structure and content of the new CoP.

The Community Coordinator (CC) will be a dynamic, high-profile activator, engager, and leader within the CoP. The CC will receive technical and administrative support from an Associate Community Coordinator (ACC). In addition to their Tostan supervisor, the CC will also be accountable to the CoP Advisory Group.

Position Summary

The CoP Community Coordinator (CC) will drive the launch, growth, and maintenance of a new community of practice for Community Well-Being and Community Empowering Education. The CC will draw on proven effective knowledge management (KM), community of practice, and other continuous learning methodologies, collaborate closely with the Lafia Group / CoP Advisory Group, and dynamically engage with prospective and existing CoP members to ensure maximum CoP relevance, effectiveness, and quality. All work will be linked to clear and evolving theories of change and action to ensure the CoP produces measurable results aligned with Tostan’s Strategic Plan and the CoP Vision and Mission.

Key Responsibilities

Leads and Engages members and stakeholders dynamically, effectively, constantly

• Ensures all eligible CoP members are actively invited to the CoP, and a majority participate in some way;
• Cultivates, supports, and monitors a wide array of CoP leaders, including convening and facilitating the CoP Advisory Group;
• Cultivates a pipeline of leaders to fill leadership positions within the CoP, including Advisory Group, Working Group Chairs, etc;
• Ensures most CoP members find involvement to be worthwhile, meeting varying needs and offering diverse opportunities for learning, growth, inspiration, action – as per global CoP standards and norms.

Manages knowledge within and about the CoP

• Manages effective CoP knowledge capture, curation, synthesis, storage, and dissemination with the goal of ensuring the collective knowledge catalyzes action;
• This includes convening events, primarily online; producing joint statements, guidance, reports, case studies and/or other formats; organizing CoP representation in strategic fora;
• Ensures CoP Structure is appropriate, effective, and evolving, as per global standards and norms. This may include developing a strategy, with tactics, and theory of change;
• Oversees robust CoP MEAL: Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Learning, based on global CoP standards and norms.

Specific Expectations

Oversee technology for quality engagement and data management

• Ensure all technologies used are appropriate and used well, especially from the perspective of “user experience”;
• Administer membership using online platforms. In collaboration with other team member:
  • Ensure all Tostan Alumni and staff are aware of the CoP, and able to participate as desired;
  • Welcome and orient new members;
  • Manage member database to high standards;
• In collaboration with other team member and COP members: schedule, convene, and manage technology of meetings, events, follow-up, etc.

Engagement, Culture, Partnerships

• Creatively promote diverse engagement using the co-created online platforms, and some in-person gatherings;
• Promote a community culture oriented to collaboration, exchange, and co-creation;
• Foster strong collaboration between the Tostan Training Center and other parts of Tostan, maximizing potential for synergy related to all of the above;
• Support partnership development with relevant networks, special guests, etc.

Knowledge curation and capture

• Identify relevant topics and events related to the areas of interest and share them through the online channels;
• Identify key learning challenges and propose activities to trigger learning and connections among participants;
• Harvest learnings from different conversations and produce (or promote its production among community members) of knowledge assets and disseminate them;
• Track and document learning processes within the CoP, provide recommendations to bolster strengths, help address gaps and weaknesses;
• Support Advisory Group and CC as needed.

Other

• Support Advisory Group and Tostan leadership–emergent roles, innovation, etc.

Key qualifications:

Skills, Education, and Experience

• Minimum seven years of experience in the field of community development, knowledge management, organizational change, and/or facilitation;
• Strong administrative skills: ability to schedule and manage events and meetings across multiple time zones;
• Ability to manage a complex portfolio and juggle many responsibilities and connections, priorities, and ensure the diverse stakeholders are satisfied;
• Excellent technology skills / aptitude – including social media, digital meeting platforms, email, learning new platforms;
• Excellent communication skills (both oral and written, across multiple platforms);
• Commitment to develop understanding of key tenets of community empowerment and community-led development;
• Experience in developing and delivering knowledge sharing programs with and for different stakeholders and partner organizations;
• Technical skills to develop customized knowledge sharing tools and methods for peer learning networks;
• Experience co-creating communities of practice preferred.

Characteristics

• Excellent engagement and facilitation skills: friendly, welcoming, reaching out, listening, following up. Ability to balance formality and informality depending on context;
• Ability to be responsive to supervisor and other stakeholders, and collaborate creatively and respectfully;
• Management skills: successfully oversee and engage team members and volunteers.

Languages requirement

• High proficiency in English;
• Solid French language skills strongly preferred.

Location: Senegal, but not a requirement

Direct Line Supervisor:

CoP Advisory Group

Direct Reports:

Lafia Group / CoP Advisory Group, and Tostan leadership