REACH FOOD SECURITY AND LIVELIHOODS (FSL) SPECIALIST LOCATION MOGADISHU; SOMALIA

Position: Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL) Specialist

Department: REACH

Location: Mogadishu

Contract Duration: 31st December 2023

Direct Hierarchy: Research Manager

Starting date: May 2023

Background on ACTED

Created in 1993, ACTED is an international non-governmental organization pursuing a dual mandate of emergency response and development interventions in 40 of some of the world’s most vulnerable countries affected by conflicts, disasters, or socio-economic hardship. With a team of 7,000 national staff and 400 international staff, ACTED implements 500 projects a year to support more than 20 million beneficiaries, notably in hard-to-reach areas.

ACTED goes to the last mile through programs and approaches that look beyond the immediate emergency towards opportunities for longer term livelihood reconstruction and sustainable development. Guided by the motto “Think Local, Act Global” and its 3Zero –Zero Exclusion, Zero Carbon, and Zero Poverty – strategy, ACTED puts local territories at the centre and provides a tailored support to local needs.

REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two INGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). REACH’s purpose is to promote and facilitate the development of information products that enhance the humanitarian community’s decision making and planning capacity for emergency, reconstruction, and development contexts, supporting, and working within the framework of the humanitarian reform process. REACH facilitates information management for aid actors through three complementary services: (a) need and situation assessments facilitated by REACH teams; (b) situation analysis using satellite imagery; (c) provision of related database and (web)-mapping facilities and expertise.

COUNTRY PROFILE

REACH has been operating in Somalia since 2012 and has multiple research cycles including two large-scale national assessments (Joint Multi-Cluster Needs Assessment and Detailed Site Assessment) as well as several other smaller assessments all aimed at providing intersectoral analysis of the response. In addition, there is a cash and markets team, which provide third party monitoring to the largest cash consortium in Somalia and Joint Market monitoring for the Shelter, NFI and WASH clusters.

REACH is looking for professionally confident, self-motivated, experienced, and committed team player to fill the positionFSL Specialist, Mogadishu, Somalia.

Position Profile:

Under the line management of the IMPACT Research Manager, the FSL Specialist ensures the validity and strengthens the quality and efficiency of all IMPACT research cycles in FSL, in accordance with IMPACT’s standards, partner expectations, and IMPACT’s ethos of facilitating an evidence-based response. In coordination with the Country Senior Management Team, the FSL Specialist will provide technical inputs at all stages of relevant research cycles, including for secondary data reviews, assessment conceptualization, research design, logistical preparations, training of field staff, supporting data collection teams during data collection, data cleaning, analysis, production of information products, and dissemination of information products, etc. S/he will be involved in partner coordination, donor reporting, presentations, and will be required to provide input to the strategic development of IMPACT in Somalia. The FSL Specialist will also be responsible for developing and implementing a continuous capacity building program for national and international team members, and (when relevant) for providing trainings to partners.

FUNCTIONS

Research planning and implementation

• Support the Senior Management team in identifying and materializing opportunities, in line with strategic directions of the mission.
• Ensure a streamlined, coordinated approach across all relevant research cycles to research design, methodology and tool development, data collection and analysis, and product drafting.
• Support in accurately estimating research cycle timelines and resources needed for research cycle implementation.
• Support Assessment teams in designing and implementing research cycle methodologies, tools, ToRs, data collection and analysis, product drafting.
• Ensure that research design, data collection and analysis and product drafting for all relevant research cycles comply to IMPACT’s requirements, guidelines, and strategic direction.
• Monitor implementation of research cycles, identifying any major risks or issues, support team to resolve these challenges in line with IMPACT research standards and in close coordination with IMPACT HQ as relevant. Ensure that the applied methodology, analysis, and products maximize the impact of the research cycles in line with the intended objectives.
• Support the identification, trainings and follow up of enumerators resources for primary data collection.
• Review of information products to ensure accuracy.
• Liaise with relevant assessment, GIS, and data colleagues to ensure that their joint research benefits from a multi-disciplinary approach is effective spatial representation of assessment findings in maps or interactive web-portals, as relevant.

Team functional and line-Management

• Provide technical leadership throughout all IMPACT research cycles and represent IMPACT in relevant working groups in the country in line with organization core value and principles.
• Provide functional oversight to relevant assessment staff and produce joint skill development- and work plans with the relevant Research Manager(s) who are line-managing the staff in question.
• Where relevant, directly line-manage assessment, data or GIS staff that provide cross-cutting support to the entire mission.
• For staff under his/her functional responsibility, support to line managers by contributing to conduct of appraisals, provision of regular feedback, and participation in career management.
• For staff under direct line management, prepare and follow up work plans; conduct of appraisals, provision of regular feedback, and career management.
• For staff under direct line management, conduct regular team meetings to assess progress in relevant research cycles and to review work plan; ensure that all are comprehensively briefed on their objectives and expected outputs.

Internal Knowledge sharing, Learning and Capacity Building

• Identify capacity gaps, and resolve to bridge these through targeted capacity building, training, performance monitoring, and backstopping where needed.
• Support to the line managers and specialists in the development and implementation of capacity training plans for assessment and field team members.
• Conduct and support regular training to [country/regional] teams, including regular updates on IMPACT guidelines, adapted (to context) training modules, learning on the job; Complement in house training material with external resources, if and as relevant.
• Ensure impact of trainings and progression of staff is monitored.
• Pro-actively provide regular technical support and backstopping to assessment teams.
• Support to Assessment / unit teams to systematically review the efficiency and quality of research cycles and information products.
• Support monitoring and evaluation for relevant Research Cycle, as specified in the research ToRs and in line with IMPACT Guidelines.
• Contribute to generating and documenting robust lessons learned at the end of relevant Research Cycle.
• Ensure knowledge and learning processes are shared across the [mission/region] and with HQ;
• Able and available to engage with Global Units and global learning processes, such as methodology notes, lessons learn, Communities of Practice, etc;
• Continuously seek to improve and innovate IMPACT assessments, information products and processes to identify and meet information gaps in the humanitarian response to support in the facilitation of an evidence-based response.
• • Work closely with other specialists in the region to develop, implement and monitor a multi-disciplinary training and learning plan for IMPACT teams.
• More generally, contributes to creating a culture of rigour, innovation and learning within IMPACT’s operations.

Strategy, program and project development

• Contribute to country, regional and unit strategies development with relevant technical and thematic contents.
• Ensure that assessment strategies are implemented in a structured and coherent manner in line with project and strategic objectives;
• Support the development/revision of assessment/programme strategies, reports, or new proposals.

External Engagement

• Support the IMPACT Somalia team primarily but also the Kenya team as required in providing stakeholders within the humanitarian coordination system with reliable and accurate technical advice and support.
• Delivers inter-agency, multi-stakeholders knowledge sharing / lessons learned exercise.
• Support country management in representing IMPACT among external actors for technical/thematic discussions, including with stakeholders in the humanitarian coordination system, such as OCHA representatives, clusters, as well as technical working groups and various NGO fora and information management groups.
• Participates, contributes to and delivers inter-agency, multi-stakeholders knowledge sharing lessons learned exercise.
• Contributes to the dissemination of IMPACT’s products to maximize their impact.
• More generally, contribute to the creation of a positive image and overall credibility of the organisation, notably through the application of IMPACT’’s mandate, ethics, values and stand- point about other actors and by contributing to creating a culture of rigorous use of evidence and learning among humanitarian responders.

INFLUENCING – Data Confidentiality and Protection

The FSL Specialist will maintain the strictest confidentiality on all data collected and related processes. He/she will actively take measures to prevent the unauthorized sharing of any information and data belonging to IMPACT and its partners or collected during his/her assignment with IMPACT.

Qualifications/Technical Skills Required:

• Academic Excellent academic qualifications, preferably including a Master degree in relevant discipline;
• Research skills Demonstrable experience of data science. Excellent data analysis skills.
• Software skills Advanced knowledge of R, STATA, Python, or equivalent statistical software. Proven knowledge of Microsoft office including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Knowledge of ArcGIS an advantage.
• Years of work experience At least 1 years of relevant working experience. Experience in humanitarian settings highly desirable.
• Management skills Team management experience and skills highly desirable.
• Communication/reporting skills Excellent communication and drafting skills for effective reporting.
• Multi-tasking skills Ability to multitask with tight deadlines, on numerous research cycles.
• Level of independence Proven ability to work independently.
• Cross-cultural work environment Ability to operate in a cross-cultural environment requiring flexibility.
• Experience in geographical region Past experience in the HoA region is desirable.
• Language skills Fluency in English required, competency in Somali an asset.
• Security environment Ability to operate in a complex and challenging security environment

How to apply

Application Procedure:

Qualified national persons with the required skills are invited to submit their applications accompanied by detailed curriculum vitae and cover letter as a single document i.e. with the cover letter being on the first page and the CV starting on the second page, detailing three work related referees and contacts to [email protected] and received on or before 5.00PM on 24th March, 2023 with the subject line “REACH FSL SPECIALIST _MOGADISHU”

Please do not attach any other documents while sending your applications, if required they will be requested at a later stage.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

ACTED will at no stage of recruitment process request candidate to make payments of any kind. Further, ACTED has not retained any agent in connection with recruitments.

ACTED is committed to protecting beneficiaries within our programmes from exploitation and abuse and any kind of misconduct. ACTED has specific policies, including PSEA and Child Protection, which outlines the expected behaviour and the responsibility of all staff, beneficiaries, consultants, and other stakeholders and has zero tolerance towards misconducts. Any candidate offered a job with ACTED will be expected to sign ACTED’s organizational Policies and Code of Conduct as an annex to their contract of employment and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents.

ACTED is an Equal Opportunity Employer.