REACH ASSESSMENT OFFICER– ACCOUNTABILITY TO AFFECTED POPULATIONS (AAP) – SOUTH SUDAN 87 views0 applications

BACKGROUND ON IMPACT AND REACH

REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two International NGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and the United Nations 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. 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.

IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative. The IMPACT team comprises specialists in data collection, management and analysis and GIS. IMPACT was launched at the initiative of ACTED, an international NGO whose headquarter is based in Paris and is present in thirty countries. The two organizations have a strong complementarity formalized in a global partnership, enabling IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support on its fields of intervention.

We are currently looking for a REACH Assessment Officer to support our REACH team in South Sudan.

Department: REACH

Position: REACH Assessment Officer

Contract duration: 6 months

Location: Juba, South Sudan, with frequent travel to field locations

Starting Date: ASAP

COUNTRY PROFILE

IMPACT, through its own activities, or through REACH, has been implementing programming in South Sudan since 2012. Responding to the Sudan Border Crisis, REACH initially engaged through coordinated information management support – in the form of refugee camp mapping and service provision analyses, thematic assessments, and multi-sectorial needs assessments – in Maban County, Upper Nile State and Pariang County, Unity State. IMPACT was engaged by DFID to provide a series of impact evaluations of their BRACE programming across Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile States in 2013; a programme with run for two years, included 5 total assessments, and touched a total of more than 20,000 households. Immediately following the conflict of December 2013, REACH expanded its programming to include the IDP response, participating in Initial Rapid Needs Assessments of conflict affected areas, providing mapping and monthly service provision analyses for major IDP sites around the country, and running large-scale IDP return intentions assessments.

2018 has seen the expansions of both IMPACT and REACH programming to 10 out of 10 states, spanning the refugee, IDP and development responses, and covering diverse activities such as cross-border port monitoring, assessments of hard to reach areas, flood mapping and vulnerability analysis, market monitoring and supply chain analysis, analysis of tensions and conflicts over access to natural resources, and third party monitoring of humanitarian and development programming.

The project:

This project, “Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) in South Sudan,” seeks to inform the South Sudan humanitarian response on community perceptions of service delivery in order to enable a more community-centred and responsive approach. The REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) will be responsible for the design of quantitative and qualitative tools that will capture the prevalence of perceptions of 1) awareness of humanitarian service delivery 2) relevance of interventions and targeting models 3) fairness of service delivery and 4) respect of beneficiaries during service delivery. The project will involve field research that will rely heavily on REACH’s Area of Knowledge methodology. As such, data will be collected remotely from areas inside South Sudan where access to direct regular primary data collection is not possible, as well as through direct primary data collection in secure and accessible locations. The REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) will be in charge of producing quarterly factsheets summarizing the quantitative data collected through the various rounds of data collection and to produce a longer report that will incorporate quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Successful completion of this project will require short but frequent visits to field and deep-field locations, as well as collaboration with local, national and international partners, and constant coordination with the Community Engagement Working Group and the various Clusters.

POSITION PROFILE

REACH is seeking to fill a position for an Assessment Officer specialized in Accountability to Affected Populations in South Sudan, based in Juba but with regular travel to the field (25-50%).

Functions

Under the supervision of the REACH country coordinator and IMPACT HQ in Geneva, the REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) is responsible for the management and implementation of all aspects of assessments in country, including assessment planning, data collection and analysis. He/she will also be responsible for related logistics, partner coordination, reporting and finance requirements and will be required to provide input to the strategic development of IMPACT in country and region.

Summary

The REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) shall be responsible for:

• In coordination with REACH country coordinator and assessment manger design and implement REACH assessment strategy and methodology;
• Management of REACH assessment field staff to ensure a smooth and timely implementation of activities;
• Ensuring that assessment strategies are implemented in a structured and coherent manner in line with project and strategic objectives;
• Coordinate and ensure timely data collection, analysis and, in partnership with GIS team, mapping of datasets, ensure that all collected data are geo-referenced;
• Works closely with GIS team in country.
• Ensure the writing of timely and accurate assessment reports and factsheets;
• Keep track of all projects and programmes assessment schedules and work with field staff to design and implement REACH assessment procedures;
• Supporting the development/revision of assessment / programme strategies, reports or new proposals;
• In coordination with REACH country coordinator and assessment manager external representation of REACH with Donors, Partners and the wider Aid Community through clusters and sectoral working groups;
• In coordination with REACH country coordinator and assessment manager conduct community feedback sessions to share and validate assessment findings, according to needs identified during project

1. REACH Assessment Management and Coordination

· Objective 1.1: Management of assessments process

Under the supervision of a REACH Assessment Manager, the REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) is responsible for designing the methodology and tools associated with the Accountability to Affected Populations assessment, according to REACH requirements and principles. He/she will manage the planning, implementation, and follow-up of the REACH Accountability to Affected Populations project conducted in country. In operations in which REACH is a project component of a wider ACTED intervention, the REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) is required to contribute to the preparation and follow up of the Project Management Framework and ensure that activities are properly coordinated and implemented as per the Project Cycle Management.

The REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) shall manage logistics, financial, administration and HR processes directly related to REACH and liaise accordingly with the relevant ACTED counterpart. He/she is directly responsible for the implementation of proper ACTED FLAT procedures in all REACH interventions.
· Objective 1.2: Implementation

Under the supervision of the Assessment Manager and Senior GIS officer, the REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) is responsible for contributing to the implementation of the Accountability to Affected Populations project, as well as providing support to the development of assessment, database and GIS tools with the REACH team. This will specifically include, with the GIS team, designing of data collection tools (household surveys, focus groups, and more); development or review of databases; contributing to GIS data collection procedures and mapping thereof through ARC GIS and other ESRI products in particular; and analysis of spatial and other information to contribute to reports and the like.
· Objective 1.3: Coordination

When requested by the REACH Country Coordinator and REACH Assessment Manager, the REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) shall provide technical support to the relevant ACTED department in terms of the preparation of new project proposals, development of programme strategies, implementation of project activities, and any other required REACH input to ACTED projects for added-value.

When requested by the REACH Country Coordinator and REACH Assessment Manager, The REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) is responsible for the timely and accurate preparation of narrative and financial reports related to REACH activities in country through close liaison with the Project Development and Finance departments.

The REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) shall liaise with other REACH Officers in the region and throughout IMPACT Initiatives’ and ACTED’s networks to provide and receive support in the expansion of REACH globally.

2. REACH Reporting

The REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) is responsible for consolidating all analyses and conclusions from the Accountability to Affected Populations project into REACH products such as factsheets, reports and briefs using standard formats. He/she will liaise with the Assessment Manager and Senior GIS Officer in order to represent data in interactive web map or static map format, as relevant.

The REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) is responsible for following the designated timeline of reports to be submitted to project partners and donors. He/she must ensure the writing of timely and accurate assessment reports and factsheets, ensuring the quality and accuracy of technical information provided as well as the confidentiality and protection of collected information. He/she will ensure that assessment reports contribute to aid coordination and planning and add to the general base of field knowledge in the country for all organisations working in the areas.

When requested by the Assessment Manager, he/she will also manage the drafting of narrative reports and contribute to the development of financial reports through regular budgetary follow-up.

The REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) will also store, organize and disseminate assessments, project documents and best practices among REACH. He/she will coordinate timely and accurate reporting to IMPACT Headquarter.

3. REACH HR Management

Staff Management

Under the direct line management of the REACH Assessment Manager, the REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) is responsible for day-to-day management of project and field staff both directly and remotely. He/she is expected to guide and direct REACH staff and prepare and follow up workplans with each staff member that directly reports to him/her. The REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) will be required to take the lead in the recruitment of REACH field assessment staff in coordination with the ACTED HR Officer. This will include the preparation of ToRs, observation of recruitment procedures by planning recruitment needs in advance, and undertake interviews.

The REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) will ensure that all field teams are comprehensively briefed on the objective, expected outputs and that the overall implementation strategy of any given activity is clearly understood. He/she will ensure that project/field staff are given training and complete all the necessary documentation in line with program requirements set by REACH.

4. Representation

In close coordination with the REACH Country Coordinator and REACH Assessment Manager, the REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) will be expected to represent REACH in cluster and multi-sector meetings/ technical working groups in country and follow up on technical issues identified in cluster meetings in other parts of the country. This specifically will include liaising with external partners to identify potential for data sets to be integrated into existing databases and mapped to support the coordination of the broader humanitarian community.

More generally, the REACH Assessment Officer (AAP) is expected to contribute to the creation of a positive image and overall credibility of the organisation, notably through the application of REACH’s vision, ethics, values and stand-point with regard to other actors.

Accountability to Communities and Beneficiaries

The staff member is responsible for ensuring that all relations with the communities we work are conducted in a respectful and consultative manner. Due attention must be paid to ensuring that communities are adequately consulted and informed about REACH programme objectives, activities, beneficiary selection criteria, and methodologies. This is the responsibility of every REACH staff member.

REQUIREMENTS

• A good sense of humour about bugs and bucket showers required;
• Excellent academic qualifications, including a Master degree in relevant discipline;
• Excellent analytical skills;
• At least 1.5 years of relevant working experience in humanitarian settings;
• Familiarity with AAP and communicating with communities approaches an asset
• Excellent communication and drafting skills for effective reporting;
• Excellent team management and community engagement skills;
• Ability to operate in a cross-cultural environment requiring flexibility;
• Familiarity with the aid system, and understanding of donor and governmental requirements;
• Prior knowledge of the region an asset
• Fluency in English required; professional fluency in French and/or Arabic an asset
• Ability to operation Microsoft Word, Excel and Project Management Software
• Ability to operate SPSS, related statistical programming, or GIS an asset
• Ability to work independently

CONDITIONS

• Salary defined by the IMPACT salary grid; educational level, expertise, hardship, security, and performance are considered for pay bonus
• Additional monthly living allowance
• Free food and lodging provided at the organisation’s guesthouse/or housing allowance (depending on contract length and country of assignment)
• Transportation costs covered, including additional return ticket + luggage allowance
• Provision of medical, life, and repatriation insurance + retirement package