Peacebuilding Advisor

Background

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is a global, nonprofit organization that strives to share God’s love and compassion for all through relief, development and peace - www.mcc.org.

Established in 1921, MCC has almost 100 years of experience in peacebuilding, disaster response and development and has had an ongoing presence in the Middle East since the 1960s. MCC primarily works through national partnerships to improve the lives of local communities.

MCC is an equal opportunity employer, committed to employment equity. MCC values diversity and invites all qualified candidates to apply.

Start Date:  As soon as possible

Benefits: Severance, medical insurance, child education benefits and vacation days

Hours: 40 hours per week (9:00 to 17:00, about 10-15% overnight travel involved)

Contract Basis: 12 months (with 3-month probationary period)

Synopsis:

The Peacebuilding Advisor is responsible for capacity building and training for the final year of a three-year project funded by the European Union. The project aims to combat religious intolerance and discrimination in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq through enhancing mutual understanding and respect between different faiths, sects or none. The project will accomplish this aim through supporting local CSOs with sub-grant projects, peacebuilding and project management capacity-building, and promoting inclusive and strategic partnerships with religious leaders and civil society leaders. The successful applicant will deliver all peacebuilding training and support to 17 sub-grant projects across the four countries.

Based in Beirut, Lebanon the worker is primarily tasked with supporting CSOs with resources, capacity building and mentoring to strengthen the impact of their projects supported by the EU project. The Peacebuilding Advisor’s responsibilities will include field monitoring visits where possible, online webinars and workshops, and the development of a final lessons learned publication for distribution at the end of the project.

Qualifications:

Education/certification

• Bachelor’s degree in international development, peace and conflict studies, peacebuilding, human rights, or a related field is required.
• Master’s degree in a related field, preferred

Experience

• Essential:
  • 3-5 years of practical experience in peacebuilding and social cohesion projects and programs
  • Ability to train local partners on technical approaches that include conflict-sensitivity, non-violence and peacebuilding approaches that address underlying social, economic, ecological, and political root causes of conflict.
  • Promote learning and knowledge management through documentation and knowledge sharing around best practices and lessons learned;
• Desirable:
  • Experience of working for an NGO, CSO or faith-based organization
  • Familiarity with M&E tools (i.e., KAP surveys, most significant change), logical frameworks and theory of change
  • Experience with print, electronic and social media communications

Skills/abilities

• Essential:
  • Ability to provide capacity building of small NGOs/CSOs including identifying needs and providing support
  • Strong writing, communication, and organizational skills
  • Significant experience working in difficult field environments, including conflict and post-conflict countries
  • Strong relational skills to interact with CSO sub-grant organizations in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, & Jordan (dependent on Covid-19 restrictions)
  • Proven ability to understand and advise on the challenges that local partners (NGOs, CSOs, faith-based organizations, etc.) might encounter in project implementation
  • Proven abilities in the analysis of project reporting in order to monitor and evaluate project success
  • Fluency in Arabic and English (written and spoken)
• Desirable
  • Experience with remote management
  • Ability to think strategically about projects and program
  • Ability to plan and carry out training sessions for adults

Personal qualities

• Essential:
  • Self-disciplined with ability to work proactively, using own initiative
  • Willingness and ability to travel to Syria, Iraq, & Jordan if travel restrictions allow.
  • Ability to respectfully interact with people of all faiths
  • Ability to work as part of a team, to focus under pressure, and to work on tight timelines in support of MCC’s mission
  • Understanding of the complexity of religious conflicts in the region, openness to listen to all perspectives without judgment, and ability to focus on a politically neutral humanitarian and peacebuilding response
  • Friendly and respectful of confidential information
• Desirable:
  • Creative and innovative approach to work
  • Highly reflective and committed to developing themselves and others through reflective ongoing learning.
  • Demonstrated interest and involvement in issues of justice, compassion, and mercy

Assignment Narrative:

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), an international NGO established in 1921, has almost 100 years of experience in peacebuilding, disaster response and development and has had an ongoing presence in the Middle East since the 1960s. As a global leader in peace, MCC supports peacebuilding, restorative justice, trauma healing, inter-religious tolerance, and conflict prevention work around the world, playing a significant role in innovations and providing advanced peacebuilding training globally.

Since February 2012, MCC has been responding to the Syrian crisis through numerous local partner organizations in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, and to the Iraq crisis since 2014  in the areas of food assistance, shelter, WASH, NFIs, peacebuilding, protection, health, education, and psychosocial support. MCC has recently been awarded a three-year peacebuilding project by the international development and cooperation branch of the European Commission through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), entitled “Promoting religious tolerance and mutual understanding within and between faiths in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq.” This project will be implemented in collaboration with the Lebanese organization, Development for People and Nature Association (DPNA), based in Saida, Lebanon.

There are three main goals of the project:

1. Support local civil society organisations (CSOs), including local NGOs and community-based organisations (CBOs), through sub-grant funds for projects to engage religious leaders and laypeople, including women and youth, to understand, respect and promote religious tolerance within communities.

2. Increase the ability of CSOs to cultivate religious tolerance and mutual understanding among the target beneficiaries via peacebuilding training, networking, capacity-building, and mentoring for sub-grantee CSO’s.

3. Promote inclusive and strategic partnerships, networking and cooperation between religious and civil society leaders of Shi’a, Sunni, Alawi, Druze, Yezidi, Catholic Christian, Maronite Christian, Orthodox Christian and Evangelical Christian traditions among other minority sects from these countries.

The person filling this assignment will be responsible for the peacebuilding technical capacity building work of the project. This includes providing peacebuilding training webinars and workshops, conducting on-site monitoring visits to each CSO partner (as possible) to review and support the peacebuilding strategies being implemented in the CSO partner projects. The peacebuilding advisor will also provide trainings to CSO staff based on their organization’s capacity building needs. The successful applicant be a member of the core project team together with the MCC Project Coordinator and DPNA’s Project Manager and work with four country-based field monitors. Additional responsibilities will include translation work, supporting program visits, logistics and administrative tasks for various capacity building trainings, coordinating with external stakeholders and a willingness to support MCC’s mission in other tasks.

Duties (specific tasks & responsibilities):

• Identify training and mentoring support opportunities to strengthen the capacities of  CSO partners in conflict analysis and peacebuilding approaches as relevant to their work.
• Deliver capacity building training through webinars and workshops on peacebuilding topics and approaches to 17 CSO partners.
• Conduct field visits to CSO partners in different locations in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, & Iraq as possible to monitor projects, strengthen programming and build the reporting capacity of the CSOs
• Meet regularly with CSOs through video conferencing to provide mentoring and technical peacebuilding support
• Facilitate peer-mentoring calls between CSO partners
• Review and provide feedback on CSO partner project reporting
• Assist in compiling the project’s quarterly newsletter
• Contribute to writing of the final reporting to the European Union
• Lead and coordinate the development, writing and publishing of the final success stories and lessons learned publication.
• Work closely with the core project team including the MCC Project Coordinator and DPNA Project Manager.
• Assist in collect stories, photos, and videos from CSO projects to support MCC’s communications and fulfill European Commission visibility requirements
• Assist MCC in translation work (written and spoken) to support programming.
• Logistical and administrative support for webinars and workshops
• Attend MCC partner conferences, program retreats, and regional retreats.
• Attend MCC weekly program meetings.
• A willingness to help with various tasks to support MCC’s mission.
• A willingness to work extra hours when necessary (i.e., reporting periods).
• Communicate regularly with the MCC Program Coordinator and Lebanon Representatives.
• Model non-violent peacemaking in the workplace and community through respectful interactions with others.

Challenges:

• Political instability, especially in Syria & Iraq. The worker must be willing to adhere to security guidelines and heed the advice of local partners and the MCC Representatives on security issues.
• At certain times of the year, reporting deadlines may lead to heavier than normal workloads. Meetings or activities with partners can occur in the evenings or on the weekends. Flexibility will be needed.