Regional Community Engagement and Accountability Senior Officer

Mandated by the IFRC's Constitution, the Secretariat coordinates and supports the efforts of the organization’s membership to improve and scale up work aimed at addressing the increasing number of humanitarian and development challenges in the world. The Secretariat is led by the Secretary General and has a headquarters in Geneva and five regional offices covering the whole world: Africa (Nairobi); MENA (Panama City); Asia Pacific (Kuala Lumpur); Europe (Budapest), and; Middle East and North Africa (Beirut). The Secretariat’s headquarters is organized in three main business groups: (i) Partnerships, including Movement and Membership; (ii) Programmes and Operations; and (iii) Management Services. The Programme & Operations Division is in turn organized in departments, each of them led by a Director, among them the Disaster & Crisis – prevention, response and recovery – Department (DCD).

As one of the five decentralized parts of the Secretariat, the MENA Regional Office (MENARO) based in Beirut; Lebanon supports 17 national societies in the region. The MENA Disaster and Crisis prevention, response and recovery (DCPRR) unit within the MENA regional office and works with one regional plan as well as provides the technical support & quality assurance to country cluster support teams and country offices.

The MENA DCPRR unit has articulated its alignment with the IFRC global 4 Strategies for Implementation and the relevant Areas of Focus.

The Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA) Senior Officer is a member of the DCPRR unit and works collaboratively with other technical units within the MENA regional office and Geneva as well as with CO and CCST/CCO counterparts to operationalize the Movement Commitments on Community Engagement and Accountability, adopted at the 2019 Council of Delegates. This includes i) processes to systematically listen to, engage and communicate with people and communities in order to better understand their diverse needs, vulnerabilities and capacities; to gather, respond to and act on feedback and input about their priorities and preferences; and to provide safe and equitable access and opportunities to actively participate in decisions that affect them; ii) supporting operations and longer-term programmes to adopt innovative approaches to better understand and engage with people and communities and help them address unhealthy and unsafe practices; and iii) maximizing the Red Cross Red Crescent unique relationship with the community to help them speak out about the issues that affect them and influence decision and policy-makers to implement positive changes. In broad sense, the Senior Officer will provide regional operational and programming CEA guidance to IFRC COs and CCSTs/CCOs as well as National Societies, facilitating their work in integrating CEA initiatives and approaches thus contributing to more effective and efficient delivery of services to people and communities.

Job Purpose:

The CEA Senior Officer – under line management of the Head of DCPRR MENA Unit and reporting technically to the Manager for CEA in Geneva – is accountable for ensuring quality technical leadership and guidance to operationalize the Movement Commitments on Community Engagement and Accountability as a key contribution towards enhancing community resilience. The Senior Officer provides advice to and promotes quality and accountability in operations and programmes in the application of systematic and innovative approaches for two-way communication, community participation and feedback mechanisms, and robust data management to support evidence-based advocacy in programme design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation as well as humanitarian diplomacy.  S/he also leads operationalization of CEA in major emergency operations. The regional function will be based in Beirut, Lebanon, from where short missions to countries requiring CEA technical guidance and support will be undertaken.

Job Duties & Responsabilities:

Management Support and Strategy:

1. Ensure preparation of accurate and timely operational analyses and monthly operational highlights on CEA for unit’s management as well as deliver inputs for monthly management highlights (MMH) and standard reports.
2. Support the efforts in ensuring strategic coherence and alignment of CEA coordination across all levels of IFRC.
3. Work closely with the Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (PMER) team to ensure the inclusion of CEA in key processes and activities related to longer-term planning across MENA Region
4. Manage the CEA budget and lead mobilization of resources for on-going and future CEA initiatives, closely with the Partnership and Resource Development (PRD) Unit.
5. Elaborate a roadmap for enhancing CEA capacity to IFRC offices and National Societies in MENA region
6. Promote the Movement CEA Commitments, minimum actions, guidelines, tools, and methodologies to IFRC offices and National Societies in MENA region

Mainstreaming CEA in Programming:

1. Provide support to IFRC offices and National Societies to implement CEA initiatives in line with the regional, country and CCST/CCO operational plans, building on the Movement CEA Commitments, the Global CEA action plan and the regional CEA roadmap (to be developed).
2. Build a shared understanding and knowledge of CEA among IFRC and National Society staff and volunteers engaged in programmes and operations, including its conceptual framework, firmly grounded on behaviour and social change and accountability approaches, as well as participatory interventions.
3. Ensure harmonization of CEA interventions within and across sectors to improve mainstreaming of best practices and integration into standard operating procedures (SOPs), processes, plans and proposals.
4. Work closely with technical and thematic leaders – covering all Areas of Focus – to ensure effective integration and linkages of CEA with broader community resilience approaches.
5. Provide guidance on the setting up and management of an appropriate mix of communication channels, suitable to the local context and cultural practices, and ensure field teams have the support and technical skills required to provide timely, relevant and accurate information to people and communities.
6. Ensure that feedback mechanisms and two-way communication processes are established across all programmes and operations, bolstered by proper data management and analysis.
7. Support programme teams to increase levels of engagement and accountability to communities, including within emergency operations, through the establishment of appropriate feedback mechanism, information sharing methods and participatory processes.
8. Lead on perception or listening surveys enabling deeper understanding of community needs, expectations or satisfaction.
9. Supports evidence-based learning by assessing and monitoring levels of community engagement through supporting research, impact surveys, perception studies and case studies.
10. Ensure strategic data management to feed into programme improvement processes as well as advocacy and National Society humanitarian diplomacy efforts.

Tailor-made Support to Operations:

1. Lead tailor-made support in operationalizing CEA in categories ‘Orange’ and ‘Red’ Emergency Appeal operations.
2. When required, deploy to provide CEA coordination, planning and implementation in affected countries.

CEA Surge Capacity and Readiness:

1. In coordination with surge focal point/s, contribute to selecting, training, mentoring and maintaining a pool of CEA surge personnel available for deployment to support emergency responses as well as formulate terms of references (TOR) for such missions.
2. In collaboration with Response Senior Officer and other technical leads – who actively support training needs in the region – ensure incorporation of a systematic CEA training package for the MENA surge capacity tools to be included in induction sessions, CAP training, operations manager training and webinars. 
3. When required, deploy to provide CEA coordination, planning and implementation in affected countries, and act as CEA lead of the Country Team until a suitable surge or longer-term replacement is identified.

CEA Capacity Enhancement:

1. Work closely with Policy, Strategy and Knowledge (PSK) colleagues to ensure effective integration and linkage of CEA with other cross-cutting aspects – such as PGI, Youth and Branch Development – and wider capacity building approaches.
2. Working closely with country teams, lead the rollout of country-level capacity enhancement initiatives based on the Movement CEA guidelines and training package.
3. Guide and support National Societies to strengthen their CEA preparedness capacity, tools, guidance and standards contextualized to their local contexts and needs.
4. Support evidence-based learning demonstrating the impact of CEA on the quality and effectiveness of programming through initiatives such as surveys, evaluations and case studies.

Coordination and Networking:

1. Identify and create opportunities to build internal and external partnership networks as well as advocate for CEA to support the development of CEA approaches in National Society programmes and operations in the MENA region.
2. Maintain ongoing relationships and collaborations with key partners, including  both movement and external partners to allow scaling up regional Red Cross Red Crescent CEA programmes.

Duties Applicable to all Staff:

1. Actively work towards the achievement of the IFRC Secretariat’s goals
2. Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles
3. Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager

Position Requirements:

Education

1. Relevant university education in social sciences/behavioural/communication sciences or an equivalent of qualifying experience - Required
2. WORC, Basic Delegates Training Course (BTC), IMPACT or equivalent knowledge – Preferred

Experience

1. Five years’ experience in community engagement, community media and/or media for development with at least five years in developing countries - Required
2. Experience in setting up and managing media, communication and engagement tools such as social media, radio, TV, SMS, cinema/drama and community feedback mechanisms - Required
3. Proven experience in participatory programming in emergencies - Required
4. Solid experience in delivering community engagement capacity building, project management support and training, including developing community engagement tools and feedback mechanisms - Required
5. Knowledge about community communication interventions under emergency situations, in complex and delicate situations - Required
6. Technical knowledge of quantitative, qualitative and participatory research methodologies and analysis - Required
7. Experienced project manager able to work with others, particularly with National Societies, to develop and manage clear strategies, budgets, work plans, log frames and M & E plans - Required
8. Experience working with Red Cross/Red Crescent National Societies - Required
9. Experience in the MENA region – Preferred

Knowledge and Skills

1. Valid international driving licence (manual gears) - Required
2. Self-supporting in computers (Email, Internet, spread sheets, word-processing, etc.) - Required
3. Good understanding of – or training in – current developments in the field of communication with communities, behavioural and social sciences, community engagement planning and processes, community media – Required
4. Good understanding of strategic communication planning, behaviour analysis, formative research and evaluation of communication interventions – Preferred
5. Good understanding of working in migration, refugee and displacement contexts or in conflict sensitive environments – Preferred
6. Proven knowledge of existing IFRC participatory approaches to programming, such as CBHFA, VCA, PHAST, CBDRR, PPP and BPI - Required
7. Advanced analytical skills and able to capture learning and use it to make improvements in programming – Preferred
8. Highly motivated, self-starter able to lead a process, engage others and create ownership - Required
9. Team player, self-motivated and proactive on own initiative to set and achieve goals - Required
10. Programme planning, management, monitoring, evaluation and reporting - Required
11. Ability to multi task, work under pressure and advanced analytical skills - Required
12. Excellent interpersonal, communication and networking skills - Required
13. Skills in negotiation and building relations – Preferred

Languages

1. Fluently spoken and written Arabic - Required
2. Fluently spoken and written English - Required