Regional Food security and Livelihoods Advisor

ISLAMIC RELIEF BACKGROUND:

Islamic Relief Worldwide is an International NGO with headquarters in Birmingham, United Kingdom. We are registered with the UK Charity Commission, and we work in over 40 countries to reduce the impact of conflicts and natural disasters on the world’s poorest population and empower them regardless of race, religion or gender. We are a member of the British NGO for Overseas Development, Disasters Emergency Committee and have global cooperation with many international organisations, UN agencies and NGOs. www.islamic-relief.org.

In East Africa, we work in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan with a programme that aims at reducing the impact of conflicts and natural disasters and empowering communities to help themselves and get out of the cycle of marginalisation and chronic vulnerability. The programme straddles humanitarian interventions, WASH, Education, Health, Food security and Livelihoods and peacebuilding.

The East Africa Regional Office provides support to the country offices in order to improve the quality of our programmes, consolidate our learning to ensure lasting benefits for the communities we serve, and strengthen relations with the humanitarian actors, donors, governments, and civil society organisations.

The Regional Office in its pursuit to support and strengthen its operations, seeks to employ motivated, hardworking and pro-active individuals to fill in the following position

Job Title: Regional Food security and Livelihoods Advisor

Reporting To: Regional Director

Base Location: Nairobi with frequent visit to East Africa Country Offices

JOB PURPOSE:

The Regional Food security and Livelihoods Advisor is responsible for ensuring effective design and coordination of all food security and livelihood programmes in our offices in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan. S/he spearheads the food security and livelihood sector of IRW in East Africa. S/he will develop sectoral policies, initiate and/or review proposals, document Islamic Relief’s experience and contribute to strategic planning and poverty reduction debates and policy making at the National, Regional and Global levels. s/he will maintain good communication and dynamism within the team to guarantee coherence of actions and high levels of motivation of all team members

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

· Has regular contact with Country Directors, Programme Managers, Head of Programmes and Food Security and Livelihood experts in IR in East Africa, Programme Quality Team in HQ,

· Communicates effectively and systematically across the organisation and wider IR family/partner offices in North America, Europe and Australia

· Engages and networks with the wider international humanitarian community by attending and representing Islamic Relief and meaningfully engaging with institutional donor agencies, IRW Partners, peer organisations, umbrella organisations, forums, networks and other key stakeholders in East Africa countries

Scope of the Role:

· Reporting to the Regional Director the Regional Food Security and Livelihoods Advisor has the responsibility to ensure IR food security, livelihoods and resilience building programmes in our operational countries in East Africa are of high quality and impact focused. The post holder will assist the Regional Director in ensuring that learning and innovation is disseminated across Islamic Relief and beyond. The post holder will engage strategically to build in-country and regional partnerships and influence thinking in the resilience building, food security and livelihoods sector.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

The job holder is accountable for fulfilling his/her her roles and responsibilities in line with Islamic values and principles of fairness, humanity, honesty, respect and fair treatment of his/her colleagues and staff.

1. TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGY

· Develop future FSL programme strategy in close coordination with the FSL national teams, and create and refine operational planning and supportive budget.

· Provide technical expertise and knowledge to ensure that food security and livelihoods interventions, including cash-based interventions, voucher programming, and in-kind food basket distribution and economic strengthening interventions meets appropriate minimum and technical quality standards.

· Coordinate and/or lead relevant assessments including the Household Economic Assessment (HEA) approach (needs and baseline assessments) and emergency market assessments.

· Contribute to situational analysis for identifying livelihoods protection and recovery needs, with due consideration for cross cutting issues within all interventions.

2. PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT

· Oversee the implementation of the Livelihood & Food Security projects in in East Africa countries, ensuring timeliness and delivery according to the activity plan and results frameworks.

· Manage the Livelihoods and Food Security activities ensuring that it is meeting its intended aims and objectives and achieving impact.

· Assure full compliance of operations with IRW’s principles, rules, regulations and policies, operational strategies and relevant reference documents and policies (Sphere, Do no harm).

3. MONITORING, EVALUATION, LEARNING AND ACCOUNTABILITY

· Conduct need assessments, baseline surveys, feasibility studies ensuring that sound methodologies are employed and that the findings inform the formulation of winning grant applications.

· Conduct real-time evaluation and impact assessment in relation to food security and livelihoods programmes in conjunction with the Country Programme M&E Coordinators and Global Monitoring and Evaluation, Accountability and Learning unit

· Spearhead innovations in the field of food security and livelihoods including introducing technologies and new ways of working in order to deliver lasting impact on the people the organisation serves.

4. FUNDRAISING, REPRESENTATION AND NETWORKING

· In collaboration with country-based sector specialist, lead the development of competitive, long-term and impactful resilience building, food security and livelihood proposals

· Develop skills and capacity of IR staff who work in food security and livelihoods projects in East Africa

· Represent IR to regional and global relevant networks, high level meetings and working groups

· Contribute to research, policy development and advocacy at a regional and global level

· Lead partnerships with relevant academic institutions, networks, think tanks, corporate companies and other stakeholders in East Africa region.

5. CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

· Develop skills and capacity of IR staff who work in food security and livelihoods projects in East Africa

· Provide leadership, coaching and mentoring to staff under indirect management, ensuring that they have clear objectives and receive meaningful feedback on their performance and development.

Essential:

Knowledge, Skills and Qualifications

· Master degree in Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Rural development .

· A minimum of 5 years hands-on experience related to food security and livelihoods for International NGOs at senior level (for example, Technical Advisor, Sector Head/ Thematic head)

· In-depth understanding of livelihoods frameworks, theory of change and logical frameworks/intervention logic of some of the major institutional donors and foundations

· A proven track record of successful proposal development for institutional donors such as DFID, ECHO, Europe aid, SIDA, CIDA, USAID etc for rural development, food security, livelihood programmes

· Proven track record of developing strategies, evidence-based research papers, and advocacy at national level

· In-depth understanding of supporting potential sustainable livelihoods options through market-led interventions for different livelihoods groups, especially promoting economic leadership as well as proven skills in emergency food security and livelihoods interventions and policy issues.

· Ability to think strategically, achieve results and innovate.

· Excellent report writing skills and analytical skills

· Fluency in English, both spoken and written

Desirable

· Knowledge of national languages spoken in IR operational countries is an asset**.**

· Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment.

· Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment.

· Willingness to travel to hard-to-reach and insecure locations

· Interpersonal skills and team player