Community Engagement Assistant at International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Requisition ID: req23271
Sector: Governance
Employment Category: Regular
Open to Expatriates: No

Background / IRC Summary

• The International Rescue Committee, one of the world’s largest humanitarian agencies, supporting victims of natural disaster, oppression, and violent conflict in over 40 countries to survive, recover, and gain control of their lives.
• IRC entered Nigeria in October 2012 in response to a widespread flood disaster. Since then, the IRC has expanded its scope and size of the programs in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe States.
• The IRC’s response includes integrated health and nutrition services, reproductive health care and women protection services, Environmental Health, Child Protection, Economic Recovery and Development, Education, General Protection, and Governance. IRC’s programming in Northeast Nigeria is supported by a team of more than 700 staff. 
•  Together, we aim to provide the best possible impact for some of the most vulnerable children, women, and men. In all that we do, IRC strives to deliver through IRC’s core values of Integrity, Accountability, Service and Equality.

Job Overview / Summary

• The IRC is seeking one Community Engagement Assistant to support it’s From Response to Resilience project in Maiduguri, Nigeria.
• Through the project, we will build the resilience of the people, neighborhoods, and governmental systems of urban Maiduguri to address the risks the city currently faces.
• We will implement this project while supporting the local integration of internally displaced persons wishing to reside within Maiduguri permanently.
• As Community Engagement Assistant, you will assist the Community Engagement Officers to collaborate with Maiduguri’s communities, ensuring that the project is effectively implemented on schedule and to maximum benefit for Maiduguri's residents, in tune with their needs and preferences.
• You will support the implementation of the Area Based Approach project, including the establishment and oversight of community-based feedback and complaint mechanisms, mobilizing local communities, and organizing community engagement sessions.
• The Community Engagement Assistant will be based in Maiduguri.  S/he reports to the Community Engagement Officer. 
• The Community Engagement Assistant shall carry out any other tasks as required by supervisors. 

Major Responsibilities
Project Quality and Strategy:

• Work as part of a team to design, plan, execute, and monitor neighborhood-based activities, ensuring that communities are able to freely and safely voice their needs and preferences. 
• Help to plan and carry out community mobilization, awareness creation, and information dissemination activities.
• Assist the Community Engagement Officers in planning, organizing and implementing capacity building trainings at the community level.
• Complete weekly reports on project activities, including good quality activity photos, documentation of feedback from community engagement sessions, and the proactive sharing of lessons learned.
• Assist in keeping records of all community-based activities
• Coordinate referral pathways between consortium partners and other IRC sectors, ensuring targeted assistance is provided to extremely vulnerable individuals.

Administrative Support:

• Provide direct administrative support to the Governance team including copying, dissemination of documents, assisting the preparation of procurement-related documents, tracking purchase and payment requests, etc. 
• Collect information, compile data, produce reports, and organize files as requested by Senior Urban Resilience Manager
• Support the development and maintenance of knowledge management systems for sharing information across the consortium, to other sectors within the IRC, and to external stakeholders
• Coordinate with IRC HR and Logistics teams as necessary to organize travel and administrative needs
• And all other duties as assigned by the supervisor. 

Key Working Relationships:

• Position Reports to:  Community Engagement Officer, based in Maiduguri
• Position directly supervises:  n/a
• Indirect Reporting: Sr. Urban Resilience Manager, based in Maiduguri
• Other Internal and/or external contacts:
• Internal: Supply Chain and Finance
• External: Community Leaders and Community Members

Qualifications

• Mandatory previous experience working on urban resilience programming in Maiduguri.
• At least 1 year of professional humanitarian/development experience; Experience with neighborhood-based projects highly desirable.
• Experience with community engagement and participatory processes, including: previous facilitation of group work with relevant populations, active participant of sectoral/social groups, and experience with capacity building or training exercises.  
• Knowledge of urban resilience concepts a plus.
• Good communication skills (written and verbal), cultural sensitivity, flexibility, ability to improvise, team player. 
• Able to solve complex problems through a reciprocal and consultative approach
• Ability to live and productively work under stress while maintain a sense of humor.
• Fluency in spoken and written English is required.
• Knowledge of one or more local languages is obligatory. 
• Full professional competency in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint