Vacancy Title: Program Assistant-Peace Building and Conflict Transformation (ACT-PA-PBCT-16-2022) Local Position

Act Change Transform (Act!) is a local Non-Governmental Organization whose mission is to facilitate the empowerment of marginalized people and communities in Kenya and neighboring countries, to become active participants in their development by enabling them to: stand up for their rights; demand good governance in the management of resources; and participate in decision making processes. Act! does this through implementing partners, offering them capacity development, management of grants so that value for money is achieved and providing strategic leadership in national advocacy for the benefit of women, youth, people with disabilities and other marginalized communities.

Job Summary

Act! is seeking to recruit a Program Assistant- Peace Building & Conflict Transformation (PBCT) to assist program technical activities under activities under Peace Building & Conflict Transformation (PCBT) Platform. As a technical person, the Program Assistant will have significant contact and interaction with Act! partners / sub-award partners, other non-state actors, government agencies and line ministries as is necessary for the effective delivery of Programmatic responsibilities.

Key Responsibilities

Program Planning and Management

• Conduct bi-weekly conflict and violent extremism scans/situational briefs, analyzing the implications of the various peace, security, countering violent extremism (PCVE) and de-radicalization related activities. These will be presented after every two weeks (Bi-Weekly) or as the situation may demand (ad hoc) to the PBCT program team at Act!.
• Assist in the development of detailed program work plans, including activity descriptions and timetables and manage the implementation of these activities so as to ensure the program’s activities and outputs are executed on time and to adequate quality standards.
• In collaboration with the Programme Officers, conduct follow-ups through site visits and mentor partners in areas of reporting, strategic planning, advocacy, communication, building coalitions and networks
• Assist in tracking the program’s progress and make changes to the activity plans where appropriate, providing in each case a full justification of these changes.
• Ensure good relations are maintained at all times with the program’s beneficiaries, partners and donors.
• Organize and undertake project reviews and assessments, baseline surveys.
• Keep abreast of new or evolving specialist knowledge, methodological or developmental in the area of Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation that relates to the scope of Act! Program activities.
• Provide specialist knowledge where appropriate to other Act! Programs, and/or to seek this support from outside parties when necessary.

Monitoring, Evaluation Reporting &Learning

• Participate in setting program targets in line with overall strategic goal of the program.
• Adequately analyze the OCA data and submit draft report (analysis) and raw data to the M&E specialist.
• Participate actively in contributing to documentation of “success stories” and other anecdotal information to enhance the overall quality of performance reports to the donors.
• Share information and lessons learnt with other program staff through among others, writing of brief occasional papers for uploading into the website and internal seminars.
• Prepare monthly, quarterly and final narrative reports.

Capacity Development

• Assist the Capacity Development team to conduct Organizational Capacity Assessments (OCAs) for PBCT grants and develop subsequent PBCT-related Institutional Improvement Plans (IIPs) with identified beneficiary CSOs.
• Take responsibility in tracking the IIPs for PBCT grantees.
• Assist prepare training materials and modules to respond to the PBCT training areas identified in the OCAs.
• Assist the Capacity Development team to write OCA and training reports as required and on timely basis.
• Support Act! and partners in their advocacy work by influencing both official institutions and the public through education and campaigning work.

Networking and Representation

• Establish and maintain regular contact with beneficiary groups and partner organizations, and to liaise and co-ordinate with the appropriate government bodies whenever appropriate to ensure successful project progress
• Represent Act! and program at meetings, forums and processes to stay up to date with unfolding events or issues that ensure that the donor is well appraised on such events or issues.

Resource Mobilization

• Identify and develop, where appropriate, new program ideas and strategic opportunities leading to the development of full proposals that contribute to the growth of Act! and the program.
• Participate in researching funding sources and donor trends to help position Act! ahead of major funding changes or trends and therefore contribute to the development of proposals for funding.
• Participate in exploration of new income generation opportunities for Act!.

Financial Management

• Assist in budget preparation for the CSOs consistent with their project proposals.
• Prepare indicative budgets for all planned new work.
• In consultation with the grants/finance officers track budgets to ensure compliance with Act! and donor funding guidelines and requirements.

Qualification, Experience and Skills:

Academic Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Peace & Conflict Related Studies, Social Sciences or any other related fields. A Master’s degree in relevant study areas will be an added advantage.

Professional Qualifications

Post graduate qualification in Project Management or specialized subject area.

Experience

• At least 4 years relevant work experience in capacity building specifically in the Peacebuilding sector.

Essential Skills and Competencies

• In-depth knowledge and understanding of the peacebuilding project cycle management.
• Strong analytical and report writing skills as well as excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
• Excellent organization and coordination skills.
• Good interpersonal and communication skills.
• Self-driven and able to deliver results with minimum supervision.
• Ability to work in a multi-disciplinary and multicultural environment and with partners at all levels.
• Willingness to travel extensively within the country, work extended periods in the field and interact effectively with partners and willingness to learn new approaches.
• The candidates for this position must be fluent in written and spoken English and Kiswahili.
• Highly proficient in Ms Word, Excel, Access, Power-point and the use of Internet for research.

Complexity and difficulty of the work

A demanding job that requires tolerance, sector knowledge and local political dynamics.