IMPACT Initiatives
Position Title: Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL) Specialist for Kenya/Somalia
BACKGROUND ON IMPACT AND REACH
REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two International NGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and the United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). REACH’s purpose is to promote and facilitate the development of information products that enhance the humanitarian community’s decision making and planning capacity for emergency, reconstruction and development contexts. REACH facilitates information management for aid actors through three complementary services: (a) need and situation assessments facilitated by REACH teams; (b) situation analysis using satellite imagery; (c) provision of related database and (web)-mapping facilities and expertise.
IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative. The IMPACT team comprises specialists in data collection, management and analysis and GIS. IMPACT was launched at the initiative of ACTED, an international NGO whose headquarter is based in Paris and is present in thirty countries. The two organizations have a strong complementarity formalized in a global partnership, enabling IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support on its fields of intervention.
We are currently looking for an Assessment Specialist to support our team in Kenya/Somalia.
Department:REACH
Position:FSL Specialist
Contract duration:12 months
Location: Mogadishu
Starting Date: ASAP
COUNTRY PROFILE
Somalia has been experiencing a multi-layered, complex, and protracted crisis over the past three decades due to periodic disasters and climate-driven shocks, such as droughts and flooding. This has led to much internal displacement resulting in large IDP populations in urban areas. IMPACT began working in Somalia in 2012 in order to fill information gaps and provide timely data on the humanitarian needs of displaced and vulnerable populations. The compound and complex nature of the crisis continues to influence displacement patterns and constrain the availability of resources, while the presence of armed groups severely impedes the level of access and support provided by humanitarian actors.
In 2016 REACH was deployed in Kenya and has since then been providing information on the needs and intentions of refugees residing in the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps. Beyond the multi-sectoral focused work, IMPACT has become the go-to partner of the Kenya and Somali Cash Consortia, covering the post-distribution monitoring in a variety of contexts and multi-purpose cash programs
Currently, the Horn of Africa is experiencing the third drought episode in a decade, following three consecutive failed rainy seasons. The drought is compounding existing food insecurity among both pastoral and farming populations, and needs are spiking across the region – between 12 and 14 million people are currently estimated to be facing high levels of food insecurity and water shortages. Historically rare climate variability, climate change, vulnerability, and exposure are creating an exceptional and extremely concerning level of risk for food security and livelihoods, which could drive rising levels of acute malnutrition and mortality through mid-to-late 2022.
FUNCTIONS
Under the line management of the IMPACT Research Manager, the FSL Specialist ensures the validity and strengthens the quality and efficiency of all IMPACT research cycles in FSL, in accordance with IMPACT’s standards, partner expectations, and IMPACT’s ethos of facilitating an evidence-based response. In coordination with the Country Senior Management Team, the FSL Specialist will provide technical inputs at all stages of relevant research cycles, including for secondary data reviews, assessment conceptualization, research design, logistical preparations, training of field staff, supporting data collection teams during data collection, data cleaning, analysis, production of information products, and dissemination of information products, etc. S/he will be involved in partner coordination, donor reporting, presentations, and will be required to provide input to the strategic development of IMPACT in Somalia. The FSL Specialist will also be responsible for developing and implementing a continuous capacity building program for national and international team members, and (when relevant) for providing trainings to partners.
In his/her mission, the FSL Specialist will be hosted by IMPACT’s global partner ACTED and will fall under the direct responsibility and management of ACTED’s Country Director and his/her delegates for all Administrative, Security, and relevant Logistics and Finance issues. S/he will therefore fully abide to ACTED’s Security, Administration, and relevant HR, Logistics and Finance rules and regulations.
RESPONSIBILITIES
RESEARCH PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
- Support the Senior Management team in identifying and materializing opportunities, in line with strategic directions of the mission;
- Ensure a streamlined, coordinated approach across all relevant research cycles to research design, methodology and tool development, data collection and analysis, and product drafting;
- Support in accurately estimating research cycle timelines and resources needed for research cycle implementation;
- Support Assessment teams in designing and implementing research cycle methodologies, tools, ToRs, data collection and analysis, product drafting;
- Ensure that research design, data collection and analysis and product drafting for all relevant research cycles comply to IMPACT’s requirements, guidelines and strategic direction;
- Monitor implementation of research cycles, identifying any major
risks or issues, support team to resolve these challenges in line with
IMPACT research standards and in close coordination with IMPACT HQ as
relevant.
• Ensure that the applied methodology, analysis and products maximize the impact of the research cycles in line with the intended objectives; - Support the identification, trainings and follow up of enumerators resources for primary data collection;
- Review of information products to ensure accuracy;
- Liaise with relevant assessment, GIS and data colleagues to ensure that their joint research benefits from a multi-disciplinay approach is effective spatial representation of assessment findings in maps or interactive web-portals, as relevant.
TEAM FUNCTIONAL AND LINE-MANAGEMENT
- Provide technical leadership throughout all IMPACT research cycles and represent IMPACT in relevant working groups in the country in line with organization core value and principles;
- Provide functional oversight to relevant assessment staff, and produce joint skill development- and work plans with the relevant Research Manager(s) who are line-managing the staff in question;
- Where relevant, directly line-manage assessment, data or GIS staff that provide cross-cutting support to the entire mission;
- For staff under his/her functional responsibility, support to line managers by contributing to conduct of appraisals, provision of regular feedback, and participation in career management;
- For staff under direct line management, prepare and follow up work plans; conduct of appraisals, provision of regular feedback, and career management;
- For staff under direct line management, conduct regular team meetings to assess progress in relevant research cycles and to review work plan; ensure that all are comprehensively briefed on their objectives and expected outputs;
INTERNAL KNOWLEDGE SHARING, LEARNING AND CAPACITY BUILDING
- Identify capacity gaps, and resolve to bridge these through targeted capacity building, training, performance monitoring, and backstopping where needed;
- Support to the line managers and specialists in the development and implementation of capacity training plans for assessment and field team members;
- Conduct and support regular training to [country/regional] teams, including regular updates on IMPACT guidelines, adapted (to context) training modules, learning on the job; Complement in house training material with external resources, if and as relevant;
- Ensure impact of trainings and progression of staff is monitored;
- Pro-actively provide regular technical support and backstopping to assessment teams;
- Support to Assessment / unit teams to systematically review the efficiency and quality of research cycles and information products;
- Support monitoring and evaluation for relevant Research Cycle, as specified in the research ToRs and in line with IMPACT Guidelines;
- Contribute to generating and documenting robust lessons learned at the end of relevant Research Cycle;
- Ensure knowledge and learning processes are shared across the [mission/region] and with HQ;
- Able and available to engage with Global Units and global learning processes, such as methodology notes, lessons learn, Communities of Practice, etc;
- Continuously seek to improve and innovate IMPACT assessments, information products and processes to identify and meet information gaps in the humanitarian response in order to support in the facilitation of an evidence-based response;
- Work closely with other specialists in the region to develop, implement and monitor a multi-disciplinary training and learning plan for IMPACT teams;
- More generally, contributes to creating a culture of rigour, innovation and learning within IMPACT’s operations.
STRATEGY, PROGRAM AND PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
- Contribute to country, regional and unit strategies development with relevant technical and thematic contents;
- Ensure that assessment strategies are implemented in a structured and coherent manner in line with project and strategic objectives;
- Support the development/revision of assessment/programme strategies, reports, or new proposals.
EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENT
- Support the IMPACT Somalia team primarily but also the Kenya team as required in providing stakeholders within the humanitarian coordination system with reliable and accurate technical advice and support;
- Delivers inter-agency, multi-stakeholders knowledge sharing / lessons learned exercise.
- Support country management in representing IMPACT among external actors for technical/thematic discussions, including with stakeholders in the humanitarian coordination system, such as OCHA representatives, clusters, as well as technical working groups and various NGO fora and information management groups;
- Participates, contributes to and delivers inter-agency, multi-stakeholders knowledge sharing / lessons learned exercise;
- Contributes to the dissemination of IMPACT’s products to maximize their impact.
- More generally, contribute to the creation of a positive image and overall credibility of the organisation, notably through the application of IMPACT’’s mandate, ethics, values and stand- point with regard to other actors and by contributing to creating a culture of rigorous use of evidence and learning among humanitarian responders.
INFLUENCING - DATA CONFIDENTIALITY AND PROTECTION
The (Senior) Assessment Specialist will maintain the strictest confidentiality on all data collected and related processes. He/she will actively take measures to prevent the unauthorized sharing of any information and data belonging to IMPACT and its partners, or collected during his/her assignment with IMPACT.
REQUIREMENTS
- Academic Excellent academic qualifications, preferably including a Master degree in relevant discipline;
- Research skills Excellent research and analytical skills required, including a sound understanding of sampling frameworks and their application, an ability to analyse large data sets, as well as conduct temporal or spatial trend analysis.
- Software skills Proven knowledge of the Microsoft Office Suite, to include Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Advanced skills in R, SPSS and/or STATA or other statistical analysis software are required. Experience with InDesign an asset.
- Familiarity aid system Familiarity with the aid system and with the research community;
- Years of work experience At least 4 years of relevant working experience
- Experience in the FSL sector IPC experience specifically an asset;
- Training skills Ability to conduct trainings and mentor IMPACT teams and partners on assessment skills;
- Communication/reporting skills Excellent communication and drafting skills for effective reporting;
- Multi-tasking skills Ability to multitask with tight deadlines, on numerous research cycles;
- Level of independence Strong existing ability to work independently in support of colleagues and partners;
- Cross-cultural work environment Ability to operate in a cross-cultural environment requiring flexibility;
- Experience in geographical region Past experience in East Africa is desirable;
- Language skills Fluency in English required, competency in Somali an asset;
- Security environment Ability to operate in a complex and challenging security environment