Sexual Offences Awareness & Response (SOAR) Initiative is a child focused non-profit organisation working to provide prevention and response solutions to child sexual abuse. Our specific emphasis is on adolescent girls as we work with men and boys, communities and educational institutions to address this menace. Our strategy follows from the recognition that negative gender and socio-cultural norms and unequal power relations are key root causes of sexual violence and gender inequality and so seek to address these in our interventions to mitigate sexual violence.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Project Officer - Gender & Child Protection
Location: Benue State with quarterly travel to Abuja
Job Type: Full time
Duration: 3year contract
Start Date: Pre-employment training and induction with immediate effect. Employment contract commences June 2021.
General Overview Of Project
- On this project for which a Gender and Child Protection Officer is being sought for engagement, SOAR Initiative will be pioneering its work to address sexual based violence against adolescent girls (SBVAG) in two internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps in Benue State.
The main project outputs include:
- To improve the knowledge of community leaders, men and boys, in the project IDP camps in Benue State to recognise SBVAG as a human rights violation, understand its risk factors made worse by the pandemic lockdown and the need to break the silence about it
- To establish and train child protection response committees/watch groups to have a better understanding of their roles in addressing SGBVAG and have action plans in place and in use to prevent and respond to SBVAG in the project IDP camps, particularly within the COVID-19 pandemic context
- That out-of-school displaced adolescent girls, in the project IDP camps and host communities, exposed to risk factors of SBVAG, as a result of the pandemic, have improved knowledge about SBVAG as a human rights violation, the need to break the silence about it and increased adolescent sexual reproductive health information and products
- To establish and train SBVAG referral mechanisms between the established local child protection response groups in the project IDP camps and service providers to have improved knowledge about their roles in responding to SBVAG particularly within the COVID-19 pandemic context
- To support school authorities, parents, counsellors and teachers of project schools serving displaced girls, with improved knowledge about SBVAG as a human rights violation, its risk factors made worse by the pandemic and the need to break the silence and create safer school environments against SBVAG
- That in-school displaced girls involved in the project will have increased knowledge about SBVAG and its risk factors, made worse by the pandemic, how to recognise it, refuse the abuser's approach, protect themselves and share this knowledge with their peers
Overall Objective of Job Position
- The Project Officer is expected to oversee the scope, quality, cost and maintain timelines/schedules of the project in targeted IDP camps in Benue State.
- The Project Officer will use community-mobilisation and multisectoral approaches in addressing socio-cultural norms that perpetuate sexual based violence against girls (SBVAG) within the IDP camps and host communities: including establishing/strengthening SBVAG response groups, working with men and boys and building the capacity of adolescent girls through mentoring programs.
- The Project Officer must be able to work with limited supervision and still ensure that progress is made on the project to achieve all pre-determined outputs and outcomes as required by funders.
Expected Duties and Responsibilities of Project Officer
- Advise the project director on various legal and policy developments related to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Benue State, with particular emphasis on child protection and its related issues
- Plan, implement and supervise all project activities, including by all sub-contracted partners to achieve set indicators, milestones, outputs and ultimately outcomes and goal of the project
- Provide direction, coordination, support and oversight functions over staff and volunteers, when available, to achieve set indicators, milestones, outputs and ultimately outcomes and the goal of the project
- Identify, contract and supervise the work of contracted partners, consultants and vendors, as required and directed, to achieve overall project objectives.
- Identify relevant local and State level stakeholders and ensure their buy-in, commitment and involvement on the project including: local and state level government authorities, school authorities, community and opinion leaders in development of sustainable child protection systems and structures to protect particularly girls from sexual violence and ensure that the voices of women and children are heard and incorporated in project implementation
- Organise, lead on and deliver advocacy visits, sensitisation outreaches and capacity building workshops on SGBV/HP and gender, project training curriculum and various advocacy issues related to achieving stated project objectives as the case may be.
- Supervise and provide on-the-job training to project staff/ volunteers as the case may be
- Identify gaps in delivery of functions of established SBVAG response groups and deliver periodic information/training sessions to members to address identified gaps.
- Plan and develop communication for development and behaviour change materials for use by IDP community members, volunteers and beneficiaries as the case may be.
- Prepare annual and quarterly workplans with corresponding budget and predetermined milestones and indicators, to be achieved on each activity, output and outcomes. Plans to be presented at quarterly project meetings at the Head Office in Abuja.
- Prepare Activity Concept Notes for all activities for approval and prior to implementation as stated on each approved workplan
- Ensure implementation of approved annual and quarterly work plans and Activity Concept Notes as approved.
- Report programmatic achievements, gaps and challenges to the Project Director and recommend changes to achieve project results
- Prepare high quality monthly, quarterly and annual reports in line with organizational and funders requirements.
Demonstrated Core Competences:
- Demonstrated capacity to manage all components of the 3year project with result-based project management skills
- Analytical and Strategic Thinking/Results Oriented/Commitment to Excellence
- Proactive problem-solving and decision-making skills
- Working in and with Teams
- Advocacy/Communicating information and ideas/Knowledge sharing
- Self-management/Emotional intelligence and conflict management/Negotiating and resolving disagreement
- Job knowledge/ technical expertise
Required Knowledge, Skills and Experience to be Evidenced in Profile
- Minimum of HND or B.Sc. degree with 3 to 5years practical relevant work experience
- Experience in non-profit project management
- Demonstrated expertise in SGBV, gender inequality and its root causes and child protection issues and programming
- Field experience in SGBV humanitarian emergency response is an asset
- Fluent in oral and written English and computer literacy is essential with ability to communicate clearly in Tiv language.
- Experience in community mobilisation approaches. Collaboration and negotiation skills are therefore required with ability to identify and liaise with relevant community-based stakeholders and other potential state and non-state project partners
- Demonstrated show of self-motivation and self-direction with proactive decision making and strategic thinking skills.
- Highly organized, with ability to deliver error free work output
- Ability to draft, edit and produce results-focused reports
- Ability to represent the organisation and its objectives in a highly professional and responsible manner
- Personal integrity, honesty and transparency is essential.
- Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, multitask and employ proactive decision-making skills
- Ability to work under pressure with limited supervision, yet allocate and review priorities and proactively take decisions to meet deadlines and achieve set objectives
Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should submit a Cover Letter with their CV showing gender, age and relevant experience to the roles and responsibilities stated above to: careers@soar.org.ng with e-mail subject "Project Officer - Gender & Child Protection (Benue) – Your Name"
Note
- Shortlisting of applications will start as soon as applications are received, so deadlines might be changed without prior notice.
- Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and will be required to scan in relevant documents and participate in both online and face-to-face meetings during the different interview phases
- Women are highly encouraged to apply.
