Peacebuilding MEAL Manager – Central African Republic At Concordis International

Thank you for your interest in joining Concordis’ peacebuilding team in Central African Republic.

This is a leadership role and you would be one of three members of the CAR management team, working alongside the Country Manager and the Finance Manager, collectively overseeing Concordis’ work across at least three regional hubs in the north of CAR. Your previous experience in peacebuilding and /or the monitoring and evaluation of peacebuilding programmes in the region will be essential. You’ll work in French, with fluency in Sango and/or English being desirable.

At Concordis, it’s not good enough for us merely to deliver programme activities; we aim for sustainable impact for peace, and seek to measure attitudinal and behavioural change attributable to our work. Inclusivity is one of our core values, and we’re looking to see transformation of conflict that’s experienced by women as well as men, herders and farmers, people in rural settings as well as those in urban centres.

As CAR MEAL Manager, your work will go above and beyond reporting on logframe outputs and incomes to the donor. With your extensive peacebuilding experience, you’ll work with the team to develop and implement sophisticated metrics for measuring these changes over time, disaggregating these datasets by gender, age, ethnicity, livelihood etc. You’ll feed this information back into programme delivery, to ensure programmes remain accountable to the wider population and adapt to the rapidly changing and fragile contexts in which we work.

You will lead on reporting to the donors, extracting information from the programme team. You will also use your flair for writing and your publishing skills to produce more informal news items, telling the story of the impact of our work, and publicising the recommendations that come from dialogues we facilitate. This will help us amplify voices that are often ignored by decision makers, leading to evidence based policy making.

This work can demand a lot from all of us, and we have high expectations for the person in this post, but you’ll be part of a supportive team, leading an exciting programme, helping to make a measurable change for peace.

This role is open to both CAR nationals and expatriates. All applicants must have the legal right to live and work in one of the countries where we have a registered office, ideally either CAR or the UK. You will spend at least 25% of your time in CAR, with regular visits of significant duration travelling throughout the north of the country.

Please take care to complete the application form in full, as we’ll assess whether you meet the person specification based solely on the answers given in the application form.

Concordis is a UK registered peacebuilding charity with programmes in Sudan, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Mauritania, plus some new work in the pipeline. We work alongside those involved in or affected by armed conflict, helping them find workable solutions that address the root causes of conflict and contribute to lasting peace and economic development. We’re committed to finding solutions that benefit women as well as men, those in armed groups as well as those who chose not to take up arms, national governments as well as civil society.

A recent independent evaluation of the CAR programme found:

The project was highly impactful and added significant value to social cohesion, resilience, local economic development and governance. There was widespread evidence of changes in attitudes and behaviour between farmers and herders in project areas.

Delivered in an extremely complex context, the project demonstrated excellent flexibility and adaptive capacity and consequently remained highly relevant throughout the project period… It is an excellent and innovative pilot, which should be replicated and scaled up nationally.

Good luck, and many thanks for your interest in Concordis.

Peter Marsden

Concordis’ Chief Executive

Job Description and Person Specification

CAR Peacebuilding MEAL Manager:

Part of the CAR programme management team, spending >25% time in CAR, you’re an experienced peacebuilder, familiar with metrics to measure attitudinal and behavioural change, as well as logframe outputs and outcomes.

Fluent in French, your exceptional flair for writing in either French or English will be used to prepare donor reports, and to explain the impact of our work and to publicise the recommendations from dialogues we facilitate.

This post is open to both CAR nationals and expatriate staff who have the legal right to live and work in CAR or the UK.

Applicants will only be considered if they can work in French and can produce professional reports in either French or English to an exceptionally high standard. Applicants must have significant experience of managing peacebuilding programmes in complex environments, preferably in the Sahel region.

Job Title: CAR Peacebuilding MEAL Manager

Location: Flexible, but spending at least 25% time in CAR, with regular visits of significant duration travelling across northern CAR.

Duration: Permanent and full time, subject to a probationary period.

Reporting to: CAR Country Manager, based in Bangui

Application: Applications will only be accepted if submitted on the application form attached (downloadable from http://concordis.international/careers/) and emailed to: hr@concordis.international. Interviews are expected to take place online.

Deadline: Sunday 20th November 2022 at 23.59 hours

Hours: Full time. This is a professional role that requires flexibility, commitment and willingness and ability to work longer hours when necessary.

Salary: €50,000 (£45,000), gross of tax, plus a competitive package of benefits dependent on place of work.

Values: Concordis believes that building relationships of trust and respect with and between those with whom it works is an important key to successful intervention in peace processes. All members of Concordis staff are required to conform to and to advance Concordis’ values.

Main responsibilities:

• Work collaboratively with the CAR Country Manager and the CAR Finance Manager to deliver the EU funded programme to time and to budget, meeting all objectives and outputs in the logical framework.
• As part of the CAR management team, oversee the work and staff teams in the regional hubs in Ouham Pendé, Bamingui Bangoran and Vakaga (and possibly elsewhere).
• Develop and enhance existing tools to monitor and evaluate programme delivery, charting impact using agreed indicators, disaggregated by gender, age, ethnicity etc.
• Produce monthly and bi-annual donor reports on all CAR programme activities.
• Generate clear, professional and visually attractive reports that explain the impact of our work and the recommendations from our dialogues, to enhance the visibility of the programme and amplify the voices of those with whom we work.
• Develop and enhance existing metrics to evaluate attitudinal and behavioural change experienced by the wider population, measuring proxies for social cohesion through extensive consultation in key informant interviews, focus groups and town hall gatherings.
• Deliver training and coaching in MEAL techniques to the wider team.
• Contribute to the development of Concordis’ peacebuilding methodology, policy, strategy and monitoring and evaluation;
• Perform other duties as assigned.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential:

1. At least 5 years’ peacebuilding experience in complex environments, preferably in the Sahel region;

2. At least 2 years’ senior management experience, managing both staff and budgets;

3. Proven experience of evaluating the impact of peacebuilding work;

4. Professional level French;

5. Exceptional writing skills in either French or English, able to produce highly professional reports for a range of audiences;

6. Willing to spend at least 25% time in CAR, travelling throughout the country;

7. Demonstrable experience in monitoring, evaluation and learning of peace processes;

8. Masters degree in international relations, development studies, conflict resolution or a related discipline;

9. Excellent IT skills, including MS Office and tools to analyse large dataset;

10. Personal efficiency, resourcefulness, organisational ability and the ability to be flexible and maintain good humour in challenging circumstances;

11. Awareness of cultural diversity and political sensitivities and ability to address such issues with tact, diplomacy and sensitivity;

12. Commitment to Concordis’ mission, principles, values (available at http://concordis.international/our-mission-and-values/.

Desirable:

1. Experience of working in CAR.
2. Fluent in Sango.
3. Video editing experience.
4. Practical experience and/or training in NGO Security Management.

Important information relating to your application

The final date for applications is Sunday 20th November 2022 at 23.59 hours, but we will be reviewing applications as they come in and welcome early applications.

We have a number of posts to fill and we may contact you to ask whether you wish to be considered for other roles in the organisation. Please do not delay and get in touch if you have the right skills, experience and passion for our cause.

If you have any queries or you would like an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact the HR team by email: hr@concordis.international and we’d be happy to help.

We will keep your personal data carefully and within the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations.

Any candidate offered a job with Concordis will be expected to sign our Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment, and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents.

All offers of employment will be subject to pre-employment checks including satisfactory references and appropriate screening. These include criminal records checks and review of sanctions and proscribed groups lists. Concordis also participates in the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme and all employees will be subject to this as part of their contract of employment.

Concordis International actively encourages equality and diversity and we look to recruit across age, gender, ethnicity and background as we believe this supports our peacebuilding mission.

For more information about Concordis International please visit our website at www.concordis.international.

Concordis mission, values, principles

Concordis works alongside those involved in or affected by armed conflict, helping them find workable solutions that address the root causes of conflict and contribute to lasting peace and economic development. We’re committed to finding solutions that benefit women as well as men, those in armed groups as well as those who chose not to take up arms, national governments as well as civil society.

Mission

· To build trusting relationships with people involved in or affected by armed conflict.

· To facilitate challenging conversations between people from opposing factions.

· To enable people to find workable solutions that address the root causes of conflict and contribute to lasting peace and economic development to mutual benefit.

· To include women as well as men, those in armed groups as well as those who chose not to take up arms, national governments as well as civil society.

· To leave a legacy of sustainable mechanisms that enable future conflict to be managed peacefully.

Principles and values

We are committed to transformational justice and peacebuilding, underpinned by Concordis’ values of:

· Humility – we recognise that we do not have all the answers, that there are different ways of dealing with and resolving conflict, and that our contribution should be part of a broad engagement by a number of people and organisations

• Impartiality – we act in a consciously non-partisan manner
• Inclusivity – we promote active participation in our dialogues from people representing as many strands of opinion or interest as are appropriate. We work creatively to give voice to people and groups who might otherwise be marginalised by reason of gender, age or ethnicity.

To carry out our mission in accordance with these values, we abide by a set of fundamental principles:

· Strategic intervention – using in-depth analysis, we endeavour to understand as much as possible about the situations in which we work and we take account of complexity

• Long-term engagement – we aim to work in a sustained way in relation to conflicts with which we are invited to engage
• Doing no harm – we recognise the potential negative impact of interventions and seek to ensure that ours do not have unintended consequences
• Independence – we do not succumb to pressure to advance the interests of third parties (including third parties who are funding our work)
• Cooperation – we act collaboratively and in partnership with other agencies and organisations whenever it is appropriate to do so.

In carrying out its work, in dealings with its staff and in relation to governance and funding, Concordis:

· Acts with honesty, integrity and transparency

• Encourages accountability
• Has proper regard for the welfare of all involved in its operations, both staff and beneficiaries
• Consciously engages with women as well as men and recognises the gendered dynamics of conflict
• Is professional and respectful of others
• Is reflective, responsive and nimble in its approach
• Acknowledges the importance of building and fostering relationships
• Values diversity.