Program officer (P0) South Sudan Program At American Friends Service Committee

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace, and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the Quaker belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice. The South Sudan Program based at the AFSC Africa Regional Office (ARO) in Nairobi is implementing a three-year Trauma Healing program for enhanced peace building in South Sudan. The organization is searching for a qualified program officer to coordinate this project based in the Nairobi office with frequent travel to South Sudan.

Job Description

Job Title: Program officer (P0) – South Sudan program

Supervisor: Country Representative Somalia Program

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Summary of Responsibilities: The Program officer (PO) will support efforts to address secondary trauma among the peacebuilders for enhanced peaceful co-existence in South Sudan. The PO will also assist in efforts to increase the capacity of peace builders in self-trauma healing and supporting others to heal through cascading the knowledge, skills acquired and learnings during implementation. Specifically, the PO will convene peacebuilders and their organizations, support development and operationalization of work-based trauma healing policies for local partner organizations, policy advocacy and support experience sharing efforts. It is envisioned that the intervention would result in creating a community of peacebuilders, who are able to deal with their own trauma, and that of other peace builders in the sector as well as community members aimed at promoting peaceful co-existence.

Description of Responsibilities:

1. Work directly with two AFSC partners to plan and implement the program that aims to address secondary trauma among peace builders and indirectly with 16 local organizations that will be involved in program implementation.
2. Develop resources, relationships, and processes for increasing the capacity of partner organizations in South Sudan to develop and operationalize work-based trauma policies
3. Identify and provide support in planning innovative and creative outreach activities by peace builders.
4. Develop concepts and proposals for grant-seeking.
5. Develop and implement an advocacy engagement strategy to respond to trauma issues affecting peace builders in South Sudan.
6. Articulate AFSC’s values and principles including its commitment to peace and nonviolent approaches to social justice and peacebuilding among partner organizations.
7. Provide support to efforts towards spaces and learning circles for peace builders’ interactions through organizational exchange visits, representations, and networking.
8. Support research, developing policy briefs, writing of briefs, case studies, program knowledge management and other relevant materials reflecting on best practices and lesson learnt for periodic AFSC South Sudan publication and presentation to local and international audiences.
9. Support continuous monitoring and evaluation from a results-based perspective. This may include and not limited to review of data collection tools or strategies, recommend intervention strategies and activities from the findings of the current and earlier assessments as well as informed by global and regional trends to ensure ongoing program responsiveness and relevance.
10. Produce program reports, craft flyers and brochures, consolidating data, draft power point presentations and prepare reports for publications: Review narrative and financial reports of grants to partners. Assist in developing strategy for external communication and engaging with media.
11. Contribute to the development of training modules, curricula, and courses to train trainers to meet the different needs of South Sudan partners
12. Technically support the South Sudan program partners to improve in their peace building and trauma healing program delivery to their targeted population with greater impact and effectiveness.
13. Carry out regular field visit to the partner sites to monitor implementation progress and offer technical support to partners.
14. Support capacity building of South Sudan peace builders in mainstream trauma healing into peacebuilding initiatives.
15. Support a strategic mainstreaming of the South Sudan programming into AFSC’s Dialogue and Exchange program

Qualifications and Attributes:

1. Degree in a relevant field such as psychology, Social work, Sociology, development studies, international Affairs, peace/ conflict studies, or related field.
2. Minimum of 5 years’ experience in relevant work.
3. Strong Writing, presentation, and interpersonal skills
4. Experience in project coordination, relationship building, and remote partnership
5. Ability to develop collegial and professional relationships with various stakeholder groups, especially religious and traumatized communities.
6. Excellent leadership, facilitation, communication, and peace program development skills.
7. The ideal candidate will be highly organized in their work and passionate about trauma healing initiatives that have the power to enhance peaceful coexistence.
8. Ability to take own initiative and work both independently and as a team.
9. A desire to grow the program and individually through the work.
10. Ability to meet deadlines under pressure.
11. Capacity to work in a multicultural environment
12. Must have understanding and respect for the principles, concerns, and considerations of AFSC regarding issues of race, class, Nationality, Region, Religion, gender, sexual orientation, and disability.
13. Experience in psychosocial skills and working in South Sudan will be an added advantage