Project Officer- Community Mobilization and Empowerment

Dorcas Aid International – Kenya is a Christian Relief and Development Organization working in areas of WASH, Social empowerment and protection, inclusive entrepreneurship and climate change. Dorcas is urgently recruiting for a position of Project Officer – Community Mobilization and Empowerment to support Moyale Cross Border Socio Economic Empowerment Project. This position will be based in Moyale and requires a motivated professional person with a business background. He or She must demonstrate proven skills in market systems development (MSD), experience in managing milk value chain, coordinating income generating activities that include marginalized people (especially women, youth and people with disabilities), mobilizing grassroot organizations and networking with other actors. The person must have skills to work with a cross-border team in implementing project activities, training local leadership, and promoting and integrating climate resilient actions to enhance community resilience.

Specific Responsibilities.

1. Project Implementation & reporting
   • Participate in planning and budgeting, preparation of workplans, and reporting using the available templates from the donor
   • Implement and monitor planned project activities as per work plans and report progress to the Project Coordinator.
   • Implement activities in project communication plan including collection, writing and sharing of human-interest stories quarterly.
2. Community Engagement and mobilization
   • Work together with community leadership and relevant actors to develop a criterion for recruitment of project participants in line with donor requirements.
   • Undertake a scan and inventory of all economic activities undertaken by community members and different groups within the project implementation area.
   • Recruit and train different cadres of local leaders and administrators to render support to economic empowerment, cross border engagement, peace building and climate change.
   • Map and mobilize various grassroot organizations and self-help groups that are undertaking income generating activities and promote business to business linkages.
   • Establish and maintain transparent and functional relationships with the target communities by actively assessing risks and developing relevant mitigation actions.
3. Livestock development & alternative economic activities
   • Facilitate capacity building of a milk cooperative to develop a sustainable value chain
   • Enhance capacities of various self-help groups to improve governance, operations, strategic planning and financial management to widen their potential for alternative income generating activities
   • Create and set up AgriTech and FinTech innovation Hub to offer digital skills to the youth for employment creation.
   • Support communities to establish hydroponic forage production
   • Promote market system development by assessing and addressing underlying factors under push, core market and pull factors that will impact various economic empowerment activities undertaken by the project
4. Coordination & Advocacy
   • Participate in various coordination meetings with the government and other CSOs working in the project area.
   • Capture and share emerging lessons to facilitate scale up and adaptive programming.
   • Actively network and create sustainable relations with other economic empowerment programs.
   • Work with various county thematic clusters to share information and coordinate project activities.

Core Competencies

• Displays sensitivity to cultural, religion, nationality and age dynamics
• Demonstrates highest standards of integrity
• Adhere to Dorcas value system

Previous experience in Marsabit (especially Moyale area) is an added advantage