IMPACT Initiatives
BACKGROUND ON IMPACT AND REACH
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, GIS and remote-sensing. 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, which allows particularly IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support on its fields of intervention.
REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two International NGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) 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, supporting and working within the framework of the humanitarian reform process. 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.
ACTED is a French humanitarian NGO, founded in 1993, which supports vulnerable populations, affected by humanitarian crises worldwide. ACTED provides continued support to vulnerable communities by ensuring the sustainability of post-crisis interventions and engaging long-term challenges facing our target populations, in order to break the poverty cycle, foster development and reduce vulnerability to disasters. Their interventions seek to cover the multiple aspects of humanitarian and development crises through a multidisciplinary approach which is both global and local, and adapted to each context. Their 3,300 staff is committed in to responding to emergencies worldwide, to supporting recovery and rehabilitation, towards sustainable development.
We are currently looking for a REACH Senior Assessment Officer to support the REACH South Sudan team’s Accountability to Affected Populations work stream
Department: REACH South Sudan
Position: REACH Senior Assessment Officer – Accountability to Affected Populations and Community Engagement (AAP & CE)
Contract duration: 12 months
Starting Date: As soon as possible
Base: Juba
COUNTRY PROFILE
IMPACT, through REACH, has been implementing programming in South Sudan since 2012. Responding to the Sudan Border Crisis, REACH initially engaged through coordinated information management support – in the form of refugee camp mapping and service provision analyses, thematic assessments, and multi-sectorial needs assessments – in Maban County, Upper Nile State and Pariang County, Unity State. IMPACT was engaged by DFID to provide a series of impact evaluations of their BRACE programming across Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile States in 2013; a programme with run for two years, included 5 total assessments, and touched a total of more than 20,000 households. Immediately following the conflict of December 2013, REACH expanded its programming to include the IDP response, participating in Initial Rapid Needs Assessments of conflict affected areas, providing mapping and monthly service provision analyses for major IDP sites around the country, and running large-scale IDP return intentions assessments.
The year 2018 saw the expansions of both IMPACT and REACH programming to 10 of 10 states, spanning the refugee, IDP and development responses, and covering diverse activities such as cross-border port monitoring, assessments of hard to reach areas, flood mapping and vulnerability analysis, market monitoring and supply chain analysis, analysis of tensions and conflicts over access to natural resources, and third party monitoring of humanitarian and development programming. In 2019, REACH expanded its role within the technical space, increasing involvement in Integrated Phase Classification (IPC), Needs Analysis Working Group, UN technical agencies, and academics. In response, REACH has also expanded into multiple new research cycle streams outside of its traditional Area of Knowledge approach – including sector specific, population movement, and AAP research.
Broadly, REACH South Sudan implements assessments across three core pillars:
- Monitoring of the humanitarian situation in South Sudan through Real Time Monitoring, through monthly assessments covering over 2,000 settlements in South Sudan; tracking and analyzing large-scale population movement trends including returns and seasonal movements through port and road monitoring; market monitoring including Joint Market Monitoring and WASH market monitoring.
- Informing Emergency Prioritization in the response through providing direct technical support to humanitarian clusters through active engagement with coordination bodies, dedicated assessments and information products, and strategic engagement to promote evidence-based understanding and identification of emergency and catastrophic needs in South Sudan; engagement of Emergency Rapid Response Mechanism rapid assessments and tracking of Areas of Concern.
- Mainstreaming Accountability to Affected Populations and Conflict Sensitivity, including through standalone assessments on community priorities relating to humanitarian needs and perceptions of assistance, contextual analysis of the impact of aid on community dynamics; as well as providing a critical AAP and contextual lens to all REACH SSD research.
POSITION PROFILE
REACH South Sudan is seeking a Senior Assessment Officer to serve as the focal point for the Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) pillar within the AAP and conflict sensitivity cross-cutting pillar, which aims to inform the wider humanitarian response with relevant contextual information on and analysis of affected communities’ perceptions and preferences relating to humanitarian assistance in South Sudan and on how aid impacts conflict dynamics. In this role, with the support of the AAP and CE Field Officer, the Senior Assessment Officer will be responsible for the design, implementation and follow up of assessments focusing on AAP. Together with the Deputy Country Coordinator – Programs, the Senior Assessment Officer will develop the AAP workstream’s strategy and contribute to the pillar’s overall strategic direction. They will also be required to undertake strategic engagement with response coordination and partners to identify existing gaps in knowledge within the humanitarian response, design assessments to fill the identified gaps and present assessment findings to key stakeholders and fora.
Moreover, the Senior Assessment Officer will mainstream AAP across the REACH mission in South Sudan, including integrating AAP within REACH South Sudan’s existing research cycles through close collaboration with other REACH South Sudan units.
The role requires prior experience in AAP and CE, research methods, and ideally, a working understanding of key Protection principles.[1] This position maintains a qualitative focus and requires a Senior Assessment Officer who is flexible and confident in working independently, often with limited structure. It brings with it the potential for deployment to the field and deep-field locations, which requires a considerable amount of resilience and independence. Additionally, this position has the potential to be tasked with supporting mission expansion in neighbouring countries, or short to mid-term surge support for sudden onset disasters globally.
RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Design, implementation and management of REACH AAP assessments
The Senior Assessment Officer is responsible for all research cycles under the AAP work stream under the AAP and conflict sensitivity cross-cutting pillar, including ongoing quarterly research outputs and ad hoc assessments. This includes responsibility for each stage of the research cycle, including designing research methodologies and tools associated with each assessment in line with REACH requirements and principles under the supervision of the Deputy Country Coordinator – Programs. They will manage the planning, implementation, and follow-up of all AAP related assessments in South Sudan. This also entails timely and accurate reporting to IMPACT HQ.
Ad hoc field assessments relating to AAP and CE to address information gaps relevant to response priorities will include research design, logistical planning, data collection and analysis, information product development and product dissemination on the part of the Senior Assessment Officer, with support from the Field Officer.
2. Reporting
The Senior Assessment Officer is responsible for consolidating all analyses and conclusions from each assessment into REACH products such as factsheets, reports and briefs using standard formats. They must ensure the writing of timely and accurate assessment reports and factsheets, ensuring the quality and accuracy of technical information provided as well as the confidentiality and protection of collected information. They will ensure that assessment reports contribute to aid coordination and planning and add to the general base of field knowledge in the country for all organisations working in the areas. The Senior Assessment Officer will liaise with the Deputy Country Coordinator – Programs and Senior GIS and Data Officers in order to represent data in interactive format, as relevant.
The Senior Assessment Officer is also responsible for following the designated timeline of reports to be submitted to project partners and donors. When requested by the REACH Country Coordinator or Deputy Country Coordinator – Programs, they will also manage the drafting of narrative reports and contribute to the development of financial reports through regular budgetary follow-up.
3. Mainstreaming AAP within the REACH mission
Furthermore, in close collaboration with the REACH Deputy Country Coordinator – Programs, the Senior Assessment Officer will build on the AAP pillar’s work to further develop the mission’s strategy for mainstreaming AAP, for instance through integrating AAP in REACH research cycles, developing strategies to communicate research findings back to affected populations, delivering trainings on AAP to field staff and identifying and maintaining partnerships with key actors relating to AAP and CE.
4. Cross-unit engagement and support
The Senior Assessment Officer will serve as focal point for understanding of AAP principles and best practices for analysis with the REACH mission in South Sudan. This includes:
- Consultation and support on integrating REACH’s AAP analytical framework and best practices for other REACH work streams, including the Early Rapid Response Mechanism, the Needs Analysis Working Group and the Emergency Sectors Unit.
- Monitoring of trends in community perceptions across South Sudan to inform research strategy and design.
5. HR/Staff management
The Senior Assessment Officer will act as line manager for the AAP & CE Field Officer, including maintaining an appropriate level of oversight, undertaking capacity-building, conducting appraisals, and conducting regular check-ins on progress against intended outcomes.
6. External engagement
The Senior Assessment Officer will represent the REACH mission in relevant cluster and multi-sector meetings/ technical working groups (such as the Communication and Community Engagement Working Group and the Protection Cluster) in South Sudan. This specifically will include liaising with external partners to identify information gaps relating to community perceptions and working with external actors to fill these gaps in order to support the coordination of the broader humanitarian community. These include response coordination mechanisms such the Humanitarian Needs Overview and the Humanitarian Response Plan.
The Senior Assessment Officer will also present findings of AAP assessments in key fora and liaise with partners to develop operational recommendations, where relevant.
Success in this role is predicated on proactive and sustained engagement with external partners. While the
position has several central partnerships built into it, the candidate should be very comfortable in identifying, nurturing and capitalizing on partnerships related to AAP and community engagement.
More generally, the Senior Assessment Officer is expected to contribute to the maintenance of a positive image and overall credibility of the organisation.
7. Other
The Senior Assessment Officer may also be required to take on additional responsibilities relating to context analysis work stream under the supervision of the Deputy Country Coordinator – Programs, for instance, supporting on assessments with a conflict sensitivity component or on mainstreaming conflict sensitivity within the mission in South Sudan.
ACCOUNTABILITY TO COMMUNITIES AND BENEFICIARIES
The staff member is responsible for ensuring that all relations with the communities we work with are conducted in a respectful and consultative manner. Due attention must be paid to ensuring that communities are adequately consulted and informed about REACH programme objectives, activities, methodologies and research findings (where relevant). This is the responsibility of every REACH staff member.
REQUIREMENTS
- Excellent academic qualifications, including a Masters degree in relevant discipline (international studies, development, humanitarian response, human rights, political science etc.);
- At least 2-3 years of experience working in humanitarian settings required;
- Technical knowledge of or field experience relating to accountability to affected populations and/or community engagement, required;
- Excellent analytical skills including experience with qualitative analysis, required; experience in quantitative analysis an asset;
- Excellent communication and drafting skills for effective reporting required;
- Previous experience with InDesign and/or Illustrator an asset;
- Familiarity with the aid system, and understanding of donor and governmental requirements preferred;
- Ability to operate in a cross-cultural environment requiring flexibility required;
- Prior knowledge of the region an asset;
- Proven knowledge of Microsoft Suite, including Excel and PowerPoint, required;
- Ability to use Nvivo or other qualitative data analysis softwares an asset;
- Fluency in English required;
- Ability to multitask with tight deadlines, on several research cycles required;
- Ability to work independently required; and
- A good sense of humour about bugs and bucket showers required.
CONDITIONS
- Salary defined by the IMPACT salary grid; educational level, expertise, hardship, security, and performance are considered for pay bonus
- Additional monthly living allowance
- Free lodging provided at the organisation’s guesthouse or housing allowance (depending on contract length and country of assignment)
- Transportation costs covered, including additional return ticket and luggage allowance
- Provision of medical and repatriation insurance
[1] Protection is not a primary responsibility of this role. The AAP and CE SAO will be expected to support on implementing protection in REACH research cycles and will be required to maintain relationships with protection actors. However, this will be a tertiary responsibility given the role’s focus on accountability and community engagement with affected populations.