10:06 AM
maboko
Kenya
faced severe drought in 2011 whose impacts are still being felt, following
successive rain failures.
The drought described as one of the worst in 60 years affected three quarters of the country especially in the North Eastern, Rift Valley, Eastern and Coast provinces. 3.75million people mainly the pastoralists, farmers in marginal agricultural areas as well as the urban poor were affected.
The drought caused crop failure, depleted pasture, water and led to loss of livestock contributing to a sharp deterioration of household food security.
Turkana and Garissa districts are often exposed and are among the worst affected districts.
They suffer from repeated natural disasters, conflict and are among the poorest regions in Kenya.
Additional pressure from the burden of refugees on existing natural resources such as water and pasture, fire-wood which are at the bare minimum due to drought and mainly overburdens women’s lives, often increase tension and could lead to conflict between refugees and communities hosting them.
To address this, UNDP together with GOK have developed a project as a medium term measure to support recovery as well as build resilience of communities especially youth and women’s groups affected by the drought and to strengthen institutions responsible for recovery and disaster risk reduction work.
The intervention will address short term livelihoods economic recovery needs of youth and women while establishing in the process the capacities and building blocks of sustainable local long-term development.
The project will combine temporary employment (labor intensive community infrastructure development or rehabilitation), business counseling (mentoring and coaching) and skills training aimed at income generation activities which are in high demand in local markets, access to start-up capital for business oriented production or service provision.
Importantly, a saving component will be introduced during the temporary employment and will be accompanied by financial literacy training.
The project takes a dual approach of building capacities from the bottom up through the empowerment of communities in particular women’s groups to initiate and manage their own recovery while at the same time building the capacities of local governments to interact, partner with and support these community efforts and their longer term development goals.
Job Profile
The livelihoods specialist will provide advisory and technical support in livelihoods and economic recovery.
Specifically, the Livelihoods Specialist will perform the following duties:
1. Provide advisory and technical support to the Restoration and Stabilization of Livelihoods for Drought affected and Host Communities project with special emphasis on quality assurance;
2. Provide technical and programme expertise for developing and implementing innovative approaches to promote sustainable livelihoods and/or enterprise development, food security and employment creation;
3. Plan and implement strategic activities to improve livelihoods development, key enterprises and other rapid employment generation for drought affected communities in Turkana and Garissa through institutional development and technical support to relevant UNDP and government agencies;
4. Provide policy advice on post-crisis livelihoods and economic recovery (i.e. documenting best practices, use evidence based project results to influence policy, capacity development of UNDP staff and partners on livelihoods and economic recovery, pro-active knowledge management and dissemination, etc.);
5. Lead on UNDP’s livelihoods and economic recovery practice within the Disaster Risk Reduction & Recovery unit;
6. Contribute to the Disaster Risk Reduction & Recovery Unit’s advocacy, partnership and resource mobilization strategies.
7. Ensure coordination and synergy with initiatives/projects of other UNDP Kenya programme units practice areas;
8. Represent UNDP in national level fora (i.e. Early Recovery cluster and other livelihoods working groups);
9. Establish partnerships with government, UN agencies, international and national NGOs, private sector and academia and influence initiatives undertaken in partnership with government and these stakeholders
Education
1. A master’s degree in a livelihood development field (development studies, agriculture, livestock, agricultural economics) or other related fields.
Experience
1. At least 7 years of professional experience in programme management and coordination with government and / or UN Agencies or NGOs with emphasis on managing livelihoods and economic recovery projects, enterprise development and value chains.
2. Substantive experience in policy development and the provision of policy advice in the field of Livelihoods and private sector development.
3. Extensive experience designing, implementing and evaluating projects that are focused on promotion of sustainable livelihoods and enterprise development, food security, youth livelihoods development and women economic empowerment, integration with value chains, utilization of cash transfer modalities (cash for work, cash grants, etc.) and access to microfinance (savings, loans, etc.).
4. Experience in community based disaster risk reduction and community peace building an asset.
5. Proven experience in developing and implementing innovative approaches for these technical areas.
6. Working experience in Turkana and Garissa districts desirable.
7. Extensive experience of results oriented M&E systems and procedures, strategic planning, quality control and data analysis.
8. Sound leadership, management and mentoring skills and experience.
Application Procedure
Interested and qualified persons should apply on the UNDP Kenya e-Recruitment portal located on the UNDP Kenya website - http://www.ke.undp.org on or before 2 May 2012. Select “e-Recruitment Portal” under “Operations/Human Resources”.
Applicants are required to fill and sign a Personal History Form (P11) Form and submit it together with their online application Applications received via other means will not be accepted.
Additional considerations
1. Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.
2. UNDP will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.
“UNDP is an equal opportunity employer which strives to achieve overall balance in its staffing patterns”.
The drought described as one of the worst in 60 years affected three quarters of the country especially in the North Eastern, Rift Valley, Eastern and Coast provinces. 3.75million people mainly the pastoralists, farmers in marginal agricultural areas as well as the urban poor were affected.
The drought caused crop failure, depleted pasture, water and led to loss of livestock contributing to a sharp deterioration of household food security.
Turkana and Garissa districts are often exposed and are among the worst affected districts.
They suffer from repeated natural disasters, conflict and are among the poorest regions in Kenya.
Additional pressure from the burden of refugees on existing natural resources such as water and pasture, fire-wood which are at the bare minimum due to drought and mainly overburdens women’s lives, often increase tension and could lead to conflict between refugees and communities hosting them.
To address this, UNDP together with GOK have developed a project as a medium term measure to support recovery as well as build resilience of communities especially youth and women’s groups affected by the drought and to strengthen institutions responsible for recovery and disaster risk reduction work.
The intervention will address short term livelihoods economic recovery needs of youth and women while establishing in the process the capacities and building blocks of sustainable local long-term development.
The project will combine temporary employment (labor intensive community infrastructure development or rehabilitation), business counseling (mentoring and coaching) and skills training aimed at income generation activities which are in high demand in local markets, access to start-up capital for business oriented production or service provision.
Importantly, a saving component will be introduced during the temporary employment and will be accompanied by financial literacy training.
The project takes a dual approach of building capacities from the bottom up through the empowerment of communities in particular women’s groups to initiate and manage their own recovery while at the same time building the capacities of local governments to interact, partner with and support these community efforts and their longer term development goals.
Job Profile
The livelihoods specialist will provide advisory and technical support in livelihoods and economic recovery.
Specifically, the Livelihoods Specialist will perform the following duties:
1. Provide advisory and technical support to the Restoration and Stabilization of Livelihoods for Drought affected and Host Communities project with special emphasis on quality assurance;
2. Provide technical and programme expertise for developing and implementing innovative approaches to promote sustainable livelihoods and/or enterprise development, food security and employment creation;
3. Plan and implement strategic activities to improve livelihoods development, key enterprises and other rapid employment generation for drought affected communities in Turkana and Garissa through institutional development and technical support to relevant UNDP and government agencies;
4. Provide policy advice on post-crisis livelihoods and economic recovery (i.e. documenting best practices, use evidence based project results to influence policy, capacity development of UNDP staff and partners on livelihoods and economic recovery, pro-active knowledge management and dissemination, etc.);
5. Lead on UNDP’s livelihoods and economic recovery practice within the Disaster Risk Reduction & Recovery unit;
6. Contribute to the Disaster Risk Reduction & Recovery Unit’s advocacy, partnership and resource mobilization strategies.
7. Ensure coordination and synergy with initiatives/projects of other UNDP Kenya programme units practice areas;
8. Represent UNDP in national level fora (i.e. Early Recovery cluster and other livelihoods working groups);
9. Establish partnerships with government, UN agencies, international and national NGOs, private sector and academia and influence initiatives undertaken in partnership with government and these stakeholders
Education
1. A master’s degree in a livelihood development field (development studies, agriculture, livestock, agricultural economics) or other related fields.
Experience
1. At least 7 years of professional experience in programme management and coordination with government and / or UN Agencies or NGOs with emphasis on managing livelihoods and economic recovery projects, enterprise development and value chains.
2. Substantive experience in policy development and the provision of policy advice in the field of Livelihoods and private sector development.
3. Extensive experience designing, implementing and evaluating projects that are focused on promotion of sustainable livelihoods and enterprise development, food security, youth livelihoods development and women economic empowerment, integration with value chains, utilization of cash transfer modalities (cash for work, cash grants, etc.) and access to microfinance (savings, loans, etc.).
4. Experience in community based disaster risk reduction and community peace building an asset.
5. Proven experience in developing and implementing innovative approaches for these technical areas.
6. Working experience in Turkana and Garissa districts desirable.
7. Extensive experience of results oriented M&E systems and procedures, strategic planning, quality control and data analysis.
8. Sound leadership, management and mentoring skills and experience.
Application Procedure
Interested and qualified persons should apply on the UNDP Kenya e-Recruitment portal located on the UNDP Kenya website - http://www.ke.undp.org on or before 2 May 2012. Select “e-Recruitment Portal” under “Operations/Human Resources”.
Applicants are required to fill and sign a Personal History Form (P11) Form and submit it together with their online application Applications received via other means will not be accepted.
Additional considerations
1. Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.
2. UNDP will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.
“UNDP is an equal opportunity employer which strives to achieve overall balance in its staffing patterns”.
