Project coordinator (Kenya nationals)

Background

The Drylands Development Centre (DDC) is one of the three UNDP Thematic Centres around the world. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, DDC provides core support for development and poverty reduction in the drylands to affected countries world-wide through the Integrated Drylands Development Programme (IDDP). The overall goal of the IDDP is to contribute to poverty reduction through the sustainable development of drylands leading to reduced vulnerability and improved livelihoods. The Programme addresses three interlinked issues of importance to poverty alleviation in the drylands, namely:

• Mainstreaming of drylands development issues into national policy, planning and development frameworks;
• Improving local governance of natural resources; and
• Reducing vulnerability of poor populations to climatic shocks especially drought.

After two consecutive seasons of inadequate rainfall since 2010, the impacts of drought have dominated the humanitarian scene across the Horn of Africa (HoA) from mid-2011. The terms such as risk reduction, vulnerability reduction and resilience building are increasingly becoming the new 'hot topic' being highlighted at various drought fora and included in numerous drought-focused project documents. However, in-depth assessment through a series of meetings, consultations and exchange of ideas revealed that both humanitarian and development organizations active in the HoA are still largely limited in their capacity to translate the concepts of drought risk reduction (DRR) into practice on the ground. The fact that the region continues to have repeated drought crisis every few years and that the situation continues to exacerbate proves that a durable solution has not yet been fully put in place.

There have been various efforts to document proven community-based DRR experiences so as to scale up and out the established measures and techniques. On the flip side of these efforts is information overload and fatigue: interested stakeholders are often caught in a deluge of good practices and lessons learnt in the absence of a clear definition of "good", "best" and "success" and common indicators/comparable data to measure tangible long-term impacts of these interventions.

Recent efforts to assess the full spectrum of economic costs associated with ongoing and past drought crises in the HoA (e.g., Disaster Loss Database, Post-Disaster Needs Assessment, etc.) are expected to help build strong political will and commitment to meet the growing risk reduction needs. However, socio-economic and environmental losses buffered by islands of innovative DRR practices are insufficiently recognized in these exercises and hence could be overlooked in the Governments' priority areas of action planning processes in the future, leading to duplicative efforts, reinvention of the wheel and knowledge loss in the region.

Pilot attempts are under way at global level to develop standardized criteria for holistically quantifying the impacts of drought investments, throughout the DRR cycle of prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery, not only in terms of life saving but also in terms of reducing underlying vulnerability. A quantitative impact analysis of community-based DRR initiatives is expected to help fill in the multiple gaps evident in the ongoing DRR implementation - between government-led/top down processes and community-driven/bottom-up measures, among sectoral approaches and between development and humanitarian partners - shifting their scattered foci strategically and enhancing their coordination towards long-term resilience enhancement and livelihoods improvement.

It is in this context that the UNDP-DDC developed the Building Drought Resilient Dryland Communities in the Horn of Africa Project, with the financial support from the Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department of the European Commission (ECHO). The project intends to build on the going efforts and introduce robust analytical tools through which to measure the socio-economic and environmental impacts of community-based DRR in short and long terms systematically, particularly focusing on quantifying the results of development and humanitarian interventions, in the HoA region, inter alia Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti. The overall objective of the project is to reduce drought disaster risks and improve human livelihoods in the drought-prone communities in the HoA by establishing an integrated enabling DRR planning and programming framework at national and regional levels in the region, effectively promoting local resilience building and vulnerability reduction.

The Terms of Reference at hand is for the Project Coordinator, who will coordinate the implementation of various project activities to ensure quality and timeliness in delivery of outputs, in accordance with the project workplan, under the three components:

• Quantitative Impact Assessment Methodology: This component aims at developing a rigorous conceptual framework and standardized methodology for measuring and assessing the impacts of community-based DRR interventions on local/national resilience building. It seeks to introduce broadly applicable and comparable indicators/indexes that evaluate and aggregate short- and long-term changes and trends in drought resilience as a result of various interventions comprehensively in quantitative values. It will also take into consideration the qualitative measures of other less readily quantifiable impacts to allow for the deeper interpretation of results obtained from quantitative assessment by shedding light on the processes and causal relationships.
• Capacity development: This component aims at improving the capacity of local/national/regional disaster management institutions to plan, implement and monitor drought interventions against their contributions to long-term community resilience building, particularly for the most vulnerable populations.
• Policy advocacy: This component aims at raising awareness among decision-makers at local, national and regional levels in the potentials of community-based DRR for drought vulnerability reduction in the HOA and enhancing their capacity to integrate proven practices into policy and planning processes.

Duties and responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Project Manager, the Project Coordinator will be responsible for the following tasks:

General functions:

• Coordinate and monitor the timely implementation of project activities as per the workplan and against the indicators and targets established in the project document.
• Provide early warning advice on risks to project implementation and make recommendations for risk mitigation measures.
• Prepare quarterly progress reports in correspondence with the logical framework.
• Liaise closely with partners operating under ECHO’s 2012 Drought Risk Reduction Action Plan (DRRAP), including participation in regular Regional Learning Group meetings, to present progress and perspectives of the project's implementation and enhance coherence and complementary implementation among the DRRAP projects.
• Maintain positive and effective networks and working relationship with key government/inter-governmental bodies, international organizations, civil society organizations and other stakeholders working in the area of DRR in the HoA.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and support dissemination of project outputs/publications to target partners through various channels based on the project communication and visibility plan.
• Perform other duties as may be assigned by the Project Manager.

Specific Functions under Component 1:

• Provide technical and coordinating support to the Technical Advisor for participatory development of the conceptual framework and methodology for comprehensive community-based DRR impact assessment, including, among others: facilitate key informant interviews with the DRRAP partners and other stakeholders in the HoA and elsewhere; provide technical backstopping support to the organization of online discussion forum; and provide technical and logistical support to organization of field missions in selected DRRAP pilot operation sites in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.
• Assist the Project Team hosted by the UNDP-DDC in Nairobi, Kenya, in the planning, organization and facilitation of the 2nd Africa-Asia Drought Adaptation Forum, scheduled for September, 2012. Perform the tasks of a Rapporteur and produce minutes of the forum and support the Project Manager in development of a comprehensive forum report.
• Operationalize a database on community-based DRR good practices on Drought Online website in close collaboration with the UN-ISDR and FAO, by compiling and screening DRR information, education and communication and project resources into a more consistent and accessible format as per the finalized conceptual framework and methodology. Ensure that the contents of Drought Online are kept updated and promote sharing of information, experiences and materials across the project countries.

Specific Functions under Component 2:

• Provide technical support to the Technical Advisor in the organization of training session(s) to build awareness and capacity of selected local, national and regional disaster management institutions in resilience driven drought project planning, implementation, monitoring and communication. Perform the tasks of a Rapporteur and produce minutes of the session(s) and support the development of a comprehensive report.
• Assist the Project Team in the planning, organization and facilitation of the south-south in-field exchange event(s) and prepare detailed event report(s) as well as follow-up progress monitoring report(s).

Specific Functions under Component 3:

• Assist the Project Team in the planning, organization and facilitation of the 5th Africa Drought Adaptation Forum, scheduled for the 1st quarter of 2013. Perform the tasks of a Rapporteur and produce minutes of the forum and support the Project Manager in the development of a comprehensive forum report.
• Record the national/regional/international fora where the outputs of the project are circulated and keep track of their utilization by DRRAP partners their counterpart disaster management institutions at local, national and regional levels.

Required skills and experience

The Project Coordinator should have the following qualifications, skills and knowledge:

Education:

• Masters degree or equivalent in disaster management, environment, development or a related field.

Experience:

• Minimum 7 (seven) years of professional work experience in the field of disaster risk management, preferably drought, at least 5 years of which must be in project management, implementation, monitoring and reporting, donor liaison or related functions.
• Experiences in both humanitarian and development projects would be an asset.
• Previous experience with the United Nations and/or other multilateral, bilateral organizations and international civil society development partners is highly desirable. Past experience with ECHO programme(s) will be an advantage.

Language:

• Excellent oral, written, presentation and communications skills in English.