Job Description

Job Title: Accountability & Community Engagement Officer
Status: Full-time
Duty Station: Sana’a, Yemen
Duration: 1 year
No. of Staff Required: 1

An Overview about ADO
Abs Development Organization for Woman and Child (ADO) is a well-established national, humanitarian, developmental, non-profit, and non-governmental organization, founded in August 1996 by a group of Yemeni girls to provide a better life for women, children, and youths. ADO has been operating in Yemen for more than 27 years with outstanding coverage to the deprived rural areas located on the coast of Tehama and other various areas in Yemen aiming to get rid of poverty and infectious diseases. Since its inception, ADO has implemented over 213 developmental and humanitarian projects. According to ADO latest cumulative statistics, by the end of the year 2021, a total of 6,695,412 people were benefited from these interventions. Consequently, the organization has established itself among the most effective civil society organizations in Yemen that are working on issues related to livelihood, health, education, and WASH supporting women, children, and youth. Operating from its Headquarter office in Sana’a, and through its branch offices in Al Hodeida, Hajjah, Abs, Raymah Taiz, and Aden, ADO provides educational, health, livelihood, and WASH services to urban and rural communities. As ADO believes that women are the essence of life, it has devoted all its activities and programs to empower and educate women who will lead to a modern and just state. ADO also believes that protecting and caring for children will result in a prosperous future; free from crime and terrorism. Furthermore, ADO believes that youth are the potential and driving force of any modern civil society.

Job Objectives/Scope
As the Accountability and Community Engagement Officer, he/she will be instrumental in fostering a culture of transparency, accountability, and community participation within the organization. His/her role involves developing and implementing strategies to engage and empower communities, ensuring their active involvement in decision-making processes. He/she will establish and manage feedback mechanisms, coordinate community outreach initiatives, and promote a two-way communication flow between the organization and its beneficiaries. This position requires a passionate advocate for community empowerment, excellent interpersonal skills, and a commitment to building strong relationships with diverse stakeholders.

Reports to: MEARL Manager
Supervisor on: CFM officers, CFM assistants

Duties & Responsibilities
Lead the institutionalization of CEA within the ADO:

• Advise and guide senior leadership on how the ADO can strengthen and institutionalize approaches to CEA.
• Build the capacity of staff and volunteers to mainstream and implement CEA by delivering the roll out of CEA training and briefings to all levels of ADO.
• Develop CEA funding proposals and integrate CEA in other sectors’ proposals.
• Lead the integration of CEA into the ADO strategy, all plans, response plans, budget with indicators to measure progress, and cover in donor and partner reports.
• Support HR colleagues to integrate commitments to accountability into all relevant staff and volunteer role descriptions, inductions, and appraisal processes.
• Develop internal guidelines, minimum standards, tools, and SOPs for community engagement, outreach, and risk communication so it becomes a standard way of working for all staff and volunteers.
• Work with planning, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting (PMER) colleagues to ensure CEA is included in

Provide CEA support and guidance to programs and operations to:

• Train or brief program and operations staff and volunteers on the minimum actions for CEA, including their role and responsibility in meeting these procedures.
• Advise MEAL colleagues to ensure needs assessments are transparent and participatory, and capture a thorough understanding of the context, peoples’ needs and priorities, and use the most appropriate approaches for community engagement.
• Enhance community engagement through liaison with communities, including local authorities, key representatives, leaders, and influencing members and information sharing as well as contributing to establishing an effective system that can feedback into projects design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation to ensure community engagement around ADO activities.
• Ensure programs and responses are designed with the involvement and input of community members, including men, women, boys, girls, and any marginalized or at-risk groups.
• Enable active community participation in managing and guiding programs and responses.
• Support the development of gender- and age-sensitive awareness materials on the feedback and complaints response mechanism in place.
• Establish and manage community feedback mechanisms, including processes to make sure feedback is analyzed, responded to, and acted upon.
• Review, adjust, and improve programs and operations regularly, based on community feedback and monitoring data.
• Ensure program and response evaluations involve communities, including asking if they are satisfied with the program or response, how it was delivered, and what could be improved.
• Document, report and disseminate lessons learnt on CEA, support the monitoring of progress, produce case studies on good practice, and when needed response to donor reporting requirements.
• Support the integration of community engagement and risk communication approaches into behavior change programs and epidemic response, including:
• Train or brief behavior change program or epidemic response staff and volunteers on CEA and risk communication approaches with relevant departments at HQ.
• Supports the application of innovative and participatory communication and community engagement approaches that enable communities to adopt behaviors that create safe, healthier practices.
• Capture a thorough understanding of the community context and existing knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, practices, and rumors circulating in the community.
• Establish a community feedback mechanism able to capture and analyze community beliefs, fears, rumor, questions, and suggestions
• Ensure feedback, community perceptions, and insights are regularly analyzed and used to inform changes and improvements to the program/response.
• Share timely, accurate information about key risks or behaviors through the most trusted and preferred sources and channels of communication.
• Support programs and operations to update information shared with communities regularly, based on the beliefs, fears, rumor, questions, and suggestions in communities.
• Work with communities to identify community-led solutions to address challenges, improve behaviors and/or reduce the spread of infection.
• Conducting Focus Group Discussions and regular field visits to ADO project’s locations to monitor the implementation and visibility of FCRM and to collect feedback and complaints.
• Contribute to the development of specific Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to run the complaint and feedback mechanism.

Coordination and Representation:

• Support the roll out of the global CEA initiatives, including the minimum standards and actions, within the ADO.
• Coordinate CEA efforts with external partners, including the interagency Working Group, UN agencies, other NGOs, and Government.

Project Management: Develop and manage CEA plans and budgets for the ADO:

• Lead and manage the ADO CEA team.
• Any other tasks requested by line Manager related to CEA or to PMER work.

Required Personal Characteristics

• Empathy: Ability to understand and empathize with the needs and concerns of diverse community members.
• Interpersonal Skills: Excellent interpersonal and communication skills to build positive relationships with community members, stakeholders, and colleagues.
• Cultural Sensitivity: Awareness and respect for cultural differences, with the ability to tailor communication strategies to different cultural contexts.
• Advocacy Skills: Strong advocacy skills to represent community interests within the organization and ensure their voices are heard.
• Adaptability: Flexibility to adapt to different community settings and respond to evolving community needs.
• Team Player: Collaborative mindset with the ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary team.
• Conflict Resolution: Skill in handling conflicts and facilitating constructive dialogue within communities.

Part (2) Person Specification for This Job

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences, Community Development, International Relations, or a related field.
• Experience: Minimum of 3-5 years of experience in community engagement, accountability, or a related role.
• Previous experience working with NGOs or community-based organizations is advantageous.
• Community Mobilization: Proven experience in mobilizing and engaging communities in participatory decision-making processes.
• Communication Skills: Excellent written and spoken communication skills, with the ability to convey information clearly and effectively to diverse audiences.
• Project Management: Basic understanding of project management principles related to community engagement initiatives.
• Language: Proficiency in written and spoken English; additional languages relevant to the community served are beneficial.
• ADO procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

Gender: Male/Female
Start Date: 01-04-2024