Civil Society Advisor

 

Program background 

The program “Supporting Decentralization and Local Development in Iraq” is commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Positive developments can be observed about the security situation that now allows recruiting national employees in the governorates. Given this wider room of implementation, the project’s design and its implementation plan have been reviewed and adjusted. 
The project will support decentralization in Iraq by reducing the financial dependence of the governorates on the national budget and by investing its own local resources. This will reduce the financial burden on the national budget, on the long term, can contribute in changing the prevailing administrative culture, which is based on receiving orders and budgets from the capital and spread the culture of finding local solution depending on local sources to implement local development plans. 

The decentralization project will support local development in the governorates by activating the local resources maximization units. It will support selected districts by identifying (income generating) projects that can benefit its citizens and cover part of operational costs. It will increase civil society participation in two districts by including their needs and priorities in development planning and their auditing role as well on the district activities. It intends to develop the Iraqi partners’ technical capacities through training to overcome technical obstacles and to suggest improvements of the administrative cycle and the legal environment. It follows a participatory approach during its planning and implementation together with the Iraqi partners. Upon the partners’ requests and suggestions, the previous project design has been modified entirely to ensure both the cooperation with the Iraqi authorities as well as the implementation of the activities alongside the Iraqi expertise in addition to the previous bringing international experiences and example that can be useful for the Iraqi case. It will work at different administrative levels starting from the Higher Commission for Coordination among the Provinces (HCCP) the Ministry of Planning (MoP), and Federal Board of Supreme Audit (FOSP) at the national level, via the governorates and districts ending at the local communities’ level. 
This multi-level approach not only allows project activities to be linked but moreover paves the way for an integrated development cycle that starts with citizens’ needs and reflect them in the national development plan. The previous will be the prerequisite for widespread and advanced steps of decentralization and local development measures in the national development plan that will be implemented by national institutions. 

 

Tasks 

The position main duties focus at supporting the international civil society advisor in civil society related activities and supporting the National Center for Management Development and Information Technology (NCMDIT).

Civil society activities

• Communicating with MOP with coordination of program advisor to introduce the idea and discuss the partner inputs.

• Communicating with Central Office of Statistics (COS), supporting the development of the questionnaire and sample selection, after that include the result of the survey and observations in the handbook.

• Participate in the Dialogue forums that includes presenters of the three marginalized groups and local governmental authorities and collect inputs and observations for the handbook

• Composing a handbook draft and present it to the MOP and collect their feedback

• Present the draft accepted by MOP to the program director and update in accordance.

• Present the handbook to the MOP in formal ceremony.

 

National Center for Management Development and Information Technology (NCMDIT) activities

• Establishing a cooperation mainframe

• Selecting trainings topics in coordination with program director

• Developing curriculum in coordination with specialized consultants

• Train the trainers measures in coordination with specialized Trainers

• Implementing at least five trainings.

 

Miscellaneous

• Ensuring conflict-sensitive implementation of activities

• Identifying and providing program-related source of information directly linked to the program’s work streams

• Providing translation and interpretation (Arabic-English and vice versa) when needed during exchanges with local stakeholders

• Coordinating any movements in close coordination with the project team and the respective RMO-responsible colleagues

• Creating and updating contact lists of program-related stakeholders

• Representing the program and liaising with local authorities

• Reporting on the progress of the implementation of activities in the selected districts 

• Supporting in procurements if any

Archiving in MS teams

The position holder checks and maintain the proper archiving in MS teams in according to the regulations.

 

Other duties/additional tasks 

The position holder will support the program with any additional tasks of non-technical nature if deemed necessary.

 

Required qualifications, competencies and experience Qualifications 

Professional experience 

• Education: University degree in public administration, social sciences, business administration or related field.

• Experience: Minimum of 5 years of relevant experience. 

• Work for an international company or development organization is an advantage.

• Responsibility: Independent execution of tasks according to existing planning and consultation with supervisor and colleagues.

• Tasks require constructive creative thinking, sometimes also conceptual initiative.

• Above-average academic Arabic and fluent English language proficiencies are mandatory (written and spoken).

Other knowledge, additional competencies

• Resident in Baghdad 

• Office Software literacy

• Team player, proactive and responsible personality, innovative and flexible.