NRM and Climate Services Coordinator

Position Title: NRM and Climate Services Coordinator

Duty Station: Dollo Ado, Somali Region

Open Position:  1

Program / Department Summary

Climate proofing food security in Ethiopia’s Drought-Prone Lowland Areas project (IFTIIN) the objective of this project is to enhance the livelihood, resilience, and food security of vulnerable communities, strengthen the adaptive capacities of communities, ecosystems, and systems, to reduce aid dependency by enabling program participants to become more self-reliant; and to demonstrate the effectiveness and impact of this integrated approach to bring it to scale. this project funded by World Food Program (WFP), with duration of one year in the inception period.General Position Summary

NRM and Climate Services coordinator is required to manage the climate risk solution of the program in promoting participatory NRM, early warning and disaster risk management.  This position requires someone who understands the role of culture and local communities in managing climate-based information and has deep experience in facilitating participatory early warning committees to develop plans to strengthen the community’s resilience against drought.

Essential Job ResponsibilitiesStrategy & Vision

• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed.
• Set direction by prioritizing and organizing actions & resources to achieve objectives and contribute to countrywide strategy development.
• Develop and organize activities to secure resources for programs and convince stakeholders to provide support.

Program Management

• Conduct initial assessments to climate vulnerability, livelihood sensitivity and community capacity analysis with special emphasis on resources on traditional disaster risk management and decision-making structures.
• Identify existing capacities at local and regional government, scrutinize the DRM policy and seek better approach to leverage for streamlining better mechanisms to improve early warning system of the public.
• Advocate better disaster risk management and expose tested models to the local and regional government to take up and use in their planning system.
• Built the capacity of the public sector key actors through training and technical support, create different platforms to work with the project and gradually transform the public system.
• Develop deep understanding of the natural resource management (NRM) approaches and livelihood framework in particular focus on importance of utilizing communal structures for better climate adaptation.
• Support identification and systematic inclusion of key NRM governance stakeholders at local and regional level in all relevant activities and processes.
• Develop and implement strategy for community-led disaster risk management by integrating the traditional forecast system with that of the science-based information for the community to able to anticipate and prepare for risks.
• Support the identification and systematic inclusion of key Climate change adaptation options at local and regional level in all relevant activities and processes.
• Provide support to livestock production and insurance activities in environmentally sustainable practices.
• Contribute to the strengthening of knowledge management in DRM by: attending partnership meetings; providing technical advice on project issues; monitoring the achievement of project milestones
• Integrate community based NRM approaches, gender sensitivity and capacity building of vulnerable groups into all activities as appropriate.
• Ensure program implementation is on time, target and budget, using effective M&E systems to reach desired impacts.
• Ensure all interventions adhere to Mercy Corps’ Gender Policy, Do No Harm principles, and

Capacity-building

• Provide training and on-site technical guidance to implementation of small scale irrigation systems, soil and water conservation, water harvesting, rangeland rehabilitation and conservation, and other land restoration activities, including for DAs, NR committees, community members, government partners and other program staff as applicable.
• Organize and provide technical programmatic inputs and training to field team, government partners and community partners on natural resource and disaster risk management planning and implementation techniques.
• Organize and facilitate trainings, consultative workshops and field based institutional capacity building activities around multi-community NR/CCA activities that result from community-based agreements.

Influence & Representation

• Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with community leaders, partners, local governments and other stakeholders.
• Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and programmatic obligations are met.

Organizational Learning

As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
• Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Supervisory Responsibility

Describe the staff member’s responsibility for directing the work of others, please list these staff member’s position titles.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Team Leader

Works Directly With: Project coordinator, officers and community facilitators