Save the Children is seeking a Senior Community Engagement Director for an anticipated 5-year USAID-funded integrated health project in Mali. The project will support the Ministry of Health in scaling up high impact maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition services in an effort to improve health and nutrition outcomes for women of reproductive age and children under 5. The Senior Advisor will report directly to the COP and will assist with the design and implementation of program activities related to engaging communities with a focus on community financial management, ownership and oversight of local health services and implementing community health promotion to adopt health behavior practices and the use of essential health services in Mali. The incumbent is responsible for designing and ensuring effective implementation of the project’s CE strategy to achieve intended program results. S/he will closely monitor and use program data to refine and improve the CE strategy in close collaboration with other implementing partners. S/he will train and support implementing partners and field staff in community mobilization. S/he will work in close collaboration with his/her counterparts at the partner NGOs and Ministry of Health (MOH) district, municipality and village levels. .
This position will be based in Bamako with frequent (up to 25%) travel to the field.
- Provide technical oversight for all CE activities. Lead the overall Community Mobilization design, including analysis of baseline research findings to refine existing plans.
- Facilitate implementing partners to develop a realistic, detailed implementation plan, including measurable indicators and milestones.
- Provide TA to partner NGOs to assist their staff in CE in three regions, e.g., 2. Assist in design and help conduct PRA activities at the community level with partners NGOs, help to carry on the micro planning and actual community entry strategy for the partners.
- Guide and help select community action groups and other existing community structures to lead CM implementation
- Conduct joint supervisory visits of CM activities in collaboration with partner NGOs and district staff.
- Monitor the activities of the partner organization according to work plan and M&E Plan and organize meeting with the staff of partner organizations to analyze project progress or any other issues, when and as needed; track and document the results of the CM/BCC activities in collaboration with the DPM M&E.
- Liaison with local government representatives to organize training/workshops relevant to the program.
- Perform any other tasks assigned by the supervisor as and when needed.
- Support ongoing communications with program stakeholders, USAID and other partners regarding knowledge sharing and community mobilization activities.
- Continuously identify needs and analyze results to develop new learning programs or modify and improve the effectiveness of existing program needs.
- Minimum of 7-10 years of relevant experience working on community engagement and mobilization, training and project management, with previous experience working in developing countries.
- Demonstrated ability to work with host government and partners in managing a complex project in the field under challenging circumstances.
- Proven capacity and experience providing community capacity strengthening/CE TA in for effective community mobilization.
- Extensive experience supporting Maternal and Newborn health-focused programs preferred.
- Significant experience facilitating participatory training workshops, including training of trainers in community mobilization/community empowerment.
- Proven ability to work effectively with communities and community-based organizations to facilitate collective action for health and social change.
- Excellent skills in mentoring and supporting NGO and public sector partners at the field level.
- Excellent supervision and team-building skills.
- Good coordination skills to develop partnership with local elected government, health officials, NGO officials and other formal and informal community leaders.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in French and English, and the ability to work effectively with members of a team. Proficient in computer skills of word processing in MS Word, spreadsheet in Excel, Power Point, etc.
- Significant knowledge of community based/non-governmental sector in Mali, specifically organizations working with health systems, public and private sectors and community development and governance.
- Experience with community governance, social accountability programming, or community financial management preferred
- Experience working on similar USAID or other donor-funded programs; familiarity with USAID regulations and policies preferred.
- Familiarity with the political, social, and cultural context and experience working within Mali preferred.
- Ability to travel up to 25% of the time.