Access officer

Job Description

Job Title:

Access officer

Reports to:

Area Coordinator/ Donor access department

Job Location:

Afgoye, Lower Shabelle

Contract Details:

1 year contract with renewable depending on funding availability

SHACDO Background:

Shabelle Community Development organization (SHACDO) is a Humanitarian, Non-profit and non-governmental organization dedicated to responding to humanitarian emergences through provision of life-saving support mechanisms in partnership with national and international role players, promoting peace and stability, advocate against all kinds of violence, initiate long term and short-term development projects. SHACDO prioritizes to identify the most appropriate targets for their projects where the poorest communities are suffering most. Pursuant to this mission SHACDO in partner with ICR- Somalia is implementing GAVI project in Afgoye, Lower Shabelle Region. As part of this project SHACDO is looking qualified Access Officer to be based in Afgoye, with a wide range of experience including access and security related implementation. The Somalia context, specifically Lower Shabelle regions requires innovative thinking, and integrating access strategies with programmatic tools, objectives and activities. Strong candidates are those who are able to demonstrate a practical knowledge of the links between program implementation, acceptance and access.

Job Description:

The Access officer will support SHACDO and donor teams in the implementation of global Access guidance, security awareness and policies in close collaboration with program, safety and support teams. He/she serves as the area safety and security focal person. He/she will support the facilitation and maintenance of a network of external stakeholders to corroborate information and resolve operational access challenges – this includes extensive engagement at community level across different areas of SHACDO departments and donor.

Main Duties & Responsibilities:

· Collaborate with program team to ensure that IRC and other donors, their mission, and work in the areas of operations is known and accepted.

· Develop ongoing relationships with community elders and other stakeholders to ensure that the donors’ mission and work within SWS is known, accepted and safe.

· Provide technical input and advice in assessments and proposals for potential donor programming in new geographic areas as required.

· Support local partners to ensure the good compliance with IRC safety and Security Standards and Requirements according to the level of responsibility mentioned in the legal clause of the partnership agreement (for example: 50%/50% for the REACH/GAVI project) Assess and regularly monitor security and safety situations in the field to determine appropriate action.

· Maintain a network for exchange of reliable information on-the-ground situation.

· Ensure safety and security standards are observed in the office, vehicles and project activity sites.

· Lead in preparedness and execution of contingency safety and security procedures from staff security briefings to evacuation

· Submit incident reports; and manage day to day security including tracking of movements of staff and visitors and provide updated consolidate information to the senior management.

· Assess and monitor security situation (i.e. threats, weather condition) through coordination with other actors and secondary information, and determine appropriate security threat level at all times.

· Help build and maintain a reliable network for safety & security information within SHACDO, donors and with other actors, using networks established including United Nations organizations.

· Ensuring protocols and procedures are in place in the event of a security incident, from road traffic accident to earthquake to typhoon. This must include clear actions for both field and office based staff, during office and out-of-office hours, and include identification of evacuation routes, and roles and responsibilities of staff.

· Support in the rolling out and enhanced understanding of these plans amongst all staff including all-staff briefings and individual briefings.

· Monitoring staff movement including limiting or restricting movement on location and time, accounting for staff movements and providing updated overviews of daily movements activities.

· Facilitate effective information flow between field-level access realities and the coordination teams at area and country level

· Support the facilitation and maintenance of a network of external stakeholders to corroborate information and resolve operational access challenges – this includes extensive engagement at community level across different areas of SHACDO operations

· Supports the timely production of district-level context assessments, stakeholder mapping, access dynamics and trend analysis

· Identify opportunities for strengthening access measures, as well as opportunities for promoting community acceptance and accountability to the affected population.

· Represent SHACDO in the Access Working Group and/or coordination working group

Skills and Qualifications
· University level degree in Social science, relevant subject or relevant technical qualification

· Proven experience working in complex emergency contexts with hard-to-reach components, including provision of technical advice to field teams and programme development with a particular focus on access

· Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organize a substantial workload comprised of complex, diverse tasks and responsibilities and to delegate

Excellent communication skills in English, including ability to present complex technical information in a simple way.

How to apply
How to Apply

Interested candidates, who meet the above requirements, should submit their applications (cover letter and update Interested and qualified candidates, who meet the above requirements, should submit their applications (cover letter and updated CVs, please combine into a single PDF document) by email addresses hr@shacdo.org with the subject line “Access officer” not later than 4th August 2024.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interview.

Code of Conduct and its Associated Policies

SHACDO has an organisational Code of Conduct (CoC). This has been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation, and to clarify the responsibilities of SHACDO staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and the standards of behaviour expected of them. In this context, staff have a responsibility to the organisation to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with SHACDO’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with SHACDO will be expected to sign the Staff Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment. By signing the Code of Conduct, candidates acknowledge that they have understood the content of SHACDO Code of Conduct and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of the policy.