Civil Society Technical Lead – USAID Libya Local Governance and Civil Society/Taqarib

Description

SCOPE OF WORK

Libya Local Governance and Civil Society (Taqarib)

CIVIL SOCIETY (OBJECTIVE 2) TECHNICAL LEAD

Project Background:

The Libya Local Governance and Civil Society (Taqarib) Activity seeks a more stable and unified Libyan state through its support of good-governance at the municipal level.  Taqarib’s work is part of a bottom-up approach to good governance in general.  The project improves performance and legitimacy among local governments, and then spreads those gains horizontally, to other municipalities, and vertically, as a basis for change at the national level.  It accomplishes these goals by executing activities under four components:

• Component I: Taqarib’s primary line of effort is to provide technical assistance, equipment, and supplies directly to Libyan municipalities, so that they may better plan and execute the delivery of local services.
• Component II: Supports Component I by ensuring that communities participate meaningfully in the planning, execution, and oversight of municipal service delivery.
• Component III: Supports Component I by analyzing the legal implications of new and successful service-delivery approaches at the local level, and by codifying those successful approaches in the publication of policies, standards, and guidelines for municipal governance.
• Component IV: Supports the entire project by facilitating a continuous learning cycle, including activity monitoring and evaluation, robust public perception data-collection and analysis, and quarterly strategy reviews.

Purpose:

The Civil Society (Objective 2) Technical Lead will guide Taqarib’s efforts to grow community participation in service-delivery planning, execution, and oversight at the municipal level. The Component Lead will design activities that fulfill Taqarib’s performance indicators and will integrate these activities seamlessly with other components. The Component Lead will expand Taqarib’s relationships with community actors who are instrumental to these efforts, giving equal attention to individual contributors, civil society organizations, and private-sector entities.

Success Factors

1. Knowledge : The Component Lead will demonstrate deep familiarity with specific and successful approaches to community-mobilization in a variety of contexts.
2. Ownership : The Component Lead will take responsibility for the design quality of his or her strategy and activities, ready and willing to adjust if these prove unsuccessful.  The Lead will have a clear sense of the budget and staffing levels necessary for success and will manage these resources for results.
3. Practicality : The Component Lead will understand that strategies are linked to activities and vice-versa.  The Lead will exhibit constant awareness of Taqarib’s progress indicators, always seeking to maximize the project’s fulfillment of reportable impact.
4. Communication : The Component Lead will maintain clear, concise, and comprehensive communication with staff, colleagues, beneficiaries, and (as required) the donor. The Lead will also prepare excellent, finished documents and presentations for both internal and external consumption. He or she will also be prepared to fulfill extensive reporting requirements.
5. Collaboration : The Component Lead will naturally gravitate toward a brand of activity-design that is fully integrated with the work and strategies of Taqarib’s other components.
6. Impartiality : The Component Lead will demonstrate unquestionable impartiality in the design and implementation of activities in Libya’s highly charged political environment.

Responsibilities and Key Tasks:

• Lead the design of Component II strategy and activities, which should grow meaningful community participation in local service-delivery planning, execution and oversight.
• Incorporate special emphasis on strategies and activities that improve participation and service-delivery outcomes for women, ethnic minorities, and other disadvantaged constituencies.
• Manage staff and other resources so that Component II achieves its objectives on-time, on-scope, and on-budget.
• Lead the oral and written reporting of Component II activities and results on a weekly, quarterly, and annual basis.
• Lead the evaluation of Component II activities during quarterly strategy reviews.
• Provide leadership to the project as a whole through participation on the Senior Management Team.
• In coordination with regional teams, continuously grow Taqarib’s rolodex of individual, civil society, and private-sector partners.
• Guide research and development of an Organizational Performance Index for application among civil-society organizations in Libya.
• Coordinate with Civil Society partners to conduct Performance Index evaluations.
• Develop a strategy for Taqarib’s Champions for Change program and design specific activities.
• Develop a strategy for the deployment of grants in support of Component II objectives. Support Taqarib’s grants team in the solicitation, evaluation, award and management of grant activities.
• Lead design of social accountability tools that citizens will use to monitor local service-delivery and provide feedback to municipal governments.
• Other tasks and responsibilities as assigned by the Taqarib Deputy Chief of Party.

Qualifications:

• The Objective Lead must be authorized to live and work in Libya under USG-funded programming.
• At least eight years of progressively responsible professional experience in democratic governance and politics, preferably working directly with civil society organizations/NGOs, private-sector entities or interest-groups, government, universities, and other civic institutions.
• Undergraduate degree in political science, international relations or related field; Graduate degree preferred.
• Knowledge of Libyan political history and structure required. Existing network of relationships with CSOs and other entities involved in local governance preferred.
• Demonstrated experience working with US Government funded projects and familiarity with USG regulations and processes.
• Experience with program management and operations.
• Professional fluency in English and Arabic required.
• Strong written and oral communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to travel regionally and maintain political neutrality in the Libyan context.

Location and Reporting:

The Objective 2 Lead will be based in Tripoli and report to the Deputy Chief of Party.