Participatory Integrated Planning Specialist

Job Title: Participatory Integrated Planning Specialist
Location: Jinja, Uganda
Reports to: Participatory Integrated Planning & Community Strengthening Coordinator

Direct Reports: CSO Partners (3) and Community Engagement Officers (9)

Application Deadline: 12th September 2024

GOAL and its consortium partner, Wageningen Environmental Research (WENR) and Technical Partners Resilience BV and Agriterra will be commencing on a 5 years resilient and inclusive economic development programme – INSPIRE, funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Kampala.  The objective of the programme is to build climate resilient and more productive farming systems and livelihoods, with environmentally sustainable and commercially viable practices, as such sustainably increasing productivity and income of 200,000 smallholder farming households (SHF) in Busoga and Lango regions. Through a participatory and community-led approach, INSPIRE aims to tackle the root causes of: Limited social resilience and agency of SHF; Underdeveloped farming systems with high vulnerability of SHF for climate and economic shocks; and Inefficient, inequitable markets in Lango and Busoga regions, to contribute to the goal of “resilient and inclusive economic development of rural lowland communities”. The project works through four pathways to achieve its goal “increased income and livelihood resilience of SHF to climate change and market failures”. Pathway and Outcome 1 focuses on enhanced social resilience and agency in SHF households and communities ; Pathway and Outcome 2 focuses on ensuring SHF farming systems are more sustainable, productive and resilient to shocks.; Pathway and Outcome 3 focuses on SHF actively participating and benefiting in inclusive markets; and Pathway and Outcome 4 ensures SHF have enhanced voice and influence to address market system issues. This can only be achieved with the active and full participation of SHF and local stakeholders from the onset.

Job Purpose

The Participatory Integrated Planning (PIP) Specialist is a hands-on technical expert who will be available to provide implementation support and quality assure the Participatory Integrated Planning (PIP) approach at the grassroots level on a day to day basis for the INSPIRE programme. The post holder  reports to and works closely with the PIP and Community Strengthening Coordinator which is based in Jinja and cross functionally with the other Portfolio Coordinators and consortium and technical partners; providing technical backstopping and supervision of the on-ground PIP Field Officers at District and subcounty/Village level. He/She will be responsive for active liaison with the other EKN funded projects who are implementing the PIP approach in their project implementation i.e. Common Ground, BRIGHT and INCLUDE projects as well as with the WENR experts who are leading and guiding the PIP approach and implementation. Pathway 1 is the foundation of community-led development, with SHF HHs and communities taking greater ownership of activities based on their self-identified needs, priorities and aspirations. It therefore contributes to all other Pathways and is fundamental to the overall success and sustainability of the project. The expected results of the INSPIRE programme for which this position will be technically contributing to are:

• Strong, dynamic and well-organized communities;
• Enhanced, diverse collaboration among local stakeholders to strengthen social networks.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Project Planning and Implementation  

• Participate in the assessments and identification of target communities and support implementation of the PIP approach.
• Identify and propose improvements in the PIP approach and scaling process with the technical support team of other projects using the PIP approach, funded by the same donor.
• Support and backstop the field teams to conduct awareness raising and capacity building within farmer households (HH) and communities on developing visions and action plans to increase household and community resilience using the Participatory Integrated Planning (PIP) approach.
• Support and quality assure the farmer groups training on locally relevant crop and land management practices for resilient farming and support them to establish and monitor Integrated Plot Plans (IPPs) where best practices are integrated to restore soil health.
• Supervise capacity building trainings conducted by the CSO partners and their staff on a diversity of social resilience topics to create changes in mindset and practice.
• Lead the team to conduct awareness raising workshops at community level with village leaders, support the establishment of Village Committees and foster collective action.
• Ensure Village Committees implement their Village Visions, based on related action plans and priorities set by communities including local value chain development
• Support the District and Subcounty teams to conduct community strengthening activities in target villages, based on the inventory of priorities that may include topics such as community structuring, leadership, conflict-reduction, and others
• Work with the teams to support environmental clubs to conduct PIP inspired environmental education in primary and secondary schools

Knowledge Development, Documentation and Reporting 

• Regularly collect project data contributing to the monitoring of progress made at both output and outcome level
• Systematically document experiences and lessons learned across communities and report results to project team members as need arises
• Compile and prepare periodic reports highlighting progress with establishment of resilient farming systems based on project periodic plans.

People Management

• Lead, steer and coach regional teams/colleagues and associated PIP implementing organisations, and other external stakeholders on quality implementation of the PIP activities.

Representation Collaboration/Networking and Coordination 

• Establish and maintain good coordination and working relationships with INSPIRE Partners and district leadership, local government departments, representing GOAL in district coordination meetings and soliciting their participation in all activities where appropriate and as directed by the line manager. 
• Maintain close working relationship and ensure close coordination and sharing of information with relevant stakeholders such as local government departments, NGO’s and local authorities, as appropriate and advised by the line manager. 
• Liaise with other international, local NGOs and civil society organizations, and other for cross learning and to avoid duplication of services as well as ensure support for and acceptance of INSPIRE. 
• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to GOAL Uganda and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission. 

Other duties 

• Represent INSPIRE/GOAL Uganda in a range of external fora and building strategic relationships and partnerships. 

Essential Criteria:

• Postgraduate diploma in Project Planning & Management.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture Sciences or Rural Development.
• 5 years of experience in rural community development initiatives and bottom-up approaches, with proven experience concerning lowland farming challenges and practices in Lango and Busoga regions.
• Technical knowledge about crop and land management practices for resilient farming systems, with practical experiences implementing such practices in the targeted regions.
• Experience working in a rural environment, demonstrated capacity to support, advise and guide institutional networking processes with Local Governments and other stakeholders
• Experience in agricultural and environment sectors with relevant technical models such as PIP, INRM, catchment management, agribusiness, private sector engagement and local Value Chain Development, among others. Experience in working with household participatory approaches with local communities in related projects/programs will be an added advantage..
• Interpersonal skills and excellent communication skills
• Experience in community work and engagement in Agricultural, Economic Development, Livelihood and specific technical expertise in GESI approaches (preferably GALS approach), Farming Systems, Sustainable agriculture, land use and management or crop production is an added advantage.
• Ability to work effectively with and manage multiple partners including (local leaders, government parish, sub-county, village officials), other NGOs, value chain actors in the communities.
• Able and willing to travel widely.
• Fluency in local language of targeted regions.

Desirable Criteria

• Conceptual thinking: Having and gaining insight into situations, problems, and processes. Deconstructing problems and systematically investigating the various components. Having a complete picture of the context and overview of the whole problem.
• Coaching: Encouraging and guiding employees to make their performance more effective and to enhance their self-perception and problem-solving skills.
• Focus on quality: Setting high quality standards and striving for continuous improvement and quality assurance.
• Result orientation: The ability to take direct action to attain or exceed objectives.
• Persuasiveness: The ambition to win over other people for one’s views and ideas and to generate support.
• Flexibility: Readiness to travel to the different project locations.
• Initiative and proactivity: In problem identification and proposing solutions.
• Self-motivated, highly organized, positive attitude, resilient, willing to learn new skills and to be continually adaptive within a dynamic and often self-directed working environment.

GOAL

Established in 1977, GOAL is an international humanitarian agency, with a global team of 2,400 personnel, dedicated to alleviating the needs of the most vulnerable communities. Currently operating in 14 of the world’s most vulnerable countries, GOAL delivers a wide range of humanitarian and development programmes, ranging from humanitarian relief in disaster situations, to focusing on nutrition, food security, and building greater resilience and sustainable livelihoods.

General description of the country programme:

First operational in Uganda in 1979, the current GOAL Uganda country programme focuses on Health (including WASH, Health Accountability and Nutrition programming); and a market-based systems approach to improving agricultural livelihoods and WASH. GOAL Uganda mainstreams gender, child protection, social behaviour change and resilience strategies across all programming. GOAL works on a district focused approach and uses a mixture of direct implementation and partnerships with national and international civil society organizations, local government, the private sector and communities to give effect to our mission.

Safeguarding

Children and vulnerable adults who come into contact with GOAL as a result of our activities must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury and any other harm. One of the ways that GOAL shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

Accountability within GOAL

Alongside our safeguarding policy, GOAL is an equal opportunities employer and has a set of integrity policies. Any candidate offered a job with GOAL will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with GOAL’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, code of conduct, health and safety, confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behavior protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behavior of a GOAL staff or partner.

Our package includes a competitive salary, health insurance cover for up to 3 dependents, comprehensive 24-hour personal accident cover, terminal benefits equivalent to one month for each completed year of service, a flexi-work arrangement and our working hours provide for a half day on Fridays.  GOAL promotes a learning and development environment with training & study opportunities aligned to our staff development policy.