Project & Admin Assistant

Title: Project & Admin Assistant 
Organizational Section/Unit: Programmes 
Duty Station or Home-based: Wau, South Sudan
Proposed Period: October 21th, to January 20th, 2024 (6 Months). 

Background

The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) is a coalition of civil society organizations advocating for social change and gender equality in the Horn of Africa, including regions like South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Uganda. We focus on empowering women and girls in conflict and post-conflict settings, emphasizing advocacy, capacity building, and grassroots mobilization. 

SIHA’s core mandate focuses on the following

• Work to support women’s access to justice across the Horn of Africa in line with international and regional human rights mechanisms and to challenge the concepts and practices that promote violence against women through the application of militant religion and customary/traditional law  

• Engage with women community leaders, activists and women rights defenders and provide direct support to them and contribute to their skills development and promotion of their roles inside their countries and communities 

• Engage with women living in conflict situations, particularly in Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia and provide support that contributes to the elimination of all forms of SGBV and other forms of violence directed against them and support their participation and voices in their country’s peace and security processes; 

• Recognize and support the human rights of women IDPs / migrants and racial / religious minorities through strengthening their self-reliance and access to services, enhancing their capacity for collective activism, reducing their vulnerability to violence, and promoting their social and economic well-being. 

As a regional platform for activists on gender equality and women’s human rights in the Horn of Africa, we have a unique role of being one of the few indigenous networks run by Civil Society from across the region. At SIHA, we are very keen on further maintaining our work to support education on effective campaigning and lobbying to address regional and international platforms using collective and coordinated approaches to create both powerful and sustainable social change in the Horn of Africa. 

Objectives 

SIHA is currently recruiting for the position of Project & Admin Assistant (PAA). The PAA will carry out several essential duties in Wau, South Sudan, specifically the boosting of in country reporting and project monitoring capacities. Working directly and in collaboration with the South Sudan Project Assistant, the PAA will take a primary role in leading donor reporting correspondence with field staff, strengthen programme/project monitoring systems, and contribute to project planning and grant writing as needed. Day-to-day guidance, advice, and support will be available from both the Country Coordinator and the Regional Programmes Manager. 

SIHA anticipates that the PAA focus will be on the meeting the following core responsibilities

• Work closely with the programme team to support implementation of projects; support project monitoring, monitoring project work plans,   

• Support the project officer in monitoring and implementing programmes work plans, and ensure timeliness and effectiveness of activities to be conducted; 

• Conduct outreach, ensuring SIHA members and partners are present at meetings 

• As requested, contribute to the project planning, grant writing, and other programme-related tasks; 

• Make contributions towards SIHA’s engagements, communications and capacity building of our grassroots partners across the region. Focusing mainly on dedicated women activists, grassroots and youth groups and advocates for women’s rights, equality, political and social empowerment; 

• Taking part in the monitoring and evaluation of field visits and documenting the outcomes of these meetings in an organized format to be filed appropriately. 

• Monitor office maintenance of equipment and ensure supplies are purchased on time working closely with the finance team in handling the logistics and movement of petty cash; 

• Overlook the welfare of the office property as well as day to day activities; 

• Filing of documents in soft and hard copy, dealing with service agencies, office maintenance and reception duties, answering phones and delivering and checking mailbox;  

• Assist in organizing SIHA meetings and workshops inside and outside the office;  

• Work closely with the communication officer on updating of the member’s database and membership applications 

• Carry out external office work and liaise with service providers 

• Undertake any other tasks as assigned by the Regional Director, Regional Programme Manager, and the overall Programmes and management team. 

Candidate Key Competencies 

In order to fulfill the role of PAA, SIHA envisions that the PAA should possess the following core competencies:  

• Graduate-level degree focusing on International Human Rights, Law, International Relations, Humanitarian Aid, Development Studies, or a related field. Students currently enrolled in graduate programmes / dissertation writing can be considered; 

• Familiarity, with aspects of proposal writing, logistical framework analysis (log frame), project / programme management best practices, and the development of reporting templates 

• Understanding of current Horn of Africa context, particularly in references to challenges facing women and girls in terms of access to justice, human security, upholding of human rights, and social and economic well-being 

• Possessing of strong sense of initiative and ability to manage a significant workload 

• Experience with human rights instruments, State obligations in upholding human rights standards, and willingness to familiarize oneself with domestic law in horn Countries that either supports or counteracts the upholding of human rights standards  

• Sense of creativity and interest in exploring the links between grassroots activists (local scale) and broader human and women’s rights initiatives (international / global scale), with an ability to gauge how best the former can inform and guide the latter.

Application

Interested candidates must submit the following documents, a cover letter and curriculum vitae, in one document as a PDF of not more than three pages to the Airtable Link by October 14th, 2024.  Shortlisting will be on a rolling basis. Only short-listed applicants will be contacted.