IMPACT Field Officer at ACTED

ACTED has been committed since 1993, to immediate humanitarian relief to support those in urgent need and protect people’s dignity, while co-creating longer term opportunities for sustainable growth and fulfilling people’s potential. ACTED, headquartered in Paris, France is present in four continents and our teams intervene in 37 countries towards 14 million people, responding to emergency situations, supporting rehabilitation projects and accompanying the dynamics of development. Over 5,000 staff are dedicated to implementing and developing our projects.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: IMPACT Field Officer

Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Contract Duration: 6 months
Supervisor: Senior Field Officer
Level:D2-1 (National contract)
Start Date: ASAP

Background

IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative. The IMPACT team comprises specialists in data collection, management and analysis and GIS. IMPACT was launched at the initiative of ACTED, an international NGO whose headquarter is based in Paris and is present in thirty countries. The two organizations have a strong complementarity formalized in a global partnership, enabling IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support on its fields of intervention.

REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two International NGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and the United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). REACH’s purpose is to promote and facilitate the development of information products that enhance the humanitarian community’s decision making and planning capacity for emergency, reconstruction and development contexts. REACH facilitates information management for aid actors through three complementary services: (a) need and situation assessments facilitated by REACH teams; (b) situation analysis using satellite imagery; (c) provision of related database and (web)-mapping facilities and expertise.

Context / Country
In North East Nigeria (NEN), the ongoing crisis continues to have a profound impact on the population, leading to displacement both within and out of the region and high rates of unmet needs among internally displaced persons. The conflict additionally exacerbates prior unmet needs among non-displaced and host communities. While the primary driver of the conflict remains violent conflict, including ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa
Province), JAS (Jama’atuAhlis Sunna Lidda’awatiwal-Jihad) and associated armed opposition groups (AOGs), other underlying factors, such as climate change, poverty, and disease outbreaks, exacerbate need and further complicate aid delivery.

Against the backdrop of this protracted crisis, the humanitarian situation in Northeast Nigeria remains one of the worlds most severe. Out of the Northeast’s Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe (BAY) state’s total population of 13 million people, an estimated 7.9 million are in need of humanitarian assistance. Borno state remains the epicentre of the crisis, containing over 80% of the region’s over 2 million internally displaced persons.  Major incidents throughout 2019 have led to continued mass displacements and severely affected the provision of humanitarian assistance in the region. .

These hard-to-reach areas are estimated to contain around 971,000 persons. Very little is known about the specific conditions and needs of the populations living in these areas, but they are presumed to have little mobility, limited essential services, and little or no access to humanitarian aid. The same threats that severely limit the ability of humanitarian actors to conduct thorough assessments also immediately affect the population living in the region. IMPACT’s Humanitarian Situation Monitoring (HSM) assessments in the Hard-to-Reach areas of Borno state have found that people in these inaccessible areas lack of access to basic services including health facilities, access to livelihoods and have decreased access to foods, access to improved water sources and access to humanitarian services.

As such, the needs for evidenced-based Humanitarian Aid and information on populations in both accessible and inaccessible areas is paramount to a coordinated response. IMPACT has been present in Nigeria since 2017, providing a growing evidence base for humanitarian response planning through sectoral, multi-sectoral and area-based assessments as well as information management services. In 2021, IMPACT is looking to continue to provide the humanitarian community with relevant and reliable information to strengthen strategic programming and needs-based targeting in Northeast Nigeria.

As an initiative deployed in many vulnerable and crisis-affected countries, IMPACT is deeply concerned by the devastating impact the COVID-19 pandemic may have on the millions of affected people we seek to serve. IMPACT is currently scaling up its programming in response to this pandemic, with the goal of identifying practical ways to inform humanitarian responses in the 20+ countries where we operate, including Nigeria.

About the Job
Under the direct line management of the IMPACT Senior Field Officer, the IMPACT Field Officer is responsible for:

• Coordination of IMPACT data collection activities in field locations
• Hiring, training and leading data collection teams
• Internal and external relations

Responsibilities
Research Cycles:

• Assessment Preparation and Planning:
  • The IMPACT Field Officer will be responsible for hiring enumeration teams, training them on the use of data collection tools (ODK) and methodology, and leading the teams in the field.
  • Ensuring that IMPACT monitoring activities are implemented in the field with relevant project and program objectives and with IMPACT’s research cycle and other relevant guidelines.
• Data Collection and Management:
  • Monitor data collection, ensuring its correct implementation in line with agreed TORs;
  • Ensure regular situation updates on data collection is properly communicated. Provide support and follow up on identified challenges during the data collection process.
  • Conduct training on updated tool/ new tools for monitors before the start of data collection.
  • In close coordination with the IMPACT Manager, S/He will clean and manage qualitative, quantitative and spatial data collected by the IMPACT team and enumerators.
  • The IMPACT Field Officer will be responsible for identifying and organizing respondents for focus group discussion, facilitating or co-facilitating the discussion and recording results
  • During data collection, conduct daily debriefs for monitors before and after deployment, on security awareness, personal safety, duration, and destination of travel.
  • Timely documentation of all field observations/challenges using relevant document from the dropbox
  • Ensure strict adherence to ACTED’s security SOPs by FA’s and FS at all times.

Internal Relations:

• Routine communication of all field activities, data collection progress and other key findings to management in timely and effective manner.
• Responsible for directly supervising the activities of field surveyors.

External Relations:

• Foster strategic partnerships with key stakeholders in the field; establish and maintain a network of Local stakeholders (Bulamas, SEMA, NEMA, Government officials and other local authorities) to ensure smooth running of data collection.

FLAT Support:

• The IMPACT Field Officer will have custodial responsibility for all IMPACT assets (computers, GPS devices, smart phones, etc) at their operational base, and will need to work with the IMPACT team and ACTED Logistics to ensure serviceability of assets and availability of consumables (printer ink, paper, pens, etc…)
• The field officer will support the FM in proper management of cash needs including planning, forecasting and reporting. The field officer will also ensure that all casual hire are in line with ACTED’s guideline. He’ll also ensure that all logistical (vehicle, airtime, data and accommodation) needs for data collection are properly planned for and executed.
• The field officer will ensure proper documentation and timely submission of all payment request is sent to FM and FLATS officer.

Other Responsibilities:

• The IMPACT Field Officer will be responsible for supervising junior national staff participating in their assigned duties as well as building technical capacity related to data collection.
• The IMPACT Field Officer may be called upon to work on other IMPACT programmes in various locations in Nigeria including, but not limited to, remote LGA capitals, as the security situation allows.

About You

• All employees should master ACTED's core Principles: Independence,Neutrality, Non-discrimination, free and direct access to victims, Ethics, Professionalism, anti-Corruption, Transparency and Accountability

Moreover, we also expect the following:

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor's Degree with a strong focus on both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies preferred
• Minimum of one year working in humanitarian responses
• Substantial knowledge regarding managing data collection in a NGO
• Previous experience in Third Party Monitoring (TPM), an asset.
• Strong skills with the Microsoft Office Suite
• Strong technical writing skills
• Experience collecting information using hand-held GPS devices
• Experience using ODK for quantitative data collection
• Experience hiring and managing casual laborers
• Experience conducting focus group discussions, or the ability to learn rapidly
• Positive attitude and a willingness to learn
• Excellent communication skill
• Excellent time management skills
• Ability to operate in a cross-cultural environment requiring flexibility
• Fluency written and spoken fluency in English a must; additional fluency in Hausa and Kanuri preferred
• Ability to work independently.

We Offer

• Contract Duration: 6months
• Number of Positon: 1
• Supervisor: Senior Field Officer
• Location: Maiduguri
• Level: D2-1 (National contract)
• Start Date: ASAP.

Application Closing Date
5th November, 2020.