The Somali Development Association (SDA) was established in April 2012 by the Somali communities in the region as non-governmental, no-profit making association registered under the Ethiopian civil society charity organization number 3122 with a view to mitigating the development and humanitarian problems of the region by mobilizing local and external resources. SDA support the development and humanitarian endeavours of the people of Somali region in the areas of Health, education, food security and livelihood, protection, Water, hygiene and sanitation, livestock health, peace building, income generating activities for women and youth, and other related development activities through mobilizing resources from members, Diaspora communities, supporters, donors, pastoral and agro- pastoral communities and other income generating sources.

SDA provides both humanitarian and longer-term development support to respond to the needs of the communities affected by acute crisis. Approximately 18 million people need humanitarian assistance during the first half of 2022 due to multiple concurrent shocks to food security in Ethiopia which include back-to-back droughts, desert locust upsurge, COVID‑19 pandemic, abnormally high food prices, and protracted conflict and insecurity. The impact of consecutive droughts from the previous year’s/seasons and a spike of conflict-induced internal displacements severely affect the lives and livelihoods of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in several regions of Ethiopia. As July 2022 report consolidated by OCHA to provide a regional overview of the humanitarian needs and urgent funding requirements for the Horn of Africa drought indicated, the March-May 2022 rainy season was the driest on record in the last 70 years—making the 2020-2022 surpass the horrific droughts in both 2010-2011 and 2016- 2017 in duration and severity—and early forecasts indicate that the October-December 2022 rainy season is also likely to fail. Poor rangeland conditions have driven below‑average livestock body conditions, falling livestock prices, poor terms of trade, reduced milk production and deaths of more than 2.5 million livestock in southern and south-eastern Ethiopia. Unusual livestock movements have also been observed, resulting in rising resource-based conflicts that are expected to escalate during the upcoming dry season. Recently, about 7.4 million people in Ethiopia are severely food insecure due to the drought. Furthermore, food prices have risen sharply (the cost of a food basket has risen by 66 percent) due to the combined effect of pre‑existing macroeconomic challenges that have been recently exacerbated by the economic impacts of the conflict in northern Ethiopia.

With these considerations, FAO-Ethiopia developed projects and has secured funding from the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) to facilitate emergency response to the current needs of the drought-affected communities in Somali Region of Ethiopia and engaged SDA to implement livestock intervention project in Dolobay, Hargelle and Barrey woreda, Afder Zone, Somali region.

Position profile:-

Under the overall supervision of Emergency Project Coordinator, the Community Mobilizers are responsible for field-level emergency activities that are fully implemented in accordance with SDA standards and donor requirements. The Community Mobilizers are mainly responsible for community engagement and mobilization at field level.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Undertake Community Mobilization Activities in his/her project target woredas in collaboration with the Project Coordinator.
• Create awareness for project activities and ensure project target beneficiaries have digested the overall objective of the project, its duration, and their entitlement.
• Organize sensitization meetings with community leaders, village heads, community elders, traditional leaders.
• Support the Project Coordinator in selection, verification, and validation of project beneficiaries based on agreed and approved criteria of the project and organize meetings for woreda and community leaders to ensure the right persons are targeted.
• Organize regularly beneficiaries meeting at village levels and also collaborates with the government livestock offices in the area of operations in the training of extension agents.
• Support the distribution of livestock and forage seeds to selected beneficiaries in the project sites.
• Facilitate the training of extension agents and ensure beneficiaries have received extension advisory services.
• Ensure forage seed and livestock feed are distributed to the targeted beneficiaries on time as per the project work plan.
• Ensure that all emergency activities are contributing towards the improvement of food security of the targeted households.
• Develop the capacity of beneficiaries to adopt and implement better practices through exposure to new knowledge, information, skills, inputs and processes to improve the long term performance of their livestock.
• Ensure extension agents have received training packages on time and provided advisory services to the project beneficiaries as per the project work plans.
• Facilitate communication between government offices at woreda and kebele level, communities and project staff to ensure smooth implementation of activities;
• Carry out the day-to-day supervision and monitoring of project activities at community level.
• Prepare weekly and monthly progress reports and plans

Duty station: Dolobay, Hargelle and Barrey

Contract duration: – Four Months

Reports to:– Project Coordinator

Job Requirements

Essential qualification and experiences required

• BSc Degree or Diploma in Livestock production, Animal and Range science, plant science, Animal Health, Rural development and Family science, Agricultural extension/Mid-career, community mobilization, social science or similar field of study.
• Minimum of two years of experience and ideally involved in the direct implementation of field level livestock intervention activities.

Key Competences:

• Excellent communication skills, Conflict management skills, Good analytical skills;, Solution oriented;
• Ability to analyze, synthesize information and communicate outcomes clearly to different stakeholders particularly at community level.
• Basic English language skills, both written and oral
• Fluent in Somali language/Native
• Excellent understanding of LEGs
• Shows drive, initiative, and commitment to accountability.
• Possesses an unwavering sense of integrity.
• Committed to continuing personal and professional development
• Builds strong relationships and works effectively on a team, cross-organizationally and with external stakeholders.
• Shows flexibility, adapts easily to change.
• Basic computer skills e.g Microsoft office and internet