Senior Programme Officer, Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement – Xavier Project

Location: Kampala, Uganda (with regular travel to Rwamwanja, Kamwenge District)

Salary: Ush 3,000,000-4, 000,000 per month gross (experience dependent)

Answers to: Xavier Project Programme Lead

Open to: All applicants

About Xavier Project:

Xavier Project is an international NGO registered in Kenya, Uganda and the UK which specialises in building holistic partnerships with Refugee-Led Organisations (RLO) in refugee hosting areas. Xavier Project is a facilitator ensuring greater community ownership and self-reliance over humanitarian and development projects. We strengthen the RLOs’ capacity to design multi-year strategic plans to implement and manage pioneering community-led interventions which address core problems in their own communities.

Xavier Project currently operates in six different locations across East Africa and has partnerships with eleven refugee-led organisations. Our work is informed by our overarching framework, the community enterprise cycle (https://xavierproject.org/about/enterprise/). We support refugee-led organisations in accessing safe learning spaces, strengthening their professional capacity, establishing social enterprises and accessing resources to implement, sustain and scale-out their activities. Such refugee-led activities include vocational training, running education courses or providing psychosocial support to fellow community members among others. With our partners, we aim to improve relations between refugee and host communities, ensure refugees can lead fulfilled lives and to transform the humanitarian and development sectors towards more community-led responses.

Our Work in Rwamwanja Settlement:

Our work in Rwamwanja has been on-going since 2016 and is spearheading Xavier Project’s localisation strategy. We have a long-standing partnership with a local refugee-led community-based organisation who we support in running a community learning hub and various livelihood and education focused activities. This includes English language courses, training in ICT, tailoring, kitchen gardening, poultry rearing and psycho-social counselling among others. Xavier Project is also working with the RLO to deliver a three year-long programme aimed at improving access to education for children with disabilities, funded by Comic Relief. Xavier Project also owns a commercial farm in Rwamwanja which hosts practical farmer training programmes.

Job description:

Xavier Project is looking to recruit for the position of ‘Senior Programme Officer’ to join our Uganda office’s enterprise team and coordinate our on-going activities in Rwamwanja Settlement. The Programme Officer will be based in Kampala but will be required to make regular field trips (once every 4-6 weeks) to Rwamwanja refugee settlement, southwestern Uganda. Given the wide range of on-going and planned projects in Rwamwanja, we require a highly experienced and adaptive individual who will understand the broader strategy to support these diverse operations.

Main responsibilities:

• Providing supervision and support to field staff and our partner refugee-led organisations
  Organising and delivering workshops with partner refugee-led organisations
• Contributing to the design of effective strategies to address challenges encountered during the life of the programmes
• Delivering a range of administration tasks including basic accountability, procurement, record maintenance, etc.
• Organising and attending implementation and monitoring field trips
• Producing reports, action plans and other relevant documents to share with Xavier Project staff and other key stakeholders
• Conducting basic research activities
• Promoting local leadership and community-led solutions through participation in various networks, forums and other advocacy opportunities
• Active participation in promoting Xavier Project’s vision and mission
• Any other duties assigned

Essential Requirement:

• Tertiary education in relevant field
• Experience and good understanding of working in the education and/or livelihoods sector (particularly concerning agriculture)
• Strong interpersonal skills and empathy, particularly with regards to working with vulnerable people
• Willingness to travel within Uganda
• Experience of working with budgets, work plans and reports
• Knowledge of procurement processes
• Fluency in both spoken and written English language
• Excellent knowledge of MS Office
• Reliability and self-reliance
• Ability to work in a team
• Motivation to cultivate and share knowledge
• Responsible and systematic work approach
• Enthusiasm and self-initiative

Desired Features:

• Strong understanding of the challenges faced by refugees and other marginalised communities in East Africa
• A good understanding of the meaning of localisation in development and successful implementation of community-based development models
• Fieldwork experience in challenging contexts
• Experience working with a diverse team of people from different backgrounds

What we Offer:

• Working in an international team of visionary and motivated individuals
• Opportunities for personal and professional growth
• Regular staff capacity-building trainings across East Africa
• Twenty-five days of leave per year
• Health insurance
• Participating in extensive national and international networks within humanitarian aid and development sector