National Community Liaison Officer

Job description

Overview of position

Somalia Urban Resilience Project II (SURP II) is a municipal governance & infrastructure development project financed by the World Bank & its partners, aimed at improving access to urban infrastructure & strengthening municipal governance in Somalia. The government of Somalia, through the Benadir Regional Administration (Mogadishu) representing multiple cities has selected our client to provide the consulting services for the urban transport infrastructure works to be executed by the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) of the respective municipalities under the project. The works involve construction of urban roads to bitumen standards, construction of bridges / drainage works & installation of streetlights, by the contractors engaged by the respective PIU. Our client assists the PIUs in the contracts management, supervision of works implementation by the contractors as well as in other technical areas related to the project activities. The scope of our clients engagement is to provide technical assistance to the PIUs in the works implementation & contracts managements in the areas of design review, technical supervision, performance monitoring, quality control etc., as well as contributing to PIUs capacity building.

Role objectives

The Community Liaison Officer embedded within the PIU office will support the PIU in liaising with the local community, local government authorities & other project stakeholders to ensure the SURP II project activities are implemented as per schedule & scope, addressing the day to day concerns of the community & acceptable to all stakeholders. The position roles & responsibilities include:

• Maintain regular contacts & networking with the project stakeholders & update project activities implementation status.
• Manage project implementation liaison between the Benadir Regional Administration (BRA), administrative districts, PIU, local authorities, our clients supervision team, community & the works implementation contractor(s).
• Coordinate & manage organising meetings between the PIU & the project stakeholders including the community, when requested by the PIU.
• Maintain a detailed & accurate record of meetings including agendas, attendance records, meeting minutes, follow up / action points etc.
• Deliver project documents to all the interested parties & similarly receive documents from both external, internal parties & share with the appropriate project personnel.
• Manage dissemination of project information on behalf of the PIU ensuring that communities at construction sites are kept abreast of the project developments & communication channels remain open with the communities.
• Share community concerns with the PIU & facilitate the process of resolving the issues & convey the PIU responses to the concerned communities.
• Ensure that all community consultation & communication records are maintained in an orderly manner.
• Document lessons learned & best practices in community consultation & project communication to support on going improvements in project implementation.
• Perform other duties related to the community liaison as required by the project circumstances.

Project reporting

This role will report to the line manager.

Skills and qualifications

Key competencies

• Bachelor’s degree in social science, development studies, economic (or similar discipline) is required.
• A minimum of four (4) years of relevant experience in communication & liaison, interpreting / translation related fields is required.
• Local knowledge & understanding of Mogadishu context is required.
• Experience of working with the local government institutions is desirable.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office tools & Google Suite products is required.
• Excellent command of Somali & English language (oral & written) is required.

Team management

This role has no team management responsibility.

Further information

Qualified female candidates are encouraged to apply for this role.