Progressio has been leading the way on practical international development issues for more than forty years. Whether through placing development workers overseas, or in our policy and advocacy achievements, Progressio has a track record of making a difference. We work with people of all faiths and none.
Country Representative - Somaliland
Reports to Programmes Manager (based in London).
Based in Hargeisa, Somaliland.
Posts reporting directly Local staff in the Somaliland programme.
Relations with others The post holder will work directly in consultation with the London-based Programmes Manager. S/he will also work with other London-based staff including Policy and Communications, Finance, Fundraising, International Programmes, and Recruitment staff.
In the region, the post holder will manage relationships with development workers (DWs), local partners and stakeholders in Somaliland and with other regional-based staff of the Africa, Middle East and Asia region, including the Programme Development and Funding Officer (Yemen and Somaliland).
Status Full-time (35 hours per week), three-year fixed-term contract.
Salary US$34,500 gross per annum.
Please note that for this post we are only able to consider applicants who are fluent in Somali.
The post holder will be responsible for the management of Progressio’s programme in Somaliland, ensuring the delivery of programme plans. S/he will have pivotal role in defining development policy and priority areas for Progressio's work in the country, working together with local partners, development workers and other stakeholders.Within the context of Progressio’s work of skill-sharing and advocacy, the post holder will be responsible for overseeing the implementation of Progressio’s 2010 - 2015 strategic plan for Somaliland.
This post requires a skilled and talented individual, with demonstrable leadership and programme management experience, who can deal with complex issues, a demanding workload, and can communicate well with a wide range of people.
ABOUT PROGRESSIO AND OUR APPROACH
Progressio is a UK-based charity working internationally to enable people in developing countries to challenge and change the situations that keep them poor. We currently work in 11 countries and have a long history of working in fragile, post-conflict and authoritarian states.
We develop long-term partnerships with local organisations and community groups in the global South, providing practical support through around 90 development workers (DWs), mostly from the global South, who share skills, know-how and training.
Because poverty is about unequal power relations and a lack of human rights, we work with a wide range of people who are poor and marginalised to change the structures that keep them in poverty. We support them in their calls for policy change. With our supporters, we stand alongside them in demanding that decision-makers around the world sit up and listen to them.
Inspired by our Catholic roots, we believe that experiencing ‘life in all its fullness’ includes freedom and control over one’s life and future. It means challenging inequalities and power imbalances. We see every person as sacred, having inherent dignity, so we stand in solidarity with poor people in achieving their rights.
GOVERNANCE
As a UK registered charity, Progressio has a Board of Trustees that is responsible for the overall strategic vision of the organisation. There are also two committees and a working group. The Executive Director is directly accountable to the Board with direct management from the Chair of Trustees.
STAFF AND SUPPORTERS AROUND THE WORLD
Progressio has seven sub-regional and country programmes in Central America (El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua); Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti); Peru; Somaliland; Southern Africa (Malawi and Zimbabwe); Timor-Leste and Yemen.
Progressio has four main teams: International Programmes, Policy and Communications, Fundraising, and Finance and Administration.
The International Programmes team covers Progressio’s development work, monitoring and evaluation and other support and management staff.
The Policy and Communications team works closely with partners, development workers and supporters in the UK, supporting them to engage and influence and bring about change in policy at regional, national and international levels. The team raises Progressio’s profile in the UK media and seeks to provide a platform for Southern voices through its advocacy, campaigning and outlets such as Interact, our supporter magazine, our website and email bulletins.
The Fundraising team is made up of four London-based staff and four regional Programme Development Funding Officers. The team works to secure funds from a range of sources including major donors, trusts and foundations, government funding (both UK and overseas) and, in some cases, corporate funding.
The Finance and Administration team is responsible for financial management, recruitment, selection and training, general administrative and IT support to Progressio.
Progressio is a membership organisation and we have a supporter base of approximately 6,000 people. Active engagement with our members, to inform and mobilise them is a vital part of our mandate. More detailed information about our work is available on our website: www.progressio.org.uk.
STRATEGIC THEMES
Progressio’s work is framed within three strategic themes (Progressio also conducts international advocacy work on these themes):
- Effective governance and participation: strengthening the capacity of partners so that they are better placed to organise, influence and participate in local, national and international structures to secure results in poverty eradication, social justice, gender equity, transparency and accountability.
- HIV and AIDS: enabling communities to respond effectively to HIV, influencing policy and practice on HIV, strengthening gender perspectives and building greater understanding and involvement on the part of faith-based organisations and religious leaders.
- Sustainable Environment: ensuring the sustainable management of natural resources, influencing policies that impact on the environment and strengthening the participation of women.
Gender is mainstreamed throughout our programmes and is incorporated in our policies and procedures.
SOMALILAND CONTEXT
The ‘Republic of Somaliland’ was founded in May 1991, when the leaders of the Somali National Movement (SNM) and elders of northern clans, meeting at the ‘Grand Conference of Northern Peoples’ in the town of Burao, revoked the 1960 Act of Union that had joined the former colonial territories of Italian Somalia and the British Somaliland Protectorate. The new Somaliland, which incorporates the five former regions of northwest Somalia, encompasses the territory of the former British Protectorate, whose borders with Djibouti to the north, Ethiopia to the west and Somalia to the east were established by international treaties signed between 1888 and 1897 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2002). Its people are ethnic Somali, sharing with Somalis in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti a common language, an adherence to Sunni Islam and a traditional livelihood system based around nomadic pastoralism.
Today Somaliland has many of the attributes of a state, with a constitution, a functional parliament and government ministries, an army, a police force and judiciary, and many of the symbols of statehood, such as a flag, its own currency, passports and vehicle licence plates. Furthermore, although Somaliland has been unable to secure international recognition, there is a creeping informal and pragmatic acceptance of Somaliland as a political reality. International organisations such as UN and the European Union work with the administration as responsible authorities. The administration has developed low-key bilateral relations with Djibouti and Ethiopia, with regional bodies such as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the African Union and with several European states. The presence of South Africans at Somaliland presidential and parliamentary elections also points to the deepening relationship with the South African government.
The advent of multi-party politics in Somaliland in 2001 gave birth to numerous political parties. Prior to 2001, Somaliland had operated on a unique beel system of proportional representation by clan in both the upper and lower houses of the parliament, a system which precluded party politics. Nine political organisations were formed to contest the first set of elections, for local councils, in December 2002. Of those, six met legal criteria for participation. For the most part, the parties had few ideological differences, and were personality driven. Each tended to be identified with a particular clan. According to the electoral law of the new constitution, only the top three parties were eligible to contest national elections, so that the remaining parties immediately dissolved after the December 2002 local government elections. Subsequently, Kulmiye has emerged as the main opposition party. It narrowly lost the presidential elections in April 2003 (by 80 vote’s difference) and in the parliamentary elections of 2005, the opposition parties won a majority of 50 seats out of 82.
In the recent presidential elections (26 June 2010), Kulmiye candidate, Ahmed Mohamoud M. Silaanyo won the elections to become the fourth President of Somaliland. The handover of power took place a month later in a very democratic fashion. The new government is composed of ministers, directors and head of agencies from the Diaspora communities.
PROGRESSIO SOMALILAND PROGRAMME
Progressio has been working in Somaliland since 1995 (previously Progressio worked in Somalia from 1984 to 1990). Our early work focused on supporting the local organisations that were beginning to emerge following the country’s declaration of independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991. This work continues today and our local partners represent a wide range of local interests including HIV and AIDS, environment and agriculture, women’s rights, disabled people, youth, minority groups and human rights.
Despite many achievements during the years, the Somaliland programme still faces many challenges:
§ A proportion of local NGOs remain very much nascent organisations with unclear operational structures, ill-defined roles and responsibilities and poor strategies. Additionally, many staff lack skills, knowledge and experience. This means that they are less successful at implementing projects to help local communities and in raising funds for long-term sustainability. Progressio continues to focus on building the capacity of local partners in Somaliland, drawing on a wealth of experience and achievements in this field over the past 10 years.
§ The level of awareness of HIV and AIDS at the community level remains low, particularly in rural areas. Meanwhile infection rates are likely to rise with increased trade and movement of people within Somaliland and the region. Progressio has now built up in-depth knowledge and experience of working on HIV and AIDS in Somaliland and will continue to draw on this in opening up public debate on the issue, fighting stigma and discrimination, and driving appropriate responses to the disease.
The Somaliland programme has been developing new partnerships around the theme of sustainable environment - aiming in particular to help address issues surrounding deforestation, promoting sustainable farming methods and the conservation of water resources.
For 2010 - 2011, the Somaliland programme is expected to have an average number of ten DWs working with local partners organisations. DW placements are usually for one to two years.
The programme in Somaliland is managed by a Country Representative (CR). The local office, in Hargeisa, is also staffed by the following staff: Project Officer, Administrative Assistant, Finance Manager, Assistant Logistics Officer, drivers and security personnel.
THE POST
The post holder will be responsible for running and supporting Progressio’s programme and office in Somaliland. S/he will report to the London-based Programmes Manager (PM) and will work primarily with the PM in the definition of joint policy and planning, and strategic management, and will be responsible for the implementation of all Progressio's organisational policies and strategy within the Somaliland programme.
In addition, the post holder will work closely with the Programme Development and Funding Officer (PDFO) for Yemen and Somaliland (the post holder is based in Sana’a, Yemen), and with the various London based staff members (Finance and Administration, Policy and Communications, Fundraising, International Programmes and Recruitment). The other main relationship will be with the local partner organisations and other stakeholders in country.
Below is a list of the duties and responsibilities. In practice the post holder will find him/herself focusing on a variety of duties according to the current demands and stages of development of the skill-share and advocacy capacity building programmes.
- Programme maintenance
§ To negotiate with the relevant governmental authorities and ensure that all legal permissions are maintained up-to-date for the programme to function legally in the country.
§ To ensure that all DWs have the required documents to function legally in the country, and that these documents are maintained up-to-date.
§ To be responsible for maintaining an office of sufficient staffing and size, to ensure the smooth running of the country programme.
§ To represent Progressio within the framework of up-to-date bilateral agreements with the Somaliland government, and in the maintenance of ongoing relations with embassies, donors in Kenya, other official international bodies, the media, faith based organisations, and with local partner organisations and networks.
- Strategic planning and programme development
§ Within the context of Progressio’s organisational plan, to implement and deliver upon a recent round of participatory strategic planning of Progressio’s work in Somaliland for 2010 - 2015.
§ To keep informed of the major political and socio-economic events in the country and region, to examine the development work being carried out by other bodies in the country, and to assess Progressio’s options in that context.
§ To keep up to date with existing and potential local partners working on issues within Progressio’s three themes and to develop joint development projects with them, incorporating strategically placed DWs.
§ To ensure the skill-share portfolio of projects containing strategically placed DWs is maintained and expanded, including overseeing and participating in DW recruitment, selection, and orientation in country.
§ The post holder will have a pivotal role in defining priority areas for Progressio’s work in the country, working together with partners, DWs, the National Reference Group, and other stakeholders, to produce detailed and credible development projects capable of attracting donor grants.
§ To be responsible for revitalising the National Reference Group for consultation on programme policy and strategy.
§ To work closely and proactively with the Fundraising team (including the PDFO for Yemen and Somaliland) to identify, develop and produce funding proposals to support the Somaliland programme’s activities and costs.
§ Ensure the implementation and supervision of funded projects according to agreements with donors, including ensuring that the appropriate monitoring and evaluation takes place and is reported upon both on time and to a high standard.