Local Empowerment for Accountability and Decentralization (LEAD)

Project Background

The USAID Liberia Local Empowerment for Accountability and Decentralization (LEAD) Activity was awarded to DAI Global LLC for a period of five year, from May 19, 2023 to May 18, 2028.The goal of this Activity is to improve the capacities of targeted ministries, agencies, and commissions (MACs), to formulate and administer sound tax policies, improve budget transparency, deepen decentralization, and deliver much-needed quality services at the sub-national level through the following objectives:

1. Objective 1: Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) Improved,
2. Objective 2: Budget Transparency Improved, which comprises of three sub-objectives
3. Objective 3: Local Development and Service Delivery Improved

Purpose

The overall purpose of the position is to assist the Local Governance Expert to implement the following activities for Objective 3:

• • Improve transparency, accountability, and public participation mechanisms
  • Increase citizens’ awareness of the roles and responsibilities of local governments
  • Increase citizen participation in local governance processes

• Pilot and scale social accountability

The Citizen Participation Officer (CPO) will work closely with LEAD’s society organization (CSO) partners to build their capacity to participate in planning, budgeting, decision-making and implementation at the county administration and city corporation levels. The CPO will also support CSOs and citizens to disseminate information about the Local Governance Act (LGA), Revenue Sharing Act, local government development plans and projects to communities, advocate for improved services, monitor service delivery with the purpose of communicating citizen and community concerns to county and city governments, and facilitate engagements among citizens and local government officials.

• Tasks and Responsibilities

• Build capacity of CSOs to
  • Advocate for and participate in participatory planning, budgeting and implementation of local government service delivery
  • Engage marginalized communities (including women and people living with disabilities) to overcome barriers to participation in local decision-making processes
• Develop linkages and dialogue between CSOs and county/city administrators and civil society around participatory, planning, budgeting and project implementation
• Work closely with the LEAD Public Dialogue and Accountability Specialist and Grants Team to manage grants to local, county-based CSOs
• Work with LEAD’s technical team and partner CSOs to develop and administer mechanisms (social audits, surveys, assessments, etc) for gathering citizens’ feedback on local governance and service delivery
• Identify and support opportunities to enhance county administration and city corporation engagement with local citizens around issues related to good governance and improved service delivery
• Sensitize local citizens about the Local Government Act, Revenue Sharing Act and GOL efforts to promote service delivery at the local level
• Assist monitoring, evaluation and learning activities through dissemination and retrieval M&E information among counties, cities and CSOs where applicable
• Support county-led educational and community outreach campaigns
• Work with Monrovia-based LEAD Grants, Monitoring Evaluation and Learning, Operations and Technical teams in:
  • documenting and reporting on LEAD CSO grant activities
  • providing technical input, delivering and managing logistics for trainings and other project events
  • hosting and coordinating visits by USAID and LEAD staff, project consultants and GOL and CSO partners

• Reporting and Supervision

• Directly reports to the Local Governance Expert, the lead on Local Development and Service Delivery
• Indirectly reports to Chief of Party and other technical leads

• Qualifications

• Three to five years of experience in Liberia on building the capacity of CSOs, preferably at the subnational level
• Demonstrated understanding of decentralization and the deconcentration of service delivery in Liberia
• University degree in the social sciences
• Excellent communications and organizational skills

All interested candidates are encouraged to send their resume and cover letter to (insert recruitment email address)

Please indicate in the subject line of your mail, application for the position of (Citizen Participation Officer, followed by preferred county of assignment) However, the LEAD technical team reserves the discretion to assign a successful candidate to a different county other than their stated preference.

Deadline for the submission of applications is November 21, 2023 at 5:00 PM.

Women and people with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

The job advertisements are now live for Liberia LEAD. Interested candidates are invited to apply via this email: LiberiaLEADRecruitment@dai.com