Field Officer For Governance And Social Stability (Re-Posted)

  Lebanon Reforestation Initiative Terms of Reference Field Officer for Governance and Social Stability   I. INTRODUCTION Project Background Information The Lebanon Reforestation Initiative is an ongoing, multi-year project funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the United States Forest Service (USFS), implementing a community-based reforestation program that has resulted so far in the planting of more than half- a-million native trees throughout Lebanon since 2011.  The project promotes a community-led approach to reforestation, bringing together diverse committed municipalities, community stakeholders, Lebanese civil society organizations, and other actors such as the private sector, to restore and replant degraded community lands. With administrative offices in Beirut, LRI technical experts manage a multi-year work program of activities throughout Lebanon in collaboration with grassroots organizations and local communities. Community Engagement Recent economic, social and environmental developments have increased attention given to the role that good governance and sustainable engagement of local communities plays in achieving long-term development goals. Reforestation being a long-term process that requires continuous follow-up and good management, active community involvement and community ownership of this process becomes crucial for its success. LRI seeks to ensure a process of community involvement and local community-based governance that enables interested local citizens or stakeholders to meet on equal terms to facilitate a participatory decision making process. The goal is to provide local communities and their constituent stakeholders with ownership of the project to help promote success and longer-term sustainability. With the increasing Syrian refugee crisis, and the consequent accentuation of environmental and socio-economic issues in Lebanese rural areas, LRI also seeks to facilitate dialogue between the local communities of different backgrounds, and between host communities and Syrian refugees, to support them in assessing their common environmental concerns and jointly planning solutions to those common problems.  II. PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNEMENT LRI seeks one full time Field Officer to work with the Coordinator for Governance and Social Stability to help promote community ownership and governance of reforestation projects in the North Social and Environmental Corridor where LRI is working.  The Field Officer will focus on establishing sustainable environmental committees in each town included in LRI’s reforestation activities as well as supporting the established corridor planning committee in the North to implement their strategic plan, promoting local ownership of reforestation efforts and supporting them to define common environmental issues and advocate for them, and identify ways of bringing neighboring communities together over reforestation efforts, with emphasis on communities hosting large numbers of Syrian refugees.         The Field Officer is expected to perform the following duties: Implement the governance and social stability strategy that builds upon the stakeholder engagement conducted to date by LRI and its partners; Support the established North corridor planning committees (CPC) in the implementation of their strategy; Assist in the establishment of local environmental committees (ECs) Facilitate the development of work plans for each EC and support them in the implementation process; Help integrate into the activities of the CPCs and ECs multiple objectives of LRI community engagement, including outplanting, fire management, environmental awareness, etc.; Facilitate regular meetings of CPCs and ECs to support their activities; Assess the social interactions between neighboring communities in the North corridor and help create linkages between both through dialogue and joint planning for activities; Assess the social interactions between the Syrian refugees and the local communities and help create linkages between both through dialogue and joint planning for activities; Coordinate the collection and interpretation of community mobilization, governance and social stability best practice and other social data and make them available to community interest groups to enrich their efforts; Document the process of establishing community interest groups through written, photographic and video media to provide model case studies of reforestation-related community mobilization for use in other communities; Coordinate regularly with the Coordinator of the Governance and Social Stability Component, the Rachaya field officer and other LRI staff members on any LRI activity related to the North partner communities; Organize workshops, meetings, roundtables and other events when needed; Effectively identify, collect, and analyze relevant data, lessons learned, and observation to form conclusions by working closely with the LRI monitoring and evaluation officer. Any other related activities and assistance that may reasonably be required.   III. REQUIREMENTS The Field Officer should possess the following competencies, skills, and experience: Bachelor’s degree in Social Work or any related field; At least 3 years of relevant experience in the community engagement and coordination work in rural areas in Lebanon, preferentially in the North Lebanon Governorate; Demonstrated track record of success in achieving community mobilization and engagement in diverse communities; Strong analytical and inter-personal skills; Excellent communication, reporting and presentation skills; Outstanding organizational and time-management skills; Ability to meet deadlines and handle criticism positively; Willingness to travel outside Beirut to the project sites for at least 80% of the time; Fluency in both written and spoken English and Arabic; and Possess a car and a driving license and able to use his/her car for field trips on a cost-reimbursable basis.   IV. Contact Information For further information or to submit a letter of interest and accompanying curriculum vitae, preferably by Friday, June 23, 2017, please contact: Lebanon Reforestation Initiative     info@lri-lb.org