Civic Engagement Lead at DAI Global, LLC

About DAI

DAI is a global development company with corporate offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, EU, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Palestine and project operations worldwide. We tackle fundamental social and economic development problems caused by inefficient markets, ineffective governance, and instability. DAI works on the frontlines of global development. Transforming ideas into action—action into impact. We are committed to shaping a more livable world. DAI and its employees are committed to confronting racism and holding ourselves accountable for positive change within the company and in the communities, cultures, and countries in which we live and work.  DAI is committed to attracting and retaining the best employees from all races and backgrounds in our continued effort to become a better development partner. DAI upholds the highest ethical standards. We are committed to the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment as well as other ethical breaches. All of our positions are therefore subject to stringent vetting and reference checks.

DAI is seeking qualified candidates for the Kyiv or other regional HOVERLA office in Ukraine (Poltava, Lutsk, Lviv, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Odesa, Uzhhorod) to occupy full-time Civic Engagement Lead position to join USAID Governance and Local Accountability (HOVERLA) Activity’s team.

Applications will be accepted until March 24, 2024. Due to a high volume of applications received, we are unable to contact each applicant individually regarding the status of their application. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted in response to this job advertisement.

Project Background

DAI Global is implementing the USAID-funded Governance and Local Accountability (HOVERLA) Activity, based in Kyiv, Ukraine. This project is designed to support Ukraine advance self-reliant local governance including legislative reforms, participatory strategic planning methodologies, service improvement, local economic development, civil society engagement, and capacity building of sub-national government entities.  The Activity has three objectives:

• Objective 1: Ukraine’s system of local self-governance is increasingly institutionalized and effective
• Objective 2: More self-reliant subnational governance
• Objective 3: Citizens play an increasingly influential role in local governance processes

Position Overview

Through the development and implementation of evidence-based and context-driven interventions, the Civic Engagement Lead will help the HOVERLA team to support consolidated communities establish participatory mechanisms and capacity for cross-sectoral dialogue, planning, and budgeting, increasing own-source revenues. The Civic Engagement Lead will support visible service improvements and ensure that core public administration and public financial management functions (budgeting, planning, management, and citizen engagement) are strengthened in partner districts. The Citizen Engagement lead will lead the implementation of HOVERLA’s activities under Objective 3 (O3).

Objectives and Duties:

General duties

• Lead and coordinate all O3 team-members embedded in Kyiv and oblast offices.
• Build and manage relationships with oblast- and rayon-based HOVERLA stakeholders, and coordinate with cooperating partner-funded programs operating at the local level.
• Develop, implement, monitor and evaluate citizen engagement activities that involve partner oblast and rayon civil service and elected officials, service providers, private sector entities, civil society organizations (CSOs) and local citizens (including women and disadvantaged communities).
• Oversee logistics for assessment exercises, activities and events in the partner oblast and communities as needed.
• Deliver timely, detailed, and accurate updates on oblast-based and communities’ activities that inform trip, activity, inception, quarterly, annual, and final reports, the annual work plan, and other deliverables.
• Work closely with and support the Grants Team on proposal and budget development; the solicitation process; activity implementation; deliverable completion; and monitoring, evaluation and learning for grantees under O3.
• Identify and contribute to success stories as required by USAID.
• Collect quality data for the Activity, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plan (AMELP) for quarterly and annual indicators.
• Develop and tailor strategies to engage national and local government (oblast, rayon, and community) stakeholders to support civic engagement.
• Coordinate with Change management Team (CMT) to support the renewal of existing training tools to improve the civic engagement and public outreach.
• Provide technical assistance and support to government counterparts and grantees as needed.
• Other duties as assigned by COP and DCOP.

Civic engagement duties

• Build technical and organizational capacity of CSOs and private sector entities to participate in local decision making, assess service delivery, and hold local counterparts accountable.
• Manage awareness and engagement efforts, including strengthening social accountability mechanisms for improved citizen-government relations.
• Build linkages between communities and organizations working at the grassroots level, and those that can influence the actions of local or national leaders and decision-makers within or outside of the government.
• Develop social accountability tools, such as community score cards, citizen report cards, social audits, and public expenditure tracking surveys, at the local level.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• University degree in relevant field required
• 10+ years of relevant experience
• Experience in working on local level civic engagement and advocacy activities on donor-funded projects (USAID experience preferred)
• Experience in working for sub-regional or local self-government bodies will be an asset
• Knowledge of decentralization in Ukraine, including local level
  – Delivery of administrative services
  – Citizen, private-sector, women and disadvantaged community involvement in government decision-making, including development planning and monitoring
• Ability to respond effectively to time sensitive demands & inquiries
• Demonstrated commitment to exceptional customer relations (both internally & externally)
• Excellent organizational skills with a willingness to take initiative and be proactive
• Proficiency with MS Office
• Excellent writing, speaking, and reading skills in English
• Professional proficiency in Ukrainian