Background on ACTED

ACTED is a French humanitarian NGO, founded in 1993, which supports vulnerable populations, affected by humanitarian crises worldwide. ACTED provides continued support to vulnerable communities by ensuring the sustainability of post-crisis interventions and engaging long-term challenges facing our target populations, in order to break the poverty cycle, foster development and reduce vulnerability to disasters. Their interventions seek to cover the multiple aspects of humanitarian and development crises through a multidisciplinary approach which is both global and local, and adapted to each context.

ACTED is looking for professionally confident, self-motivated, experienced and committed team player to fill Accountability Assistant position in Semera, Ethiopia. 

The Accountability Assistant contributes to improving the quality of ACTED programming through the accurate registration and timely follow up of any complaints about ACTED’s activities/staff and also contributes to the development of appropriate messaging and communication strategies. The Accountability Officer is the first point of contact for beneficiaries who need to raise complaints. As such, the Accountability Officer will need to be neutral and establish mechanisms that based on the highest integrity which beneficiaries will trust. 

Establish and ensure effective functioning of the Beneficiary Complaints and Response Mechanism, enhance the trust and confidence of beneficiaries, identify areas of our work which need to be improved and ensure that ACTED learns from the feedback provided through this process.  

Beneficiary Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM)

Establishment and Promotion of the CRM

1. Establish, implement and monitor the beneficiary Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM) for the country mission in line with ACTED standard beneficiary CRM procedures;
2. Build capacity and understanding among ACTED staff, partners and contractors on beneficiary accountability and CRM;
3. Accompany the AME and/or project teams to the field in order to spread awareness about the CRM to beneficiaries, as well as local authorities and stakeholders in ACTED’s areas of implementation, during field visits;
4. Regularly assess effectiveness of all information-sharing efforts and incorporate findings into revised approaches;
5. Maintain records of CRM awareness raising and promotion activities (including approximate numbers of participants) and submit to Project Managers as required; 

Implementation of the CRM

1. Ensure the effective functioning of the beneficiary CRM and that beneficiary complaints/feedback is adequately captured, analyzed, addressed and responded to in a timely manner and utilized by the program and coordination teams;
2. Receive complaints through telephone hotline, in writing and in person;
3. Follow up on complaints received by other ACTED staff with the same diligence as complaints received through the CRM directly;
4. Treat urgent and/or sensitive complaints with the immediate attention they require, and ensure a fast resolution;
5. Maintain confidential and detailed records of all complaints in the CRM database and other electronic and hard copy filing systems, as appropriate;
6. Respond to complaints objectively, accurately, and in line with ACTED guidelines, using information provided by Project Managers, AME Officers/Monitors, Area Coordinators, project documents, FLAT documents and procedures, etc;
7. Follow up on pending complaints with Project, AME, and Coordination staff;
8. Analyze patterns and trends in complaints to help ACTED improve its programming;
9. Produce a monthly analytic CRM report for ACTED staff, following ACTED template;
10. Adapt and improve the CRM based on monitoring of its effectiveness. 

Other

• Provide regular and timely updates on progress and challenges to supervisors and other team members;
• Assist project and AME teams with other activities, as requested by immediate supervisor;
• Perform any other related activities as assigned by immediate supervisor. 

Job Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent in Development studies, Social science, communication or other relevant discipline
• 1 - 2 years experiences in public relation, accountability or compliance and transparency 
• Demonstrated experience in accountability and public relation in an NGO/INGO is highly preferable.
• Able to manage a high workload and meet tight deadlines
• Good numerical, report writing and administration skills; committed to consultative and servant-minded leadership; able to set clear objectives for staff and to delegate; able to enforce procedures
• Good understanding and strong communication skill
• Knowledge and understanding of humanitarian standards
• High potential solid approach and solution oriented 
• Proficiency in English language, both written and spoken
• Afaraf language is a mandatory requirement/Tigrinya is an advantage
• Flexibility and ability to multi-task under pressure
• Proven ability to work creatively and independently both in the field and in the office
• Good inter-personal skills, commitment and motivation

How to Apply

Qualified national persons with the required skills are invited to submit their applications accompanied by detailed curriculum vitae and cover letter as a single document i.e. with the cover letter being on the first page and the CV starting on the second page, detailing three work related referees and contacts to ethiopia.jobs@acted.org and received on or before 5.00PM on 28^TH October 2021 with the subject line “Accountability Assistant - Semera”

Please do not attach any other documents while sending your applications, if required they will be requested at a later stage. Please note that ACTED reserves the right to shortlist candidates on ongoing basis. Only the shortlisted candidates will be contacted. ACTED will at no stage of recruitment process request candidate to make payments of any kind. Further, ACTED has not retained any agent in connection with recruitment. ACTED is committed to protecting beneficiaries within our programs from exploitation and abuse and any kind of misconduct. ACTED has specific policies, including PSEA and Child Protection, which outlines the expected behavior and the responsibility of all staff, beneficiaries, consultants and other stakeholders and has zero tolerance towards misconducts. Any candidate offered a job with ACTED will be expected to sign ACTED’s organizational Policies and Code of Conduct as an annex to their contract of employment and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents.

ACTED is an Equal Opportunity Employer.