POSITION:       Community Engagement & Outreach Agent

Industry:           Non-profit/International Development

Function:          Operations

Location:          Based in Nuwakot, Nepal with regular visits to other field based locations

ORGANIZATION DESCRIPTION

Founded in 2004, Build Change is a non‐profit social enterprise whose mission is to save lives in earthquakes and hurricanes. Build Change designs disaster-resistant houses and schools, trains homeowners, builders, engineers and government officials to build them, works with governments to develop and implement building standards, partners with the private sector to improve building materials quality and create jobs, and facilitates access to incentive-based capital for reconstruction and retrofitting by partnering with financing institutions and government subsidy programs. Build Change started its work in Aceh, Indonesia after the 2004 earthquake and tsunami and has since expanded to include programs in China, Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, Nepal, and the Philippines. Build Change has trained more than 39,380 people on earthquake-resistant design and construction techniques, created more than 16,768 jobs and provided technical assistance for more than 58,328 safer buildings, impacting an estimated 304,440 people.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

For the position of Community Engagement and Outreach Agent, Build Change is seeking a professional with experience in community engagement. Familiarity with the “Homeowner-driven Reconstruction Approach” and disaster response projects is a plus. The position reports to the Project Manager and works closely with the Safe Construction Promotion and Awareness Manager.

Position Responsibilities

• Conception, Development, and Vetting of Outreach Materials – Under the management of the Project Manager and the supervision of the Safe Construction Promotion and Awareness Manager, the Community Engagement & Outreach Agent is responsible, in collaboration with the engineering and the construction training team, for assisting in designing and developing outreach materials aimed at spreading Build Back Safer information in communities of rural Nepal. These outreach materials are meant to simplify and make comprehensible to community members, homeowners and local builders, the disaster-resistant construction guidelines developed by the Build Change engineering team in conformity with Government of Nepal applicable code and reconstruction standards. The Community Engagement & Outreach Agent must vet all outreach materials with key community stakeholder groups before finalization.

• Community Outreach Campaign - The cornerstone of the Community Engagement & Outreach Agent’s responsibility is to actively deploy the community outreach campaign in VDCs of rural Nepal. The campaign will use outreach materials developed for that purpose by the Community Outreach Team. This includes, but is not limited to: disseminating flyers, posters, radio messages, and animating community events with live presentations, demonstrations and skits, as well as airing outreach videos.

• Engaging Community Build-Back-Safer Ambassadors - The Community Engagement & Outreach Agent will promote the Build-Back-Safe Ambassadors’ program and will help with selecting, enrolling, training and engaging rotating Ambassador Groups consisting of community members.

• Special Attention to Homeowners - The Community Engagement & Outreach Agent will ensure that homeowners are engaged in the program, and provide support by holding one-on-one sit-down meetings with homeowners who require extra explanation of project objectives, deliverables and participation in every step of the homeowner-driven project.

• Coordination - The Community Engagement & Outreach Agent must demonstrate flexibility, ability and willingness to coordinate activities with the Engineering Team, the Training Team and the M&E Team as well as with project partners’ staff.

• Reporting – The Community Engagement & Outreach Agent is responsible for reporting to the Project Manager and to the Safe Construction Promotion and Awareness Manager on a regular basis, such as weekly, monthly, quarterly and as required by the upper management.

• Field Deployment - The Community Engagement & Outreach Agent is responsible to support partners staff for delivering community outreach activities in rural villages, and as such must be willing to spend up to 80% of his/her time in a rural location, and live out of the Build Change field office/guesthouse.

• Training, Capacity Development and Support- The Community Engagement and Outreach Agent should be capable of development of training and IEC materials, delivering training and capable of capacity development of partners staff to carry out different awareness activities in the field like Community Ambassador Program, Homeowner Training and Orientation, Community Mobilization, mobilization of forum theatre team, documentation to receive tranche and other activities assigned by Project Manager.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology/Communication/Management or related field
• At least 3 years of working experience in similar areas
• Strong communication, analytical, reporting and organizational skills demonstrated with experience
• Excellent planning and coordination skills with the ability to prioritize tasks and work efficiently under time pressure
• Experience working on community-based initiative
• Familiar with construction principles, a plus
• Endorse an "other focused" culture of diversity, inclusion, respect and cultural competency
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Nepali