Woreda Project Officer | Somali

Gudina Tumsa Foundation (GTF) was established in 1992 as a not-for-profit civil society organization and is duly registered with the Authority for Civil Society Organizations (ACSO), with a mandate to operate at the national level in Ethiopia. Since its establishment, the Foundation has implemented a wide range of development projects across the country. The GTF is currently seeking a qualified, motivated, and dedicated Woreda Project Officer to join its team.

Job title: Woreda Project Officer

Community Mobilization, Creative Deployment & Field Leadership

Reports to: Addis-Based Project Officer/Project Coordinator(technical), Project Manager (overall)

Employment Type: Full-time / 6 months contract

Duty Station: Kebribeyah (Qabribayax), Somali

Role Summary

The Woreda Project Officer is the primary field-level implementation lead responsible for translating project plans, creative campaigns, and advocacy strategies into effective community action. Combining community facilitation, mobilization, and local coordination, the role anchors the project within lived community realities while ensuring disciplined, ethical, and high-quality delivery of outreach, dialogue, and Fayda ID registration-support activities.

The position serves as the trusted interface between communities, local authorities, and the project, ensuring trust-building, inclusion, feedback capture, and problem-solving at woreda level.

Key Responsibilities

1. Community Mobilization & Facilitation

• Mobilize diverse community groups, including women, youth, elders, faith leaders, and marginalized populations, for dialogues, theatre performances, radio engagement, and registration-support events.
• Facilitate structured and informal discussions on:
  • Fayda National ID purpose and benefits
  • Data trust, privacy, and rights
  • Linkages between ID, health access, and economic participation
• Foster inclusive participation, with particular attention to women, adolescents, and underserved groups.
• Identify and support community champions and influencers to sustain engagement.

2. Creative Campaign Deployment & Support

Support pre-campaign preparation, including:

• Community readiness and sensitization
• Venue identification and permissions
• Mobilization of target groups
• Support live creative deployments (theatre, radio recordings, storytelling, and documentation) in coordination with the Addis-based Project Officer and Senior Creative Director’s team.
• Facilitate post-campaign follow-up, including feedback collection, reflection discussions, and reinforcement of key messages.
• Ensure creative tools and messages are used as intended and in culturally appropriate ways.

3. Local Coordination & Institutional Engagement

• Liaise regularly with woreda administrations, kebele leaders, health offices, youth and women’s affairs offices, and service providers.
• Coordinate scheduling and logistics for community activities and registration-support events.
• Support integration of project activities with existing woreda-level services and community structures.
• Facilitate smooth collaboration between community actors and institutional partners.

4. Monitoring, Feedback & Field Reporting

• Track participation, turnout, and engagement using simple, approved tools.
• Capture qualitative community feedback, concerns, questions, and narratives.
• Identify misinformation, resistance, or emerging risks and report promptly through defined channels.
• Prepare and submit timely activity reports, narrative summaries, and field observations.
• Support MEL data collection processes and verification activities.

5. Safeguarding, Ethics & Quality Assurance

• Ensure all community engagement is respectful, inclusive, and non-coercive.
• Uphold safeguarding, child protection, and data protection principles at all times.
• Monitor community interactions for potential safeguarding or reputational risks and escalate concerns immediately.
• Promote dignity-centered and rights-based engagement in all activities.

6. Learning & Community Trust-Building

• Contribute to the documentation of lessons learned, success stories, and promising practices.
• Support community reflection and feedback loops to strengthen trust and participation.
• Assist in adapting strategies based on community realities and feedback.

Desirable

• Experience working with NGOs, CSOs, faith-based organizations, or government-linked programs.
• Familiarity with issues related to digital ID, youth or women’s empowerment.
• Experience supporting community media, theatre, or awareness campaigns.

Core Competencies

• Strong interpersonal and facilitation skills
• Cultural sensitivity and political awareness
• Ability to build trust across diverse community groups
• Observation, listening, and feedback synthesis skills
• Integrity, discretion, and respect for confidentiality

Working Conditions

• Frequent community travel within the woreda
• Flexible working hours aligned with community schedules
• High level of community interaction and responsibility

Qualifications & Experience

Essential

• BA/MA in Sociology, Development studies, Communication,…
• 3-5 years of experience in community mobilization, facilitation and related activities
• Strong standing and trust within the local community.
• Fluency in Af-Somali is required, while working knowledge of Amharic is considered an asset.
• Demonstrated experience in community mobilization, facilitation, outreach, or social engagement.
• Basic literacy and the ability to complete simple reports and documentation.
• Ability to ride a motorbike is mandatory