WPS Project Coordinator

Empathy for Life Integrated Development Association (ELiDA) is a women-led, non-governmental civil society organization established in 2008 and licensed by the Authority for Civil Society Organizations (ACSO), Certificate No. 1143. ELiDA envisions a society where women and girls are socially responsible, empowered, and actively engaged in leadership and decision-making processes across all sectors of society.

ELiDA implements integrated programs in Peacebuilding, Humanitarian Response, Education, Livelihoods, and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Prevention and Response across Ethiopia, focusing on conflict-affected, disaster-affected, and vulnerable communities. Through its interventions, ELiDA promotes resilience, gender equality, social cohesion, and sustainable development.

In partnership with UN Women, ELiDA is launching a national initiative entitled “Enhanced and meaningful women’s participation in peace and security and strengthened community-based peacebuilding efforts.” To ensure high-quality field implementation, accountability, and strategic localization of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) framework, ELiDA is seeking to recruit a highly qualified, experienced, and dynamic professional for the position of WPS Project Coordinator.

Job Purpose

The WPS Project Coordinator will hold overall operational accountability for the day-to-day coordination, management, and high-quality implementation of the UN Women-funded project across six target regions. The role holder will specialize in bridging customary, informal women-led peace networks with formal state mechanisms, optimizing results-based sub-grant pathways for youth, driving regional policy advocacy, and embedding conflict-sensitive safeguarding practices into field initiatives.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Project Management and Technical Implementation

• Lead the operational field planning and multi-region execution of all milestones to ensure compliance with the approved Results-Based Budget and work plan.
• Coordinate the design and contextual delivery of capacity-building workshops and training events.
• Facilitate the structural revitalization and documentation of women’s customary conflict resolution mechanisms like Hadha Sinqee, Duberti, Debarta, and Peace Mothers, strengthening their intersectional capacity.
• Coordinate the successful facilitation of regional consultation forums in regions.

2. Oversight Localized Initiatives and Engagements

• Manage the project’s specialized micro-grants and sponsored locally driven, small-scale peace initiatives in the target regions.
• Coordinate technical mentorship and operational risk tracking for Youth Peace Ambassadors leading community-level intergenerational and cross-border dialogues.
• Provide active oversight to sub-contracted technical consultants and local media institutions producing specialized advocacy tools.

3. Stakeholder Collaboration and Advocacy

• Act as ELiDA’s technical focal point within the Joint Project Steering Committee (JPSC), coordinating directly with UN Women team and relevant government authorities.
• Organize high-level national and regional advocacy dialogues to traceably embed women’s input papers into formal peace frameworks.
• Support local women-led CSOs and WROs and their networks across the 6 regions in developing synchronized policy position papers and coordinate successful advocacy campaigns.

4. Monitoring, Learning, and Safeguarding

• Coordinate closely with ELiDA’s Senior MEL Officer to coordinate periodic monitoring and participatory reviews, capture disaggregated indicators, manage real-time Kobo Toolbox tracking logs, and perform outcome-harvesting data reviews.
• Analyze data, translate them into catchy presentations, and support ELiDA’s Advocacy and Communication team to publish case studies from the project.
• Maintain the project’s risk log and enforce rigorous PSEA (Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse) safeguards, ensuring all local field actions respect key standards and promote access to ELiDA’s toll-free reporting hotline.

Qualifications and Experience

• Master’s or Bachelor’s Degree in Peace and Conflict Studies, Gender Studies, Human Rights, Law, Development Studies, or Sociology.
• Minimum of 5 years (MA) or 7 years (BA) of progressive project management and coordination experience within an NGO environment, with a clear focus on the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) framework.
• Extensive technical understanding of UNSCR 1325, WPS agendas, peacebuilding paradigms, and the operational nuances of customary gender systems in Ethiopia.
• Proven track record in managing results-based donor grants and operating transparent civil society sub-grant pathways.
• Demonstrated experience safely navigating the localized conflict dynamics and operational constraints across the project operation regions.
• Superior professional proficiency in written and verbal English and Amharic is required. Direct working command of regional languages, e.g., Afaan Oromoo, Tigrinya, Afar aff, or Somali aff, is highly advantageous.
• Proven experience of coordinating multi-regional projects in women-led CSOs.
• Excellent analytical, report writing and presentation skills.
• Strong understanding of safeguarding and accountability principles.

Core Competencies

• Conflict sensitivity and Do-No-Harm operational planning
• High-level multi-stakeholder negotiation and diplomacy
• Strategic thinking and results-oriented team leadership
• Deep gender sensitivity, inclusion, and cultural humility
• Innovation, adaptability, and high-stakes problem-solving
• Strict alignment with PSEA, anti-fraud, and protection principles

Languages

• Fluency in English and Amharic is required.