Start of assignment

Ideally, you are available to start working on January 15, 2024 (preparation phase, followed by at least two years’ work within the project with the option of extension).

Who we are

forumZFD supports people involved in violent conflicts on the path to peace and strives to help overcome war and violence. forumZFD is currently working with peace consultants in Germany as well as eleven other countries in Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia. Its Academy for Conflict Transformation offers a learning space for professional, international peace work. Through dialogue events, educational work and campaigns, forumZFD actively advocates civil peace policy.

forumZFD is recognized by the German federal government as a member of the Civil Peace Service (CPS) consortium. It finances its work through public and private grants, donations and membership fees.

Background

The island of Mindanao in the Philippines is the theatre of various, intersecting, violent conflicts. One is the conflict between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a group seeking self-determination for the Muslim inhabitants of Mindanao and the Philippine Government. At present, a peace agreement between the MILF and the Government is being implemented. Another is the decades-long communist insurgency of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDFP), which seeks to transform Philippine society and overthrow the government. Both these major political conflicts intersect with more localized violent conflicts stemming from natural resource extraction, clan feuds, land disputes, among others, shaping the conditions on Mindanao.

Your responsibilities

The successful candidate will be directly accountable to the forumZFD Country Director. As Project Manager you will be responsible for the content-related, financial, administrative, and personnel management of the Butuan office in the Caraga Region of Northeast Mindanao. The Caraga Region is characterised by a complex conflict situation, involving armed conflict between the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the presence of large-scale resource extraction activities (mining, logging, plantations), and indigenous peoples’ rights concerns. In cooperation with colleagues of the further programme offices –Cotabato and Davao –and in cooperation with local partners, you and your team will efficiently contribute to the civil conflict transformation and peacebuilding in the Caraga Region.

The focus of your work is the strengthening of local capacities for conflict transformation dealing with conflicts connected to natural resource management, strengthening of marginalized groups, in particular indigenous peoples, in the context of asymmetric resource conflicts, and to strengthen a peace constituency in Caraga. Maintaining and extending the contact to local partner organizations and the partner network will be a core element of your work. Beside this, you will be responsible for the implementation of existing, and the designing of new project activities. The continuous planning and monitoring of your project will be a further central task.

Your Tasks

• Provide overall management and leadership to the project in Butuan in a team with two local project officers and one financial administrator;
• design and organise of activities (e.g. workshops, trainings and training series, consultations, conferences/open forums/round tables, preparation of teaching materials), together with local partners;
• work and network with local, national, and international partners to further the project objectives;
• observe and analyse current regional and local conflict dynamics;
• implement internal planning, monitoring, and evaluation (PME&L) systems;
• reflect on and document experiences and “lessons learned” out of activities and projects, for internal documentation and evaluation;
• contribute to the fundraising and public relations activities of forumZFD as necessary.

Your profile

• Completed university degree, e.g. Social Anthropology, Social Sciences, Political Sciences, Peace and Conflict Studies, Social Work;
• qualification as specialist in methods of nonviolent/civil conflict transformation (or similar knowledge);
• 2 - 3 years of international experience in development/peacebuilding work overseas (desirably in the Philippines or in another country in Southeast Asia);
• know-how in human resource management and staff supervision, financial controlling and reporting system;
• experience in working with indigenous communities and/or natural resource-based conflicts. Additional experience in one or more of the following thematic fields is an asset: training, networking, civil-society-oriented accompaniment of peace processes, gender, mediation, working with media, designing dialogue procedures, transitional justice;
• affinity with the accompaniment of complex (dialogue) processes;
• experience in impact-oriented project planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning (PME&L);
• strong interpersonal skills, flexibility, maturity, ability to work in teams and intercultural sensitivity for working and living in complex communities;
• physical and psychological resilience, good time management including management of healthy work-life balance;
• willingness to travel frequently domestically and adjust to flexible working hours (including work on weekends);
• fluency in English (project language) both spoken and written, willingness to learn a new language;
• sound knowledge of common computer applications and social media;
• Willingness to travel through areas in which security protocols must be observed due to security risks, is expected.
• Preparedness to live in a tropical climate in a small provincial city.
• This role is an international contract and so is open to non-Filipino nationals only.
• The location of this position is not suitable for applicants with school-age children.

Our offer

We offer an attractive position with responsibilities for a minimum of two years in a growing organization. This is an international position which is only open for non-Filipino citizens. As the position is based on the German Development Aid Workers Act (EhfG), the position is remunerated according to the provisions of this law, including comprehensive social security benefits and financial reintegration assistance upon return. We also offer participation in qualification and professional development courses (among others, at forumZFD’s Academy for Conflict Transformation), a project-based preparation, regular coaching and, where appropriate, participation in a language course.

As a project manager working for forumZFD, you will work within the innovative field of conflict transformation and peacebuilding through contributing your ideas and skills.

Your application

Please apply in English online at https://www.forumzfd.de/en/node/2587/apply (letter of motivation, CV and contact details of two reference persons) by latest October 19, 2023.

An online assessment centre as part of the selection process will be held from November 14 -16, 2023. In case of any questions, please feel free to contact Mr. Sven Reuter (reuter@forumzfd.de) or Ms. Máiréad Collins (collins@forumzfd.de)

Please find further information about our organization and our assignments online at www.forumZFD.de

Our work in the Philippines is presented at https://www.forumzfd.de/en/philippines

This job advertisement as well as further employment postings can be viewed at https://www.forumzfd.de/en/jobs

We are looking forward to your application!

End of Job Application: 10/19/23