Job Title: Programme Officer
Organisation: Restless Development
Duty Station: Moroto, Uganda
Salary: UGX45,864,987 Gross Per annum
Preferred start date: 1st June 2025
Length of contract: 1 year renewable depending on funding and performance.
Reports to: Programme Coordinator.
Direct Reports: Young Leaders.
Expected travel: National (including to rural areas ) and International travel will be required.
About Restless Development
Restless Development is a global non profit agency. We support the collective power of young leaders to create a better world. We are independently registered and governed in nine countries (India, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, UK, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe) bound together by our vision for youth power. We run youth-led programmes to tackle the issues that young people care about the most. We also run the Youth Collective – a growing network of over 4000 local youth civil society groups and organisations in 185 countries. We are committed to creating an agency that walks the talk on power shifting, using the power shifting checklist, both internally and externally.
We know young people have the power to solve the challenges we face in our world, but they are being ignored and overlooked. We are the agency that works with young people so they can lead in solving those challenges. We have operated in Uganda since 1997. We have a track record of delivering programmes with impact. We work on the issues that young people care about the most – we react and respond to the world around us. Our work mostly falls into the following four impact priority areas; 1)Voice and Democracy, Education and Livelihood, Gender and Sexual Health, and Climate Justice: Our programmes are genuinely life-changing, but can’t do any of this without talented, creative individuals at every level of our organisation. For more information, please visit: www.restlessdevelopment.org.
Job Summary: The Programme Officer will be responsible for coordinating and implementing activities of the project, focusing on building the civic competence of youth in Karamoja. This includes strengthening their capacity to effectively engage in governance, policy advocacy, and decision-making processes.
The role involves training and supporting peer mentors, climate resilience champions, journalists, and youth leaders; co-creating civic content and policy briefs; and facilitating youth-led platforms such as leadership camps, civic education sessions, community dialogues, social audits, and national forums. The Programme Officer will ensure timely delivery of high-impact activities, foster meaningful youth participation, and support the creation of enabling environments for young people to influence policy and development agendas at district, regional, and national levels.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Programme Delivery and Reporting:
- Support the development of timely and high quality annual, quarterly and monthly detailed implementation work plans (DIPs), budgets, technical guides and tools needed to ensure quality implementation of the project.
- Assist in the design, planning, and coordination of youth engagement activities, ensuring they align with project goals and donor expectations.
- Ensure that the delivery of youth capacity-building sessions and civic education initiatives are carried out effectively and meet quality standards.
- Support the Programme Coordinator in tracking the progress of youth feedback mechanisms and social audits.
- Assist in the documentation and reporting of project activities, ensuring the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework is adhered to.
- Ensure that youth voices are reflected in the project reporting, providing insights on feedback gathered through community events and digital platforms.
Logistics and Communication:
- Lead on logistical arrangements for recruitment of the project community volunteer structures, training, camps, community dialogues, travels, research and other programme related activities.
- Lead procurement of all project items as well as establish and maintain contact database for the project.
- Facilitate the trained youth advocates to conduct joint quarterly service delivery monitoring to enhance transparency and accountability and participate in review and district meetings.
- Develop a logistical checklist to guide activities and keep consistent, detailed records of the logistical aspects of the project.
- Provide ongoing support and mentorship to the youth advocates and other community structures to ably deliver on their mandate.
- Support the programme coordinator to update Restless Development on project progress and seek advice as necessary
- Lead on sensitization of key programme actors
- Support selection and mapping of youth advocates, peer educators and other community volunteer structures to work with.
- Conduct quarterly planning and reflection meetings with the youth Accountability advocates and peer educators and support the consolidation of their monitoring reports, share their achievements, challenges and prepare action plans for the next quarter.
- Support the development of training materials to support the training of peer educators and youth Accountability Advocates drawing on best practices.
- Safety and welfare of the project community structure:
- Work with the youth advocates and peer educators to prepare for field monitoring and district engagement meetings and civic education sessions and plan for the support required
- Keep regular communication with the youth advocates and peer educators and provide backstopping logistical support when necessary
- Support the welfare of our youth community structures, i.e. peer educators and Youth Accountability
- Advocates welfare, following up on any issues as required.
- Develop a checklist of items to be used before the youth advocates and peer educators travel to any activity to ensure they are properly equipped
- Log the youth advocates’ travel and check that all safety and security measures have been fulfilled before travel.
- Ensure the youth Accountability Advocates and peer educators are aware of the Restless Development Safe Guarding Policy
Financial Planning and Management
- Support the Youth Accountability Advocates and peer educators to manage funds for field activities
- Make payments for project-related activities and keep accurate records of financial expenditures.
- Manage budgets to ensure that there is no over and underspend.
- Ensure that financial management is undertaken according to Restless Development policies and procedures.
- Assist the programme coordinator in tracking the project’s budget
- Help track expenses related to community-level events, training sessions, and youth engagement activities, ensuring compliance with financial guidelines and donor requirements.
- Provide regular updates to the Programme coordinator as required.
Social Media Management
- Assist in developing and implementing digital feedback tools, ensuring youth can easily access and provide feedback on governance and service delivery issues.
- Promote programme activities and key youth engagement initiatives through social media platforms, ensuring visibility and engagement with the target audience.
- Support the creation of engaging social media content, including stories, photos, and videos, to highlight youth-led initiatives and advocacy work.
- Assist in the development and distribution of high-quality digital content such as blogs, reports, and films to influence policy discussions and raise awareness on youth engagement issues
- Other duties as required. Occasionally working on weekends, late night in case of emerging incidents and holidays for which time off in lieu can be taken.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
Essential
- Graduate-level Degree in relevant field of study (Environment, Climate, Advocacy, Social work, social sciences, development studies) or equivalent work experience.
- Past work experience in youth leadership and meaningful youth engagement.
- Experience in making logistical arrangement for organizing events and meetings
- Experience in asset management and procurement.
- Excellent budget management skills and experience of finance management
- Excellent organizational skills
- Excellent computer skills, including Excel and Word
- Ability to solve problems and make sound operational decisions
- VALID RIDING PERMIT
Desirable
- Effective verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills, Fluency in written and spoken English.
- Ngakarimajong speaking candidate is an added advantage.
- Experience in lobby and advocacy engagement.
- Experience in partnership management and working with a diverse range of partners.
- Experience working in a youthful, multicultural environment, including welfare provision.
About you
We are looking for a person with the right competencies and skills for the role, and who demonstrates the personal qualities consistent with our values and behaviours. Read more about our values on this link our Values
- Head: Supports managers to embed a values led culture within their team. Uses values to guide decision making and group actions. Is driven to generate ideas which continually improve ways of working, involving others in problem solving. Adapts style to cope with and support others through change.
- Heart: Strives for continual improvement against individual goals, seeking opportunities to maximize their contribution to team priorities. Supports others to deliver quality and improve their work. Takes ownership for ensuring value-for-money in the areas for which they take partial ownership. With guidance, takes ownership for programme elements and/or internal processes. Considers underlying issues and Restless Values when making operational decisions.
- Hands: Confidently adapts their communication style to suit their audience. Is able to influence others to build shared understanding. Seeks opportunities to collaboratively deliver quality against team goals by building strong relationships with colleagues from across the organisation. Works with external partners to maximise mutual benefits.
- Voice: Confidently leads programme elements and/or internal processes. Will typically manage one or more junior staff members and is seen as a leader amongst their peers. Regularly seeks feedback and evaluates own performance, creating opportunities for personal development. Develops others through proactive sharing of knowledge, skills and opportunities.
How to Apply:
Please submit your CV and a covering letter that explains why you are excited by this role, and provides examples of how your skills and experience respond to the essential and desirable criteria in the Job Description (using no more than 500 words).
Deadline: 25th April 2025