Myanmar: Land Program Officer

Jan 11, 2015 | Namati
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In a world where billions of people live outside the protection of the law, Namati is dedicated to putting the law in peoples' hands. We are building a global movement of grassroots legal advocates who work with communities to advance justice. These advocates are fighting on the front lines to ensure that people can protect their land, access essential services, and take part in the decisions that govern their lives.

We draw on that grassroots experience to seek large- scale structural changes— we have already achieved policy changes that affect millions of people in multiple countries. And our ambitions don’ t end at the national level - our global campaign for internationally agreed justice targets has been endorsed by 200 organizations and four former Heads of State.

As we move into our next phase of development we’ re growing a global team of passionate, results- oriented, and big-hearted advocates. We are united by a common mission and a strong culture. And we have some hefty supporters, including an advisory board with leaders l ike Amartya Sen, Mo Ibrahim, Fazle Abed, and Madeline Albright.

We’ re just beginning. Please consider joining us.

For more information about Namati, please visit www.namati.org/about

About the Myanmar Program

Myanmar is undergoing a major transition, opening space for significant change for the first time in decades. In this climate, legal empowerment can pursue two aims simultaneously: ( 1 ) working directly with people to exercise rights and ( 2 ) collecting and analyzing data on those grassroots efforts – mapping the character of grievances, revealing where the system is failing, and identifying achievable reforms – to build an information base for policy advocacy.

In Myanmar Namati partners with civil society groups and law f irms to implement community- based paralegal programs and push for change related to land, natural resource rights, and environmental justice. With a local partner, we are supporting grassroots legal advocates in f ive divisions/ states to empower farmers to register land, resolve land disputes, and secure the return of grabbed land under a new legal framework. We are testing new methods, data collection tools, and technologies to continually improve the reach and effectiveness of our paralegals’ work. We will use data from this effort to recommend specific improvements to land policy and practice.

Namati also strengthens existing legal empowerment efforts by sharing methods and other practical tools gleaned from our legal empowerment experience around the globe.

About the Position

As Program Officer, you’ll be responsible for supporting the land rights component of Namati’ s Myanmar Program. You will be directly involved with providing programmatic support to the Myanmar Program Director, technical assistance to national partner organizations, research, writing and editing in Burmese and English and other miscellaneous special projects. You’ ll also be heavily involved in building the capacity of the Namati team, its partners, and paralegals to understand and resolve complex land rights issues. You will also assist in the development of policy change proposals and advocacy strategy.

Here are some of the tasks you might tackle in a typical week:

· Collaborating with the Namati team and our partners to finalize the training sessions for an upcoming paralegal training.

· Taking the lead on the preparation for several training sessions, including reaching out to other Namati teams to collect sample lesson plans for related skills and knowledge sessions.

· Conducting data analysis of paralegal case information and, based on the findings, writing a first draft of recommended changes to the draft National Land Use Policy.

· Synthesizing a lengthy Burmese- language legal commentary on the draft land policy in a two- page English memo.

· Providing advice by phone to a paralegal who has questions on the Vacant, Fallow, and Virgin Land Law as he/ she develops the strategy for a new complex case.

· Translating a draft field visit report template from English to Burmese and discussing the document with counterparts at our local partner NGO.

· Attending two coordination meetings with other land organizations, providing a short update on Namati’ s work, making new contacts, and reporting back on highlights and outcomes to the rest of the Yangon office.

· Providing input to the Program Director to refine and finalize the 2015 program goals and work plan.

Overall, you’ll be responsible for:

· Research and Writing:

o Conduct academic and legal research on legal empowerment, legal aid, land and natural resource rights, environmental justice, and all relevant, related topics.

o Create a range of documents, including articles, issue briefs, reports, internal memoranda, Op Eds, blog posts, and other written and electronic content on these issues.

o Write and edit various drafts of policy papers and research reports.

o Support national partner organizations in their research and writing needs.

· Programmatic Support:

o Provide on- going programmatic support to Namati’ s Myanmar- based Program Director and national partner organizations.

o Provide technical expertise, training and oversight to national partner organizations, as requested.

o Work with partners to analyze data from grassroots programs, use that learning to develop policy change proposals, and advocate for reform.

o Assist with the preparation of budgets and work plans.

o Support program monitoring and evaluation.

o Represent Namati at meetings and conferences, as requested.

o Assist in the scoping of new projects and partnerships.

o Provide translation support ( written and oral) from Burmese to English and English to Burmese.

o Organize and participate in program- sponsored events.

o Draft/ edit routine correspondence and memoranda in Burmese and English.

o Develop communication materials to share project methods, challenges and successes.

o Organize logistics of calls, meetings, and workshops (travel arrangements, materials, minutes, coordination with conference organizers), as required.

o Perform other tasks as assigned.

About You

You’re an organized, self- starting, detail- oriented problem- solver with expertise in land issues, natural resource management, and/ or environmental justice. You are a native or near- native Burmese language speaker and also have excellent written and spoken English. You come with a breadth of experience in fieldwork, community organizing, training, and/ or technical assistance, and maybe even in program and financial management. You have demonstrated that you are highly motivated, self- directed and capable of identifying needs and taking productive action, thoughtfully prioritizing and following tasks through to success. We know this because of your 3 to 5 years’ of relevant work experience, educational background and significant time spent in Myanmar and/or other developing nation( s). You achieve your goals by being committed to excellence in all of your work products, and you get there with the help of your exceptional research, analytical, writing, and computer skills (specifically Microsoft Office – Excel and Word, web applications, and database software).

We prefer that you can comfortably navigate government systems and have spent time engaging with national policy makers, but we insist that you have strong global perspective, experience and values and are wholly committed to legal empowerment principles.

Location

Yangon, Myanmar, but you should also be able and willing to spend significant time at program sites within Myanmar, as needed.

Compensation

Commensurate with experience.

HOW TO APPLY:
Please email resume, English language writing sample and cover letter to: employment@namati.org before January 30, 2015 . In your email, please identify where you saw the job posting.

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. No phone calls, please.

Namati is an Equal Opportunity Employer.