Work in and for Zimbabwe. Help grow our nation. Check out the vacancies below. If you’d like to receive this sort of information, as well as civic and human rights updates, by email each week drop us a note saying “subscribe” to info [at] kubatana [dot] net

Please note that the job vacancies we carry are related to the NGO and civil society sectors only.

Finance and Administration Officer: Local NGO
Deadline: 28 September 2012

Job Responsibilities
-Responsible for developing and implementing financial and administrative procedures such as: payroll, bookkeeping, insurance, budget and cost control, personnel policies, accounting functions, procurement procedures, contracts, inventory management and control procedures, security of facilities, financial reporting, strategic planning.
-Develops budgeting methodology and aids other departments in preparing their budgets and quarterly reports.
-Monitors departments’ actual cost and recoveries versus budgeted cost.
-Prepares comprehensive periodic financial reports.
-Ensures that statutory payments are made in a timely manner to all government agencies.
-Establish and implement financial procedures in line with organizational requirements progress reporting of programme funds and grants.
-Establish and prepare accurate and timely information for budget monitoring and Provide financial management advice on revisions of budgets, preparing periodical forecasts and any changes needed.
-Monitoring of the petty cash and bank balances to ensure sufficient funds are always available depending on the programme needs.
-Management and reconciliation of the bank and cash accounts, preparation of the weekly cash counts and monthly financial records including cashbooks, ensuring financial and resource accountability and effective management for records as required for auditing.
-Timely and accurate recording of all financial transactions in line with organizational and donor requirements and deadlines.

Person specification

Accounting qualification
-A Bachelor’s degree holder, minimum 2 years’ experience in Finance, preferably NGO experience.
-Full CIS qualification.
-Computer literacy and knowledge of Pastel version 10 or higher is a pre-requisite.
-Experience in conducting compliance checks and also ability to work with people from different backgrounds and nationalities.

Personal attributes
-Attention to detail.
-Self-motivated and have the ability to work under pressure with minimal supervision.
-Have the capacity to train community groups in financial management aspects.

Send your applications to: admin [at] chiedza [dot] org or marko [at] chiedza [dot] org

Policy & Advocacy Officer: Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe
Deadline: 28 September 2012 (1600hours)

Department: Programmes
Reports to: National Co-ordinator

Basic Function & Scope of the job
The Policy and Advocacy Officer is responsible for supporting WCoZ in analysing policy and recommending appropriate advocacy strategies to influence policy and legislative changes in support of women and the gender sector in Zimbabwe. S/he reports to the Director.

Principal Responsibilities
The Policy and Advocacy Officer is responsible for the following:
-Support WCoZ to effect the implementation of national, regional and international conventions, treaties and agreements that promote gender equity and equality in line with WCoZ’s core business
-Develop and coordinate effective collective advocacy strategies that promote changes in the policy and legislative environment as well as practices at local, national and regional levels
-Enhance the quality and relevance of WCoZ’s internal and external policies in the context of gender equity and equality
-Ensure that policy analysis and advocacy are effectively integrated in WCoZ’s initiatives and contribute substantially to the agenda of the Women and Gender Sector in Zimbabwe as well as generating best practice to be shared with other stakeholders

Advocacy and lobbying
-Identify macro policy issues affecting women from consultations with members and stakeholders
-Design advocacy and lobbying strategies in conjunction with lead organisations and stakeholders
-Produce policy briefs on a quarterly basis for purposes of lobbying and advocacy
-Identify platforms for lobbying and advocacy at national, regional and global levels
-Engage the media in lobbying and advocacy related activities
-Lead the women’s agenda in the broader advocacy campaign at national, regional and global levels
-Lead the implementation of such advocacy and lobbying

Linking with policy makers
-Work closely with the policy making bodies ie parliament and its secretariat, senate, cabinet, national institutions (ONHRI, JOMIC, Media Commission, etc) parliamentary committees, councils and provincial structures etc
-Track parliamentary, senate and cabinet processes and advise WCoZ and members on relevant points of intervention
-Link parliamentarians, national institutions/commissions, parliamentary committees with women’s NGOs and groups for advocacy and lobbying purposes

Requirements
The successful candidate must have:
-Exceptional oral skills
-Excellent written communication skills
-Excellent information analysis and report writing
-Ability to work with a variety of stakeholders
-Ability to work as a team
-Initiative and assertiveness
-Proven experience in marketing and women’s rights work
-Willing to travel

Qualification
-University Degree in Social Sciences, Development, Policy studies, Politics and Administration, Women’s Law or related field.  Masters an added advantage.
-Minimum five years of experience in NGO work.
-Excellent computer skills.
-Able to speak and write two languages English and   Shona/ Ndebele.
Please note that post is 50% time, Monday, Wednesday and Fridays.

Please send your CV to: coalition [at] zol [dot] co [dot] zw or hand deliver your CV to Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe, 9 Edmond Road, Belvedere, Harare.

Field Officer: Zimbabwe Land O’ Lakes
Deadline: 28 September 2012

The Zimbabwe Land O’ Lakes, IDD currently implementing a USAID funded Zimbabwe Livestock and Dairy project and preparing to start up another USAID sponsored project focusing on improving small-livestock agriculture seeks a Field Officer.

Timeframes: The contract for the Field Officer should run up to May 2014.
Experience: For this post a minimum of 4 years experience in livestock agricultural extension work is required.
Locations: The Field Officer will be working in Mutare District.

Key responsibilities
-Offering basic extension services to beneficiary farmers focusing on topics such as fodder collection, animal nutrition, milk hygiene, financial, business, and farm management
-Acting as field liaison to participating farmers for Land O’Lakes (and partnering organization) staff, communicating and following up in training activities and coordinating logistical arrangements for Land O’Lakes activities
-Collect data on field activity performance and report accurately to Land O’Lakes for report creation
-Supporting farmer associations with administrative support, linkages, and communication as they seek to strengthen their organizational capacity, farming systems, member services, and economic returns

Skills and Knowledge Requirements
-A Diploma in Agriculture with good knowledge in Animal Husbandry
-Experience in livestock-based agriculture and knowledge of farm management
-Basic English required; Fluent Shona and/or Ndebele desirable depending on location
-Good organization and time management skills
-Able to ride and use of a motorbike – Class 3 and 4 driver’s licence holders will have an advantage
-Reliable and trust worthy
-Basic computer literacy desirable
-Must be a Zimbabwe citizen or permanent citizen with legal work permits for Zimbabwe
-Must be a team player with prior experience working in a team environment

Application letters and CVs should be addressed to the Country Director and sent to: zimlolfieldofficer [at] gmail [dot] com

Public Health Coordinator: Oxfam
Deadline: 28 September 2012

Job Reference no. INT5692
Location: Shurugwi
Contract Duration: 11 months up to July 2013
Interviews to be conducted from week ending 5 October 2012

This position is open to candidates with the right to work in Zimbabwe

Job Purpose
To support, lead and coordinate the implementation and monitoring of a project providing assisting a local authority to improve WASH services for urban residents in Midlands Province. The project being implemented will transfer technical, operational and business expertise in public health promotion programmes from Oxfam to local communities, partner organisations and local institutions, ultimately allowing them to be fully and independently operational.

Please note that this is an urgent recruitment and short listing will commence as soon as we receive applications

For more information and to apply please click here

In a misguided attempt to add some zing to my sex life I decided to shave my “bits” …  so Saturday morning found me doing a myriad of contortions in the bathtub, wrestling with shaving cream, my legs and the razor, the kids happily distracted by an hour of cartoons. Yes. Not the brightest idea I ever had. I didn’t cut myself. So there’s a plus. I also chose this day, of all possible days, to stop taking my antihistamines – I’ve been taking one every day for about 2 months to beat my hay fever into submission. And because I feel like I’m giving in by taking them at all, I thought I’d take a short break and test if it were actually necessary. In the big scheme of things, you understand. (I am also reading a book called “Don’t sweat the small stuff, for moms”). As it turns out, it probably will be a day I will remember five years from now.

At 9, a friend dropped off her son, and we went along to spend the day at a local school’s fun fair. The kids had a great day going down water slides, riding ponies, entering the colouring competition, pinning the eye patch on the pirate (an exciting variation to tails on donkeys) and racing around the obstacle course. I searched in vain for a patch of shade and ended up slowly roasting at 30-voetsak degrees amidst a small mountain of juice bottles and hats and clothes and towels and swimming costumes and balloons. One of which popped – I was not the most popular parent of the day. It might even have been on my cigarette – which I do not own up to!

Needless to say by 3 o’clock that afternoon I was a mass of snot with swollen-shut red eyes, sunburn, and the urge to scoot across the grass like a dog with worms (very itchy bits!) or rub myself up against a tree (obviously not fussy). 3 Castle Lites later, toilet roll (helpfully supplied by a concerned parent) clutched in free hand, a possibly erroneous feeling of control descended … the Castles are not so “Lite” after all.

Later Graham, happily home from work, cooked dinner for our unexpected guests while I threw back a vodka and coke (or two) and had a satisfying scratch. True to form, by the time I had eaten my dinner, with some fantastic red wine, acquired at the recent Big 5 Wine Festival, my eyelids were drooping, speech was slightly slurred and my enthusiasm for the rest of the evening seriously compromised.

I’d like to say the sex was worth it. But Graham came to bed eventually to find me snoring gently, my choice of adjective I must admit, fully clothed, a burst balloon at my feet – must’ve been the lone survivor.

Tsvangirai’s appeal has faded fast.

This is Zimbabwe’s tragedy: the mantle of leadership has rested too long on the shoulders of the man who currently leads Zimbabwe, and it will sit uneasily on the man who wants to unseat him. But voters are likely to conclude that Tsvangirai is the lesser of two evils. Flawed as he is, he may just make it.

More from Petinah Gappah here

So, Minister Kasukuwere just woke up and realised that there are 144 colonial-era laws that “stifle the easy empowerment of our people.” Easy empowerment of course being the catch. He says he will be taking up the matter with Cabinet to have these laws amended or repealed. How noble. Of course this is the same chap whose same political party has used the very same colonial-era laws to suppress political activism and dance and stomp on civil liberties. But obviously the irony is lost as these crusaders have made political careers out of brazen double standards. This is yet another reason why sober-minded and progressive Zimbabweans must dispense with the Kasukuweres in the coming polls. Why? Because the same colonial era laws he is choosing not to complain about  are being used to deny you the right to support the political party of your choice. Nothing worse than tolerating a hypocrite doubling as a cretin!

But then, Zanu PF has insulted people’s intelligence for so long the party thinks it can get away with anything.

The growing media polarization between “pro-MDC” and “pro-ZANU-PF” camps has reached a toxic level as it is now difficult to distinguish journalists from political activists. The prevailing political situation in Zimbabwe has exacerbated the rivalry and the media is being used for political ends.

The Annual Media Stakeholders’ Conference 2012 was held in Harare yesterday at a time when the country is at a deadlock over the new constitution and the increasing uncertainty of whether there is going to be any constitution at all. The conference, which was hosted by the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ), brought together media practitioners and members of civil society from across the nation to take stock of media reforms, which have taken place so far under the coalition government operating the Global Peace Agreement (GPA). Article 19 of the GPA refers to a free and diverse media environment but not much has been done to address this as many journalists and media practitioners have been arrested and charged under Access Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

According to a presentation by Andy Moyes of Media and Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) the government has established the Zimbabwe Media Commission and since the establishment of the Commission the number of registered media organizations has risen to 65. However it should be noted that the Commission is still a government-controlled body as it still operates under the provisions of Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). The Zimbabwe Media Commission has recently come under attack from some sections of the media who view its establishment as an attempt to stifle media plurality, expression and press freedom. The same Commission has been criticized for lack of transparency in the awarding of licenses, which has resulted in a number of private radio stations crying foul. In what can be viewed as a deliberate move to stall reforms before elections no community radio station has been granted a license to operate to date.

Multiplicity does not necessarily mean the licensing of two radio stations can evidence diversity in content. The two stations, which came into operation recently after being granted commercial broadcasting licenses. One of the two radio station Star FM comes from a state run media house and the other one Zi FM is operated by a former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation news anchor who has denied strong links to the former ruling party ZANU PF.

The continued use of hate language, fabrication of stories, biased reporting and publication of highly opinionated stories is another sign of the high level of unethical practices which some journalists and media houses practice. To some extent the increased invasion of privacy especially by state media related to the Prime Minister’s private life has left many wondering if there are still any ethics being practiced in the media profession. The standard of journalism in Zimbabwe has deteriorated to that extent that the content being produced is now regarded as being unreliable.

Limbikani Makani was chosen to attend the 2012 Young African Leaders Innovation Summit in the US and now he mentors young Zimbabwean technocrats. I attended a Food for Thought Session at the US Embassy Public Affairs section yesterday where Limbikani was speaking. I was blown away by his motivational presentation titled, ‘Quit complaining, Take responsibility’.

Limbikani who is the founder of TechZim, a technology news website in Zimbabwe shared his experiences from the Innovation Summit, the experiences of starting up a website and of being a student at a local college in Zimbabwe. He left a lot of the audience believing that anything is possible. He also shared the stories of winners of the 2012 ZOL Jumpstart Challenge, which he co-founded. These stories show how Zimbabweans have seen where gaps exist and filled them with technology based tools and applications. Limbikani challenged Zimbabweans who seem to be born complaining, believe that everything around them is wrong and that someone has failed them. He put it to Zimbabweans to take responsibility and solve the problems they encounter.