African Regional Officer - Full Time Position

There is an immediate opening for a full-time position of African Regional Officer for the Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI) project.

DRPI is a collaborative project working to establish a holistic and sustainable global system to monitor the human rights of people with disabilities. DRPI’s International Coordination Centre is based at York University in Toronto, Canada.  Regional Offices have been established in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Africa. DRPI is currently seeking candidates to fill the position of African Regional Officer.

The DRPI project is guided by the principle that people with all types of disabilities and their representative organizations should be actively involved in all aspects of disability rights monitoring. DRPI adopts a holistic approach to monitoring disability rights, focusing on three inter-related areas: individual experiences (gathering information about the personal experiences of people with disabilities), systems (assessing laws, policies and programs impacting the rights of people with disabilities) and societal attitudes (examining the coverage and depiction of disability in the media). Further information may be found on the project website.

Dr. Bengt Lindqvist (UN Special Rapporteur on Disability 1994-2002) and Dr. Marcia Rioux, Professor, Faculty of Health, York University co-direct the project.

Duties

The position will involve working under the direction of DRPI’s Co-Directors and in collaboration with the DRPI Project Coordinator and other researchers to:

• Plan and supervise disability rights monitoring projects;
• Assist in planning and supervising the field testing of an interactive online training course on disability rights monitoring covering the curriculum of DRPI’s in-person training workshops;
• Support the field testing of a system for online collection of individual experiences of persons with disabilities, and a searchable online database containing monitoring data.
• Liaise with DRPI project personnel and partners;
• Seek funding opportunities for disability rights monitoring activities;
• Assist national and local organizations of people with disabilities to apply for and secure funding;
• Offer support to ongoing holistic disability rights monitoring projects taking place in Africa;
• Develop and foster partnerships between and among disability rights and human rights organizations in Africa;
• Assist with the preparation of reports to funding bodies and international and regional human rights monitoring mechanisms;
• Raise awareness of disability rights monitoring activities taking place in Africa (by, for example, coordinating media campaigns, writing content for the DRPI website and list serv, attending and presenting at relevant meetings, etc.);
• Other tasks, as required by the Co-Directors or their designate.

Qualifications

Required

• Experience in project administration and management, organizing events and writing funding proposals;
• Experience contributing to effective communication strategies including newsletters, reports, websites, etc;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in French;
• Understanding of human rights and of disability as a human rights issue; and
• Willing to travel.

Preferred

• A university degree in the area of law, social sciences or other related discipline.
• Personal experience of disability and/or working with people with disabilities.
• Fluency in English and/or French is a strong asset.
• Pan-African experience.

Salary

Compensation will be commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the successful candidate. Please note that it will not be possible to cover the cost of the successful candidate’s moving and/or relocation expenses. 

We encourage applications from persons with disabilities, women, ethnic minorities and other marginalized groups.  

Applications will be accepted until Friday, February 7, 2014. Interested candidates should submit a cover letter and their résumé to Dr. Marcia Rioux at drpi@yorku.ca. Please indicate “Application - African Regional Officer” in the subject line of the email.

For further information about this posting, please contact:

Dr. Marcia Rioux  
Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI)

Telephone: +1  416 736 2100 extension 20718
Email: drpi@yorku.ca