CONCORD, the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development, is seeking an: AIDWATCH ASSISTANT (‘immersion professionnelle’)

CONCORD is the confederation representing European NGOs for relief and development at European level.  Its 25 national associations and 18 international networks represent over 1600 NGOs. CONCORD leads reflection and political actions on key development issues and regularly engages in dialogue with the European institutions and other civil society organisations.

The AidWatch Initiative is a pan-European lobby and campaigns initiative monitoring and advocating on the quality and the quantity of aid provided by EU member states and the European Commission, which was launched in 2006. The AidWatch network is an active group of civil society aid experts from the 27 EU Member States, working collectively to hold EU MS to account on their aid quality and quantity commitments.

Each year, AidWatch launches an annual report on the quantity and quality of European aid. This report is launched in countries across Europe and used to inform coordinated European lobby work to influence policy makers and hold governments to account on their aid pledges. The network also carries out ongoing advocacy, research, analysis, media and capacity development activities on a wide range of aid-related issues throughout the year.

Summary of tasks:

The assistant will lead on the following activities:

• Organisation of a capacity development workshop on lobbying governments, to be held in Vienna at the end of September
• Organisation of the annual AidWatch seminar, to be held in Brussels end October / early November. This will include leading on both logistics and content (agenda, speakers, preparatory documents etc)
• Ensuring the collection and analysis of updates on aid levels from EU member states

The assistant will also contribute to the following activities:

• Policy analysis of aid-related documents that the EU institutions will issue
• Lobby and advocacy activities, particularly in the context of the MDG+10 summit and the November Council conclusions
• Participation of AidWatch in the European Development Days
• Drafting of an AidWatch position paper on aid transparency
• Drafting an update briefing on EU aid levels
• Any other tasks that might be requested to support the AidWatch coordinator and the CONCORD secretariat

Candidate profile

Successful candidates for this post will respond as much as possible to the following profile:

Essential

-       University level education in a relevant field

-       Fluency in English

-       Some experience in organising and managing events

-       Excellent writing skills

-       General knowledge of EU development policies, particularly aid quantity and effectiveness

-       Familiarity with a multicultural and multilingual environment

Desirable

-       Knowledge of other European languages, particularly French

-       Post-university degree in a relevant field

-       Experience of working in NGOs

-       Previous experience in the EU institutions (e.g. internship)

Conditions

The contract will be an ‘immersion professionnelle’ contract for a minimum duration of three months.  Salary will be approximately 700 euro/month.

Deadline for applications:        Tuesday 20^th July 6 pm Brussels time

Interviews:                               Week of 23^rd August

Start date:                                1^st September

Please send your CV and cover letter to abozzini@concordeurope.org by 6pm 20^th July.

Due to limited capacity, we regret to inform that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.