About Hudara
Hudara gGmbH is an independent and impartial organisation working in locations where people’s lives are impacted by poverty, conflict and climate change. We believe that the foundation for a peaceful and just future is to build actions on equal partnerships. This includes respect for diverse ways of life and appreciation of manifold positive social and cultural expressions, practices and solutions globally. Our Vision // We strive for a world in which people experience good mental wellbeing, live in peaceful communities and in balance with the natural environment. Our Mission // We support communities in reaching a sustainable and peaceful way of functioning through mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), social cohesion (SC) and community-based adaptation (ACC) and mitigation to climate change (MCC).
About our work in Community Energy in Remote and Displacement Settings (CERDS)
Technological and institutional changes, depletion of fossil fuel resources, and climate change make it paramount that the way we use energy across the globe is going through a radical transformation. Our energy projects are funded through the European Horizon 2020 and Green Deal programmes, UNHCR as well as EWS Schönau, aiming at facilitating a just energy transition for all and in the respective contexts.
- The ENERGICA project involves three different demonstration sites: a rural context in northern Madagascar where the project is focused on developing productive uses of energy for improving the Water-Energy-Food-Nexus, an urban context in Kenya where the focus lies on environmentally-friendly mobility through renewable electricity, and a peri-urban context in Sierra Leone where the project aims to demonstrate positive environmental and socio-economic impacts of biomass-to-energy and water purification systems. More about ENERGICA.
- The MAESHA project has as its demonstrator site the island of Mayotte (Fr), located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeast Africa, between north-western Madagascar and north-eastern Mozambique. The land area is 374 square kilometres, very densely populated with its 279,471 people. Mayotte faces the common challenges regarding energy transformations on islands and a high dependency on imported fossil fuels. The energy is costly, unevenly accessible to the population and leads to high pollution. The dependency on fossile carriers and the lack of integrated renewables impact the resilience of the system putting a huge burden on the local population. More about MAESHA.
- Our project on sustainable energy in displacement settings involves refugee camps in South Sudan, Rwanda and Uganda where basic energy needs of refugees are not met. The lack of sustainable energy for cooking, for the use of cell phones and communication, for household lighting and for night-time lighting of communal areas across the camp severely impacts wellbeing, food security, safety and health. The de facto non-existent access to energy has complex consequences. The collection of firewood leads to serious environmental damage, the burning of firewood leads to serious health problems and high child mortality, the inadequate lighting of communal spaces leads to night-time accidents and gender-based violence, and the lack of electricity to charge cell phones leads to isolation and the intensification of psychological problems. Physical integrity, food security, individual well-being, safety and health cannot be guaranteed without adequate access to energy. Jointly with refugee-led organisations in the camps, needs and priorities are being worked out and pathways to improve the circumstances are being co-designed with the concerned persons.
Your tasks and responsibilities
Hudara’s role in the projects is to ensure and conduct an participatory and inclusive community-based approach putting persons of concern at the center of the actions. Local communities are being activated and involved into decision making as well as implementational steps for a just, impactful and sustainable outcome. This process includes content work on the contexts and concepts, communication with partners, coordination of activities and travel to the project locations. Implementation and monitoring encompasses the local communities’ relations to the whole system, considering the associated technological, institutional, socio-economic, psychosocial and environmental factors. The aim is to support local communities in a context-sensitive way and through locally established structures.
What we are looking for
- A person with a master degree in socio-political, economic, environmental science or similar studies; a degree in ecological economics is an asset.
- Fluency in written and spoken English and French is obligatory, another language, especially German, is an asset.
- Openness to travel and spend extended time periods at the project sites.
- Interest in doing research, writing articles and develop new projects as well as join our team on Community Energy in Remote and Displacement Settings.
- Commitment to work in a community-based way, using critical methodologies and recognising decoloniality and social justice as essential for the establishment of sovereignty of marginalised and oppressed people, especially in the Global South.
What we offer
- You will be part of a young and dynamic team and you will have the possibility to set your own emphasis within the thematic focus of our projects depending on your personal strengths and interests.
- The position is based in Berlin, Germany. Your work can be arranged flexible with days per week at our shared office space at the Impact Hub Berlin and home office days.
- We will support the process of receiving a Schengen work visa, in case needed.
- You have the possibility of doing a PhD alongside your work through our collaboration between Hudara and the Technische Universität Berlin, Dept. of Community Energy and Adaptation to Climate Change (in case of interest, not required).
- The duration of this position is for one year with the possibility of extension.
- Starting date as per your availability and as soon as possible.
- The gross monthly salary for this full-time position is 3.084 Euro in the first year; with increases in the following years as per Hudara’s salary scale; pension, unemployment and health insurances are covered.
How to apply
How to apply
Please send a CV and a motivational letter to jobs@hudara.org with “Research Associate_CERDS” in the subject line until 14 January 2024 and tell us about yourself and why you would like to join our team. You may find more information about us and our work at https://hudara.org.
We look forward to hearing from you!
