Senior Program Officer at Mercy Corps

Reference Number: ABV/PRO/2019/0017
Locations: Abuja and Kaduna, Nigeria (With an estimated 40% travel to other program locations)
Position Status: Full-time, Field-based, and Regular.

Program / Department Summary

• This is a five-year United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Community Initiative to Promote Peace (CIPP).
• The CIPP program aims to strengthen conflict prevention, mediation and early warning by facilitating community-led analysis and action to prevent, manage, and mitigate conflict and violent extremism.
• The program will work in twenty-four (24) high-risk local government areas in Benue, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi and Plateau states.
• Mercy Corps is seeking to recruit two (2) experienced and exceptional individuals to support the implementation of the Community Initiative to Promote Peace (CIPP). One officer will be based in Abuja and another one in Kaduna.

General Position Summary

• The senior program officer is responsible for the day-to-day implementation of program activities in her/his respective area.
• S/he will ensure that CIPP’s community-level engagement approach is systematic, replicable, and adheres to participatory process to involve, empower, and engage citizens and key stakeholders in conflict prevention and response across the six-state target areas in a cost-effective and sustainable way that seamlessly builds on previous programs and consortium partner strengths. This will include skills building in conflict analysis, mediation, and dialogue as well as establishment/strengthening of EWER mechanisms

Essential Job Responsibilities
Program Administration:

• Expand local partner networks, and build wider public support for peace.
• Act as a liaison and facilitator between MC target communities and relevant authorities, building community representatives’ capacity to engage in effective dialogue.
• Strengthen local level networking and coordination with relevant local structures, CSOs, INGOs, media and Government Departments involved in peacebuilding interventions, including relationship building with religious leaders of diverse faiths
• Strengthen community-based peace structures, support locally-led peace initiatives, and reinforce communication and collaboration with community-level stakeholders,
• Work with peace structures and leaders at community, LGA, and the state levels, to strengthen pre-existing structures (e.g., Conflict Mitigation and Management Regional Councils (CMMRCs) established by IMC under TOLERANCE, the Plateau State Peacebuilding Agency, the Kaduna State Peace Commission and its newly inaugurated LGA-level peace committees) and launch new ones where necessary.
• Provide field level oversight role for referral of project ideas/programming strands to other MC Nigeria sectors (currently, Humanitarian, Resilience, protection and market development and Livelihoods), and ensure appropriate cross-communication throughout the project process.
• Actively engage in the community planning and development process, developing and guiding a tailored mobilization for peace program at the community that ensures participation, transparency and accountability.
• Oversee and consolidate regular weekly reporting functions, and ensure data is fed into the CIPP database accurately and rapidly.
• Promote inclusion of and support dedicated initiatives led by young people, and women, recognizing that their present exclusion from conflict mitigation in Nigeria is a missed opportunity.
• Ensure CIPP activities adhere to Mercy Corps conflict sensitivity framework to avoid exacerbating tensions while leveraging opportunities to build peace and connect conflicting communities
• In collaboration with consortium members, lead the conducting of a Do No Harm analysis at program start and annually to identify conflict sensitivity risks and mitigation strategies,
• Conduct quarterly review meetings with field-based program team to assess contextual changes and adapt strategies to evolving dynamics,
• Maintain regular communications with key stakeholders to gauge perceptions, tensions, and potential triggers.
• Organize dialogues, events, and local media coverage that is balanced, forward-looking, and solutions-oriented.
• Together with the MEL team conduct a rapid macrolevel conflict assessment to confirm at-risk areas, map pre-existing peace structures at all levels, and build foundational contextual knowledge that will allow CIPP to determine the most effective interventions in each state.
• Lead in the facilitation of community-led analysis and action to prevent, manage, and mitigate conflict and violent extremism while building trust between conflicting communities
• Foster linkages to local government, civil society coalitions, and businesses.
• Ensure internal regulations regarding Program Management at Mercy Corp Corps (PM@MC), including, program verification through to financial and signatory approval are followed, making suggestions for improvements to DCOP.
• Participate in weekly program meeting with the DCOP, contributing feedback from the area of operation and teams under supervision.
• Provide Mercy Corps representation at appropriate levels, with a primary focus on Kaduna or Abuja.
• Develop relationships, formal and informal, with local NGO’s and CBO’s.
• Identify and recommend areas for specific training and capacity-building, both for staff and target communities.
• Ensure all interventions adhere to Mercy Corps’ Gender Policy, Do No Harm principles, and beneficiary accountability standards.
• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission.

Security:

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

Organizational Learning:

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries:

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
• Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Accountability:

• Reports Directly To: Deputy Chief of Party
• Works Directly With: MEL manager, Operations, Finance, Compliance, and country level Technical Support Units.

Knowledge and Experience

• Previous work experience with an NGO in the area of Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation, or working in social outreach, governance and policy development activities.
• Experience in managing staff, providing leadership, clear tasks and oversight.
• Ability to write clear and concise reports in English
• Good organizational skills, ability to make recommendations for improvement and contribute to overall program strategy.
• Willingness to travel throughout the MC project areas.
• Experience in conducting training and workshops is desirable.
• Experience with monitoring and evaluation is an advantage.

Success Factors

• The successful Sr. Program Officer will skillfully lead the implementation of CIPP activities within time, scope and budget and provide effective leadership to program officers and Assistants.
• S/he will have high emotional intelligence, constructive mentoring skills and proven experience with peacebuilding conflict Transformation and will be committed to the delivery of high-impact activities at the community level.
• Successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and challenging environments, and make effective written and verbal communication a priority.