NFI Senior Officer at Mercy Corps

Location: Maiduguri, Borno

Programme/Department Summary

• With the insurgency affecting North East Nigeria and displacing millions of people, Mercy Corps is expanding its humanitarian programming to support the conflict-affected population in Borno. In response to the ongoing crisis, Mercy Corps is scaling-up food security, non-food items, nutrition, protection, livelihoods, and water sanitation hygiene (WASH) activities in Dikwa, Ngala, and Jere Local Government Areas in Borno State to address emergency needs.

General Position Summary

• The NFI Senior officer is a new role on the program under the supervision of the Deputy Team Leader.
• The NFI Senior Officer will handle the management of all (Non-Food Items) and emergency assessments, distributions and related processes; while contributing to the overall quality of Mercy Corps NFI and humanitarian programming in Jere, Dikwa and Ngala LGAs.

Essential Job Functions

• Identify the NFI needs of affected populations through assessments.
• Lead and facilitate appropriate verification and registration processes for affected populations.
• Lead and facilitate appropriate distributions to meet identified NFI and emergency shelter needs for affected populations.
• Coordinate with NFI partners in field locations.
• Input into the development and updating of Mercy Corps and cluster standards for assessment, verification and distribution.
• Attend meetings when requested at field or head office level.
• Represent Mercy Corps to local authorities and partner agencies while on ground in field sites.
• Supervise NFI distribution teams and hold them accountable for program quality.
• Assist in the hiring and supervision of casual labor assisting in NFI activities or logistics support.
• Ensure assessments, verification, registration and distribution processes are done in line with cluster standards.
• Ensure that all reporting and administration is done accurately, on time and according to the relevant guidelines.
• Ensure that NFIs are reaching crisis affected populations and not being distributed indiscriminately.
• Responsible for logistics arrangements (staff /NFI movements) related to specific field sites.
• Share security information with the NFI team  and with the your immediate supervisor
• Assist with information for developing budgets for the NFI work plan activities.
• Support other humanitarian program activities in distributions or similar processes when requested.
• Coordination of NFI partners and activities in in areas of intervention, notably Dikwa and Ngala.
• 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
• Any Other duties as assigned

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.

Knowledge and Experience

• 4 years experience implementing commodity supply programs/ activities
• Degree in relevant field.
• Experience with NFI programs including those using voucher modalities.
• Excellent organizational and program management skills and the ability to anticipate program needs.
• Ability to effectively represent the organization and its interests to a diverse range of stakeholders, including local and international government officials, local civil society organizations, donors, other international organizations, the media and the community.
• Demonstrated proficiency with MS Office software (especially Word, Excel)
• Ability to analyze databases resulting from surveys
• Excellent oral and written English and Hausa skills required, with Kanuri or other local languages skills a bonus.
• Proven experience in working in insecure environments and through remote management.

Succsss Factors:

• The successful candidate will be capable of multi-tasking, rapid decision-making, have initiative, drive and a lot of energy, as well as high emotional intelligence, constructive mentoring skills and proven experience with capacity building.
• S/he will be committed to long-term program sustainability and 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.
• In particular, the successful candidate will be willing to travel to locations such as Dikwa and Ngala according to the needs of the Mercy Corps program. This will mean sometimes staying and working in stressful environments with very basic living conditions, strictly following security protocols at all times and sometimes working long and irregular hours.
• Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and Mercy Corps' policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.