Shelter Program Officer at Mercy Corps

Location: Ngala, Borno

Program/Department Summary

• Mercy Corps Nigeria’s humanitarian program aims to provide assistance to populations affected by the crisis in Northeast Nigeria.
• With funding from humanitarian donors including OFDA, FFP, GAC and ECHO the humanitarian programs engage in several interventions including but not limited to food assistance, logistics and relief commodities, protection, livelihoods, WASH and capacity building of humanitarian response actors.
• Mercy Corps plans to scale up and expand its humanitarian response in Northeast Nigeria to reach more beneficiaries with additional and varied assistance in a wider geographic area.

General Position Summary

• The Shelter Officer is responsible in managing all shelter construction and to conducts comprehensive sectoral needs assessments in liaison with other relevant team members such as protection advisor, community relief committee and WASH team.
• He/she will be involve and assist to develop all technical components to manage Safer Building Designing, WASH, Preparation of BOQ and Estimates, Planning, Technical Details, Drawings, improve development techniques for the safer building/shelter and other all Civil and Architectural related projects.

Essential Job Functions

• Carrying out shelter needs assessments taking into account the current situation, projected population planning figures and the expected scale of returns.
• Developments of shelter strategies which are framed by Mercy Corps’ Global Strategy for shelter and take into consideration the local context, age and gender, culture, climate, environmental protection and the availability of local resources, including materials, capacities and existing infrastructure.
• Provide clear guidance on standards for shelter, including minimum emergency standards to meet basic and essential needs as well as guidance for phased improvement of shelter conditions that will be necessary as the duration of the displacement prolongs.
• Compiling, analyzing and mapping available information on shelter options in country taking into account relevant policies adopted by the Government and CCCM cluster. When planning shelter works, ensuring that the technical component reflects Sphere minimum standards for the provision of emergency and other types of shelter assistance and is within the budgetary requirements. Due consideration should be given to standards in other relevant sectors such as water and sanitation.
• Ensuring the shelter strategy is periodically reviewed to reflect the evolving situation in country and progressively transitioning to more sustainable shelter solutions. This process should be done in close collaboration with the CCCM Cluster, beneficiaries and the host Government while bearing in mind the shelter needs of people upon their eventual return to their community of origin.
• Ensuring that specifications, bills of quantities and drawings are produced in a technically sound and standardized manner. Establish monitoring and evaluation tools to ensure that works are implemented according to plans and completed within the designated timeframe.
• Ensure that local communities and community relief committee have been consulted on all activities so as not to create unnecessary tension between the displaced and host populations.
• Monitor all shelter and infrastructure activities
• When identifying beneficiaries, ensure that the needs of the most vulnerable population of concern (POC) and host families are addressed. Mercy Corps’ vulnerability indicators should be applied in a participatory manner during the beneficiary selection.
• When planning shelter works, ensure that the technical component reflects Sphere minimum standards for the provision of emergency and other types of shelter assistance and is within the budgetary requirements. Standards for other sectors such as water and sanitation should be taken into consideration also.
• The position requires regular contact with program, protection and field staff in country in order to ensure technical support related to shelter and construction activities.
• Close and regular contact with CCCM Cluster and Government Authorities, is essential to discuss matters relating to shelter and infrastructure coordination and provision.

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.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• Shelter Assistant

Accountability:

• Reports Directly To: Senior Program Officer
• Works Directly With:Program ,Operations , and  support team

Knowledge and Experience

• BA/S or Higher in Building Engineering or Civil Engineering.
• 3-4+ years in building and construction sector
• Experience in building shelter in humanitarian context etc.
• Fluency in both verbal and written English highly preferred. Fluency in Kanuri is required
• Multi-tasking, coordination, organization, prioritization skills essential. Demonstrated strengths in analytical skills, monitoring and evaluation, and report writing
• Highly-developed computers skills, with strong familiarity with MS Office, Power point, Outlook, Excel, Word, and infrastructure design software
• Ability to work independently and cooperatively with team members required. Ability to work under pressure
• Strong interpersonal, intercultural and communication skills

Success factors

• The successful candidate will combine curiosity and strong technical skills, experience in Shelter programs, and a want-to-do attitude.
• S/he will be an effective communicator, with dedication towards community work, commitment to work long hours in the field conditions with limited access to resources.
• S/He will be highly motivated, with initiative and capable to work with limited direct supervision.
• Ideally s/he will have previous experience in working in large-scale emergency programs in insecure and conflict-affected contexts, including remote management and capacity development.
• S/he will be willing to conduct several days-long field travels and work in ethnically and culturally diversified and fast growing team.