Program Manager, Humanitarian Response at Mercy Corps

Reference No: MDG/HUMOPS/2018/00018
Location: Maiduguri, Borno State

Program / Department Summary

• Mercy Corps has been present in Nigeria since 2012, focusing its interventions on adolescent girls’ empowerment, economic development and conflict mitigation. With the insurgency spilling over from the Northeast of Nigeria and causing displacement of millions of individuals, Mercy Corps started its humanitarian response in 2014 to address the rising humanitarian needs. With funding from institutional donors, foundations and private corporations, Mercy Corps continues to provide assistance to meet the basic needs of vulnerable populations in the areas of food security, shelter, water and sanitation, protection, and livelihoods.
• With the recognition of the protracted crisis in Northeast Nigeria, Mercy Corps’ strategy and expansion plans aim to address the root causes of the crisis and seek to build long term resilience of communities with integrated programs focusing on the recovery of markets and livelihoods, social cohesion and social protection, and youth empowerment with emphasis on adolescent girls and boys. With multiple funding streams from large institutional donors and foundations, Mercy Corps’ programs in Northeast Nigeria continue to scale up and serve communities by transitioning them from humanitarian aid to early recovery programs.
• Mercy Corps’ humanitarian response continues to meet the needs of underserved populations within Borno state and aims at delivering multisector interventions in multiple locations with funding from donors including Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), Food for Peace (FFP) and Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

General Position Summary

• The Program Manager- Humanitarian Response is responsible for coordinating and implementing the delivery of multisector interventions including food security, non-food items and logistics, multi-purpose cash, livelihoods, WaSH, and Shelter for conflict affected households.
• Position includes daily management of program activities and program staff, ensuring appropriate systems and support mechanisms are in place to track, analyze and report on results as well as engagement with senior management on the strategic direction of the overall humanitarian response.

Essential Job Responsibilities
Strategy & Vision:

• Identify new strategic opportunities and position Mercy Corps for high-impact humanitarian response
• Set program direction by prioritizing and organizing actions & resources to achieve objectives and contribute to country and regional-wide strategy development.
• Develop and organize activities to secure resources for programs and convince stakeholders to provide support.

Program Management:

• Oversee program start-up and ongoing program management and administration of the teams across the various field locations.
• Develop program implementation strategies, including partnership frameworks when needed, beneficiary targeting and distribution process.
• Provide monitoring systems, including gathering data for case studies. This will include both direct and remote monitoring where access is limited or restricted.
• Certify program filing system is in place, adheres to internal and donor’s regulation and filing is regularly maintained.
• Ensure program implementation is on time, target and budget.
• Adhere to all MC procurement, logistics and administrative regulations related to programming.
• Fulfill Mercy Corps Program Management Minimum Standards based on the organization-wide guide.
• Ensure all interventions adhere to Mercy Corps’ Gender Policy, Do No Harm principles, and beneficiary accountability standards.

Team Management:

• Develop the capacity of the team, deepen understanding of their roles and assist with career development.
• Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance & reach objectives.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
• Hire, orient and lead team members as necessary.

Finance & Compliance Management:

• Manage financial resources for timely and informative reporting in line with donor and Mercy Corps policies and procedures.
• Oversee the program budgets, project cash flow and expenditures.

Influence & Representation:

• Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with the community, government and other stakeholders
• Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met.

Security:

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.

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.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• Specific program team members,

Accountability:

• Reports Directly To: Director of Northeast Programs
• Works Directly With: all other sector staff, PAQ team and support staff members

Knowledge and Experience

• BA/BS or equivalent in International Studies, Economics or other relevant field; MA/S preferred.
• 3-5 years of international relief and development program management experience, preferably in emergency program management.
• Previous experience in operating and managing teams in conflict and insecure environments required.
• Combination of direct and remote management experience preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to manage and communicate effectively with an ethnically diverse team of varied work styles.
• Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving.
• Proven ability to learn quickly; lead a program to achieve stated results and objectives.
• Ability to effectively represent Mercy Corps and its interests to key stakeholders.
• Experience working with local authorities, national and international NGOs.
• Effective verbal and written English skills required, along with multi-tasking, organizational and prioritization skills.
• Internationally recognized qualification in project or program management or a commitment to obtain the qualification in the early months of work.
• Knowledge of SPHERE and other humanitarian programming standards.

Success Factors

• The successful candidate will combine exceptional management skills and experience in maintaining donor and partner relationships.
• S/he will have an outstanding ability to develop, implement and manage programs within the current and future program structure of Mercy Corps in the region.
• S/he will also have proven experience with cross-cultural team and capacity building, individual staff development and strong mentoring skills.
• S/he will possess high level of adaptability and be able to adjust to the constantly changing working environment.
• S/he will have previous experience in implementing large scale emergency programs in insecure and conflict context.
• Prioritizing, problem solving, ability to seize opportunities, attention to detail and strategic vision are essential.
• The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions:

• The position will be based in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria and it requires frequent travel to other field locations in particular within Borno state. Considering the frequent travel from/to different field locations, this position will require flexibility in terms of accommodation and logistics. Housing in the field will be in hotels or guesthouses where available. Security in the field locations require additional vigilance and accessibility will be reassessed continuously. Access to good medical services in the field is limited. Phone communication, internet, electricity and water is available but might be erratic.
• Given the nature of the response, working hours require flexibility and working through weekends/evenings might be necessary.