Conflict Technical Advisor at Mercy Corps

Location: Abuja, Nigeria (with estimated 40% travel to other locations)
Employment Type: Full time and Regular

The Program / Department / Team

• 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 is working in twenty-four (24) high-risk local government areas in Benue, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi and Plateau states.

The Position

• The Conflict Technical Advisor will provide leadership of the program’s technical components, ensure the synthesis of technical approaches across the Six states; and will assume responsibility for leading all the technical trainings, peace building events and translating program learning into tangible adjustments to intervention strategies.
• The Advisor in collaboration with the communications team will disseminate these findings in research briefs, white papers, and reports.

Essential Responsibilities
Program Quality Oversight:

• Provide leadership and strategic vision to selected technical components of the CIPP program, including work plan development, conflict and stakeholder analysis, IBN/M training, partnership selection and management, and overall sector strategy.
• In close partnership with the COP, provide direct management oversight to the CIPP Learning and Program Monitoring and Quality Technical Unit.
• Best practices, standardization
• Dissemination of lessons learned to internal and external stakeholders
• Encourage systematic opportunities to use data for learning and improvement, and to focus on learning lessons throughout the life of the program.

Technical Leadership:

• Provide guidance to develop the strategic vision of technical components including conflict analysis, Do No Harm, mediation, and develop curricula and material for training/workshops in all of these areas.
• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed.

Program Implementation:

• Assist with the socialization of the program with Government of Nigeria stakeholders, ensuring necessary approvals and collaboration as required.
• Ensure that beneficiaries are effectively targeted according to established vulnerability criteria.
• Integrate community approaches, gender sensitivity and capacity building into all activities as appropriate.
• Document processes and achievements to ensure best practices are captured and disseminated. This will include the continual re-evaluation of program activities and information, with resulting activity adjustments in keeping with new insights.
• Produce written reports on program activities, capturing the impacts of activities.
• Facilitate the achievement of performance-based targets and outcomes and lead efforts to design effective, proactive, and iterative M&E systems following the program’s logical framework and results chain measurement.
• Create and follow effective stakeholder management plans, ensuring sound and proactive communications with Mercy Corps Nigeria, partner organizations, Mercy Corps headquarters, USAID, Government of Nigeria authorities, and colleague agencies.
• Conduct frequent field visits to all project sites – spend up to 40-50% of time in the field.

Information Management:

• Document achievements/impact of innovative program components of the program.

Capacity Building and Mentoring:

• In close partnership with the COP and DCOP create a work atmosphere conducive to professional growth and development of excellent personnel at all levels.
• Implement, and ensure all staff are effectively using, the performance planning and management system, establishing performance expectations and regularly providing constructive feedback.
• Promote accountability by conducting staff annual performance reviews with direct supervisees, and ensuring that supervisory staff do the same in a timely manner.
• Contribute to country team-building efforts and ensure the integration of all team members into relevant decision-making processes
• Provide conflict analysis, conflict sensitivity, and Do No Harm analysis training and technical assistance to USAID mission staff and USAID implementing partners.

Internal and External Coordination:

• Active contributor and collaborator with regional and global counterparts to promote the use of best practices.
• Strengthen linkages with other internal resources, including the LMS, Digital Library, Hub, and Connect, to enhance organizational learning where relevant to M&E.
• Maintain close working relationships with counterparts in other relevant international NGOs, and local NGOs and associations in Nigeria.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• No supervisory responsibility

Accountability:

• Reports Directly To: Chief of Party
• Works Directly With: CIPP Director of Finance and Administration, DCOP, CIPP Program Manager, CIPP MEL Manager, other CIPP staff, Country Director, Finance, and Operations teams. Coordinates with HQ Program Performance team and the Technical Support Unit.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders:

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant field such as Social Sciences, Law or Development Studies.
• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in international development with a preference for experience in senior program management / direct supervision in peace building programming.
• Experience working in the conflict mitigation / preventing violent extremism sector in Africa
• Conflict analysis, Do No Harm analysis, conflict sensitivity training, and Do No Harm training experience strongly preferred.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office programs, i.e., Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.
• Experience of working on USAID programs preferred
• Previous experience living and working in challenging or insecure environments is preferred.
• Nigeria / West Africa experience preferred.
• Fluency in spoken and written English is required.
• Knowledge of local dialects is preferred.

Success Factors:

• Demonstrated ability to lead and communicate effectively with team members of varied work styles and cultures, follow procedures, and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and problem-solving.
• Proven ability to learn quickly, multi-task, prioritize, take initiative, be accountable for results, understand the larger picture while remaining focused on the details, problem solve, work within a complex and sensitive setting, and to follow laws and security protocols.
• 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 is based in Abuja, Nigeria and it requires up to 40% travel to support country programs, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited. Housing and medical access is based on MC Nigeria policies

Ongoing Learning:

• In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion:

• Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges.
• We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives. We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Safeguarding & Ethics:

• Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity.
• We are committed to the core principles regarding the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members.
• As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times.
• Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

Travel Required:
Yes