Food Security Sector Co-Facilitator at Mercy Corps

Program / Department Summary

• The humanitarian crisis in Northeast Nigeria has required an unprecedented scale-up of humanitarian operations in Nigeria, particularly Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (BAY) States. This has included the establishment of sector working groups to support the coordination of sector-based responses. These working groups are led by Government and supported by humanitarian agencies. The sector-based approach aims to strengthen partnerships, predictability and accountability of international humanitarian action and actors, by defining priorities, roles and responsibilities of humanitarian actors and other integral stakeholders.
• The Terms of Reference (ToR) sets out the tasks of NGO Co-facilitator in line with global Inter-Agency Standing Committees (IASC) commitments, global guidance and best practices in global contexts experiencing a complex and protracted crisis. The NGO co-facilitation model is critical for Northeast Nigeria to strengthen operational effectiveness, technical minimum standards, accountability to affected populations, inter-sector linkages and ensure implementation of sector-based advocacy.
• The Food Security Sector (FSS) in Nigeria is led by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) at the national level in Abuja, and the respective Ministries of Agriculture (MoA) at the state level. The FSS for is co-led by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) with Mercy Corps as the NGO Co-facilitator.

General Position Summary

• The FSS NGO Co-facilitator would be the NGO focal representative who is responsible for collaboratively supporting the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of performance against key sector functions and accountabilities. The sector's leadership ensures partners participate in and assume their responsibilities to the sector as per relevant IASC principles (Annex 3 Partnerships) by placing Accountability for Affected Populations (AAP) at the centre of decision-making.

Essential Job Responsibilities
Strategy & Vision:

• Support the development and implementation of sector-level strategy through consultative and inclusive processes. Ensure sector perspectives include NGO expertise and viewpoints.
• Ensure protection, gender and resilience are mainstreamed, while ensuring the different needs and capacities of women, girls, boys and men of all ages, people with disabilities and other diversity characteristics such as ethnicity and religion inform what sectors do, how, and with whom to promote meaningful access, safety and dignity.
• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed.

Program Management:

• Strengthen pre-existing sectoral coordination by maintaining appropriate links and dialogue with national and local authorities, local civil societies, and other relevant actors, while respecting their various individual mandates.
• Coordinate effectively to strengthen inter-cluster coordination mechanisms by ensuring that NGOs are contributing. When required, ensure effective representation to additional coordination forums and decision-making mechanisms such as the O/HCT and HCT.
• Support program cycle and funding processes including participation in Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) appeals, and Humanitarian Fund allocations.
• Participate in review of coordination mechanisms such as Peer to Peer processes and global cluster evaluations, to ensure monitoring of adaptiveness of the response and increased capacities of local actors.
• Convene regular sector meetings, ensuring discussions are participatory.

Analysis and Needs Identification:

• Support coordination and conduct need assessments with sector partners and other sectors.
• Develop and roll out, utilizing global best practices, needs assessments that support rapid and longer-term interventions.
• Monitor context and other pertinent operational trends and dynamics to ensure the adaptiveness and responsiveness of partners and the overall sector.
• Draft situation updates to inform interventions and advocacy.
• Strengthen sector-level and contextual analysis integration into partner responses.

Response Preparedness:

• Support the sector to develop contingency planning and emergency preparedness measures that are measurable, impactful and overall timely, appropriate and coordinated to avoid gaps/ duplication.
• Promote awareness and understanding of affected populations, identifying appropriate service providers.
• Ensure sector partners are well represented in rapid response mechanisms e.g. Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM), and other contingency planning processes.

Technical Guidance:

• Disseminate tools, guidance and promote practice that ensures integration/ implementation of sector minimum standards; protection; and humanitarian principles. This includes Accountability for Affected Persons (AAP), SPHERE, and others.
• Provide technical advice where necessary and strengthen communities of practice to ensure coherence and consistency.
• Ensure sector data collection efforts are in line with Protection Guidelines.

Influence & Representation

• Take reasonable actions to represent and strengthen NGO engagement in sector processes and broader coordination mechanisms.
• Act as a focal point for receiving NGO concerns in order to raise these with the sector lead agency to strengthen the transparency of sector decisions and work
• Develop sector-level key messages and talking points around the sector response, needs of affected persons, and critical issues to inform humanitarian decision-making.
• Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, donors, local governments and other stakeholders.
• Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met.

FSS Support to FSS Memebers:

• Ensure partners are effectively trained on sector tools, minimum standards, and cross-cutting themes to support interventions.
• Identify opportunities to support National NGO capacity-building support to enable partners to participate effectively in the sector.
• 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.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

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 always and in all in-country venues.

Accountability:
Works Directly With:

• FSS Coordinator, Sector Lead (Government), Co-Leads and the FSS Information Management Officers and as requested by the FSS Coordinator.

Knowledge and Experience

• Master’s Degree in Social Science, Food Security, Agriculture, Economics, Humanitarian Affairs or related field;
• Minimum of three years experience in the humanitarian sector in a leadership position;
• More than 2 years experience of in humanitarian coordination, participating, contributing to joint assessments, training, and coordination meetings is required.
• Has significant knowledge and understanding of operational presence in crises affected areas and delivering sector interventions and the humanitarian architecture
• Technical expertise in food security in emergencies and coordinating, incorporating cross-cutting issues such as protection, resilience, gender, and HIV/AIDS among others.
• Demonstrable commitment to the sector and providing full-term support.
• Excellent interpersonal skills including communication (listening, speaking, writing) is required.
• Willingness to work and travel in often difficult and insecure environments.
• Competency in internet and Microsoft Office systems including Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Working knowledge of English
• Experience of the country or region of deployment is desirable

Success Factors:

• The successful candidate will be proactive, creative and a problem solver.
• S/he will be conscientious with an excellent sense of judgment.
• S/he will be able to thrive in a fast-paced environment and will be capable of multitasking.
• S/he will demonstrate a strong understanding of the cultural and social environment in the region and have the willingness and ability to work effectively with a wide variety of people.
• 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 MC's policies, procedures, and values always and in all in-country venues

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.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

• Mercy Corps is an equal-opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have a sustained global impact. We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, colour, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

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 e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.