Program Intern at Mercy Corps

Position Status: Full-time, Internship
Supervisory Responsibility: N/A

Program Summary

• Mercy Corps Nigeria was established in 2012 to respond primarily to growing humanitarian needs in the Northeast. With a strong and growing team of over 300 staff, Mercy Corps is currently serving over 600,000 beneficiaries across the country with programming in Lagos in the South; Kaduna, Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau in the Middle Belt; Kano, Yobe and Borno in the North.
• Programs include girls’ education and financial inclusion, community peacebuilding, market-based livelihoods and a multi-sector humanitarian response that has a strong emphasis on WASH, Shelter, Cash and Protection. With the vision of a Nigeria in which all people are empowered, engaged, resilient and secure, Mercy Corps Nigeria focuses on the root causes of conflict, governance, humanitarian response, and market systems development.
• Working with a diverse funding base that includes the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), UK Department for International Development (DFID), United Nations (UN), European Commission (EC), and several foundations, Mercy Corps empowers people to recover from crisis, build better lives and transform their communities for good. In 2019, Mercy Corps was awarded a five-year, $30 million USAID-funded Rural Resilience Activity in Nigeria’s northeastern states.
• The purpose of the Rural Resilience Activity is to sustainably move people out of chronic vulnerability and poverty. The Rural Resilience Activity will enable individuals and communities to engage in strong and sustainable market systems rather than continuing to rely on humanitarian assistance and faltering with each new shock.
• The Rural Resilience Activity is a five-year, $45 million USAID-funded Program in Nigeria’s northeast. The purpose of the Rural Resilience Activity is to sustainably move people out of chronic vulnerability and poverty. The Rural Resilience activity will enable individuals and communities to engage in strong and sustainable market systems rather than continuing to rely on humanitarian assistance and faltering with each new shock. To achieve this purpose, the Activity will have five components and five cross-cutting elements:
• Component 1: Provide up-to-date evidence for the selection of market systems, livelihoods and employment opportunities that contribute to inclusive and resilient growth and improved nutrition.
• Component 2: Stimulate market systems growth and diverse economic opportunities (Pull activities).
• Component 3: Build capacity to take advantage of market systems opportunities (Push activities).
• Component 4: Sequencing, layering, integrating (SLI), and collaborative learning to improve activity effectiveness, sustainability, and scale.
• Component 5: Supporting Market Resilience to COVID-19 Shocks.

General Position Summary

• The Program Intern is based in Abuja, FCT with major responsibility in supporting the teams in record retention, initiating procurement requests, supporting focal points for documentation, securing approvals, assisting the Learning and Communications Assistant in day-to-day tasks. S/he will work closely with the Knowledge Management team to carry out tasks for the program, ensuring delivery and accurate documentation of program files.

Essential Job Functions

• Support the Learning and Communications team for Rural Resilience Activity in documentation and record retention in compliance to PM@MC minimum standard and manage the documentation of the sector for audit and donor compliance.
• Liaise with finance, Operations and Rural Resilience Activity offices to provide necessary program-related documentation when required.
• Assist the Learning and Communications Assistant on all administrative affairs in liaison with other relevant team members.
• He/she will be the focal point for all the field demands to seek approvals, follow up with program support and program management/team lead on the approvals of Purchase Requests, Purchase Orders and preparation of payment documents and following up on approvals, reviews, procurement, and payment processes as per Approval Authority Matrix, and final submission to finance team for pay-out.
• Maintaining all documentation relating to Rural Resilience Activity, ensuring accountability to the participants and donor.
• Assisting in organizing internal and external meetings for the Rural Resilience Activity and taking notes of those meetings and disseminating to team members and external audience.
• Keeping program staff updated on all documents and make possible for them to easily access required documents in google team drive.
• Photo Management for Rural Resilience Activity, documenting lessons learnt and success stories.
• Perform other duties as determined and assigned by the supervisor.

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.

Accountability:

• Reports Directly To:Learning and Communications Assistant
• Works Directly With:RRA Knowledge Management, Operations, and Finance teams.

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree / HND in Development studies with knowledge of social work.
• Knowledge of reporting on program implementation with relevant field experience (Minimum of 1 year).
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Skills (Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Word).
• Professional, good organizational capacity, good human relationships, motivated, flexible, culturally sensitive.
• Fluency in both verbal and written English is highly preferred.
• Multi-tasking, coordination, organization, prioritization skills are essential.
• 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 be willing to multitask, set priorities and work under tight deadlines with a complex team. S/he will demonstrate strong interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills and be committed to the values and mission of the Rural Resilience Activity team. 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.