Program Manager at Mercy Corps

Program / Department Summary

• Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, and its influence spreads across the continent. Yet, inequality and insecurity have consistently undermined Nigeria's development. Mercy Corps Nigeria was established in 2012 to respond to these challenges. The Nigeria team is headquartered in Abuja, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with offices throughout Nigeria. With a strong and growing team, Mercy Corps works to achieve the vision of a Nigeria in which all people are empowered, engaged, resilient and secure.
• The Empowering Resilient Ginger Farmers Program (Ginger Program) is a multi-year program funded by the Tazo tea company. The program aims to support ginger farmers and their families in Kaduna State, with a focus on female farmers, to increase ginger productivity, increase incomes, and build longer-term financial stability and resilience.
• Over roughly a two-year timeframe, we will connect farmers to resources, training, and inputs to improve ginger yields, foster improved linkages between ginger farmers and financial institutions and markets, and set up and support savings groups to build longer-term financial capacity and resiliency.

General Position Summary

• The Ginger Program Manager provides overall leadership, technical oversight, management and strategic vision for the program while managing staff and resources to ensure that the program meets its targets and deliverables on time, on scope, and within budget. The Manager will supervise key program staff and ensure high program quality.
• The Manager will be responsible for ensuring strict adherence to internal Mercy Corps policies and procedures as well as donor rules and regulations. The Manager will have the ultimate accountability for all aspects of the program, including but not limited to infrastructure, governance, and measurement of impact.
• The Manager will be responsible for the successful integration of Activity objectives, ensuring close collaboration with any partner entities. The Manager will also have representation duties to donors, relevant government entities, partners, and other implementers and external stakeholders

Essential Job Responsibilities
Program Leadership:

• Drive a culture of collaboration, learning and adaptation and prosecute continuous improvement
• Drive quality and accountability across all facets of the program, ensuring teams meet and exceed program minimum standards in infrastructure, MEL, Gender and Inclusion, among other areas
• Maintain focus and promote attention throughout the team of the overarching program goal, consistently ensuring alignment throughout all activities.
• Lead overall cross-team coordination efforts, bringing together different stakeholders to proactively find a collective and innovative solution for challenges.
• Contribute to country-wide team-building efforts through collaboration with the Mercy Corps Nigeria team and influencing the development and strengthening of the organization, with a particular focus on driving forward country-level leadership in climate-resilient agriculture and gender-inclusive MSD.

Technical Oversight:

• Provide direction for innovations in the scale-up of impact from ginger program activities, keeping always in mind the focus on benefits to the farmer. Constructively analyze and provide feedback on the proposed plans, ensuring integration and synergy between program components and partnerships
• Environment– ensure program drives forward best practices in climate-sensitive agriculture with a continuous focus on high-quality delivery of technical interventions, measurement, and integration and dissemination of strategy adjustments. Liaise with technical teams at HQ and Regional level to drive forward progress
• Resilience–ensure cross-cutting resilience strategies are purposefully introduced to ensure the program is implemented in a sustainable way with a focus on expanding innovation in climate-sensitive agriculture in line with Mercy Corps’ Pathways to Possibility organizational strategy.

Strategy and Vision:

• Ensure programs are running in alignment with Mercy Corps’ principles, values and the program’s strategic plan, particularly in regard to maintaining a focus on gender equality and social inclusion across the program.
• Recognize, promote and act on opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where this is regularly encouraged.
• Set the direction and provide hands-on oversight of the development of annual, integrated strategic work-plans for the program.

Team Management:

• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where accountability is promoted, alternative viewpoints welcomed, the team strives to achieve excellence, and is conducive to professional growth.Ensure a culture of accountability within the team and with partners
• Supervise a team of 2+. Clearly establish and communicate performance expectations and regularly provide constructive feedback with direct supervises and relevant partner staff to support a growth journey
• Promote a team culture that values diversity, equity and inclusion and work closely to actively promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within the team composition
• Actively manage and promote professional development and ongoing training of staff to ensure they are of the quality and technical capacity necessary to ensure the successful implementation of activities.
• Liaise with support structures within Mercy Corps Nigeria, including the Program and Quality Unit to ensure smooth coordination with portfolio initiatives and support to the program.

Program Management:

• Work closely with the PAQ team to ensure oversight and implementation of the highest standard of program management tools. This includes risk management, updated and timely work-plans and accurate budgeting.
• Manage any partnership sub-awards, ensuring sound coordination in the context of overall program delivery. Liaise with the sub-award team for effective monitoring and support.
• Provide oversight of all component implementation,including ensuring that each component has a detailed implementation plan aligned and coordinated with others.
• Supervise and manage all program staff to ensure day-to-day activities are implemented in a coordinated fashion according to schedule, budget and quality.
• Set direction by prioritizing and organizing actions and resources to achieve objectives.
• Act as program lead on relevant incident management responses, in coordination with country-level leadership, as they arise.

Operations, Finance and Compliance Management

• Ensure a culture of adherence to all security protocols among team members with an active information flow and relationship with the security team
• Ensure positive coordination with operations, finance and other support departments, ensuring open and transparent communication and coordination between both parties and knowledge and adherence to processes and policies.
• Ensure effective systems and structures (including finance,logistics, procurement, security, administration and human resources) are implemented to maximize support to field activities whilst ensuring compliance with regulations and policies.
• Hold ultimate accountability for budgetary oversight and management, whilst building the team’s capacity to understand budgeting and financial management.
• Promote compliance with all regulations, Mercy Corps policies and procedures and ensure all activities are implemented accordingly.
• Confirm that programs are designed and implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security management priorities.

Coordination and Representation:

• Primary program representative for liaising with the Corporate and Foundations team and other cooperating sponsors, donors and high-level stakeholders, including private sector entities,NGOs, etc. Responsible for building strong relationships in the sector and ensuring proactive and continuous engagement to promote the program and maintain abreast of sector-specific news and events.
• Ensure timely submission of all deliverables to the donor and government partners, collaborating closely with country and desk support structures.
• Actively drive a communications strategy with outputs that are frequent and well branded.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• Program staff (MEL and Agriculture)

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

• BA in Gender Studies, International Development or Agriculture, with an Advanced Degree preferred
• 2+ years of management experience in comparable programs
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with host governments, private sector entities, donors, other donor-funded projects and stakeholders, local organizations, and partners.
• Familiarity with MSD principles and proven track record with private sector partners
• Demonstrated ability to assess inclusion issues and design responsive interventions, with a focus on gender.
• Certified in program management or commitment to achieve certification within first 3 months of position.
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members.
• Fluency in oral/written English is required. Hausa language fluency is preferred
• Previous experience working in the North Central on agricultural or gender programs is preferred.

Success Factors:

• The successful candidate will have an outstanding ability to ensure technical excellence, whilst holding team members accountable to the highest standards of program management and pushing for continuous adaptation and innovative improvements.
• Multi-tasking, prioritizing, problem-solving and simultaneous attention to detail whilst maintaining strategic vision is 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.
• Due to the nature of this program, and the operating environment, the successful candidate must have a high level of internal resilience.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

• The position is based in Kaduna. Amenities are available however the security situation is dynamic and staff must adapt as needed to security guidance.

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 to 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.