Regional Community Accountability Advisor at Mercy Corps

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps is currently operational in 18 countries in Africa including Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mauritania, Senegal, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Mercy Corps’ country programs in Africa face momentous humanitarian crises and significant development challenges, and operate in fragile and conflict-affected areas, displacement settings, emergency responses, as well as more stable developed settings. Against this backdrop Mercy Corps’ focus in Africa has been in promoting good governance and conflict resolution, enhancing resilience, facilitating market systems, access to finance and economic opportunities, as well as youth employment and empowerment. It is imperative that Mercy Corps presents itself as a key and credible partner with the many donors, government authorities and civil society actors to contribute to the process of positive change across the continent. Mercy Corps looks to actively engage and partner with an ever-growing and innovative African private sector to achieve greater and sustained impact.

The Program Performance and Quality (PaQ) Unit is a newly integrated team in the Africa region consisting of monitoring and evaluation functions, program management, gender integration, and integrated program standards, including Community Accountability Reporting Mechanisms (CARM). The team’s approach supports both foundational and innovative approaches to program management, with design, monitoring, evaluation and learning functions as key processes and benchmarks to ensure evidence-based decision making for quality program implementation.

  General Position Summary

The regional CARM Advisor will serve in a technical advisory role to support country programs in the design and implementation of CARM that result in the delivery of impactful programs that are responsive to community needs.
  Essential Job Responsibilities

PROVIDE SUPPORT TO REGIONAL CARM

• Support CARM in country by supporting the hiring process, selection and onboarding of new in country CARM staff as well as skills building and coaching of CARM staff
• Provide remote technical support to field teams, through one-on-one country outreach, regional calls, webinars, etc.
• Working with country teams to design and document their CARM processes and support the process of developing or revising CARM SOPs
• Provide remote training and support to team members serving in CARM short term assignment positions
• Provide in-country technical support to high risk country programs to guide them in designing and implementing their CARM
• Lead teams in process mapping to identify gaps in their CARM
• Identify countries requiring increased technical support and liaise with the HQ CARM team and Regional Director as needed
• Track CARM progress at a regional level
• Support country programs in CARM analytics, establishing processes for using CARM data for learning and improved programming and prepare regional aggregations and reports

SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY & LEARNING

• Identify and compile case studies of CARM best practices, success, and lessons learned in country programs to facilitate cross-country and regional learning
• Contribute to the development of additional CARM tools and resources
• Create and lead a regional community of practice for country CARM focal points

INTERNAL & EXTERNAL COLLABORATION

• Coordinate closely with Program Performance and Quality Unit team members to ensure CARM guidance and best practice is well aligned with our broader performance and quality work
• Build and maintain positive working relationships across country programs
• Represent Mercy Corps as needed with peer agencies and external accountability focal points

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 PARTICIPANTS

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to our participants and to international standards guiding

international relief and development work, while actively engaging participant communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
Supervisory Responsibility

None
Accountability

Reports Directly To: Technical Director, Africa Region

Works Directly With: Regional Director, Deputy Regional Director, Country Directors, PaQ Team members, HQ, regional and field team members.
Knowledge and Experience

• BA in relevant field required
• 2-4 years of experience in international relief and development
• 1-3 years of field-based experience in international relief and development required
• Field-based experience with community feedback and accountability reporting mechanisms

required

• Demonstrated knowledge of grant-based funding models, emergency response and development strategies and operational challenges in the sector;
• Proficiency with MS Office software required (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), and Google suite (Google drive, docs, sheets).
• Proficiency with data analytics software such as Tableau or Power-BI preferred
• Strong team coordination, listening, and consensus building skills
• Fluent in English and French strongly preferred

Success Factors

The individual needs to be a creative problem solver, able to support field teams to overcome contextual challenges in the design and implementation of their CARMs. They will also be a skilled communicator, able to develop and utilize strong relationships with term members and departments internally, as well as with external bodies. They will have a positive and dynamic working style that enables them to adapt to challenges as they arise. They will harness the expertise, experience and ideas of diverse Mercy Corps team members and external partners to strengthen CARMs within Mercy Corps.