Current Vacancies at Mercy Corps, 22nd March, 2017
Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a
better world is possible, in disaster, in hardship, in more than 40
countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action
- helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities
from within, now, and
for the future. Mercy Corps has worked in Nigeria
since 2012, focusing its programming on adolescent girls’ empowerment,
economic development, conflict mitigation, and humanitarian response.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Nutrition Coordinator
Location: Maiduguri - Borno State
Program/Department Summary
- With the insurgency affecting North East Nigeria and displacing
millions of people, Mercy Corps is expanding its humanitarian
programming to support the conflict-affected population in Borno.
- In response to the ongoing crisis, Mercy Corps is scaling-up
food security, non-food items, nutrition, protection, livelihoods, and
water sanitation hygiene (WASH) activities in Dikwa, Ngala, and Jere
Local Government Areas in Borno State to address emergency needs.
General Position Summary
- Mercy Corps is looking for a strong Nutrition Coordinator
working to improve the quality of nutrition implementation on food
security and nutrition programming.
- This position will require for one to provide an inclusive forum
for sharing, adapting, refining, and disseminating information,
methodologies, tools, and promising practices on nutrition for
increasing the impact of food security programming.
Essential Job Functions
- Provide input into the design of nutrition program strategies and lead the implementation of nutrition activities.
- Provides technical advice for all nutrition-related projects and activities.
- Responsible for ensuring quality through staff capacity-strengthening, supportive supervision and monitoring.
- Provide hiring managers, program managers, and program staff
with explanations of the basic skills and knowledge about nutrition that
staff need to carry out their work effectively.
- Integrate nutrition within other program components, notably
WASH and food security. Coordinate with other health teams to ensure
complementary approaches,
- Supervise ongoing implementation of maternal and child health and nutrition promotion activities, ensuring quality control.
- Provide technical advice and support to facilitate learning
related to nutrition social and behavior change communication
programming.
- Facilitate Mercy Corps coordination with other nutrition sector
agencies, including the sharing of nutrition materials and best
practices through participating regularly in Nutrition Working Group /
Cluster meetings.
- Participate in developing recommendations for new areas of
nutrition research and programming, and promoting innovation in
behavioral interventions and communication.
- Lead the preparation of technical communication pieces related to nutrition and present findings to relevant audiences.
- Monitor implementation of project activities and document best practice and success stories
- Participate on design teams for new projects and provide
technical advice in the implementation and evaluation of nutrition
activities.
- Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in
such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and not to jeopardize
its humanitarian mission
- Any other duties as assigned.
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.
Knowledge and Experience
- Masters’ degree or equivalent experience in Nutrition, Public Health, or other relevant Behavioral/Social Science field.
- Minimum four years’ experience in nutrition and/or public health
programming, policy or research, with at least two years’ experience in
an international resource-challenged setting.
- Substantial experience in social and behavior change programming.
- Hands-on experience on designing, planning, implementing and
evaluating nutritional behavioral interventions and/or communication
campaigns.
- Experience with nutrition needs assessments and program evaluations.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills.
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of a team, including cross-cultural teams.
- Excellent written and spoken English and Hausa, Kanuri an advantage.
- Experience developing various web/print/social media or organizing events desired.
- Strong knowledge and understanding of nutrition and food security issues.
- Formal understanding of theories and frameworks relating to individual and group behavior change desirable.
Success Factors
- The successful candidate will be capable of multi-tasking, rapid
decision-making, have initiative, drive and a lot of energy, as well as
high emotional intelligence, constructive mentoring skills and proven
experience with capacity building.
- S/he will be committed to long-term program sustainability and the delivery of high-impact activities at the community level.
- Successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to
teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and challenging
environments, and make effective written and verbal communication a
priority.
- In particular, the successful candidate will be willing to
travel to locations such as Dikwa and Ngala according to the needs of
the Mercy Corps program. This will mean sometimes staying and working in
stressful environments with very basic living conditions, strictly
following security protocols at all times and sometimes working long and
irregular hours.
- 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 Mercy Corps'
policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country
venues.
Job Title: Manager, Policy and Governance
Location: Abuja
Program/Department Summary
- The Educating Nigerian Girls in New Enterprises (ENGINE)
Programme is an initiative to improve learning outcomes and the economic
status of marginalized adolescent girls aged 16-19 in the Northern
Nigerian states of Kano and Kaduna, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
and the metropolis of Lagos, Nigeria.
- ENGINE through funding from the UK Department for International
Development’s Girls Education Challenge, the Coca-Cola Company and other
stakeholders supported over 18,000 marginalized girls to reduce
education and financial barriers in its first implementation phase.
- In its second phase, ENGINE 2 will facilitate transition of
these girls into functional literacy, numeracy and scale up their
business opportunities and linkages.
- ENGINE 2 will further increase girls’ and young women’s access
to (1) financial education and life skills; (2) peer to peer networks
and mentoring; and (3) direct assets (materials and savings).
Beneficiaries will be integrated into value chains as well as conduct
other market-driven employment opportunities.
- ENGINE 2 will also work with girls in formal and informal
education to increase their learning opportunities and outcomes to
prepare them for future economic activities and work in the policy
environment to provide an enabling environment for girls to flourish in
their chosen pathways.
General Position Summary:
- The Manager, Policy and Governancewill be responsible for
managing ENGINE 2’s overall policy and governance component of the
project. S/he will be responsible for working with government to ensure
policies are implemented to allow girls thrive by becoming educated and
empowered.
- S/he will provide technical leadership on policy and governance issues.
- This position will ensure ENGINE 2 implementation is responsive
to marginalized Nigerian girls, their communities and the country at
large. This position will coordinate and plan with other donor-funded
programs to facilitate favourable policies for girls to thrive.
Essential Job Responsibilities
Strategy & Vision:
- Lead the development of the overall vision and strategic plan for the policy and governance unit.
- Recognize and adapt policies that are favourable and sustainable
Program Management:
- Provide technical leadership for the design, formalization, and management of innovative policy and governance initiatives
- Ensuring quality and integrity of implementation, including
adherence to technical guidelines, administrative systems, and
established deadlines
- Evaluating the relevance and appropriateness of current and
future programming in relation to policies affecting or hindering girl
child education and empowerment
- Undertaking staff capacity building
Team Management:
- Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
- Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews.
- Implement performance planning and management systems, establish
performance expectations with team members, and regularly provide
constructive feedback on team members’ performance.
- Contribute to country team-building efforts, help team members
identify problem-solving options and ensure the integration of all team
members into relevant decision-making processes.
- Supervise, hire and orient new team members as necessary.
- Provide team members with information, tools and other resources to improve performance and reach objectives.
Finance & Compliance Management:
- Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to emergency programming.
- Draft and /or review scope of work to hire and manage any
technical consultants, including review for technical efficacy and
contract budget.
Influence & Representation:
- Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with governments and other stakeholders.
- Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met.
- Proactively form relationships community members to complement DfID funding.
- Represent ENGINE 2 on governance issues at technical and
strategic planning meetings, or as requested by the Director of Gender
Programs.
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
- Work closely with Mercy Corps Nigeria country team’s security
focal point to develop and maintain systems that ensure the safety and
security of the team in all aspects of its implementation process.
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.
Knowledge and Experience
- Master's Degree or its equivalent in International Relations,
Development Studies, Management, Social Sciences, International
Development or other relevant field.
- A minimum of 7 years of progressive work experience including at
least 2 years in a senior management or technical advisory role on
large, education, gender- focused, skills building program.
- Strong understanding of DfID compliance issues.
- Strong written and oral communication skills in English required, including report development, writing and editing.
- Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures,
meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team
members.
- Strong management skills, with good understanding of relevant
cross-cultural issues in high security environment. Experience managing a
multi-organizational team (international and national partners) is a
plus.
- Experience working in Northern Nigeria strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated experience working with country-level ministries
and government officials, Ministry of Education experience preferred.
Success Factors:
- The successful candidate will combine exceptional leadership,
management and technical skills with a focus on innovative interventions
to engage adolescent girls in informal education and skills building
linked with private sector entrepreneurship and employment opportunities
in a culturally and religiously conservative environment.
- S/he will have an outstanding ability to develop, implement and
manage innovative and complex programs within the current and future
program structure of Mercy Corps in the region. Multi-tasking,
prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail and
strategic vision are essential.
Job Title: Senior Project Officer - Policy & Governance
Location: Lagos
Program / Department Summary
- The Educating Nigerian Girls in New Enterprises (ENGINE)
Programme is an initiative to improve learning outcomes and the economic
status of marginalized adolescent girls aged 16-19 in the Northern
Nigerian states of Kano and Kaduna, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
and the metropolis of Lagos, Nigeria.
- ENGINE through funding from the UK Department for International
Development’s Girls Education Challenge, the Coca-Cola Company and other
stakeholders supported over 18,000 marginalized girls to reduce
education and financial barriers in its first implementation phase. In
its second phase, ENGINE 2 will facilitate transition of these girls
into functional literacy, numeracy and scale up their business
opportunities and linkages.
- ENGINE 2 will further increase girls’ and young women’s access
to (1) financial education and life skills; (2) peer to peer networks
and mentoring; and (3) direct assets (materials and savings).
Beneficiaries will be integrated into value chains as well as conduct
other market-driven employment opportunities.
- ENGINE 2 will also work with girls in formal and informal
education to increase their learning opportunities and outcomes to
prepare them for future economic activities and work in the policy
environment to provide an enabling environment for girls to flourish in
their chosen pathways.
General Position Summary
- The Senior Project Officers will support ENGINE 2’s policy and governance component of the project.
- S/he will be responsible for working with government to ensure
policies are implemented to allow girls thrive by becoming educated and
empowered.
- They will also support field implementation of the ENGINE
program including coordinating sub-grantee partner, schools/community
stakeholders and resources to ensure that the program meets
performance-based targets on time and within budget, per DfID
requirements.
- S/he will monitor sub-grantee partner in the state and ensure
program funds are spent efficiently and maximize Value for Money per
DfID requirements.
- S/he will supervise and build the capacity of partner staff and
ensure accountability to Mercy Corps policies and donor rules and
regulations.
Essential Job Responsibilities
Program Support:
- Support in providing technical leadership for the design,
formalization, and management of innovative policy and governance
initiatives
- Ensure quality and integrity of implementation, including
adherence to technical guidelines, administrative systems, and
established deadlines
- Support in evaluating the relevance and appropriateness of
current and future programming in relation to policies affecting or
hindering girl child education and empowerment
- Coordinate sub-grantee activities including programmatic implementation, budget & liquidation process and timely reporting.
- Ensure implementation of activities is on time, target and
budget, using effective systems to reach desired impacts in order to
assess the ENGINE effectiveness and impact and propose recommendations
for improvements.
- Maintain systems ensuring effective and transparent use of
financial resources for timely reporting especially for sub-grantee
partners.
- Implement and model Mercy Corps’ philosophy of social entrepreneurship and leverage Mercy Corps’ best practices.
- Provide linkages to opportunities for additional networks within
schools, link girls with Islamic and/or community-based education,
increasing economic assets through savings clubs and links to financial
institutions.
- In collaboration with the Monitoring Evaluation and Learning
team, implement relevant surveys, need assessments, data and information
collection for on-going monitoring in the state assigned.
Team Management:
- Sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
- Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews.
- Implement performance planning and management systems, establish
performance expectations with team members, and regularly provide
constructive feedback on team members’ performance.
- Finance & Compliance Management:
- Ensure compliance of sub-grantee partners with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to field programming.
- With the Deputy Project Director, supervise, hire and orient new field team members as necessary.
- Provide team members with information, tools and other resources to improve performance and reach objectives.
Influence & Representation:
- Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with sub-grantee, local governments and other stakeholders.
- Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met.
- Participate in education coordination and other donor
coordination meetings or workshops and/or as requested by the Project
Advisor.
Security:
- Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
- Proactively ensure that field team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies
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.
Knowledge and Experience
- Master's Degree or its equivalent in Education, Management, Social Sciences, International Development or other relevant field.
- A minimum of 4 years of progressive work experience including at
least 1 year in a technical coordination role on education, gender-
focused or skills building program.
- Strong management skills, with good understanding of relevant
cross-cultural issues in high security environment. Experience managing a
multi-organizational team (international and national partners) is a
plus.
- Experience working in Northern Nigeria strongly preferred.
- Strong written and oral communication skills in English
required, including report development, writing and editing. Hausa
language skills preferred
- Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures,
meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team
members.
- Experience working on a large-scale education or school to work
and especially targeting marginalized girls or young women programs
required. Prefer expertise in at least one of the following areas:
accelerated learning programs, Islamic and/or community-based education
targeting community acceptance of girl’s education, increasing economic
assets through savings clubs and links to financial institutions.
Experience using SMS for training or messaging preferred.
- Strong understanding of DfID compliance issues.
- Demonstrated experience working with state-level ministries and
government officials, Ministry of Education experience preferred.
Success Factors
- The successful candidate will combine exceptional leadership,
management and technical skills with a focus on innovative interventions
to engage adolescent girls in informal education and skills building
linked with private sector entrepreneurship and employment opportunities
in a culturally and religiously conservative environment.
- S/he will have an outstanding ability to develop, implement and
manage innovative and complex programs within the current and future
program structure of Mercy Corps in the region. Multi-tasking,
prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail and
strategic vision are 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.
- 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 at all times and in all in-country venues.
Note
- All applications must include the position title in the subject
line and not more than 4 pages. Only short-listed candidates will be
contacted.
- We are an equal opportunity organization and we strongly encourage women to apply for this position.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates are encouraged to submit their CV's
and Cover Letter in one document, addressing the position requirements
to:
[email protected]
Application Deadline: 31st March, 2017.