PROGRAM/ DEPARTMENT SUMMARY:
Mercy Corps is an international humanitarian and development Non-Governmental Organization which has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since August 2007, with a staff of about 200 people. Mercy Corps’ country office is located in Goma with field offices in Katwe, Mweso, Butembo (North Kivu) and Bukavu (South Kivu), and a representative office in Kinshasa.
Current Mercy Corps activities in DRC focus on the provision of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in camps of internally displaced persons (IDP), and also on large-scale WASH infrastructure and the development of service delivery in urban centers. Mercy Corps also implements food security, good governance and economic recovery programs, with an increasing shift towards transitional and integrated development programming.
IMAGINE program seeks to simultaneously improve availability of, access to, management of, and proper utilization of WaSH resources in selected urban centers in Eastern Congo to ensure sustained health impacts. In support of this Mercy Corps has recently completed a number of assessments as part of the IMAGINE Inception Phase to define key needs around WASH infrastructure, water governance, market development and hygiene practice and better understand the environmental, socio-economic and gender issues that affect WASH needs and delivery.
IMAGINE identifies critical and inter-related outputs to address these causal factors preventing sustained improvements:
- Improvements to Infrastructure to increase availability of basic WASH services from source to tap
- Improved market-based WASH Service Delivery to engage and incentivize market actors and create more viable, efficient and sustainable WASH markets
- Enhanced Governance and Accountability structures to ensure effective feedback loops among consumers, providers, and regulators of WASH services
- Behavior Change interventions to improve knowledge and practice essential health practices
- Gender integration across all IMAGINE teams and activities; and Targeted gender interventions aimed at ensuring equitable access to, and control over, WASH resources
GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:
The Governance Delivery Advisor is responsible for supporting the Governance Delivery Manager in the day to day management of the IMAGINE program good governance component, including providing technical and managerial oversight on all governance objectives, strategies, activities and staff.
Mercy Corps DRC and its partners will work with community stakeholders, and local and provincial authorities to ensure inclusive and responsive government structures and participatory governance mechanisms for effective WASH service provision. Close coordination and collaboration with Service Provision, Behavior Change, Gender and Infrastructure Delivery Managers will be crucial in developing and maintaining an integrated and multi-sector approach along the IMAGINE program implementation.
ESSENTIAL JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:
Vision and Strategy
- Demonstrate visible leadership and adherence to Mercy Corps’ core values, principles and strategy
- Assist the Governance Delivery Manager in overseeing all governance and community mobilization/engagement program and institutional capacity building activities, ensuring that team members are following work plans, that activities are on schedule, and that project deliverables are completed as planned.
- Plan, coordinate and oversee the implementation of the Governance strategy for the five year implementation phase of the IMAGINE program. Update, adapt and revise strategy and roadmaps as necessary incorporating lessons learned.
- Support Governance Delivery Manager to ensure Governance is delivered on budget and to schedule, ensuring program implementation quality – including gender aspects
- Support Governance Delivery Manager in overseeing all aspects of inclusive design, monitoring, evaluation and learning, and ensure that all program aspects are documented
- Manage collaborative partnerships, providing effective donor liaison. Identify, build partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, donors, local governments and other stakeholders
- Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met
Program Management
- Work closely with the Governance Delivery Manager and Service Provision Delivery Manager to ensure that the Governance and Service Provision strategies are closely aligned and in coordination at all times.
- Work with IMAGINE WASH service providers (REGIDESO & others TBD) to ensure inclusive accountability mechanisms are appropriated and gender sensitive and dialogue with consumers/clients is constructive, efficient and bi-directional
- Support the Governance Delivery Manager and Advocacy & Network Manager in the establishment of local and municipal representative governance structures to monitor service providers
- Ensure all program management minimum standards are met including risk management, issues management
- Collaborate with infrastructure team to facilitate proper communication and coordination during planning and construction phase. Provide technical assistance as needed to ensure accountability of design firm, contractors and other implementing partners to community stakeholders (including review of and recommendations on call for proposals and contract documents, as well as stakeholder engagement plans).
- Ensure collaboration with the Gender Component to ensure that the governance systems in place are gender sensitive and representative.
- Provide support to Governance Delivery Managerfor ongoing adaptive program management and administration of teams across the two project sites (Goma and Bukavu).
- Support Governance DM to oversee administration of partner MOUs and contracts, coordinate support tocivil society sub-grants ensuring projects are on time, on budget and on scope.
- Support Governance DM in the development of the governance unit’s quarterly and monthly work plans in collaboration with governance staff, as well as monitor implementation, program quality, and impacts of these activities.
- Support Governance DM to update Governance program implementation plans and other key program documents (budget, performance monitoring plan, stakeholder management plan, communication plans, etc.) as needed. Ensure that key program documents for grantees adhere to minimum standards, providing and coordinating support where necessary.
- Ensure that capacity building activities for program partners are aligned with the capacity building roadmap and adhere to MC partnership principles integrating community approaches, gender sensitivity, and humanitarian accountability as appropriate.
- Support and uphold systems in place to ensure effective and transparent use of financial resources for timely and informative reporting in line with donor and Mercy Corps policies and procedures.
- Provide technical assistance to governance team members and partners, reviewing program material including studies, training modules, reports, communications materials, etc. ensuring that content is consistent with overall program strategy and approach.
- Work with the DMEL team during the development of the program monitoring systems for governance and subgrant projects and ensure consistent implementation, review, timely and quality reporting and learning takes place within the governance unit.
- Provide guidance and collaborate with other managers and the DMEL Unit to provide the IMAGINE program with functional accountability mechanisms that are consistent with Mercy Corps standards. He/She will ensure that key stakeholders including WASH service providers, IMAGINE program staff and beneficiaries participate in the development, implementation and review of these mechanisms and that they are trained to do so, enforcing gender standards in every day operations.
- Collaborate with evaluators and advise on evaluation and research questions and tools relevant to Service provision, Governance and Behavior Change
Team Management
- Ensure high level of coordination with program team and finance, HR, procurement and logistics departments to ensure operational systems are in place and are followed to support Governance activities. Provide corrective measures and propose solutions to improve planning and efficiency, avoid last-minute requests and bottlenecks.
- Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence and support each other to achieve program objectives.
- Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews
- Supervise, hire and orient new team members as necessary
- Provide team members with information, tools and other resources to improve performance and reach the IMAGINE program and Mercy Corps’ mission objectives
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 towards 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.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY: Governance Senior Team Leaders, program staff and field officers in Goma and Bukavu
ACCOUNTABILITY:
REPORTS DIRECTLY TO: Governance Delivery Manager
WORKS DIRECTLY WITH: Governance team and other Delivery Managers, Gender Manager, monitoring and evaluation, partner organizations, DRC team members, and members of the Mercy Corps Technical Support Units
KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:
- College degree in one of the following: Public Policy, Governance, International Development or other related field. Master degree preferred.
- 3-5- years of experience focused on governance and/or civil society programs at community and/or national levels. Experience and knowledge of governance systems in DRC is essential
- Experience designing and implementing programs related to governance, participation, and accountability particularly in eastern DRC
- Demonstrated understanding of systems approach and/or systems thinking
- Demonstrated understanding of civil society actors in eastern DRC and their role in service provision governance
- Experience recruiting, training, and managing program teams
- Experience collaborating with local authorities and leaders, community capacity building, and community mobilization
- Previous experience working with international organizations required and history with DFID-funded initiatives desirable
- Proven ability to work effectively in multi-cultural teams and with technical and administrative staff and consultants
- Strong communication skills in English, French, and Swahili
SUCCESS FACTORS:
A successful candidate will have a demonstrated ability to lead and communicate effectively with team members of varied work styles and cultures, follow procedures, and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in project planning. S/he will demonstrate flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving, and have a proven ability to learn quickly and achieve stated results and objectives. S/he will combine strong collaborative working skills with an ability to implement programs successfully. S/he will demonstrate adaptability, flexibility in approach and a strong sense of equity. In DRC, patience, diplomacy, tenacity, compassion, determination and a sense of humor are all success factors.
LIVING CONDITIONS/ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS:
The position is based in Bukavu, DRC and it requires up to (40 %) travel to Goma and Kinshasa.
This position is as an unaccompanied post based in Goma, DRC. Travel to field sites up to 40% will be required where living conditions are clean and secure, but basic.
Bukavu is a provincial capital of over 1,000,000 inhabitants, with travel to Goma, and Kinshasa. Living in Bukavu is comfortable, although water and electricity can be unstable. Outside Bukavu, travel can be dangerous and unpredictable due to armed forces and rebel activity.
While conditions in the country are improving, and security is quite stable in Bukavu, there are still pockets of violence and insecurity. Mercy Corps’ sub-offices experience variable levels of insecurity, with the situation closely monitored by UN peacekeepers. Air travel is necessary to get from one end of the country to the other. Mobile phones and cellular service are widely available. Internet is available in all Mercy Corps offices. There are a number of health services available with evacuation options for serious illnesses. There’s reasonable access to most consumer goods, although they can be expensive.
Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. 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.
