THIS POSITION DURATION IS 6 MONTHS (POSSIBLE EXTENSION_ PENDING FUNDING).
About Mercy Corps
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.
Program / Department Summary
Mercy Corps has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since August 2007, with a staff of around 200 people working in North and South Kivu, with the overall country goal to support vulnerable communities through crises, while fostering programs that build resilience and promote long-term change. Mercy Corps’ national office is in Goma with sub-field offices in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri. Mercy Corps’ key programming areas include a combination of longer-term development and immediate humanitarian response programs in order to: 1) Improve water service delivery and ensuring equitable access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services, in urban and rural areas; 2) Improve food security and nutrition; 3) Promote diversified livelihoods, economic recovery and development. Mercy Corps DRC’s humanitarian programs aim specifically to assist populations affected by the conflict and crisis in Eastern Congo. With funding from humanitarian donors including OFDA and UN-donors, the humanitarian portfolio continues to expand in order to provide multi-purpose cash assistance and emergency WASH to displaced and host populations. Mercy Corps plans to scale up and expand its humanitarian response to reach more beneficiaries with additional and varied assistance in a wider geographic area. All Mercy Corps interventions in DRC are implemented in a conflict and gender sensitive manner.
General Position Summary
The Grants Officer is responsible for daily grant management and ensuring support mechanisms are in place to track, analyze and report on results, as well as engagement with Program Managers and teams to ensure grant compliance. The Grants Officer is highly motivated, s/he is an effective communicator, s/he is highly motivated, self-driven and able to move forward complex projects with limited daily support and direction; s/he is able to work remotely with internal and external stakeholders to achieve common objectives.
Essential Job Responsibilities
Strategy & Vision
- Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed.
- In coordination with management, set direction by prioritizing and organizing actions & resources to achieve objectives and contribute to country-wide strategy development.
Program and proposal development
· Contribute to proposal development and the design of new programs.
· Provide support for prepositioning and new program strategy design efforts
grant and quality Management
· Support Program Managers to ensure successful program start-up and ongoing program management and grant administration.
· Support programs to establish effective program reporting and learning systems for both internal and external use in coordination with the program team and MEL staff.
· Ensure program management and filing systems are in place, adheres to internal and donor’s regulation and filing is regularly maintained.
· Ensure that Mercy Corps DRC’ programs have sufficient systems in place to meet program management standards and comply with donor regulations and good practice.
· Work with program staff to integrate quality monitoring processes based on protocols into program implementation, including internal and external reviews of program quality.
· Ensure that program information shared with stakeholders is presented in languages, formats and media that are appropriate for, accessible to, and can be understood by the target population.
REPORTING
- Supports Programs Managers for the reporting requirements of projects.
- Ensure that programs’ reports meet quality requirements and are submitted in a timely manner to both HQ and donors.
- Provide timely, thorough responses to information requests from internal and external sources.
PROGRAMS’ SUPPORT AND COORDINATION
- Support organization of consultancies and TSU visits to respond to programs’ needs and requirements.
- Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance and reach objectives, and review programmatic tools.
- Support program teams to establish and maintain program coordination mechanisms, and are properly document through minutes.
- Build capacity of program teams on grant management, program standards, and other themes as needed to ensure program quality
- Support the set-up of new programs.
Representation AND COMMUNICATION
- Provide support to the Program Quality & Development Manager, and Program Managers to represent Mercy Corps programs in relevant coordination forums as needed.
- Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met.
- Provide support to Programs Managers in the organization of donors’ visits.
- Support the development strategic communication materials, such as sector profiles, impact reports, program briefings, leadership and positioning pieces, key messages, talking points, and other relevant pieces.
Security
- Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
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.
Supervisory Responsibility
NA
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Program Quality & Development Manager
Works Directly With: Program Directors and Managers, MEL Department, Finance Manager, Operations Director (and associated Managers), Gender Advisor, Protection Advisor, Compliance and Internal Process Advisor, Accountability department, HQ-based desk teams, and TSU staff, regional humanitarian response team.
Knowledge and Experience
- BA/S or equivalent in international studies, economics, public health or other relevant field; MA/S preferred.
- 1-2 years of experience with European and US institutional donors, including grants management, and proposal development.
- Field experience in emergency or complex operating environments.
- Strong writing skills required.
- Experience with the reporting & compliance international donor-funded programs.
- Ability to work in a sometimes isolated environment with moderate to high levels of insecurity and significant restrictions on personal movement.
- Experience with proposal development and program design a plus.
- Advanced written and spoken English and French is required.
- Ability to deliver high quality reports within short deadlines.
- Demonstrable knowledge of DRC a plus.
- Ability to multi-task and juggle several tasks and relationships at one time.
- Excellent communication skills, experience in external representation.
- Demonstrated proficiency with the MS Office software (i.e., Word, Excel, PowerPoint) is required.
- Proven ability to work effectively in multi-cultural teams and with technical and administrative staff and consultants.
Success Factors
The successful Grants Officer will combine exceptional writing skills and experience in providing support to emergency programs. S/he will also have proven experience with cross-cultural team and will possess high level of adaptability and be able to adjust to the constantly changing working environment. S/he will have previous experience working on emergency programs in insecure and conflict context. Prioritizing, problem solving, ability to seize opportunities, 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.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
This position is an unaccompanied position. Shared housing will be provided in Goma according to Mercy Corps DRC housing policy. Goma is a provincial capital of over 700,000 inhabitants. Travel may be required up to 15% of the time to program areas within North and South Kivu. Living in Goma is comfortable, although water and electricity can be unstable. Outside Goma, travel can be dangerous and unpredictable due to armed forces and rebel activity.
While security is quite stable in Goma, North and South Kivu continue to be an arena 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. Travel to field sites will be required where living conditions are clean and secure, but basic. There are a number of health services available with evacuation options for serious illnesses. There is 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. Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside 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.
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More Information
- Job City Goma
