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
In October 2017, Mercy Corps was awarded a 5 year USAID/ Food for Peace- funded program working in 4 districts in Karamoja, the Apolou Activity. The Activity has four purposes with cross cutting themes of gender and youth and resilience: 1) Inclusive and effective governance contributes to food and nutrition security, 2) Improved health and nutritional status of pregnant and lactating women, children under five, and adolescent girls, 3) Improved WASH conditions and 4) Adolescent girls, adolescent boys, women and men access diverse and secure livelihoods through improved capacities and strengthened market systems. Apolou is implemented by a consortium of actors led by Mercy Corps, including Save the Children, Whave Solutions, four local partners (KAPDA, AIDI, NARWOA and Riam Riam) and Tufts University’s Feinstein International Centre (FIC).
General Position Summary
The Apolou Activity is providing conditional, restricted e-vouchers and e-cash to 9,000 or more beneficiaries. This includes commodity restricted transfers, subsidies for development products (solar, seeds, tillage etc) and cash. Initial transfers will focus on nutrition transfers to pregnant and lactating women, with the possibility to scale up in other sectors and to other populations. The Resource Transfer Manager will oversee the electronic transfer information management system, supply logistics and management of the resource transfer platform.
Essential Job Responsibilities
Strategy & Vision
- Plan and ensure the effective implementation of e-transfer programming
- Draft context specific training materials for staff, beneficiaries and vendors and lead in the roll out of relevant trainings
Program Management
- Oversee resource transfer startup, beginning with pilot nutrition transfers then scaling to nutrition transfers
- Establish merchant networks for restricted transfers and cash out points in key communities through identification and capacity building of local vendors
- Act as liaison between Mercy Corps Uganda and private sector stakeholders on service provision, including but not limited to MIS system provider, mobile network operators, and commodity suppliers
- Liaise between programs and MIS system providers to adapt resource transfer to dynamic program needs, including expansion to livelihoods subsidy and/or crisis modifiers if needed.
- Responsible for troubleshooting any supply chain or quality issues among vendors
- Establish Community Accountability and Reporting mechanism at vendor and community level, including complaints tracking and resolution system
- Create Standard Operating Procedures and enforce their implementation in order to mitigate risks of fraud and/or corruption.
- Establish M&E system for Resource Transfers, with tiered access to online dashboards, and feedback loops to share intervention impacts with larger Apolou team.
- Oversee management of hardware (smartcard printers, biometric readers etc)
- All other duties as required
Team Management
- Manage team of Resource Transfer Assistants (12) and Officers (4)- Promote team accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews. Officers will support with oversight of Assistants.
- Work with program teams to ensure that beneficiaries are effectively targeted according to established vulnerability criteria.
- Supervise, hire and orient new team members as necessary.
- Ensure teams are able to effectively deliver program documents, including but not limited to workplans, procurement plans, cash projections, movement plans, etc.
- Contribute to country team-building efforts, including collaboration with other programs, particularly in the humanitarian portfolio to ensure capture and dissemination of best practice in resource transfers
Finance & Compliance Management
- Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations, particularly cash and in-kind distribution protocols and beneficiary protection.
Influence & Representation
- Establish strong relationship with local government, gaining buy in and building local government capacity to oversee resource transfers
- Document best practices in resource transfers to influence external stakeholders to move towards market-based solutions instead of in-kind distributions
- Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met.
Security
- Ensure beneficiary protection policies are adhered to and develop post distribution monitoring and evaluation system to measure intended and unintended impacts, including monitoring of gender based violence
- Ensure data protection policies are adhered to, establishing security controls for software, hardware and archive beneficiary databases.
- Proactively ensure that 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.
Supervisory Responsibility
The Resource Transfer Manager is responsible for 12 staff spread across four districts: Kaabong, Kotido, Moroto and Amudat.
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Deputy Chief of Party
Works Directly With: Nutrition Manager, Livelihoods Manager, M&E Advisor, Save the Children Program Manager
Knowledge and Experience
- BA in relevant field (Business studies, statistics, computing, etc) required. Further education a plus
- Minimum 4-5 years of experience working on the development, implementation, administration and compliance of a field-based international development or humanitarian program;
- Prior experience managing teams is essential
- Experience working with multiple stakeholders to identify beneficiaries according to criteria required.
- Prior experience implementing distributions is required, preferably in a non-camp setting. Experience with CTP strongly preferred.
- Prior experience in managing vendors, electronic platforms and associated technology is required.
- Experience with running assessments, electronic data collection, monitoring and evaluation and other learning efforts required.
- Demonstrated experience managing cash out agent challenges including capacity gaps, liquidity problems etc preferred.
- Training skills and experience preferred.
- Excellent communication skills, a high level of spoken and written English essential, Nga’Karimojong a plus.
Success Factors
The successful candidate will have a proactive problem solving attitude and will be able to multi-task between diverse workstreams- from commodity logistics to local government and community relations. This will require someone who is flexible, committed to using technology to drive innovative solutions and has a strong capacity for managing large datasets.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Moroto, Karamoja and it requires up to 50% travel within the region. 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 venues.
How to apply:
Applications: Submit your application through email to [email protected] addressed to the Senior HR and Legal Manager, Mercy Corps Uganda. Include a cover letter clearly stating your salary requirements, CV (with 3 referees), and copies of academic qualifications/certificates. Deadline for Submission: Close of business on Monday, 30th April, 2018. Subject of email should include the position you are applying for.** Only short-listed candidates will be contacted
More Information
- Job City Uganda