Community Accountability Reporting Mechanism (CARM) Officer

Job Description

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. Mercy Corps has been operating in Nepal since 2005, implementing programs in food security, agriculture, market development, financial services, girl’s education, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. We take a systems-based approach in our programming, with the aim of improving the lives and potential of vulnerable individuals and communities across Nepal.

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps is expected to begin a new program to enhance food and nutrition security, reduce future humanitarian caseload and improve the resilience of communities to recurrent shocks in the Karnali Province in Nepal, on or around October 1, 2020. The program will be a Multi-Year Emergency Food Security Activity funded by USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs, and implemented in 6 districts (Mugu, Jumla, Kalikot, Surkhet, Achham, and Dailekh, with cluster hubs in Surkhet and Jumla) in the Karnali River Basin area. The new program, called “Building Hope Along the Karnali River Basin (Bhakari)”, is somewhat built upon many of the successes of the Nepal team’s previous Food for Peace program which ended in January 2020, the PAHAL program, but with some new districts and a much heavier emphasis on emergency response. It includes program components of agriculture and market systems, disaster risk reduction, water for productive use, natural resources management, and a large emphasis on a gender and social inclusion approach, all with a highly integrated multi-sectoral approach.

General Position Summary

As part of Mercy Corps’ global commitment to accountability to affected populations and the prevention of all forms of exploitation and abuse, CARM is a channel for any and all community members to provide feedback, suggestions, complaints, and concerns, in a manner that is safe, confidential, transparent, and accessible, enabling Mercy Corps to respond and make any necessary programmatic or safeguarding adaptations and to ensure the safety, security, and empowerment of program participants.
The CARM Officer will work directly under the MEL Manager and work in close coordination with Bhakari MEL team, Country CARM focal person and cluster/district program team. S/he will support MEL Manager to establish and operationalize CARM systems for Bhakari. This includes developing the program level CARM processes & tools and the CARM strategy, preparing work plan for the rollout, building field team’s capacity on the newly established CARM system and ensuring smooth operation of CARM system. S/he will also support in developing standard operating procedures to ensure that the methods of providing feedback are safe, confidential and accessible and that the feedback provided is timely in line with the country CARM system.

Essential Job Responsibilities

The specific duties and responsibilities of the CARM Officer includes, but are not limited to, the following:

STRATEGY AND PLANNING

• Provide leadership to cluster and district offices in aspects of CARM.
• Ensure CARM system is functional and followed at all levels and the feedback loops are closed timely and appropriately.

CARM IMPLEMENTATION

• Develop Bhakari CARM system process and SoPs through consultations with the Country CARM Focal Person, MEL team, Program Team and in the communities in line with Country CARM SoP
• Understand and identify locally appropriate, user-friendly and culturally sensitive communication channels for feedback and incorporate these into the manual.
• Log all feedback to Country CARM database
• Ensure complaints and feedback are lodged and managed in a timely, fair & appropriate manner, where related to activity improvements, help to hold the program team accountable for adaptations and response to the feedback. The entire process shall be managed maintaining a high degree of confidentiality.
• Support Implementing Partners to develop a CARM system that integrates with the Bhakari CARM system.
• Follow the required procedures for all feedback received, according to the various grades.
• Support in development of necessary IEC material for internal and external use which must address the different needs.
• Develop work plans for the rollout of CARM including processes procedures and forms.
• Work closely with MIS Officer and MEL Manager to develop CARM database, data management tools and processes.
• Lead the analysis and reporting of CARM data trends in close coordination with the MEL team.
• Ensure that the CARM data trends is presented in a report and shared with the program team every quarter to ensure timely integration of learning into activity adaptation
• Complete program CARM checklist
• Develop Program CARM Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Ensure the feedback loop is closed for all cases

TEAM BUILDING & CAPACITY STRENGTHENING

• Support MEL Manager and Senior MEL Officer to conduct orientation sessions for Bhakari team on CARM and their roles and responsibilities toward a successful implementation of accountability and reporting mechanisms.
• Build capacity of implementing partner staff on CARM system through designing and delivering formal training and orientation.

MEL RESPONSIBILITIES

• As a part of Bhakari MEL team, support team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance & reach program objectives.
• Play an active role in providing regular support to Bhakari team and partners M&E team to meet MEL reporting requirements.
• Support in conducting regular review and reflect sessions at both cluster and district level

SECURITY

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members and community operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

ACCOUNTABILITY TO PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging participating communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
• 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.

OTHERS

• Ensure proper integration of safeguarding and GESI aspects into MEL planning and implementation.
• Mercy Corps as a humanitarian agency is expected to respond as and when crisis and humanitarian situation engulfs. As an MC employee all staff are expected to be part of humanitarian and emergency response in addition to their regular roles and responsibilities.
• Conduct themselves both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and not to jeopardize its humanitarian mission.
• Other duties as assigned by Supervisor and or Country Director.

Supervisory Responsibility

N/A

Reports Directly to: Bhakari MEL Manager
Works Directly with: Country CARM focal person, Bhakari MEL team, district and cluster team and implementing partners staff.

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in relevant areas with at least 2-3 years of experience in program performance and quality, accountability or monitoring, evaluation & learning with I/NGOs.
• Knowledge, experience and conceptual understanding on accountability, especially to communities and program participants. Experience setting up or running CARM or similar systems is highly preferable.
• Knowledge on MEL database, digital data collection technologies, data collection tools, data compilation, analysis, documentation and report writing
• Previous experience of building capacity of implementing partners and communities through developing training tools, providing training, orientations and sensitization activities.
• Good communication and facilitation skills.
• Ability to work closely in a team, be patient, adaptable, flexible and innovative.
• Fluent in both Nepali and English languages. Ability to summarize data and write reports in both languages for internal and external use.

Success Factors

The successful CARM Officer is a team player with good communication and facilitation skills. S/he will have an ability to think creatively about operationalizing and improving the CARM system. S/he will have proven experience working with implementing partners and communities to established CARM to receive and document feedback, and help to hold the Bhakari team accountable to adaptations and responses to the feedback.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives. We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact. We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

Apply Instructions

Apply Link: https://nepal.mercycorps.org/job/carm_officer/

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