District Coordinator

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

The District Coordinator provides technical backstopping and management support to the Bhakari program district implementing partners (Kalikot, Mugu, Dailekh, Surkhet and Achham). They supports a team of implementing partners to ensure that Mercy Corps is implementing high quality, impactful programming with the necessary management and support structures to sustain program results. This position ensures on time implementation of planned activities, reporting, coordination and collaboration with the Bhakari program stakeholders. And, leverage technical support from the component experts required in the district. Specifically, this role will provide day to day technical and management support to the implementing partners and will be responsible for the coordination and collaboration with the thematic experts to provide both technical and management support to the district implementing partners. The District Coordinator will work closely with the Cluster Coordinators, technical managers, and cluster officers, as well as technical consortium partners.

Essential Job Responsibilities

The specific duties and responsibilities of the Cluster Coordinator include, but are not limited to, the following:

PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION

• As the BHAKARI District Coordinator and the key point of contact for BHAKARI ensure the local implementing partner (LNGO) fully understands the sub-award function and program areas of implementation.
• Facilitate and support the district implementing partners to implement the program activities on time, on scope and on budget.
• Coordinate with the BHAKARI Technical Managers and technical staff in the cluster to ensure technical support is timely accessed by the implementing partner and oversee its implementation effectively.
• Support the PC to ensure implementing partner staff are fully up to date in their respective technical issues and are able to timely implement.
• Facilitate and support the risk assessment process and risk mitigation and repsonse planning at community, Palikas and district level particularly Integrated Community Assessment and Planning, Vulnerability Capacity Assessment (VCA), Local Disaster and Climate Resilient Plan (LDCRPs), Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan.
• Facilitate and support the Rapid Market Assessment, Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) program feasibility study and work with the Local Disaster Management Committee (LDMC) and District Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) to prepare Initial Rapid Assessment (IRA) and Multi-sectoral Rapid Assessment (MIRA) report.
• Facilitate and implement the Cash Transfer Programs (Cash distribution and Cash for Work) activities in the districts.
• Facilitate and conduct the capacity strengthening intervention to the LDMC and DDMC and work with them to build their disaster preparedness and response capacity.
• Ensure the integration of food security, agriculture, nutrition, productive water, disaster risk reduction and emergency interventions in the districts.
• Utilize personal knowledge, connections and skills to build sustainable and productive relationships with and between diverse key stakeholders from the public, private and civic sectors.
• Ensure GESI and governance activities are owned by the implementing partner and implemented accordingly.
• Conduct themselves both professionally and personally in such a manner so as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and not to jeopardize its mission.
• Support partner to take lead on and ensure BHAKARI program is collaborating and sequencing with other USAID programs in the relevant areas.
• Any other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.

CAPACITY BUILDING

• Coach and mentor the district implementing partner to understands the program scope, approach, strategy and priorities areas,
• Build the capacity of district implementing partners to implement the Bhakari program activities on effective and efficient manner,
• Guide and support implementing partners team to prepare work plans, program reportings, budget projection and the documentation of learnings and best practices
• Build the capacity of stakeholders to implement the disaster risk reduction, food security, productive water, emergency response (Cash and Voucher Assistance).

MONITORING, EVALUATIONS, AND LEARNING (MEL) AND REPORTING

• Monitor program activities on a regular basis to ensure timely and effective program implementation.
• Conduct regular monitoring of the field activities and ensure the quality delivery and implementation of planned interventions as per plan and set out strategy.
• Facilitate and participate in the regular Project Advisory Committee (PAC) monitoring visits and meetings to share program progress and receive feedback.
• Work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team to generate and collect required information and data for measuring program intervention results.
• Support implementing partners to prepare monthly/quarterly plans and progress reports.
• Support implementing partners to generate weekly updates, quality progress reports and documents that capture program learning, good practices and success stories.
• Facilitate and participate in the Monthly Planning Meeting of district implementing partners to review the progress and share plan for upcoming months.
• Establish and maintain professional and productive relationships with communities and local government.

LIAISON, COORDINATION AND COLLABORATION

• Manage good relationships with the Palika/municipality and District level project stakeholders, including local NGO partners, GoN officials, community officials, and colleague agency officials.
• Represents Bhakari program and Mercy Corps at the local level and district and contacts the counterpart, I/NGOs, line agencies, communities and visitors as required.
• Organize critical review and reflection meeting with the district implementing partners to share plan, progress, issues and way forward
• Establish good coordination with humanitarian clusters, local, district and provincial governments, non-government stakeholders and other collaborating partners to prevent duplication of activities.
• Coordinate and collaborate with the Mercy Corps supporting functions, MEL team and technical managers, advisors and officers to ensure the timely technical support and backstopping to the partners

FINANCE AND COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

• Ensure all internal control procedures are adhered to and that necessary measures are put in place to ensure high standards of accountability and compliance.
• Work closely with the district implementing partners and finance/compliance team to mitigate fraud, conflict of interest and legal ramifications of Mercy Corps activities.
• Maintain close and cooperative working relationships with the district implementing partners’ finance & program staff, provide inputs in the effective financial management, ensure the monthly and quarterly reports submitted to Mercy Corps are in timely manner, overseeing financial/accounting activities are carried out in accordance with sub award agreement and accounting principles.
• Support and orient on MC Code of Ethics and uphold Mercy Corps’ Zero tolerance of corruption policy.

INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION

• As required by the program management at both district and province levels liaise with and represent the program to local government officials, humanitarian clusters, AIN forums, civil society/community leaders, political parties and other key stakeholders.
• Ensure close coordination and information sharing with local implementing partners, local government and other implementers, as well as with other Mercy Corps programs.
• Establish and maintain professional and productive relationships with communities and local government.
• Serve as a key focal point for program related issues and problems in the ground and seek support from the management team as required.
• Work with and influence the local governments, I/NGOs, CBOs and Private sector organizations to adapt the best practices of Bhakari program for the scale and replication.

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

• 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.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
• 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 their supervisor and or Country Director.

Supervisory Responsibility

N/A

Accountability

Reports Directly to: Clusters Coordinator
Works Directly with: Technical Component Manager, Advisor and Officers; and Partnership Manager, Cluster Office’s Finance, Implementing partners team and Operations unit.

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor degree in social sciences, Development Studies/Management, agriculture science, civil engineering or any related discipline
• At least 5 years of experience working with I/NGOs, and/or private sector organizations focused on food security, disaster risk management, agriculture & livelihood and humanitarian assistance.
• Experiences working in partnerships, coordination among different stakeholders and organizations at municipal/district/province/national level is required. Working experience on USAID funded complex programs is highly preferred.
• Work experiences and understanding on long term emergency assistance, M&E, cash and voucher programming, social protection, and SBCC will be an added advantage.
• Demonstrated ability to work in complex environments under tight deadlines.
• Work experience in the Karnali province and with a multi-disciplinary team is an advantage.
• Strong coordination skills, including capacity to coordinate large teams remotely.
• Strong organizational and logistical skills with demonstrated experience in strategic planning and ability to work independently are required.
• Good writing and computer skills, including preliminary research and information gathering from the internet, MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint preparation are required.
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Nepali required.
• Effective writing skills to prepare reports, complete analyses and make presentations.
• Negotiation, networking, advocacy, coordination and representation skills with key local actors is preferred
• Ability to work effectively with an ethnically diverse team in a sensitive environment.
• Proven ability to learn quickly, facilitate program implementation to achieve stated results and objectives

Success Factors

The successful District Coordinator will combine the management/coordination skills and experience in the field of food security, agriculture, disaster risk reduction, emergency response/assistance, M&E, cash and voucher programming, and SBCC as well as in building and maintaining government, community and partner relationships. They will have proven ability to learn quickly, take initiative, and be accountable for results, with an ability and willingness to remain mobile for field support and activity monitoring based on programmatic needs. They will have an ability to think creatively about contributing directly and measurably to program approaches, and have experiences in both community mobilization and government engagement. The most successful 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.

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/district_coordinator/

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