Summary
Date Posted: Wednesday, June 01, 2022 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Job Category: Programming
Requisition Number: SENIO002430

About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

Program / Department Summary
Present in Uganda since 2006, Mercy Corps Uganda’s aim is to catalyse change through the Ugandan private sector, civil society, and government to create resilient, economically inclusive, healthy, and secure communities. We have 15 programmes across Uganda with a total portfolio value of $80M, including support from FCDO, USAID, US State Department, French Development Agency, Conrad Hilton Foundation and other private sector foundations. With a strong presence across the country, we have offices in Kampala, Rhino Camp, Yumbe, Moroto, Kotido, Amudat, Kaabong, Karita, and Karenga.
The Refugee Finance to Grow Income, Assets and Resilience through Bundled Services (REFINE) programme is a €1.2 million three-year AFD-funded programme focused on enabling refugees to access and benefit from financial services which improve their incomes, increase their assets, and improve their self-reliance. Targeting both urban refugees residing in Kampala and households in peri-urban and rural areas of the West Nile District, REFINE seeks to contribute to improved financial outcomes and wellbeing for refugees in Uganda by developing their financial and digital literacy and supporting Refugee led Organisations to navigate legal and regulatory requirements for accessing financial services. Financial institutions on the other hand will receive low-cost, low-risk capital to supplement their loan capital for growing their refugee finance portfolios and will develop and market client-centered products and processes based on an analysis of the capacities and constraints of refugee clients, especially women.
The program will be implemented through a consortium of Mercy Corps, Kiva and Xavier Project, and in collaboration with Uganda-based Financial Service Providers (FSPs).

The Position
Reporting to the REFINE Program & Strategy Lead, the Senior Project Officer (SPO) will work both at the institutional and community level, in collaboration with the MEL Officer, to support implementation of program activities. S/he will provide technical and operational support to Financial Service Providers (FSPs) and Refugee Led Organisations (RLOs), ensuring that interventions are on time and within scope and identify opportunities to operationalize recommendations from ongoing context analyses. The SPO will remain the primary point of contact on the ground for all REFINE related activities and manage relationships with partner FSPs and RLOs in the program. S/he will also be responsible for working directly with the Program & Strategy Lead to operationalize the work plan while leveraging technical inputs from the REFINE MEL Officer.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Program Management
• Provide leadership and daily oversight for planning and implementation of activities including; mentorship and support to FSP and RLO team leads in the respective areas of implementation.
• Support in activity costing and the development of activity plans and reports ensuring that established objectives and targets are met.
• Support the program leadership in advocacy and maintenance of strategic partnerships with Kiva, Xavier Project and other stakeholders.
• Support the MEL Officer in coordinating the needs and market assessments and regularly monitoring and evaluating program activities, in accordance with REFINE objectives.
• Contribute to the development of the training curriculum, HCD toolkits, project tools, and setup of business clinics; facilitate trainings and capacity building sessions with the RLOs.
• Identify and document best practices and failures in REFINE programming and recommend the same to the program leadership
• Provide project management support to the implementation and technical teams of participating FSPs and RLOs to maximize use of resources and ensure coordinated programming.
• Be responsible for gender mainstreaming and proactive technical support to the ReFine Implementation Team
• Ensure adherence to program management minimum standards in carrying out his/her duties, advising and supporting other staff in the same as required.
• Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations.
Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Reporting
• Ensure timely and consistent submission of project reports, success stories and other relevant data to the program leadership (i.e. weekly, monthly and quarterly reports)
• Support the MEL Officer in the data collection process involving the capturing of gender and age disaggregated data, data validation, assuring quality control measures, timely data submission
• Responsible for drafting timely weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports and work plans indicative of program progress during implementation.
• Provide inputs in the dissemination of program learnings and recommendations to team members, participants and other relevant audiences.
Influence and Representation
• Maintain a productive working relationship with the project partners and their downstream partners in both urban and settlement settings to ensure strong collaboration and development, complementary joint monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management structures where possible.
• Support the advancement of knowledge management, thought leadership and learning, and advocacy efforts within the program and among project stakeholders
• Support and coordinate visits from program partners, government agencies, regional and HQ based staff and external visitors, such as donors and media, in collaboration with other REFINE program staff (MEL), and the Program & Strategy Lead.
• Establish and maintain a productive working relationship with other NGOs and implementing partners, working in unison to develop complementary joint monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management structures where possible.

Supervisory Responsibility: None.
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Program & Strategy Lead, REFINE
Works Directly With: The REFINE team: MEL Officer, Operations, HR and finance teams
Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders
Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills
• Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences, Microfinance, Management, Entrepreneurship, Economics or other relevant fields.
• At least 6 years of related professional experience. Work experience with financial institutions and/or NGOs with focus on market facilitation or private sector led approaches or interventions preferred.
• Good understanding of financial inclusion fundamentals, with ability to understand a complex financial ecosystem and design interventions that will drive the growth and inclusiveness of financial markets for displaced populations
• A dynamic, “outside-the-box” attitude is required, with proven ability to think and act creatively in challenging environments.
• Demonstrated skills in data collection, verification and documentation
• Excellent project management, reporting, communication and representation skills
• Track record of effective management of complex multi-stakeholder projects
• Proven skills in networking, stakeholder management, community consultations and organizational development.
• Strong interpersonal, writing and oral presentation skills in English is required. Fluency in languages used by Refugees (Baari, Juba Arabic, Lugbara, and Ki) is an advantage.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office (specifically Excel) required; familiarity with project management packages/tools a strong advantage

Success Factors
The successful Senior Program Officer will be bright, energetic, hard-working and eager to learn. S/he will take a deep personal interest in financial inclusion matters, as well as humanitarian and development assistance issues. S/he will be attentive to detail and able to carry out assigned tasks in a timely manner and according to a very high standard of quality. S/he will be creative and flexible, contributing to developing and encouraging new and innovative solutions, while effortlessly adhering to systems and procedures. S/he will strictly follow all protocols related to safety and security, and hold him/herself self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Mercy Corps’ values.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Yumbe and requires some travel (up to 30%) to Kampala to support ongoing implementations with partners. The Yumbe region is secure with access to most basic amenities. The successful applicant will be responsible for his/her housing but will have access to good medical services with decent living standards.

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

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 72

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Job application procedure
Click here to apply.


All Jobs

QUICK ALERT SUBSCRIPTION