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 400 people working in North and South Kivu and Ituri Provinces 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.

General Position Summary

The Emergency Deputy Programs Director will work closely with the Emergency Programs Director to provide overall leadership, management and strategic vision to the implementation of a multi-million-dollar humanitarian portfolio, supported by donors such as BHA, FCDO, and ECHO. S/he supports the management of all humanitarian program managers, providing strong leadership and ensuring proper coordination in order to operate effectively and deliver on the projects’ intended impact.

The Deputy Director serves as a strong team leader for Mercy Corps Emergency programs, represents the interests of the agency and partners, and ensures all parties are working effectively and efficiently. S/he is detail oriented and has excellent planning and strategic thinking skills. S/he will also be experienced in networking and donor representation. S/he will be an effective communicator with exceptional team building and coordination skills. The Deputy Director will participate in providing strategic leadership to its direct reports, coordinate the delivery of inclusive high-quality programming and reporting, and overview the relationship with current and future primary donors. S/he will be the second program representative to donors, coordination system, relevant government entities, partners, other implementers and external stakeholders. S/he will also support the Country Director, Deputy Country Director – Programs and Emergency Grants Manager in the identification of new humanitarian funding opportunities, as well as proposal design and development.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Strategy & Vision

● Support in maintaining and reinforcing Mercy Corps’ primary position in the emergency response, by ensuring alignment with the Humanitarian Response Plan and priorities and seeking opportunities for expansion of Mercy Corps emergency programming.

● Support the Emergency Programs Director in implementing the recently updated DRC Emergency Department strategy.

● Set direction by prioritizing and organizing actions and resources to achieve Mercy Corps emergency programming objectives.

● Provide structure to the existing portfolio and response mechanisms to reinforce program quality and maintain response speed.

Program Management

● Oversee project start-up and ongoing project operations management and Administration of teams across various field locations, ensuring mechanisms for effective adaptive management are in place and utilized regularly.

● Oversee the development of detailed implementation plans, maintaining rapid response capacity.

● Ensure that Mercy Corps emergency projects target participants effectively and according to established vulnerability criteria.

● Integrate community engagement and participation, Do No Harm, protection, gender sensitivity and capacity building approaches into all activities as appropriate.

● Document processes and achievements to ensure best practices are captured and disseminated. This will include the continual re-evaluation of program activities and information, with resulting activity adjustments in keeping with new insights.

● Oversee the production of written reports on program activities, capturing the impact of activities.

● Support efforts to design effective M&E systems for the program, and linkages with internal M&E systems. Support Emergency MEL Manager in rollout of new initiatives in emergency programs (automated CARM system, use of Power BI for Analysis, etc).

Representation and Coordination

● Create, implement and follow effective stakeholder management plans, ensuring sound and proactive communications with Mercy Corps DRC, partner organizations, humanitarian coordination, Mercy Corps headquarters, Mercy Corps’ donors, and local and national authorities.

● Participate in external representation of Mercy Corps emergency portfolio with various groups including donors, government, and the humanitarian coordination system.

● Maintain strong and transparent communication with Mercy Corps’ donors and partners.

● Share learnings from Mercy Corps emergency portfolio with the greater humanitarian community within DRC.

● Represent Mercy Corps programs with donors and participate in community activities as appropriate.

Team Management

● Provide leadership, programmatic and managerial oversight of all direct reports.

● Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.

● Monitor the team’s wellbeing in the high-stress, high-workload emergency context and take corrective actions to reduce turnover

● Set a team culture valuing learning and adaptive management.

● Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews.

● Contribute to country team-building efforts, help team members identify Problem Solving options and ensure the integration of all team members into relevant decision-making processes.

● Supervise and manage Emergency Program Managers and technical leads to ensure day-to-day activities are implemented in a coordinated way according to schedule, budget, and quality.

● Manage and help with the recruitment, orientation, professional development and ongoing training of Mercy Corps Emergency staff to ensure they are of the quality and technical capacity necessary to ensure the successful implementation of activities.

Finance & Compliance Management

● In collaboration with the country program’s operations and finance departments, ensure proper financial management, procurement, administration, human resources and logistics (including transport, warehousing and asset management) needs of the program are conducted within Mercy Corps’ policy and with the maximum benefit to the program.

● Monitor adherence to grant agreement, Mercy Corps’ policies and procedures and relevant external rules and regulations, including those of the government of DRC.

Reporting & Grants

● Supervise all activity reports produced by the team, including financial reports related to the different distributions. Ensure filing of all documents according to [email protected] standards and donor requirements.

● Support the grants team on all reports due to the donor (on time and high quality).

Security

● Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership. Monitor and foster a high level of compliance with Emergency occupational safety standards and procedures.

● 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 Participants

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

Supervisory Responsibility: Emergency Program Managers (4), WASH Technical Advisor, Field Coordinator

Reports Directly To: Emergency Programs Director

Works Directly With: Emergency MEL Manager, Emergency Finance Manager, Emergency Grants Team, Operations Staff, HQ Regional Program Team, Technical Support Unit, and Managers/representatives from partner organizations.

Knowledge and Experience

● BA/S or equivalent experience in international development, management, humanitarian response or other relevant field; MA/S preferred.

● At least 5 years of international relief and development program management experience, in emergency and recovery program management, with progressively greater responsibility.

● At least 3 years in a senior management role is required with experience in managing humanitarian assistance projects in developing countries; experience managing multi-sectoral projects including cash, health, WASH, non-food items (NFI), Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), community engagement or protection, preferably in insecure settings.

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