Senior Program Officer US NGO Job Placements – Mercy Corps
Job Title: Senior Program Officer
Organization: Mercy Corps
Duty Station: Uganda
Reports to: STA/DCOP, EKISIL
About US:
Mercy Corps has been operating in Uganda since 2006 and works to catalyze change through the Ugandan private sector, civil society and government to create resilient, economically inclusive, healthy, and secure communities. Our work focuses on building resilience and enabling economic growth, improving opportunities to attain better health and nutrition, improving governance and conflict management, and bridging humanitarian response with longer term development outcomes. We implement programs in Acholi, Karamoja and West Nile Sub-regions, as well as eastern Uganda and the greater Kampala area with funding from USAID, Sida, US State Department, SDC, DFID as well as other private donations.
The USAID’s Securing Peace and Promoting Prosperity in Karamoja (EKISIL) is a Conflict Management and Mitigation Project that applies a people-to-people approach to address underlying social, economic, ecological, and governance issues at risk of fueling conflict in Karamoja Sub-region. The project is implemented in Kaabong, Kotido, Abim, and Moroto.
Job Summary: The Mercy Corps Senior Program Officer will support the Steering Committee in the implementation of the Karamoja Regional Development Initiative under EKISIL . He / she will lead the planning and execution of the Regional Initiative activities ensuring quality in accordance with accepted standards, providing essential feedback for learning, accountability and decision making. S/he will be responsible for providing support towards the development of the Karamoja strategic and investments plan based on the local community priorities as well as supporting Research initiatives across the region. He/she will also support in implementation of institutional development plans for the local partners.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Essential functions
- Oversee the day to day implementation of the Karamoja Regional Development Initiative, provide overall planning, coordination and leadership of the activities in line with the approved work-plan.
- Maintain relations with local authorities, development agencies, community organisations, sector heads, and Steering Committee and any other stakeholders relevant to the implementation of Karamoja Regional Initiatives.
- Lead in the development of materials and concept notes that detail the Karamoja Regional Development initiatives activity plans
- Plan and facilitate stakeholder sessions and workshops for different actors and socialite ideas on Karamoja Regional development strategy
- Engage with different local government and planning units on gathering inputs for Karamoja Regional Initiative.
- Work with consultants on development of regional development strategy and investment plan for Karamoja
- Work closely with local partners to ensure effective monitoring, evaluation and reporting of program activities and results.
- Coordinate reporting with local partners, specifically tracking deadlines, ensuring adherence to formats and requirements, ensuring reporting quality and accuracy, and periodic report writing, editing, and submission.
- In collaboration with the M&E team, build the capacity of partners and team members on program monitoring tools, program data management and enable them to develop quality reports and other documents.
- Ensure close coordination and sharing of information with relevant stakeholders such as local government, NGOs and local authorities, as appropriate and advised by the line manager.
- Finance & Compliance Management
- Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to program implementation
- Security
- Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country
- 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.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- The ideal applicant must hold a Bachelor’s degree in Development Studies, management, statistics, economics, social science or related field.
- At least 3 years’ experience in leading community and district level activities .
- Good understanding of Karamoja region.
- Strong computer literacy with a full knowledge of MS Office applications.
- Strong team coordination, listening, and consensus building skills.
- Fluent in both spoken and written English. Fluency in spoken N’Karamojong is an advantage
- Able to drive a motorbike safely, valid license. Preferred but not required.
- Success Factors
- The successful Senior Program Officer will combine exceptional management skills and experience in building and maintaining partner relationships.
- S/he will have an ability to think creatively about operationalizing and improving the regional program.
- S/he will have proven experience with cross-cultural team and capacity building, individual staff development and leadership skills.
- Multi-tasking, prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail as well as strategic vision are essential.
- The most successful Mercy Corps 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.
- A good sense of humor and the ability to learn from mistakes also goes a long way!
How to Apply:
All candidates should send their applications online through the Mercy Corps recruitment portal at the link below.
Deadline: 19th February 2020