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.
Mercy Corps has been operating in Kenya since 2008, focusing its interventions around four objectives:
1) Peace and Conflict Management;
2) Livelihood/Market Systems;
3) Governance (particularly at the county level); and
4) Youth Employment/Employability (including the social and economic development of adolescents).
The four objectives serve to increase community resilience to drought and other shocks and stresses, and to decrease fragility with a particular focus on Kenya’s Arid Lands.
Mercy Corps’ vision for change requires the private sector, government and civil society to work together to create meaningful and sustainable change.
The Program
Mercy Corps is part of a consortium led by ACDI VOCA that implements a five-year USAID-funded Kenya Feed the Future (FtF) Livestock Market Systems (LMS) Activity for northern Kenya. Under LMS, Mercy Corps fully implements the Strengthening Community Capacities for Resilience and Growth Award.
The activity will contribute to USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative and specifically will improve households’ income, productive assets and resilience to drought and other shocks.
Specific areas of focus include strengthened and sustained rangeland and water management; strengthened drought risk management; strengthened conflict management; improved and sustained health, nutrition, and hygiene practices; improved literacy, numeracy, and life skills; and collaborative action and learning for community empowerment.
The Position
The County Project Coordinator will be responsible for the overall county-level planning, coordination, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of the Strengthening Community Capacities for Resilience and Growth (SCCRG) component.
S/he will ensure all project initiatives are implemented to achieve maximum impact as per project objectives while remaining on schedule and budget.
The County Project Coordinator directly manages the county-level staff and closely coordinate with staff from other LMS partners such as ACDI VOCA, BOMA and Smart Regional Consultant on planning and implementation and layering of activities across all LMS awards
Essential Responsibilities
Program Management
Provide overall managerial leadership for the project at the county level.
Develop county specific work plans and budget while ensuring teams implement activities on time, within the approved budget, and project deliverables achieve desired impact.
Review project implementation strategies and contextualize to specific county.
Lead effective coordination, collaboration and integration among all technical, support and project units including with our lead partner – ACDI/VOCA and implementing partner – the BOMA Project.
Attend all quarterly project meetings in Nairobi as well as facilitate planning meetings and workshops with government, NGOs, private sector and community partners to revise plans and promote partner acceptance/buy-in.
Provide timely updates to supervisor on progress and issues, identifying risks and proposing solutions for action and early resolution.
Develop program risk matrix and update the same on an ad hoc and quarterly basis.
Coordinate with procurement, logistics, security, administration and human resources teams to ensure operational systems support field activities.
Ensure integration of nutrition, youth and gender into project activities.
Assist in the development of technical curricula, basic education (numeracy & literacy), basic nutrition literacy, WASH awareness and campaign, financial literacy and reproductive health
County Government Engagement
Act as the primary liaison with county and national government officials at the county level including representation.
Identify county and national government departments relevant to LMS and outline areas of synergies and collaboration.
Initiate an MoU with county government outlining roles and responsibilities and potential areas of collaboration.
Conduct periodic presentations of project progress, challenges and lessons learned to county government department, assembly and partners.
Organize periodic joint field visits with relevant government departments.
Facilitate and ensure the participation of relevant county and national government departments in the implementation of the project.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Ensure effective and timely monitoring, documenting and reporting on all project activities including reports from sub-awardees.
Conduct regular visit to field sites to assess progress of activities and provide formal and informal feedback to staff, beneficiaries and supervisor.
Identify potential areas for learning and documenting the same to share with other counties and/or the larger LMS and PREG partners.
Ensure the submission of all require M&E data and conduct validation of monitoring data before final submission to MEL Manager.
Participate in the development of intervention designs, sector strategies and M&E frameworks.
Team Management
Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance and achieve objectives.
Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
Work closely with the HR department to recruit, orient and lead team members as necessary.
Conduct capacity assessment of team members and develop capacity building plans as part of staff development.
Influence & Representation
Represent Mercy Corps at government, donor, NGO and other relevant events, in close coordination with the Chief of Party, Deputy Chief of Party and country leadership;
Coordinate activities with consortium partners, sub grantees, local government and other implementers, as well as with other Mercy Corps programs.
Security
Work closely with the country team’s security focal point to develop and maintain systems that promote the safety and security of all team members;
Ensure that programs are designed and implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security.
Other
Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission.
Other duties as assigned.
Supervisory Responsibility
3 Project and support team members
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Deputy Chief of Party
Works Directly With: Deputy Chief of Party, Regional Program Manager (partner), Chief of Party, Finance, HR and Operations departments, HQ Regional Program Team and Technical Support Unit and Partner Organizations.
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 or equivalent in Development Studies, Business, Planning, Social Sciences or other relevant field. A Master’s Degree is preferred.
A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in multi-sectoral programs, managing teams, strategic planning and implementing programs.
Strong managerial skills, including effective personnel management, adaptive management, coordination and decision-making.
Strong facilitation and consensus-building skills.
Demonstrated experience in building networks with the ability to influence.
Strong understanding of USAID compliance issues.
Internationally recognized qualification in project or program management or a commitment to obtain the qualification in the early months of work.
Excellent and persuasive oral and written communication skills, including report writing, in English and other language(s), as required.
Spoken fluency is Swahili is required and primary local dialects in Turkana County is strongly preferred.
Previous work experience in northern Kenya is desirable.
Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members.
Ability to work comfortably in a sometimes tense and changing security environment is required.
Application Procedure:
For the detailed position description and application procedure please visit the following link: .
Applications should be submitted by 23rd April 2021 will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Mercy Corps does not charge any fees at any stage of the recruitment process.
