Community Accountability Reporting Mechanisms Regional Advisor - Africa Region

Location: Any Mercy Corps program country in Africa (Preferably, Niger, Mali, DRC, or CAR)

Position Status Full-time, Regular

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About Mercy Corps
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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

Mercy Corps is currently operational in 17 countries in Africa including Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Mercy Corps’ country programs in Africa face momentous humanitarian crises and significant development challenges, and operate in fragile and conflict-affected areas, displacement settings, emergency responses, as well as more stable developed settings. Against this backdrop Mercy Corps’ focus in Africa has been in promoting good governance and conflict resolution, enhancing resilience, facilitating market systems, access to finance and economic opportunities, as well as youth employment and empowerment. It is imperative that Mercy Corps presents itself as a key and credible partner with the many donors, government authorities and civil society actors in order to contribute to the process of positive change across the continent. Mercy Corps looks to actively engage and partner with an ever-growing and innovative African private sector to achieve greater and sustained impact.

The Program Performance and Quality (PaQ) Unit is a newly integrated team in the Africa region consisting of monitoring and evaluation functions, program management, gender integration, and integrated program standards, including Community Accountability Reporting Mechanisms (CARM). The team’s approach supports both foundational and innovative approaches to program management, with design, monitoring, evaluation and learning functions as key processes and benchmarks to ensure evidence-based decision making for quality program implementation.

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General Position Summary**

The regional CARM Advisor will serve in a technical advisory role to support country programs in the design and implementation of CARM that result in the delivery of impactful programs that are responsive to community needs.

Essential Responsibilities

PROVIDE SUPPORT TO REGIONAL CARM

• Support CARM in country by supporting the hiring process, selection and onboarding of new in country CARM staff as well as skills building and coaching of CARM staff
• Provide remote technical support to field teams, through one-on-one country outreach, regional calls, webinars, etc.
• Working with country teams to design and document their CARM processes and support the process of developing or revising CARM SOPs
• Provide remote training and support to team members serving in CARM short term assignment positions
• Provide in-country technical support to high risk country programs to guide them in designing and implementing their CARM
• Lead teams in process mapping to identify gaps in their CARM
• Identify countries requiring increased technical support and liaise with the HQ CARM team and Regional Director as needed
• Track CARM progress at a regional level
• Support country programs in CARM analytics, establishing processes for using CARM data for learning and improved programming and prepare regional aggregations and reports.

SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY & LEARNING

• Identify and compile case studies of CARM best practices, success, and lessons learned in country programs to facilitate cross-country and regional learning.
• Contribute to the development of additional CARM tools and resources.
• Create and lead a regional community of practice for country CARM focal points.

INTERNAL & EXTERNAL COLLABORATION

• Coordinate closely with Program Performance and Quality Unit team members to ensure CARM guidance and best practice is well aligned with our broader performance and quality work
• Build and maintain positive working relationships across country programs
• Represent Mercy Corps as needed with peer agencies and external accountability focal points

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Supervisory Responsibility**

None.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Technical Director, Africa Region

Works Directly With: Regional Director, Deputy Regional Director, Country Directors, PaQ Team members, HQ, regional and field team members.

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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 Qualifications & Transferable Skills

• BA in relevant field required
• 3-5 years of experience in international relief and development
• 2-3 years of field-based experience in international relief and development required.
• Field-based experience with community feedback and accountability reporting mechanisms.
• required
• Demonstrated knowledge of grant-based funding models, emergency response and development strategies and operational challenges in the sector;
• Proficiency with MS Office software required (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), and Google suite (Google drive, docs, sheets).
• Proficiency with data analytics software such as Tableau or Power-BI preferred
• Strong team coordination, listening, and consensus building skills.
• Fluent in English and French strongly preferred.

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Success Factors**

The individual needs to be a creative problem solver, able to support field teams to overcome contextual challenges in the design and implementation of their CARMs. They will also be a skilled communicator, able to develop and utilize strong relationships with term members and departments internally, as well as with external bodies. They will have a positive and dynamic working style that enables them to adapt to challenges as they arise. They will harness the expertise, experience and ideas of diverse Mercy Corps team members and external partners to strengthen CARMs within Mercy Corps.

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Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions**

This position is based in any Mercy Corps program country in Africa, preferably, Niamey, Niger, Goma, in DRC, Bangi, CAR, or Bamako, Mali, with up to 40% of time spent traveling. International travel may be too insecure and/or remote locations.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/short term assignment to a field posting. 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.

Every voice matters and diversity is powerful are critical elements of Mercy Corps’ values that allow us to achieve our mission of alleviating suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities. We embrace diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have sustained impact. Mercy Corps is an Equal Opportunity Employer regardless of background. Women, minorities, people with disabilities and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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 and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme**.** 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 elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.