Description

Location: Any Mercy Corps Office location, where candidates have authorization to work.

Position Status Full-time Regular – one year with the possibility of extension

Salary Level: Level 5/6 (National Contract)

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

Mercy Corps works to achieve real and lasting impact in the world’s toughest humanitarian emergencies. We save lives and help people live with dignity in crises of all kinds. At the same time, we create the conditions to pivot to recovery quickly and effectively. We work wherever local capacity is overwhelmed, connecting people to the opportunities they need to strengthen their community in recovery. Whether it is a sudden shock or a slowly emerging crisis, whether the threat is natural or man-made, Mercy Corps is committed to rapid, needs-driven assistance. Mercy Corps supports a response that is market-driven and leverages the capacities of both traditional and non-traditional aid partners—and ultimately gives people the ability to make their own decisions and secure their own lives and livelihoods.

The Humanitarian Leadership and Response (HLR) team provides the agency with timely and effective leadership to prepare for, respond to, and learn from humanitarian emergencies, develops sharp, well-timed, and influential humanitarian analysis to inform program design and implementation, and supports agency leadership and regional and country teams with safety and security expertise.

The Position

The Emergency Cash Voucher Assistance and Markets Advisor is a member of the Global Response Team goal is to provide direct support first phase emergencies and crises across Mercy Corps operations to enable communities and people in crisis to meet their basic needs and strengthen resilience to future crises. This deployable role will be responsible for assessing the feasibility and appropriateness of cash and voucher assistance as a first-phase response modality to meet critical basic needs, for providing technical leadership and technical guidance at the onset of cash and voucher assistance programming and ensuring CVA is designed to support of existing markets, social protection systems, and local actors. Along with other members of the humanitarian surge team, this role will focus on safe programming, community engagement, and accountability throughout deployments.

As a core member of the Mercy Corps global cash matrix team, when not on an active deployment this post holder will facilitate a broader agenda on cash and humanitarian response within Mercy Corps including supporting the development of tools, approaches, standards, evidence, and learning.

Essential Job Responsibilities

TECHNICAL SUPPORT TO CVA AND MARKET-BASED PROGRAMS IN AN EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Lead country-based colleagues, teams, and partners, in the steps and processes required to determine the feasibility and appropriateness of cash or voucher assistance as an emergency response tool to meet critical basic needs.
Gather/analyze data and complete assessments to determine CVA priorities, program design, and Mercy Corps’ competitive advantage for funding during responses.
Facilitate and support repivoting of existing programs to provide CVA (where relevant) and support concepts and proposals for funding that include CVA during responses.
Participate in and support any in-country CVA coordination and collaboration mechanisms during responses.
Work closely with country-based colleagues, teams, and partners to quickly set up, scale, and learn for CVA as an emergency response tool.
Support CVA in the country by supporting the hiring process, selection, and onboarding of new in-country CVA staff as well as skills building and coaching of CVA staff during responses.
Provide in-person technical support and capacity strengthening to field teams, through one-on-one country outreach, regional calls, webinars, etc.
Work with country teams to design and document their CVA processes and support the process of developing or revising CVA SOPs during responses.
Support programs with preparedness for a CVA response, including framework agreements with FSPs, stakeholder discussions, and working on supporting documentation (SOPs).
Ensure adherence to the CVA minimum standards and approach within Mercy Corps across CVA programming.
Lead teams in process mapping to identify gaps in their CVA programming.
Identify countries requiring increased technical support and liaise with the HQ CVA team and Regional Technical Director as needed.
Identify potential opportunities for alignment and strengthening government-led cash-based social protection assistance.
Ensure robust market analyses and monitoring mechanisms are in place to inform ongoing CVA and conditions for scale and adaptation over time.
Strengthen market systems where needed to enhance the enabling environment for HH-level CVA; this may include developing frameworks for supporting and working with traders, designing agreements, subsidies to govern specific trading items, quality, delivery timeframe and prices.
Ensure program participants are effectively targeted according to established vulnerability criteria.
Collaborate closely with PMs to identify cash program partners and institutions for effective and transparent cash transfer, develop MoUs and contracts & oversee initial cash assistance delivery.
Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to emergency programming.
Work with the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team to ensure that monitoring and evaluation for the CVA is practical and reflects best practices.
Ensure all interventions adhere to Mercy Corps’ Code of Conduct; Gender, Diversity and Inclusion guiding documents; Core Humanitarian Principles and Do No Harm.

MANAGEMENT

Where relevant, advocate for and contribute to drafting the scope of work and hiring CVA and markets-focused team members and technical consultants.
Support evidence-based advocacy for cash and markets staffing and capacity strengthening at the country level where relevant.

INFLUENCE AND REPRESENTATION

Coordinate effectively with Cash Working Groups (CWGs), CALP, Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL) clusters, government-led social protection, etc.
Identify, build, and manage collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, donors, local governments, and other stakeholders.
Demonstrate flexibility, resilience, and ability to maintain positive relationships and composure.
Maintain high ethical standards and treat people with respect and dignity.
Exhibit an awareness of their own strengths and development needs.

TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP

Contribute to and lead agreed priorities and strategic workstreams that facilitate better, more effective, timely, and accountable CVA in humanitarian crises.
Identify and work to address institutional and other barriers (internal/external) to the effective use of CVA in humanitarian crisis.
Develop and consolidate learning and evidence on CVA in humanitarian settings and contribute to the body of evidence within the CVA space.

SECURITY

Ensure individual/personal compliance with security procedures and policies.
Ensure a strong focus on data protection and security within all CVA programs.

Supervisory Responsibility

Not as a part of GRT. Dependent upon requirements of a deployment, likely for country-level CVA program, advisory, and operational support teams whenever deployed.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Senior Director Global Response Team

Matrix Management: Works with technical counterparts through a matrix line to the Cash Director

Works Directly With: Humanitarian counterparts, technical support unit teams, and country-based program leads.

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:

5+ years of experience in CVA required across multiple humanitarian crisis and contexts (i.e., writing and analysis on proposal development; humanitarian assessments; CVA implementation; CVA capacity building).
at least one response assignment that demonstrates the ability to successfully adapt support and assistance methodologies to real-world complexities (slow onset, rapid onset, protracted/complex crises) - required.
BA/BS or equivalent in Humanitarian Affairs, International Development, Economics or another relevant field; MA/S preferred.
Excellent oral and written English skills required, another language, French or Spanish highly preferred.
Proficiency with MS Office software required (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
Mercy Corps Core Humanitarian Competencies (as defined in the Humanitarian Capacity Framework) preferred.

Technical competencies:

Possesses strong understanding of theoretical and applied knowledge about CVA.
Experience in setting up and managing digital CVA programs.
Knows and applies Mercy Corps’ CVA minimum standards.
Can lead rapid market assessments.
Can identify and initiate setup of payment mechanisms.
Can conduct response analysis and program design (CVA related)
Can develop CVA SOPs in line with Mercy Corps’ Minimum Standards

_Functional competencies

Can write proposals and concept notes for funding.
Understands donor regulations and compliance (USAID, EU, FCDO, UN, etc.)
Supports the development of program strategies.
Supports team members through capacity building.
Possesses basic M&E competencies to ensure program accountability and evidence of impact.
Can identify and nurture strategic partnerships.
Is familiar with using integrated approaches and applying systems thinking.
Can identify and leverage opportunities for collaboration/coordination.

_Leadership Competencies

Nurtures innovation across the team
Drives impact by building high performing teams.
Broadens influence by role-modeling and leveraging networks.

Success Factors

The CVA & Markets advisor will demonstrate a winning track record in program development, and bring flexibility, creativity, and enthusiasm to every project they undertake. The individual must have exceptional writing skills and the ability to set priorities, pay attention to detail, and work under tight deadlines within complex team environments. Experience in emergency contexts and work experience in multiple countries and regions will be key for the success of this position.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The roving position is based ideally in a Mercy Corps HQ location or one of the country offices. It requires up to 65% travel, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited. Base location requires ability to deploy within 72 hours, dependent on visa, and connectivity to enable remote work from home.

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.

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.

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.

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.