Back Emergency Programs Director - DRC

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.

The Program / Department / Team 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, with the overall country goal to support vulnerable communities through crises, while fostering programs that build resilience and promote long-term change. 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. Mercy Corps DRC’s humanitarian programs aim to assist populations affected by conflicts and crises in Eastern Congo. With funding from FCDO and BHA and an expanding portfolio of over USD 20 million, Mercy Corps currently delivers multi-sectoral cash and voucher assistance and emergency WASH to displaced populations and host communities in North Kivu and Ituri as well as a second-line response in more stable areas with complementary agriculture and financial inclusion activities to support early recovery of affected communities. Mercy Corps is the lead agency for the SAFER Consortium (Strategic Assistance for Emergency Response). The Consortium, funded by FCDO and ECHO, is composed of ACTED, Concern Worldwide, Mercy Corps, NRC and Solidarités International. SAFER has the overall goal of allowing the population affected by conflict and shocks to cover their basic needs. The program supports the specific outcome of delivering a coordinated humanitarian response that enables vulnerable households affected by conflict and shocks to have safe and equitable access to multi-sectoral emergency assistance and basic WASH services to reduce reliance on negative coping mechanisms. All Mercy Corps interventions in DRC are implemented in a conflict, protection and gender sensitive manner.

The PositionThe Emergency Programs Director will provide overall leadership, management and strategic vision to the implementation of a multi-million dollar humanitarian portfolio, supported by donors such as FCDO, ECHO, DDC and FHDRC (the DRC Humanitarian Fund). S/he will provide strong leadership and ensure proper coordination to operate effectively and deliver on the programs’ intended impact. The Emergency Programs Director is a strong team leader for Mercy Corps Emergency portfolio of programming, and represents the interests of the agency and partners, and ensures all parties are working effectively and efficiently. The Director will provide strategic leadership to implementation and technical teams, coordinate the delivery of inclusive high quality programming and reporting, in line with donors’ regulations, and oversee the relationship with current and future primary donors. S/he will be the primary program representative to donors, cluster system, relevant government entities, partners, other implementers and external stakeholders. S/he will support the Country Director, Director of Programs (DoP) and Emergency Grants Manager in the identification of new humanitarian funding opportunities, as well as proposal design and development.

Essential Responsibilities

STRATEGY & VISION

• Maintain and reinforce Mercy Corps’ primary position in humanitarian response in DRC, by ensuring alignment with DRC’s Humanitarian Response Plan and priorities and seeking opportunities for expansion of Mercy Corps humanitarian programming.
• With support from the Deputy Emergency Programs Director and Director of Programs, lead the implementation of the revised strategy for Mercy Corps Humanitarian Response in DRC.
• Set direction by prioritizing and organizing actions and resources to achieve Mercy Corps humanitarian programming objectives.
• Maintain strategic vision and provide operational leadership to the implementation of Mercy Corps humanitarian portfolio.
• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and explore implementation possibilities with Mercy Corps Emergency Managers, teams and partners.
• Maintain implementation momentum by consolidating implementation strategies and plans.
• Improve and oversee a clear system for tracking and reporting against deliverables across Mercy Corps’ humanitarian portfolio.
• Recognize and act on opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed. PROGRAM & GRANTS MANAGEMENT
  • Oversee project start-up and ongoing projects, ensuring mechanisms for effective learning and adaptive management are in place and utilized regularly.
  • Provide guidance to the Deputy Emergency Programs Director in the development of detailed implementation plans, maintaining rapid response capacity, and ensure the delivery of the same.
  • Ensure that Mercy Corps Emergency programs target beneficiaries effectively and according to established vulnerability criteria.
  • Support technical teams to integrate community participation, Do No Harm, protection, gender sensitivity and capacity building approaches into all activities as appropriate.
  • Ensure technical teams and grants team document processes and achievements to ensure best practices are captured.
  • Ensure adaptive management processes are followed and approaches are continually re-evaluating program activities and information, with resulting activity adjustments in keeping with new insights.
  • Ensure production of written reports on program activities, capturing the impacts of activities are of high quality.
  • Support compliance with PM@MC program management and documentation minimum standards, in collaboration with mission-level Program Performance and Quality (PaQ) team.
  • Guide the Emergency M&E Manager in overseeing efforts to implement effective M&E systems for the program, and linkages with internal M&E systems.
  • Ensure consistent and effective coordination between Emergency programs and support departments and with SAFER partners. Proactively troubleshoot operational and security issues in collaboration with other departments. REPRESENTATION AND COORDINATION
    • Create, implement and follow effective stakeholder management plans, ensuring sound and proactive communications with Mercy Corps DRC, partner organizations, Mercy Corps headquarters, Mercy Corps’ donors, and Government of DRC authorities.
    • Participate in external representation of Mercy Corps’ Humanitarian portfolio with various groups including donors, government and the Cluster system. Ensure the Emergency team has a consistent presence in/ regularly reports to relevant Clusters/ humanitarian coordination fora.
    • Oversee all program partnerships to ensure sound coordination in the context of an overall strategic and triple nexus framework.
    • Maintain strong and transparent communication with Mercy Corps’ donors and partners.
    • Share learnings from Mercy Corps Humanitarian portfolio with the greater humanitarian community within DRC. TEAM MANAGEMENT
      • Support and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
      • Set a team culture valuing learning and adaptive management in support of an ongoing resilience approach in programming.
      • 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 Deputy Emergency Program Director and support project 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. SECURITY
          • Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
          • Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

            Supervisory ResponsibilityDeputy Emergency Programs Director, Emergency Grants Manager, Emergency M&E Manager, Emergency Gender & Protection Manager, CWG Co-Lead.

            Reports Directly To: Director of ProgramsWorks Directly With: Technical Managers and Grants Officer, Finance Director and Emergency Finance Manager, Operations and HR/Admin Staff, PaQ Director, HQ Regional Program Team, Technical Support Unit and Directors/representatives from partner organizations.

            Accountability to Participants and StakeholdersMercy 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

            • MA/S or equivalent experience in international development, management, humanitarian response or other relevant field; MA/S preferred.
            • At least 7 to 10 years of international relief and development program management experience, in emergency and recovery program management, with progressively greater responsibility.
            • At least 5 years in a senior management role is required with experience in managing humanitarian assistance projects of a similar size and scope in developing countries; experience managing multi-sectoral programs including MPCA, WASH, non-food items (NFI), and/or protection, preferably in insecure settings.
            • Previous experience working in consortiums or with international sub-grantees preferred.
            • Combination of direct and remote management experience preferred.
            • Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with host governments, donors, other donor-funded projects and stakeholders, local organizations, and partners.
            • Experience managing programmatic and financial reporting requirements. Experience with BHA, FCDO and ECHO rules, regulations and requirements is preferred.
            • Experience working in West or sub-Saharan Africa is preferred.
            • Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and French required.
            • Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving.
            • Effective verbal and written communication, multi-tasking, organizational and prioritization skills.
            • Strong computer literacy with a full knowledge of office applications.
            • Ability to work effectively with an ethnically diverse team in a sensitive environment.Success Factors

              The successful Director will combine exceptional management skills and experience in building and maintaining donor and partner relationships. The successful candidate possesses a high level of adaptability and is able to adjust to the constantly changing working environment and has previous experience in implementing large scale emergency programs in insecure and conflict contexts. The lead candidates will have an ability to approach complex humanitarian challenges through a systems-thinking lens and have an ability to think creatively about humanitarian response across the Cash, WASH, NFI, Protection and Youth sectors. The Director will have proven experience with cross-cultural team and capacity building, individual staff development and strong mentoring skills. This profile is passionate about learning and adaptive management techniques as fundamental strategies to improve program impact. 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. The successful Director must be comfortable operating and traveling in a sometimes volatile security environment and therefore, changing plans and program tactics accordingly.

              Living Conditions / Environmental ConditionsThis position is an unaccompanied position based in Goma, DRC. Goma is a provincial capital of over 700,000 inhabitants. Travel may be required up to 25% of the time to program areas within North Kivu and Ituri. Living in Goma is comfortable, although water and electricity can be unstable. Outside Goma, travel can be dangerous and unpredictable due to armed forces and rebel activity.While conditions in the country are improving, and security is quite stable in Goma, there are still pockets of violence and insecurity. Mercy Corps' sub-offices experience variable levels of insecurity, with the situation closely monitored by UN peacekeepers and INSO. Air travel is necessary to get from one end of the country to the other. Mobile phones and cellular service are widely available. Internet is available in all Mercy Corps offices. Travel to field sites will be required where living conditions are clean and secure, but basic. There are a number of health services available with evacuation options for serious illnesses. There is reasonable access to most consumer goods, although they can be expensive.

              Ongoing LearningIn 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 & InclusionAchieving 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 OpportunityMercy 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 & EthicsMercy 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 andvalues at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.