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 Department Mercy Corps’ expanding operations in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region currently focus on the countries of Haiti, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, and several Caribbean Island nations and territories. Mercy Corps LAC's strategic programmatic priorities encompass addressing issues related to climate change, human displacement, rural development, humanitarian response, and the inclusion and protection of LGBTQI+ individuals throughout the region. Mercy Corps LAC works with local leaders from civil society, government and the private sector to find and implement solutions that foster sustainable growth and thus contribute to Mercy Corps' global commitment of creating a better world for all. In addition to serving a critical role on the LAC team, the Regional Community Accountability & Program Standards Advisor is also a part of the global Community Accountability and Technical Resources and Quality (TRAQ) teams, and will work closely with other Advisors and colleagues on global initiatives that support regional objectives and contribute learning and input into policy and tool development. The Position The Regional Community Accountability & Program Standards Advisor will serve in a technical advisory role to support country programs in the design and implementation of Community Accountability and Reporting Mechanisms (CARM) that result in the delivery of impactful programs that are responsive to community needs and feedback. They will support effective, efficient and equitable program performance through a culture of quality program management for those who matter most – our program participants. Serving as part of the LAC regional team, they will create and support systems and processes to enable all programs to be managed well. Additionally, they will provide a critical leadership role in supporting country teams to set a high standard in program performance and quality by strengthening an organizational culture of and providing the necessary capacities for community accountability. The role will work most closely with Program Managers (and other Program Leads), Directors of Programs, and country CARM focal points in the region. The Advisor also champions and provides tangible technical support and guidance around Mercy Corps’ Program Management Policy, its associated minimum standards and the agency’s quality standards to ensure that the teams are driving transformational impact in the region through executing programs that are of the highest quality. The Advisor will collaborate with country teams to build and sustain highly performing programs while ensuring the regional portfolio is positioned to achieve quality in all programmatic functions across all countries. In collaboration with Country Teams and other Regional Advisors, the Advisor will lead and/or contribute to the integration of Program Management minimum standards including CARM, (program-related) Safeguarding, and GESI throughout the program life cycle. Essential Responsibilities SUPPORT TO REGIONAL COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY
Contribute to the development, refinement, and implementation of the CARM tools and strategy for ensuring global adherence to the CARM standards and policy requirements, ensuring the needs and constraints of the LAC country and regional teams are well represented in discussions and revisions to the global Community Accountability strategy and tools 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 and in-person technical support to country teams, through one-on-one country outreach, regional calls, webinars, program visits, etc. Work with country teams to design and document their CARM processes and support the process of developing or revising CARM SOPs, and implementation of CARM into program proposals 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 global CARMs team Track CARM progress at a regional level and establish quality assurance processes to validate progress Support country programs to prepare CARM data analytics, prepare regional aggregations and reports and establish quality control processes Support countries to adopt a global platform to automate their CARM systems, in alignment with the Global Community Accountability team. Develop the region’s understanding of Community Accountability beyond CARM in coordination with the Global Community Accountability Team SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND LEARNING Support country teams’ Senior Management Teams to use CARM reports and feedback themes for quality programming both within programs but also across the country office.