Senior Program Officer Mercy Corps

The Senior Program Officer is responsible for project implementation, designing interventions, managing partnerships and resources and will supporting M&E activities. The SPO will ensure accountability to Mercy Corps policies and donor rules and regulations. He/she will report to and work with the Program Manager to engage in program representation to stakeholders, relevant government entities, partners, other implementers, and external stakeholders.

The primary focus of the Senior Program Officer will be to support the community level teams in adapting and scaling integrated activities in respective Districts in collaboration with local government and private sector structures. The Senior Program Officer will be responsible for oversight of quality activities in the assigned District, and supervising the Program Officer. The SPO will ensure the day to day implementation of the diverse Pump-up activities in consultation with the other program management team members, and work closely with the partners. He/she will provide technical and operational support to the other Program staff ensuring that activities are implemented according to scope and timeline.

The Senior Program Officer will directly respond to the needs of communities through the integrated set of activities under Pump-up. The Senior Program Officer will work closely with the Technical Team to best determine layering of activities within a community, based on need and availability of resources. The SPO will collaborate with the wider Implementation team to ensure that activities are sequenced, layered and integrated for comprehensive service delivery. The SPO will closely work with staff from local partners in the Pump-up Activity to strengthen integration. The SPO will work closely with MEL teams to ensure that data capture takes place.

Essential Job Responsibilities
Program Implementation
Provide leadership and daily oversight for planning and implementation of Pump-up Activities including; mentorship, support supervision and managerial support to the program team in the respective two districts.
• Support the program management team in the development of activity plans, budgeting and reporting formats
• Support in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the program activities, in accordance with Pump-up objectives.
• Supervise the activities and performance of Program Officer; participate in routine team meetings, adhere to performance review timelines, troubleshoot challenges and standardize implementation approaches.
• Identify and document best practices and failures in Pump-up Activity programming and provide timely feedback to the program team.
• Assist with ensuring timely and consistent submission of project reports, success stories and other relevant data (i.e. weekly, monthly and quarterly reports).
• Provide oversight to the program assistant in regards to adhering to procurement, finance and security policy and procedures, ensuring proper documentation of processes.
• Work closely with the overall program team to coordinate day to day operations and logistics to maximize use of resources and ensure complementary programming.

Monitoring and Evaluation
• Provide ongoing mentorship to Program team on data collection processes for completeness, accuracy and timely submission. And, entry to regularly update the Activity Tracker.
• Responsible for leading with the MEL team on data collection including gender and age disaggregated data, data validation, assuring quality control measures, timely data submission and communicating to MEL sector focal person.

Influence and Representation
• Lead on the support and coordination of visits from district and sub-county government, regional and HQ based staff and external visitors, such as donors and media.
• Support the program manager in coordination and communication of field activities with other NGO and local government partners to avoid duplication of services.
• Establish and maintain a productive working relationship with the local Government and Sub Counties, working in unison to develop complementary joint monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management structures where possible.

Ethics and Integrity
• All Mercy Corps staff are expected to behave ethically and demonstrate highest integrity in their professional and personal life. Mercy Corps has zero tolerance to any form of fraud, corruption, abuse, harassment or exploitation. Any breach of our policies or misconduct will lead to disciplinary action or may lead to termination.
• Security
• Ensure data protection policies are adhered to, establishing security controls for software, hardware and archive beneficiary databases.
• 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.

Organizational Learning
• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.
• Accountability to Beneficiaries
• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
• Sensitise communities on Mercy Corps’ CARM system and encourage them to share feedback through the promoted channels.

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
• Direct supervision of Program Officer

Accountability
Reports Directly to: Program Manager
Works Directly With: Tulimasolar and Simsolar staff and all project team.

Knowledge and Experience
• Bachelor’s Degree in environmental science, business, agribusiness, agriculture, economic development, or other relevant fields required.
• Background in business or market/economic development, with minimum of 5 years’ practical experience in the private sector, NGO working with Private Sector or related experience
• Experience in MEL (data collection, verification, documentation and reporting)
• Proven skills in networking, team-building, community consultations and organizational development
• Excellent reporting, communication and representation skills
• Willingness to consider new perspectives, promote gender equality and engage in advanced gender training
• Ability to ride a motorcycle and he/she should be in possession of a valid driving/riding license
• Proven knowledge and capacity in using computer basic applications MS word, Excel and internet
• In-depth knowledge of the social, cultural and economic context of the project areas
• Fluency in local languages prevalent within the operational district where assigned (highly desired)