Job Title: Technical Resources And Quality Director
Hiring Organization: Mercy Corps
Location – Locality: Nairobi
Location – Region: Kenya
Industry: NGO
Job Type: Full Time
Salary: KES
Date Posted: 06/13/2024
About
Mercy Corps
Mercy
Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better
world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around
the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people
triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for
the future.
Program
/ Department Summary
Mercy Corps began working in Kenya in 2008 and has to date built a robust and diverse portfolio in working to enable Kenyans affected by poverty, resource scarcity, and conflict – in particular, youth, women, adolescents, and marginalized communities – to be healthy, productive and to drive peace and development of their communities. To do this, we deliver integrated programming to strengthen resilience, market and governance systems, address the root causes of conflict, and equip vulnerable populations- in particular youth, women, adolescents, and marginalized social groups- with the skills, opportunities, and resources they need to be healthy, productive and to drive the development of their communities. Mercy Corps Kenya also collaborates with neighboring countries to implement several multi-country and cross-border programs.
Working
with a diverse base of donors that includes the Foreign Commonwealth and
Development Office (FCDO), European Commission (EC), United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), Embassy of the Kingdom Of Netherlands, Gates
Foundation, Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation (SDC), Google.org,
MasterCard Foundation and other foundations and institutional donors, Mercy
Corps empowers people to recover from crisis, build better lives and transform
their communities for good. We work closely with the private sector, civil
society, and governance structures at local and national levels to facilitate
change and ensure that opportunities are inclusive of all Kenyans.
General
Position Summary
The
Technical Resources and Quality (TRaQ) is a member of the Senior Management
Team (SMT) that oversees the TRaQ Unit in Kenya. The unit’s role is to ensure
the development of consistent standards, processes, and practices of program
management and to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of Mercy
Corps’ programs, serving as a nexus between various programs and teams. This
includes; the development of effective monitoring, evaluation, and learning
(MEL) processes for both humanitarian and market system development programs,
facilitating research and learning functions, program management standards and
training roles, ensuring gender integration, leading the implementation of
Knowledge Management and communication strategy, oversee capacity development
strategy, fostering community accountability reporting mechanism (CARM) and
safe quarding policy, coordination of key functions such as timely and quality
program reporting (internal and external) and proposal development. The TRaQ
Director thus plays a key role in helping build an environment of
evidence-based programming and adaptive management at all levels. The TRAQ
Director will have an important role in contributing to global and regional
conversations and initiatives around program performance and quality.
Essential
Job Responsibilities
Program
Strategy and Vision
- Support the
overall strategic and annual planning for Mercy Corps Kenya in integrating
cross- grants learning and ensure that lessons learned are used to inform
adaptation of activities and future program design
- Support the
country-level strategic development and adaptation to the various
geographic contexts within Kenya
- Lead the
development of sector strategies and frameworks in accordance with the
overall country strategy
- Develop and
provide oversight of the Technical Resources and Quality (TRaQ) team’s
strategy
- Support the
design of cost-effective, innovative, and high-quality programs, ensuring
relevance to stakeholders and agency strategy and that incorporate Mercy
Corps’ standards on design, monitoring, and evaluation
- Coordinate
efforts on the development of partnership strategy, ensure a coherent and
consistent approach to partnership and decision-making
- Actively
identify and engage new strategic handing over identified partners/project
to the programs team for implementation
- Program Quality
and Capacity Building
- Contribute to
the global and regional conversation around program performance and
quality, TRaQ strategies, Community Accountability and Reporting
Mechanisms (CARM), and global program quality initiatives including;
Program Management at Mercy Corps ( PM@MC), gender minimum standards,
adaptive management, TOLA, Safe Guarding etc.
- Regularly
conduct project site visits to provide hands-on training to field staff on
management practices and how to capture and organize information for
accurate documentation and reporting.
- Build the
capacity of all relevant team members to develop and maintain an excellent
M&E system, including training on TOLA and the periodic reflection and
analysis of program monitoring data to disseminate learning.
- Support M&E
and ICT staff capacity building that guides the country teams towards
developing technical skills and promotes a culture of data analysis for
decision-making and adaptive management.
- Act as the key
liaison point to coordinate efforts to roll out adaptive management and
PM@MC training nationwide.
- Knowledge
Management and Learning
- Ensure that all
reports (both internal and external) are timely, high-quality, and
responsive to donors in collaboration with a variety of teams, HQ,
Finance, Program Managers/Leads, Director of Programs and Country
Director.
- Lead the
development and implementation of Mercy Corps Kenya Knowledge Management
and communication strategy as well as offer guidance in program design,
implementation and utilization of information collected at different
project cycle phases and stages that include tell the story, results, and
impacts of our programs to our beneficiaries, clients, donors, the global
Mercy Corps agency, the local and national government.
- Contribute to
the development and implementation of knowledge management to further
stimulate use of evidence for learning, strategic adaptive management, and
high-impact programming.
- Connect best
practices and learning from other programs across Mercy Corps countries to
ensure an evolving and effective learning system for improving program
implementation. Liaise with other HQ and Regional MEL Advisor on this
initiative.
- Support teams to
capture lessons learned during program implementation, and feed this
information into thought leadership and research opportunities and into
ongoing program management and program design;
- Collect impact
stories and evidence from Mercy Corps’ country teams on a regular basis.
Monitoring
and Evaluation
- Design and
manage a country-wide Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation system providing
managers and their teams real time information that can steer program
implementation and maximize Mercy Corps Kenya’s ability to analyze and
represent impact to donors, government, colleague agencies, and
communities themselves.
- Promote
adherence to Mercy Corps’ standards, including the use of standardized
indicators, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), program and adaptive
management approaches, and country-level learning and strategic
objectives.
- Support
in-country program design and development at proposal stage ensuring
minimum standards for MEAL are incorporated.
- Provide
leadership and training to ensure programs meet minimum standards, use
necessary PM@MC systems and tools to inform and improve each individual
program and feed into broader country-wide Monitoring, Evaluation and
Learning (MEL) system, country strategy and agency level information
system.
- Support teams to
improve data collection, management, and use data to build a culture of
adaptive management, high-quality program performance, and learning.
- Support the roll
out and maintenance of TOLA, Institutional Performance Tracking System
(IPTS), Concept Note Management System (CNMS), PM@MC, Gender and SADD
standards
- Contribute to
the understanding and application of new DM&E approaches to emerging
themes like resilience, systems thinking, and complex humanitarian crises.
- Engage in other
agency level tools and initiatives to ensure country input, coordinated
delivery, messaging and consistent high quality implementation in the
region.
- Conduct internal
DQAs to ensure data is collected with attention to accuracy and
consistency
- Lead on
protection mainstreaming across projects, including developing team and
partners capacities on the matter and utilizing protection mainstreaming
tools in all processes.
- Support programs
team in integrating Do No Harm approach throughout project life cycle
- Coordinate
proposal development processes (as appropriate), following agency’s best
practices and donors’ compliance
- Serve as a focal
point for any temporary or short-term Technical Advisors and Consultants
Gender
Mainstreaming
- Ensure all Mercy
Corps Kenya programs comply with GEDSI/GESI policy and standards
- Create a culture
of gender sensitive and where appropriate, gender transformative
programing
- Ensure timely
training and other resources to raise awareness of gender across Mercy
Corps Kenya country office.
Safeguarding
Responsibilities
- Actively learns
about safeguarding and integrates it into their work, including
safeguarding risks and mitigations related to their area of work.
- Practices the
values of Mercy Corps including respecting the dignity and well-being of
participants and fellow team members.
- Encourages
openness and communication in their team; encourages team members to
submit reports if they have any concerns using reporting mechanisms e.g.,
Integrity Hotline and other options.
Team
Management
- Promote
accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback
informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
- Provide
supervision to the TRaQ team members, ensure their work is aligned and
contributing effectively to the strategy and that they have access to MC
resources.
- Develop the
capacity of the team, deepen understanding of their roles and assist with
career development.
- Assist team
members with information, tools and resources to improve performance &
reach objectives.
- Create and
sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to
achieve excellence.
- Hire, orient and
lead team members as necessary.
- Representation
and coordination
- Contribute to
the global and regional conversation around program performance and
quality, TRaQ strategies, and global program quality initiatives; PM@MC,
gender minimum standards, adaptive management, Safe Guarding policy, TOLA
etc.
- Lead efforts in
Sharing best practices with other NGOs working in Kenya
- Identify, build
and manage collaborative partnership with donors and other stakeholders,
as required.
- Represent Mercy
Corps in external coordination and donor meetings, as required.
- Participate in
the complex program board call, as required.
- Contribution to
media and advocacy needs, as required.
- Security
- Ensure
compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country
leadership
- Lead the
development of processes to support programs team in integrating cross-
grants learning and ensure that lessons learned are used to inform
adaptation of activities and future program design
- Ensure that team
members operate in a secure environment and are aware of security
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.
Supervisory
Responsibility:
- The TRaQ
Director directly supervises Country MEL Manager, Partnership and New
Initiatives Manager, Safe Guarding and CARM Manager, Knowledge Management
and Communication Coordinator, Database officer and Country Technical
Advisors, and dotted line technical reporting relationship with all
program M&E
Knowledge
and Experience
- BA/S or
equivalent in social science, management, international development, or
other relevant field; MA/S in similar relevant fields preferred.
- 7+ years of
progressive experience and proven high level of competence in working in
international settings, ideally in conflict-affected countries.
- Significant
experience implementing M&E Systems particularly remote monitoring,
mobile data collection platforms and managing evaluations.
- Demonstrated
success with program development and design, including conceptualizing and
articulating programming ideas in concept notes and proposals.
- Strong knowledge
of and experience with humanitarian and development programming.
- Strong
leadership, communication, and project management skills.
- Personal
dedication to quality and learning.
- Strong remote
management skills.
- Ability and
interest to work with a multi-ethnic team in a culturally appropriate
manner.
- Willingness to
work in a face-paced, fluid environment on multiple tasks.
- Fluency in
English is required. Proficiency in Kiswahili and other local language is
a plus.