Location: Goma, DRC
Position Status: Regular
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.
The Program / Department / Team
Mercy Corps has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since 2007, with a staff of approximately 400 people. Mercy Corps’ national office is in Goma with sub-field offices in North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, and Kasai provinces. 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 specifically to assist populations affected by the conflict and crisis in Eastern Congo. With funding from humanitarian donors including FCDO, BHA, and ECHO, the humanitarian portfolio continues to expand in order to provide multi-purpose cash assistance and emergency WASH services to displaced and host populations. All Mercy Corps interventions in DRC are implemented in a conflict- and gender-sensitive manner.
The Position
As part of Mercy Corps’ DRC emergency team, the Emergency Grants Manager will work closely with the Emergency Programs Director (EPD), SAFER Consortium Director and the Grants and Reporting Officer to ensure high-quality and impactful programming as part of Mercy Corps DRC’s Emergency response. S/he will support humanitarian efforts in DRC by assisting in the implementation of life-saving interventions, including activities carried out within the multi-million-dollar multi-donor funded SAFER program – a Consortium of INGOs working together to promote a rapid, principled, efficient and effective response to humanitarian needs.
The Emergency Grants Manager will assist in securing new programs by coordinating or leading proposal development processes while also supporting existing programs to ensure high-quality and timely donor reporting and communications as well as leading on the sub-awarding process.
Essential Responsibilities
STRATEGY & VISION
· Contribute to collective vision and direction for the emergency department portfolio to achieve the highest level of impact
· Ensure high program quality, and constant improvements through innovation, active pursuit of lessons learned and adaptability to changing dynamics and contexts
· Identify opportunities for innovative collaboration with other internal departments and partners to drive forward quality programming
GRANT MANAGEMENT
· Ensure both awards and subawards are managed in accordance with Mercy Corps’ and donors rules and regulations
· Support overseeing the program implementation to ensure it is on time, target and budget, using effective grants management standards and systems
· Ensure that partners and MC teams complete narrative and financial reports in a timely manner in line with templates provided by Mercy Corps
· Ensure that partners’ reporting is properly embedded into overall reports to the donor
· Supervise the Grants and Reporting Specialist, and ensure quality and review of all donor reports prior to submission
· Ensure proposals and program reports comply with donor and Mercy Corps’ procedures and best practices
· Ensure communication materials and success stories produced by the teams are adequately used to support reporting and donor information.
· Organize regular meetings with relevant stakeholders (i.e. Mercy Corps team members and partners) to gather feedback and document lessons learned to improve the quality and relevance of the reporting and communications with donors
NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
· Coordinate and oversee new business development partnerships and relationships
· Oversee proposal development processes, including drafting and producing high quality concept notes and proposals that support Mercy Corps DRC’s strategic programming goals
PROGRAMME QUALITY MONITORING
· Ensure that the Emergency Department has sufficient systems in place to meet program management standards and comply with donor regulations and good practice, including the Quality Assurance and Control process, in close collaboration with the Program Performance and Quality Manager
· Ensure complex programs are meeting Mercy Corps’ identified complex program standard, in close collaboration with the Program Performance and Quality Manager
· Support and ensure teams are adhering to program policies, protocols and systems
· Support setting up protocols to inform program implementation, including internal and external reviews at programmatic and quality levels
· Support setting up and maintain team coordination tools, holding components to account to deadlines
FINANCE & COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT
· Ensure the grants management is transparent and compliant with donor and Mercy Corps regulations and procedures
· Monitor all approved grants while closely collaborating with finance department to ensure timely financial projections
· Monitor approved grants and monthly burn rates, ensure submission of timely financial spend projections and reporting is completed in line with Mercy Corps and donor templates through monthly BvA meetings and ongoing budget tracking
· Work with HQ to ensure on-time and on-budget reporting and manage donor communications and requests
· Coordinate with Finance to address any reporting challenges in a timely manner
· Ensure the monitoring of the grant agreement for compliance with Mercy Corps policies and procedures as well as donor/government/external rules and regulations, particularly in regard to subawards and partners
INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION
· Represent Mercy Corps with donors and within the humanitarian community through communications and attendance at key internal and external meetings as requested by the EPD
· Manage donor communications regularly and efficiently in close coordination with the EPD
· Develop and manage collaborative relationships with Mercy Corps team, implementing partners and donors
· Maintain communication tools and systems to ensure effective coordination across the portfolio
· Organize and conduct monitoring visits to the project sites and host visitors and donors, as needed
· Maintain regular communication with Mission level and HQs focal points to ensure the program is run in coordination with other programs and departments, and Mercy Corps complex program guidelines, leveraging cross program learning particularly on program management and collaboration where possible
Supervisory Responsibility
Grants and Reporting Specialist
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Emergency Programs Director
Works Directly With: Emergency Program Managers (Cash, WASH, Protection) as well as MEL and Quality & Performance Manager, SAFER Director, SAFER partners (4 INGOs), DoP, Program Development Specialist, Finance team, Communication team
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 Qualification & Transferable Skills
· Internationally recognized experience in project or program and grants management required
· 5-7 years of experience with European donors, FCDO and US institutional donors including in grant
management, partners coordination and donor reporting
· Field experience working and supporting humanitarian and emergency programming with displaced populations (i.e. MPCA, WASH, FSL and Protection)
· Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, and the capacity to work with and influence senior leadership
· Demonstrable ability to produce high quality deliverables at speed and with minimal supervision
· Excellent program management and financial skills
· Ability to multi-task and juggle several tasks and relationships at one time, with little to minimum supervision
· Coaching and mentoring skills and experience a distinctive plus
· Proven ability to work effectively in multi-cultural teams and with technical and administrative staff and consultants
· Fluent French and English (spoken and written) mandatory
· Prior work experience in DRC and demonstrable understanding of the context a significant advantage
· Ability to work in a sometimes solitary environment with moderate levels of insecurity and occasional restrictions on personal movement
Success Factors
A successful candidate will be able to work independently, take initiative with tasks and self-learning, and be proactive in communications and development of professional relationships. S/he will be able to live and work closely with a diverse team of individuals in a highly intense and fluid work and security environment with demonstrated sensitivity to the people and issues in the region. The ability to demonstrate exceptional interpersonal, relationship and cross-cultural communication skills especially in high stress environments is essential for success. S/he will be committed to the values and mission of Mercy Corps; have the ability to creatively problem-solve, to juggle multiple priorities under tight deadlines and to calmly and diplomatically deal with unexpected and sudden events impacting program operations with patience, dynamism, tenacity and a good sense of humor.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Goma and it requires up to 15% travel to support emergency programs, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited. Housing for this role is in shared housing (2 person only) and staff will have access to good medical services and the living situation is of a reasonable standard. Not accompanied.
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.