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. Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war over nine years ago, Mercy Corps has worked to address the urgent needs of nearly 5 million people both inside Syria and in neighboring countries. The program is implemented through a local team and will be managed remotely from the Amman office, Jordan.
The Program / Department Summery
Mercy Corps has been meeting the needs of conflict-affected communities inside Syria since 2012. Mercy Corps Syria currently operates from two locations in Jordan, and Syria with an experienced team of staff and partners who are supported and led by a country team based in Amman that ensures consistent, technical and quality driven programming. Mercy Corps has made a high-level commitment to achieving greater impact through evidence and learning, adaptive management, using data driven evidence to demonstrate results and contribute toward solving complex global challenges. It is in this context that the Syria Team created this position.
The Cash and Participants Data management Specialist will be a member of whole of Syria program support team. The post will mainly focus to provide technical support, leadership and direction in the design, implementation, quality assurance and program strategy development for Syria’s digital interoperable platform initiatives, General Data Protection Regulation and cash based programing. The role will input into the expansion of the platform beyond the pilot phase and scale-up of our cash based programing in alignment with Mercy Corps’ global cash standards. This position will play a role in raising new institutional funds and provide a voice in discussions about interoperability and cash related policies including active participation in all cash related forums. The position will require close collaboration with external teams from other NGOs as well as with Mercy Corps team. Mainly: 1) leading Syria Resilience Consortium (SRC) and other NGOs in establishing digital interoperable platforms, harmonizing the participants data management tools across organizations and 2) Working with program teams from Emergency, protection, Livelihood and WASH sectors to design innovative cash based programs that respond to the needs of vulnerable people with solutions (including engaging with the grants team to get designs funded). S/he is expected to provide support directly through regular field visits, and remotely throughout the daily program implementation. He/she will be working closely with a range of program implementers, technical advisors and senior management teams. This position is closely linked with program implementation and required high level of operational understanding of the program, provide practical support in the day to day handling of cash and platform challenges – therefore this position require at least 50% travel to the field locations. The position will overview all Syria platform initiatives and any programs with cash components.
Mercy Corps team members recruited for this position is expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
Essential Responsibilities
TECHNICAL SUPPORT AND STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT:
- Pilot UID platform in NES including harmonizing the data fields for unique identification of participants and signing data management agreement.
- Draft and build consensus between NGOs on a data protection and data management agreement to be signed by all cash working group members.
- Expand the utilization of the UID platform to cover all actors in NES, and later expand it is utilization to other hubs in Syria.
- Establish interoperable digital platform for SRC participants’ data management.
- Identify clear strategic direction for the roll out and expansion of the platforms initiatives in Syria.
- Standardize tools and practices, including SOPs, training manuals and work plans.
- Undertake systematized project/program monitoring visits to assess progress and identify technical quality issues and/or other implementation issues related to the platforms or the cash programming, provide solutions and implement modifications as required.
- Coordinate with the MEL team to ensure all monitoring activities, including participant questionnaires, regular market monitoring, post-distribution surveys, and vendor spot-checks are fully documented, and digitized including systematic and timely data collection as required.
- In collaboration with the MEL team, support in rolling out monitoring and evaluation approaches and tools aimed at building contextually grounded learning into program activities.
- Ensure lessons learned and emerging best practices on cash and cash related technologies are evaluated and built into the new program design and implementation.
- Quality review of donor reports in relation to the platform and cash based programing, and ensure the quality and requirement of each donors are included.
- Support the contextual revision and roll out of MC’s WoS cash Strategy, ensuring strong programmatic rationale for pursuing programmatic investments as well as coherence and synergies with other technical sectors and humanitarian assistance programming·
- Lead in vendor/technology provider’s selection process covering with Finance and operations department.
Country SYSTEMS AND SUPPORT FUNCTIONS
- Ensure that effective systems/tools needed for the platforms are in place;
- Review and support team adherence to policies and harmonized tools in relation to the platform;
- Capture and disseminate best practices on across country teams to ensure highest quality and standards.
- Complete set of harmonized tools that all members (who are ready to use the platform) are fully understood and being ready to utilize them. The set of harmonized tools include the vulnerability criteria with questions and weights, the data points for the UID, and the consortium indicators.
- Provide detailed specifications of the technology option for the platform.
- Digitize all the harmonized tools in the platform and test them.
- Set accounts in the platform system for all users and conduct actual piloting using the actual cash activity. Resolve all challenges or errors that may occur.
PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT:
- Support proposal development and lead in the technical design and review of concept notes, and budgets and full proposals in in relation to cash and platforms implementation with close coordination with grant team.
- In all digital platforms and cash related issues, engage directly with donors as required, presenting approaches, concept notes and funding proposals in collaboration with hubs and Amman office.
- Work with hub offices and desk officers to ensure that proposal budgets adequately incorporate technical resource requirements for delivery of the platform and the cash based programing.
HUMAN RESOURCES, SAFEGUARDING AND DIVERSITY
- Support Mercy Corps global and regional initiatives for human resources, including safeguarding and diversity, and talent development;
- Collaborate with the people team to promote staff access to high quality learning opportunities, with a special emphasis on national team member development;
- Provide support and technical capacity building to key staff in field offices.
NETWORKING & REPRESENTATION
- Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with cash technical working groups and other relevant forums or actors.
- In all cash and participants data management related issues, ensuring high-visibility of Mercy Corps’ portfolio, representation and technical leadership among peer organizations
- Represent Mercy Corps platform initiative to relevant bodies and networks, including clusters, working groups, task forces and donor meetings, and identify changes to their policies and priorities that may create opportunities or threats for the program objectives.
- Engage with donors at regional level in support of fundraising and scoping of opportunities, working in close collaboration with colleagues at Regional and Headquarters level.
RISK MANAGEMENT
- Work with the team in your department to ensure that adequate risk management systems are in place;
- Collaborate with country leadership to support preparedness and response to major disruptive events;
- Cooperate with country level Ethics and Assurance managers as well as the global Ethics and Assurance department to track and analyze trends and needs across countries;
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.
Supervisory Responsibility
N/A
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Food Security and Livelihood Advisor
Works Directly With: NES DOP, FSL TA, Project Manager, area Director and Director of Program Support.
Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills
- 4-5 years of humanitarian response experience with focus on technology related to cash based programing.
- Bachelor degree in relevant field.
- Experience in remote management and Syria response.
- Familiar with the available digital platform technologies.
- Willingness to travel regularly to other field offices
- Able to provide good methodology and detailed plan that ensure the work will complete within the agreed timeframe.
- Fluent in spoken and written English.
Success Factors
- Strong commitment to capacity building of staff with willingness to adopt a participatory and consultative management approach.
- Good interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate and negotiate clearly and effectively at all levels, taking into account cultural and language difficulties. Tact and diplomacy are essential.
- The ability to work closely in a team, be patient, adaptable, flexible, able to improvise and work in an environment that is often stressful and potentially volatile.
- The successful candidate will have existing knowledge regarding the Syrian context, as well as technologies related to cash program and participants data management.
- The ability to work closely with a diverse team of individuals in a high intensity and fluid work environment and will be able to communicate effectively within such environment.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position will be based in Alhesekeh, Syria while temporarily will be in Amman, Jordan. In Amman accommodation will be provided in individual housing while in Syria accommodation will be provided in shared housing in Alhesekeh Syria. Staff will have access to good medical services and the living situation is of a high standard.
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. 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 e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis