Summary
Date Posted: Monday, April 25, 2022 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
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. 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 a long-term impact.

The Program / Department / Team
Girls Improving Resilience through Livelihoods and Health (GIRL-H) is a three-year, multi-country program being implemented in Kenya, Uganda, Haiti and now expanding to Nigeria. Across all locations, program is improving the well-being of adolescent girls, boys, and young people with diverse identities, which makes them have unique and distinctive needs and capabilities, by increasing their access to skills and knowledge, health resources, formal education, and economic opportunities. GIRL-H also fosters an enabling environment by working with communities to transform unhealthy social norms and create opportunities for adolescent girls, boys, and young people to access education and economic opportunity through an integrated approach to programming.

Key to GIRL-H is a robust learning and research agenda that reaches across four focal countries to contribute to the evidence-based on what works to secure access to opportunities for adolescent girls, boys, and young people within the most marginalized communities and to better understand their contribution to household resilience. This evidence and learning will be shared to elevate Mercy Corps’ influence in the program participant’s space and to bolster fundraising efforts to scale the model.
Project Management Unit (PMU) provides global coordination and technical support to the countries in implementing the GIRL-H program. To enhance the technical program and research support functions of the PMU, GIRL-H seeks to recruit a Program & Research Assistant (PRA) based in Nairobi.

General Position Summary
The Program and Research Assistant (PRA) will support the PMU, working with the PMU members and reporting directly to the Program Manager - PMU. The PRA will support collaboration with program, finance and administrative staff to ensure GIRL-H Program and MEL systems comply with donor and Mercy Corps policies and procedures, including adherence to Mercy Corps program management minimum standards. The ideal candidate should have extensive experience working within both Programs and Research departments in the development sector.

Core Functions:
The core functions of this position are:
Program Management:
• Work with country offices to tease out learnings across board and track program performance.
• Track program expenditure and report same to PMU- Country and Global.
Global Initiatives:
• Track and develop materials to commemorate global events.
• Expand GIRL-H visibility.
MEL
• Document program performance by developing reports.
• Track performance on learning agenda.
• Identify and develop success stories.

Essential Responsibilities
Strategy and Planning
• Work with the PMU Manager to support the teams in implementing the program’s strategy following the donor and Mercy Corps standards.
• Contribute to preparing the global level reports by collating information from the country level reports and providing the gaps to PMU Manager for follow up with the countries.
• Support the PMU team in administering the program budget by preparing procurement and expense requests, following up with relevant departments, and tracking expenses at the PMU level.
• Schedule, organize, and document minutes for PMU led meetings and events. The person will also follow up with respective staff on specific action points.
• Working with the PMU team, organize and maintain the program filing system under the guidance, ensuring a clear trail of versions and appropriate filing.
• Support the PMU Manager in tracking and reporting on the status of deliverables as per the PMU and Country Workplans, sending advance reminders to the responsible staff for upcoming deliverables.
Research & Support
• Provide administrative support to the MEL Manager to prepare various research protocols for ethical approval in Kenya, Uganda, Haiti, and Nigeria.
• The PRA will track deliverables expected by the ethical approval body.
• The PRA will schedule, organize, and document Research, Monitoring, Evaluation, & Learning (RMEL) related meetings and events.
• Provide administrative and quality control support for RMEL activities led by PMU, e.g., baseline survey, midline assessment, end of project evaluation, ad-hoc research, dissemination, among others.
• Support in data collection activities such as desk research and key informant interviews to address specific research questions defined by the MEL Manager.
• Support the MEL Manager in collating data from various countries to feed into; the global program log frame and periodic donor reports.
• Provide support in implementing quality assurance and control for all program and research data collection/collation activities as guided by the MEL MAnager.
• Provide support in developing various data collection tools addressing adhoc research questions and problems under guidance from the MEL Manager.
• Support in testing electronic data collection scripts prepared for various research and monitoring activities.
• Support in various components of program implementation within the countries.
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 by the PMU

Accountability
Reports Directly To: Program Manager - PMU.
Works Directly With: Program Director, MEL Manager, and GIRL-H Country Managers
Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders
Mercy Corps team members, we are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in designing, monitoring, and evaluating our field projects/programs.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills
• A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree with at least three (3) years cumulative experience working as an assistant in a program and research environment within the development sector
• Experience in supporting multi-country program management in a program or research environment is desired
• Experience in supporting/implementing quality assurance and control for programs and research activities
• Ability to develop and manage work plans for complex multi-country programs within the development sector
• Effective written and oral communication in English
• Qualification in project or program management will be an added advantage
• Proficiency in MS Office specifically in MS Excel and MS PowerPoint are required
• Knowledge of an analysis software is an added advantage e.g. SPSS, STATA or R

Success Factors
The ideal candidate will have an intense curiosity for gender and development and adolescent girl programming issues more precisely and will thrive in cross-cultural environments with diverse teams across our program intervention countries. The PRO will be an excellent communicator, multi-tasker, and able to work in ambiguous situations. The PRO will be a tolerant and flexible individual able to work in difficult and stressful environments and follow procedures demonstrating cultural sensitivity with diverse stakeholders. The PRO will be a team player with a positive attitude toward problem-solving. Commitment to learning, open communications, impeccable professional standards of ethics is essential.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position will be based in Kenya and requires up to 20% travel to support country programs, including travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited.

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 professional growth and development

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 36

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Job application procedure
Please click here to apply.

All Jobs

QUICK ALERT SUBSCRIPTION