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Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps seeks a Deputy Chief of Party (DCoP) for the USAID-funded “Sahel Regional Resilience Activity.” Funded and managed out of the USAID Sahel Regional Office, the anticipated program seeks to expand resilience in the Sahel by improving the ability of individuals, households, and communities to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from multi-faceted shocks and stresses. Implementation is planned for Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mauritania – with the possibility of additional countries – and is expected to include the management of multiple awards under a single mechanism.

General Position Summary

The Deputy Chief of Party is responsible for managing the program’s Technical Unit, which includes both Collaboration, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) and Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL). They are responsible for driving strategy, overseeing technical assistance including effective integration of CLA into Associate Award designs, and developing successful mechanisms for learning, including overarching responsibility of the Learning Fund. The DCoP will oversee the co-development and facilitation of collaboration and learning workshops with MEL and technical leads, the establishment and management of robust knowledge management systems, and the engagement of team members and partners in identifying evidence-based ways to increase efficiency, adapt and scale interventions. They will similarly ensure that the team effectively integrates real-time monitoring and learning back into the SRRA strategy and program implementation and ensures knowledge is shared with the broader Sahelian implementation and donor community.

Essential Responsibilities

Strategy & Vision

● Provide overall leadership, management, and technical direction for program’s CLA and MEL activities. Develop and implement CLA and MEL strategy grounded in a resilience approach and aligned with the program’s goals and the USAID Sahel Regional Office’s objectives. Develop and oversee a CLA and MEL workplan of planned activities, ensuring the strategy is implemented impactfully and on-time.

● Oversee the strategic design and implementation of the program’s robust Learning Fund, ensuring it remains fit for purpose with evolving constraints and opportunities in the Sahel

● Promote and actively strengthen a culture of collaboration, learning and adaptation across the program and region.

Technical Leadership

● Design and facilitate CLA and MEL activities in co-creation with relevant technical representatives and partner organizations, including knowledge sharing, technical exchanges, learning events, and regular reflection sessions amongst both internal stakeholders (team members, partners) and external (peer agencies, local and regional institutions, and USAID implementing partners).

● Provide strategic guidance, technical assistance and capacity-building support to program staff and partners on CLA and MEL principles, practices and tools.

● Establish and nurture partnerships and regular communication with implementing partners, local organizations, donors, and other stakeholders to leverage resources and knowledge towards aligned objectives. Facilitate coordination and collaboration among these groups.

● Identify and build strategic linkages with complementary regional and local institutions and platforms to strengthen collective impact, reinforce local institutions’ resilience building efforts and make best use of resource allocation.

● Ensure the coherent design and implementation of the Leader Award’s systems for monitoring, evaluations, internal and external reviews and learning agenda to assess the quality and effectiveness and impact of CLA efforts and adapt accordingly.

● Ensure that data collection and analysis is both systematic and properly utilized to support adaptive management. Use MEL findings to inform project decision-making and adapt strategies.

● Establish and manage the project’s knowledge management systems to track, curate and share knowledge products among partners.

● Ensure that tasks are performed to a high professional standard and fulfill donor and Mercy Corps’ CLA and MEL requirements, and that all deliverables are of high quality and met in a timely fashion.

Team Management

● Lead the program’s large Technical Unit, with diverse roles of CLA and MEL specialists

● Actively hire, orient and lead team members and consultants as necessary, ensuring effective onboarding mechanisms are in place across the team. Actively support succession planning.

● Strengthen the capacity of the team as needed, both as individuals and as a cohesive unit. Facilitate mechanisms for effective collaboration.

● Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.

● Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.

Capacity building and mentoring

● Develop and oversee implementation of the Technical Unit and partner capacity building strategy that promotes a culture of learning through systematic analysis and reflection of program data.

● Identify and foster knowledge sharing and capacity strengthening across CLA and MEL points of contact across the countries, awards and partners.

● Build the capacity of all relevant team members to develop and maintain an excellent CLA and MEL systems grounded in resilience approach principles, including regular reflection and analysis of program monitoring data.

● Work closely with Program Managers, Human Resources and Finance to ensure that CLA and MEL skills are incorporated into all program position descriptions and positions are budgeted for.

● Contributes to the knowledge management repository with best practices in CLA and MEL and ensure that it is accessible to all staff and partners.

● Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.

Internal and External Coordination

● Identify key stakeholders and partners at both the country and regional level and establish mechanisms for collaboration. Actively contribute and collaborate with regional and global counterparts to promote the use of CLA and MEL best practices.

● Stand-in for the CoP in external events and program representation, as needed

● Share program learnings and impact with regional and host-county stakeholders including consortium partners, subgrantees, public and private sector entities, local government and other implementers, as well as with other Mercy Corps programs.

● Maintain close working relationships with CLA and MEL counterparts in other relevant international actors and USAID implementing partners across both the Sahel Regional Office and relevant country missions (Mali, Niger).

● Facilitate the dissemination of data, lessons learned, and best practices to program teams, local and regional stakeholders, USAID, and peer organizations across the Sahel region.

● Communicate effectively with USAID, program teams, partners, and stakeholders to ensure alignment with CLA objectives.

Supervisory Responsibility

CLA Manager; Senior MEL Manager

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Chief of Party

Works Directly With: Partnership Director, Rapid Response Director, Technical Leads, Senior Program Management Officer; HQ and Regional Technical Resources and Quality team; Evidence & Learning team; partner organizations

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 Qualifications & Transferable Skills

● BA/S degree in development studies, research methods, statistics, economics, social sciences, project management or other relevant field required. A Masters degree is an asset.

● A minimum of 5 years of experience overseeing the CLA components of a donor-funded project, preferably USAID.

● Past experience with USAID monitoring and evaluation procedures is a positive.

● Proven experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods, survey design and implementation, and statistical data analysis is required.

● Familiarity with applying the CLA approach to management is desired.

● Effective personnel management, coordination, and decision-making skills, with proven ability to oversee and track multiple efforts and workplans.

● Competent in building networks, strong problem-solving skills, and ability to influence with effective listening, persuasion, negotiation and other techniques.

● Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and French.

● Experience working in the Sahel region is required.

● Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members.

Success Factors

The successful Deputy Chief of Party will combine strong technical skills and excellent coordination and management abilities. They will have an outstanding ability to develop, implement and manage innovative CLA and MEL approaches within the current and future program structure of Mercy Corps in the region. They will also have proven experience with cross-cultural teams and capacity building, individual staff development, and strong mentoring skills. Multi-tasking, prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail and strategic vision are essential. The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The Deputy Chief of Party will be based in one of the Sahel countries, likely Senegal or Burkina Faso. The location is expected to be accompanied and secure. Housing is individual accommodation with freedom of movement beyond the house/office. There are international schools. Staff have relatively reliable access to services – medical, electricity, water, etc. This position requires approximately 30% travel by road or plane to field offices with varying levels of security. This position is not eligible for hardship and/or R&R benefits.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

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. By applying for this role an applicant confirms that they have not previously violated an employer’s sexual misconduct, sexual exploitation and abuse, child safeguarding or trafficking policy. 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.

As an applicant, if you witness or experience any form of sexual misconduct during the recruitment process, please report this to Mercy Corps Integrity Hotline ([email protected]).