Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To create a better world, 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
Mercy Corps has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since August 2007, with a staff of around 400 people working in Eastern DRC, with the overall country goal being to support vulnerable communities through crises, while fostering programs that build resilience and promote long-term change. Mercy Corpsโ national office is in Goma with sub-field offices in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri. Mercy Corps DRCโs key programming areas include a combination of longer-term development and immediate humanitarian response programs 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; 4) Support peacebuilding and local governance. Mercy Corps DRCโs humanitarian programs aim specifically to assist populations affected by the conflict and crisis in Eastern Congo.
In September of 2023, Mercy Corps signed an agreement with the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA-USAID) for the implementation of the Graduating to sustainable Agriculture, Income, Nutrition, and food Security (GAINS) Program. The overarching goal of this 5-year Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA), with a start date of October 1st, 2023, and an end date of September 30, 2028, is: Food, nutrition and economic security is sustainably improved among vulnerable households.
Mercy Corps is seeking a Local Partnership Manager (LPM) to proactively lead and support the institutional capacity of GAINSโ local partners and stakeholder engagement efforts with local communities and organizations, as well as government partners. He/s will focus on capacity-building to support partnersโ organizational and program management skills to effectively manage subgrants, and adequately contribute to the programโs technical implementation.
The Position
The LPM will backstop and reinforce a large and diversified local partners team to building a successful partnership with the DRC decentralized Governmental institutions operating in the Kasai on various topics, including natural resources management, prevention of Gender Based Violence as well as gender, youth, and social inclusion, WASH, nutrition, and conflict management. S/he will be an experienced partnership manager, with knowledge of how to execute and manage performance-based sub-awards across a network of local partners, as well as government agreements. S/he will be responsible for tracking and supporting partner performance at all levels, while working in a participatory and inclusive manner to execute capacity and performance strengthening plans that increase both local partners, communities, and decentralized government institutionsโ ability to support the implementation of interventions aimed at strengthening livelihoods and increasing incomes and improving the utilization of quality food among vulnerable people.
Essential Job Responsibilities
Partner Organizational Capacity Strengthening
โ Develop tailored capacity strengthening material to support GAINS partners and Government agencies to increase their institutional and technical capacity to support market-based economic inclusion initiatives across the targeted program areas.
โ Use a combination of self-assessment (e.g., Organizational Readiness/Capacity Index Tools) and performance-based analysis to establish an understanding of the strengths and areas for improvement of GAINSโ partner organizations in relation to technical and operational areas of economic inclusion programming.
โ In partnership with the MEL, Program Performance and technical teams, develop and periodically update a capacity and performance-strengthening plan for local partners based on assessments.
โ Support GAINS Partners to regularly refine and update their performance goals and objectives in line with GAINSโs resilient livelihoods, market systems development and social cohesion lens.
โ Facilitate ongoing application of organizational capacity review and monitoring tools; adapt and apply tools to monitor and support partners to reflect on their performance.
โ Support in representing GAINS in key internal and external meetings where requested by the Chief of Party.
โ Contribute to the development of quarterly reports, Annual Results Report, and PREP.
โ Reinforce the local partnersโ capacity in drafting qualitative reports, including technical sections for the quarterly and annual reports, and financial reports.
Partnership Management
โ Building off established good practices, develop a partnership management Standard Operating procedures for local partners and government engagement in the context of GAINS.
โ Work with DCoP, operations and finance team, to actively manage partners against agreed upon procedures and mechanisms, and their signed sub-award agreements.
โ Support P1 and P2 Teams in partnership management, and lead partner management meetings at Tshikapa and Kinshasa levels, including sub-award kick off and close out.
โ Develop and track workplans for partner management, including execution and regular updates of partner sub-agreements linked to performance milestones, and regional agreements.
โ Liaise with MC Head Office to prepare subaward grant agreements, ensuring necessary clauses are added, and subaward documents are complete and reviewed.
โ Work closely with the compliance team to ensure compliance with Mercy Corps and USAID regulations related to subaward management, including issuance, management and monitoring of subawards as well as training team members on processes and guidelines.
โ Maintain the partnership tracking and issues log with input from the MC Finance Team โ Subgrants and Programs Department and report monthly to the Senior Management Team.
โ Review monitoring and close-out visit reports and follow up on all subgrant compliance issues and audits and document resolutions.
โ Participate in the GAINS Steering Committee meetings as required to discuss with Program Managers and other support departments on subgrantsโ status for each grant.
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Program Performance Director.
Works Directly With: DCOP, Program team members, PaQ Director, M&E and research teams, partner organizations, HQ Regional Program Team, HQ Technical Support Unit.
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 projects.
Knowledge and Experience / Qualification and Transferable Skills
โ MA/S or equivalent experience in social science, political science, international development, or another relevant field.
โ A minimum of 3 to 5 years of experience in development sector (international or national).
โ A minimum of 2-3 yearsโ experience in roles substantively focused on building the capacity of third parties, including (but not limited to) national NGOs, local government bodies or local civil society organizations.
โ Understanding of livelihood, economic development, and market systems programming
โ Demonstrated experience of developing and implementing organizational management tools, strategies and/or standard operating procedures.
โ At least 3 yearsโ experience with managing USAID projects, including strengths in grant management, coordination, and donor reporting.
โ Demonstrable ability to produce high quality deliverables at speed and with minimal direction
โ Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, and the capacity to work at a strategic level with senior leaders (both internal and external) is essential
โ Ability to multi-task and juggle several tasks and relationships at one time, with little to no direction
โ Proven ability to work effectively in multicultural teams and with technical and administrative staff and consultants.
โ Fluent in both English and French.
โ Ability to work in hardship environment with moderate to high levels of insecurity and significant restrictions on personal movement.
โ Prior work experience in the DRC and demonstrable understanding of the context a significant advantage
Success Factors
The successful candidate will have excellent team and interpersonal relationship skills, with demonstrated ability to work effectively in complex environments. S/he will combine strong communication skills, creativity, initiative, participatory leadership and tactful decisiveness to assist in program implementation. Multiยญtasking, prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail and strategic vision are essential. S/he must have the confidence and humility to work effectively with a diverse group of people โ as well as be sensitive to political and cultural nuance. S/he must ยญ be able to consistently apply excellent judgment to a variety of demanding and fast-ยญchanging situations while working as part of a team and coordinating with program personnel.