Mercy Corps
Position Title: County Project Coordinators – Isiolo & Marsabit Counties
Requisition number: COUNT002916
Full-time
Locations
- Marsabit, KE-25 1186800100, KEN
- Isiolo, KE-09 1186800100, KEN
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.
Mercy Corps has been operating in Kenya since 2008, focusing its interventions around four objectives:
1) Peace and Conflict Management;
2) Livelihood/Market Systems;
3) Governance (particularly at the county level); and
4) Youth Employment/Employability (including the social and economic development of adolescents).
The four objectives serve to increase community resilience to drought and other shocks and stresses, and to decrease fragility with a particular focus on Kenya’s Arid Lands.
Mercy Corps’ vision for change requires the private sector, government and civil society to work together to create meaningful and sustainable change.
The Program / Department Summary
Mercy Corps and other consortiums implemented a five-year USAID-funded Kenya Feed the Future (FtF) Livestock Market Systems (LMS) Activity for northern Kenya.
Under LMS, Mercy Corps fully implemented the Strengthening Community Capacities for Resilience and Growth Award. The activity was expected to contribute to USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative and specifically improved households’ income, productive assets and resilience to drought and other shocks.
Specific areas of focus included strengthened and sustained rangeland and water management; strengthened drought risk management; strengthened conflict management; improved and sustained health, nutrition, and hygiene practices; improved literacy, numeracy, and life skills; and collaborative action and learning for community empowerment.
Building on these successes, Mercy corps through ACDI – VOCA received 6 months LMS program extension to continue supporting the community capacities with more focus on strengthening the systems through provision of technical capacities to County Governments, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Ward Planning Communities (WPCs). Mercy Corps intend to undertake intensive co-creation with the local actors to collaboratively identify gaps and areas of focus and develop technical assistance (TA) based on the priorities and their individual needs.
The co-design and participatory intervention selection will ensure solutions are locally owned and have impact beyond the project life.
General Position Summary
The County Project Coordinator will be responsible for the overall county-level planning, coordination, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of the LMS Strengthening Capacities of county government, CSOs and communities.
S/he will ensure all project initiatives are implemented to achieve maximum impact as per project objectives while remaining on schedule and budget.
The coordinator will directly support capacity building of WPCs to strengthen the implementation of ward based priorities while advocating institutionalization of ward plans approach. S/he will work with LMS established GIRL groups in transitioning their pathways and linking them to other opportunities.
The County Project Coordinator directly manages the county-level staff and closely work with County and national government, other Mercy corps projects, LMS and PREG partners to ensure proper coordination, cocreation and layering of activities for maximum output and impact.
Essential Responsibilities
PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
- Provide overall managerial leadership for the project at the county level.
- Develop county specific work plans and budget while ensuring teams and partners implement activities on time, within the approved budget, and project deliverables achieve desired impact.
- Review project implementation strategies and contextualize to specific county.
- Lead effective coordination, collaboration and integration among all technical, support and project units including with our lead partner – ACDI/VOCA and implementing local partner .
- Attend all quarterly project meetings in Nairobi as well as facilitate planning meetings and workshops with government, NGOs, private sector and community partners to revise plans and promote partner acceptance/buy-in.
- Provide timely updates to supervisor on progress and issues, identifying risks and proposing solutions for action and early resolution.
- Develop program risk matrix and update the same on an ad hoc and quarterly basis.
- Coordinate with procurement, logistics, security, administration and human resources teams to ensure operational systems support field activities.
- Ensure integration of nutrition, youth and gender into project activities.
- Support the local partners implementation of transitional pathways for adolescent girls
COUNTY GOVERNMENT ENGAGEMENT
- Act as the primary liaison with county and national government officials at the county level including representation.
- Identify county and national government departments relevant to LMS and outline areas of synergies and collaboration.
- Initiate an MoU with county government outlining roles and responsibilities and potential areas of collaboration.
- Conduct periodic presentations of project progress, challenges and lessons learned to county government department, assembly and partners.
- Organize periodic joint field visits with relevant government departments.
- Facilitate and ensure the participation of relevant county and national government departments in the implementation of the project.
SUB-GRANTS PARTNERS
- Support the grants and compliance team to conduct due diligence and capacity assessments
- Led in the capacity building of community through WPCs in identified areas of weakness
- Review partners work plans and budgets and submit to supervisor
- Review partner progress reports and conduct periodic spot checks
MONITORING AND EVALUATION
- Ensure effective and timely monitoring, documenting and reporting on all project activities including reports from sub-awardees.
- Conduct regular visit to field sites to assess progress of activities and provide formal and informal feedback to staff, beneficiaries and supervisor.
- Identify potential areas for learning and documenting the same to share with other counties and/or the larger LMS and PREG partners.
- Ensure the submission of all require M&E data and conduct validation of monitoring data before final submission to MEL Manager.
- Participate in the development of intervention designs, sector strategies and M&E frameworks.
TEAM MANAGEMENT
- Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance and achieve objectives.
- 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.
- Work closely with the HR department to recruit, orient and lead team members as necessary.
- Conduct capacity assessment of team members and develop capacity building plans as part of staff development.
INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION
- Represent Mercy Corps at government, donor, NGO and other relevant events, in close coordination with deputy program director, deputy chief of party and country leadership;
- Coordinate activities with consortium partners, sub grantees, local government and other implementers, as well as with other Mercy Corps programs.
SECURITY
- Work closely with the country team’s security focal point to develop and maintain systems that promote the safety and security of all team members;
- Ensure that programs are designed and implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security.
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 related duties as assigned.
Supervisory Responsibility
- Project officers and support team members. Local implementing partners
Accountability
- Reports Directly To: Deputy chief of Party
- Works Directly With: Deputy Chief of Party, M/E manager, Communication officer, Finance, HR and Operations departments, HQ Regional Program Team and Technical Support Unit and 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 Qualification & Transferable Skills
- Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent in Development Studies, Business, Planning, Social Sciences or other relevant fields. A Master’s Degree is preferred.
- Recognized qualification in project or program management or a commitment to obtain the qualification in the early months of work.
- A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in multi-sectoral programs, managing teams, strategic planning and implementing programs.
- Strong managerial skills, including effective personnel management, adaptive management, coordination and decision-making.
- Strong facilitation and consensus-building skills.
- Understanding of the Kenyan governance system
- Experienced in budgeting and financial planning
- Understanding of working with other stakeholders in project management.
- Demonstrated experience in building networks with the ability to influence.
- Strong understanding of USAID compliance issues.
- Excellent and persuasive oral and written communication skills, including report writing, in English and other language(s), as required.
- Spoken fluency is Swahili is required and primary local dialects in the County of implementation are strongly preferred.
- Previous work experience in project location is desirable.
- Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members.
- Ability to work comfortably in a sometimes tense and changing security environment is required.
Success Factors
The successful County Project Coordinator will have a strong understanding of project approaches and represent the project professionally at all times.
S/he will combine exceptional management skills and capacity to manage relationships with different stakeholders.
A heavy emphasis will be placed on coordination with other actors implementing in the areas of intervention with a commitment to working closely and collaboratively with the County Government structures and our lead partner.
S/he will be committed to long-term program sustainability and the delivery of high-impact activities at the community level. 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.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Marsabit and/or Isiolo County with regular travel to the project field locations.
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 elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.
CLICK HERE to apply online.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Mercy Corps does not charge any fees at any stage of the recruitment process.