Position Title: Senior Global Advisor Community Accountability - UK, NL, or other MC Locations
Location: Edinburgh, London, UK, or NL or other Mercy Locations
**Position Status: Full-Time, open term
Salary range: London: circa 47K - 55K; Edinburgh : circa 41K- 47K, NL: circa 47K - 54K - other locations pending benchmark
Apply with CV and Cover Letter by October 21st
The applicant must have the independent right to live and work at the location of assignment (ie., not require visa sponsorship)**
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.
Program / Department Summary
The PaQ (Program Performance and Quality) Unit, which sits within the Global Programs Department, supports effective, efficient and equitable program performance through a culture of quality management, to achieve greater impact for those that matter most -- our program participants. The PaQ unit oversees several business processes including monitoring, evaluation and learning; program management standards; program data management; infrastructure quality assurance; field operations support; strategic change management; and facilitating the complex program process. The Program Standards Team team acts as a Program Management Office which fulfils the following broad functions:
● Centre of Excellence: We provide specialist program management leadership and support and have particular specialisms in CARM, Cash, Goods, GESI and Program Analytics
● Policy, Standards, Guidelines and Learning & Development: We define Program Management and cross cutting standards, create guidance, and provide professional development opportunities to Mercy Corps and Partner staff. We focus on continuous improvement and adaptive management throughout our work
● A Functional Home for the Program Manager and CARM specialists: Program Managers can access functional support, advice and guidance from the team.
General Position Summary
The Senior Global Advisor – Community Accountability, is responsible for leading agency-wide cultural, behavioral, process, policy, guidance, training, and systems change that results in Mercy Corp’ strengthened accountability to the people and communities we serve in humanitarian, development and nexus contexts, in line with the 2030 strategy. Community accountability requires a series of commitments that puts community voice at the center of Mercy Corps’ work, and involves the provision of timely
information to communities, engaging community members in decision making that affects them, and inviting and responding to people’s voices through community accountability reporting mechanisms (CARM).
Building on the success of agency-wide adoption of CARM, the role will be responsible for: facilitating agency-wide listening activities on accountability to communities; the documentation of promising practice and lessons learned; the development of minimum standards that draw on external and internal learning; the integration of community accountability into existing policies and processes; and for leading the development of guidance, tools and learning opportunities that enable program and country leadership teams to put community accountability commitments into practice.
Essential Job Responsibilities
1. Strategy, Policy and Minimum Standards
● Own the Global CARM Policy--an agency wide policy, and related updates and development.
● Lead, through an agency wide learning sessions and a consultative design process that includes headquarters and country stakeholders alike, the evolution of Mercy Corps’ community accountability framework into a set of minimum standards that can be embedded into the overall chapeau of the Program Management Policy;
● Facilitate, through agency wide consultation and engagement, revision of the CARM policy, and the integration of CARM minimum standards into iterations of the Program Management Policy.
● Establish the Global CARM annual workplan and strategy; lead coordination with stakeholders and Regional Community Accountability Advisors for buy-in and execution
● Serve as the agency-wide Global Community Accountability expert, provide and oversee global community accountability technical direction to the agency.
2. Frameworks, Guidance, Tools and Resources
● Ensure the successful piloting of a new CARM information management system, that could offer a standardized agency wide system for CARM data storage, case management and global reporting;
● Facilitate the development of an AAP toolkit, leveraging existing internal resources, knowledge and tools (not limited to GDI team, TSU governance team and PaQ MEL), and external examples;
● Iterate the CARM toolkit, with updated guidance and case studies of good practice identified through evaluations, communities of practice and
● Map connections and integrate Community Accountability and CARM tools and guidance into other toolkits; e.g. Program Management toolkit, Remote Monitoring toolkit, Humanitarian Guidance/Emergency Handbook.
● Responsible for technical direction of the CARM Toolkit and all related guidance for updating, promoting and developing.
3. Learning and Development
● Provide timely technical supervision, through mentorship and coaching, to each Regional Community Accountability Advisor, in collaboration with their supervisor in the Regional Leadership Team, through the annual performance cycle;
● Develop and facilitate formal and informal learning opportunities for the regional team of Community Accountability Advisors;
● Lead the re/development of a field focused-CARM Competency Framework among stakeholders;
● Develop an agency-wide Global CARM learning pathway and conceptualize and execute the development of learning products at all-staff (foundation), generalist (intermediate) and specialist (advanced) levels;
● Oversee, train and support cohort of CARM learning facilitators, including Regional Community Accountability Advisors and Country CARM focal points;
● Serve as the CARM representative for all program management related curriculum and learning products to accurately reflect community accountability and CARM minimum standards;
● Lead the ongoing refinement of onboarding resources for regional and senior country level roles’
● Facilitate the global community of community of practice related to community accountability;
● Track key L&D performance indicators and identify mitigating actions / refinements.
4. Oversight of the Regional Community Accountability Advisors and related strategy
● Lead on strategy and workplan development, ensuring global harmonization, alignment, coverage and continuity in all technical support, training, and resources.
● Support Regional Advisors to develop targeted support plans to each country based on prioritization that is agreed at regional level
● Provide remote technical support to Regional Community Accountability Advisors / Regional Leadership Team
● Provide, on risk and request basis, direct support to country or program teams, in consultation with Regional Advisor
● Support Regional Advisors with targeted country-level capacity development initiatives as needed, e.g. for country CARM focal points on specific topics
● Plan and enable capacity development of Regional Advisors
5. Monitoring, evaluation and learning
● Support the development of the Minimum Standards Reporting project, through timely input of CARM requirements;
● Utilize data from Mercy Corps systems and processes, specifically the global Minimum Standards Reporting mechanism, Tola Data, CARM information management system, and audit findings, to support in the diagnosis and resolution of community accountability and CARM issues.
● Support and mentor Community Accountability Regional Advisors to utilize the MSR data.
6. Internal and External coordination and influencing
● Lead on the collaboration with internal stakeholders across PaQ and TSU to gain buy in and technical insights into the community accountability strategy and implementation plan;
● Serve as a primary Community Accountability representative to inter-agency working groups and communities of practice to provide community accountability technical direction, e.g., the Localization Working Group and monthly learning sessions;
● Lead external stakeholder engagement to strengthen Mercy Corps position as a thought leader in community accountability and feedback and complaints mechanisms;
● Represent Mercy Corps’ in all global community accountability related fora, including but not limited to contributing to the work streams of the new inter-agency IASC Accountability to Affected People taskforce and associated working groups.
● Incorporate peer learning into Mercy Corps’ community accountability work;
● Engage with colleagues in conversations around Core Humanitarian Standards verification at the agency level.
Supervisory Responsibility
Technical (dotted line) supervision of four Regional Community Advisors
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Program Standards Senior Director, PaQ Unit
Works Directly With: Program Performance & Quality Team members, Ethics team, TSU technical team; GDI team; HLR team; country and program staff, including focal points.
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
Experience Required
● Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g. Development Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Social Work, International Relations, or related fields);
● 5-7 years of experience in international relief and development;
● Demonstrated knowledge of international standards and frameworks related to community accountability/AAP/social accountability, and operational challenges in this area;
● Experience in managing or implementing an accountability-related commitment in humanitarian or development programming, e.g. communicating with communities, information sharing, participation, feedback and complaints mechanism;
● Experience inclusively and impactfully managing people and complex projects in the context of remote and matrix management;
● Experience of developing and directing global policy, guidance, tools and adult learning products on community accountability for AAP or related areas, including program management, communicating with communities, gender diversity and inclusion, protection, safeguarding;
● Proficiency with MS Office software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), and Google suite (Google drive, docs, sheets);
● High level of fluency in verbal and written English.
Desirable
● Master’s degree in a relevant field (MA/MS/MBA or equivalent);
● Training on Core Humanitarian Standards;
● Knowledge and / or experience of establishing strong global networks and internal communications;
● Knowledge and / or experience of theories and practice related to adult learning.
● Demonstrated knowledge, commitment and experience with diversity, equity and inclusion in development/humanitarian programming
Success Factors
The individual would need to be a skilled communicator, able to develop and utilize strong relationships with team members and departments internally, as well as with external bodies. They will have a positive and dynamic working style that enables them to work independently in a remote team. They will harness the expertise, experience and ideas of diverse Mercy Corps team members and external partners to strengthen Program Management within Mercy Corps. The individual will be customer focused and able to provide contextualized products and services that meet the needs of the user.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
This position can be based in London, UK. or the person’s home location, as applicable. There is some travel required, estimated between 15 – 30% to support country programs, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited. Housing for this role is in individual housing and 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 and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. 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.
As a safeguarding measure, Mercy Corps screens all potential US-Based employees. This is done following the conclusion of recruitment and prior to assuming full employment.
Our screening process is designed to be transparent and completed in partnership with new Team Members. You will have the opportunity to disclose any prior convictions at the conclusion of the recruitment process before the check is initiated. We ask that you do not disclose any prior convictions in your application materials or during the recruitment process.
Covid-19 Vaccine Policy for US-Based Employees
Mercy Corps has determined that, in an effort to protect the health, safety, and well-being of all Mercy Corps employees working in the United States, all U.S.-based employees must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, regardless of prior COVID-19 infection status. This policy is necessary to ensure not only the safety of our workforce, but the ongoing functionality of the organization.
This policy will be revised as needed to comply with federal, state, and local requirements, and to respond to changing guidance from public health authorities.
For new employees this requirement goes into effect within 10 business days of employment. Team members that travel are expected to comply with host-country requirements, including vaccinations. Failure to comply may impact your employment. Proof of vaccination or exemption must be provided.
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.
Fostering a diverse and open workplace is an important part of Mercy Corps vision. Mercy Corps is an Equal Opportunity Employer regardless of background. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment.
How to apply
Please learn more and apply here: https://jobs.jobvite.com/mercycorps/job/o34dlfwp