Program Manager - Partnership Support Program (Applications will only be accepted if submitted through the link provided)

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.

The Program / Department / Team (Program / Department Summary)

As complex humanitarian crises across the the Middle East continue; more than 11 million people have been displaced from their homes and the number relying on humanitarian assistance continues to grow. With a large and complex portfolio of work across the region, Mercy Corps has been meeting the needs of conflict-affected communities in the region for over a decade. Mercy Corps has established itself as an analytical, strategic and flexible responder, adapting continually to shifting front lines and operational realities to respond effectively and efficiently through multiple modalities with teams across the response region.  Mercy Corps currently with an experienced team of staff and local partners who are supported and led by a Regional Team based in Amman that ensures consistency and quality both technical and programmatically. 

The Position

The Program Manager’s role is to lead the management of large multi-sectoral programs/grants. Under the direct supervision of the Partnership Support Program Director, the Program Manager is responsible for coordinating multi-sectoral emergency response programs through partner organizations (remote management modality); ensuring quality agricultural and livelihoods interventions as well as other humanitarian sectors including protection, WASH and food/nonfood items; contribute towards strategic vision of the Mercy Corps team and manage a team of program officer(s). The position holder will work closely with implementing partners to ensure smooth, efficient and effective implementation of the programs. The position also involves understanding how the collection of partner projects fits within Mercy Corps’ grant portfolio and Mercy Corps wider strategy, with support and guidance from the Partnership Support Program Director.

The position encompasses a wide range of project activities, including planning and coordination of high quality interventions at grant and subgrant level, monitoring and verification of activities in coordination with PAQ/MEL team, supporting budget and proposal development at partner and donor level, collating information collected from partners, reporting to donors, arranging trainings with partners and mentoring and coaching of specific partner staff where appropriate. 

The position holder will work closely with the Partnership Support Program Director, who will seek to expand the skills of the Program Manager and delegate more responsibility during the duration of the contract.  The Program Manager will also line manage Senior Program Officer(s) staff who implement day to day administrative tasks with the PM’s oversight, support and guidance.  

Essential Responsibilities

PROGRAM SUPPORT

• Oversee the design, planning and implementation of emergency response and livelihood grants, track trends, lead on adaptation and provide advice on improving programming.
• Ensure that the programs targets are met according to implementation work-plans. This includes being responsible for the quality of periodical reports/updates and grants tracking system by ensuring that subgrant and grant records are kept up to date.
• Decision making on projects to fund, in consultation with relevant team members according to grant and strategic objectives.
• Provide technical oversight to partner teams and mentor staff in the design and implementation.
• Maintain daily communication with partners on the implementation of projects and closely follow the implementation of partner activities from the design phase through to implementation and close out.
• Help design project frameworks/objectives with local partners and ensure that the projects funded all meet set criteria and standards and feed into the larger MC grant.
• Be responsive to the needs of partners and challenges and ensure the same consistent approach is used throughout the team. 
• Pay close attention to issues, trends or concerns that arise from partner reports, updates and meetings. In discussion with Partnership Support Program Director, make decisions and take action.
• Actively seek out new programming opportunities, through keeping abreast of the context, actively identifying new potential partners, and new geographical areas of operation. 
• Support Mercy Corps’ different sectors in their efforts to mainstream sector best practices of safe, dignified and inclusive delivery of services for people of different gender, age and special needs.
• Coordinate internally with finance, compliance, humanitarian access and program development teams, ensuring a consistent approach to project design, implementation and close out. Suggest opportunities for improved integration and collaboration when possible. 
• Provide professional guidance and support to the Program Officer(s) and other team members. Ensure effective line management of Program Officer(s). 
• Participate in and support internal office coordination and planning meetings and workshops
• Assist in any other task or duty assigned by the supervisor.

Grant Management

• Maintain up to date knowledge on donor requirements and compliance issues, relevant to specific grants.
• Lead on donor level proposal design and proposal writing in coordination with Grants Manager and Partnership Support Program Director.
• Responsible for quality report writing that accurately represents partner projects.
• Ensure grants are spent on time, appropriately and to budget. Keep track of spending in coordination with Finance Manager and Partnership Support Program Director.

Technical Support

• Work with Partnership Support Program Director and Technical Advisers to ensure that program implementation is responsive to communities and partners and consistent with Mercy Corps’ relevant program guidelines, principles, values, quality standards and strategic plan.
• Work with Partnership Support Program Director and identity programmatic gaps either in current quality of implementation or potential future areas of implementation.
• Work with Partnership Support Program Director and Technical Advisers to ensure projects are aligned with context specific learning and best practice.
• Responsibility for protection and do no harm standards being mainstreamed through program activities.
• Work with PaQ team to ensure that the partners have established accountability mechanisms in line with Mercy Corps CARM manual. Support the team to ensure that communities and relevant stakeholders are adequately informed about programs, are comfortable to give feedback, that feedback is used to improve the quality of our programs and referral mechanisms are in place.
• Work with PaQ team to integrate M&E and accountability systems that are compliant with CHS, SPHERE and other relevant standards, as well as to the Donors’ requirements.

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

• With the support of Capacity Development Manager and the rest of the team, responsible for developing capacity building plans and objectives for partners.
• Responsible for delegated training and coaching to partner staff to improve best practice.

FINANCE AND COMPLIANCE

• Ensure that partner projects are executed in alignment with the donor agreement and the applicable donor regulations, staying abreast of changes in regulatory environment related to donor/grant compliance; updating partnership process, tools, policies and procedures as necessary
• In close coordination with Mercy Corps’ Humanitarian Access Team (HAT), ensure appropriate due diligence mechanisms are in place to mitigate against fraud, corruption, aid-diversion and that all stakeholders are properly vetted
• Ensure partners are compliant with donor and Mercy Corps’ procurement policies, which includes training on procurement minimum standards and procedures, supporting procurement planning and tracking major procurements.
• Act as the focal point for full compliance with PM@MC minimum standards for partner projects.
• In coordination with Finance and the Grants Management Director, ensure programming activities are accurately reflected in donor budgets and reports.

Security

• Ensure security procedures, mitigations and policies are followed by partners.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.
• Alongside the Security Coordinator support implementing partners to improve security mitigation approaches, ensure tools and processes are in place to manage staff safety and security and report incidents appropriately

Supervisory Responsibility

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Accountability

Reports Directly To: Partnership Support Program Director

Works Directly With: All Mercy Corps department and staff as well as staff from partner(s) 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

• University Degree or Higher in relevant field is required. 
• 5—7 of professional experiences in humanitarian programming including in livelihoods, protection and WASH programming or equivalent combination of NGO sector experiences and education. 
• 3-5 years experience in working in partnerships programming.
• Grant report and proposal writing experience is essential.
• Experience of line management is required.
• Experience of representation and acting up into senior roles is preferred. 
• Strong understanding of humanitarian and protection principles and likely protection concerns for women and youth arising in the Middle East context.
• Experience of humanitarian training and facilitation – including desirable knowledge of designing and/or adapting curriculum relevant for target groups.
• Demonstrated experience in emergency response programming in highly insecure environments.
• Commitment to local capacity development and past experience of engaging and working with local stakeholders in project design and implementation.
• Demonstrated capacity to collaborate closely with INGOs, national NGOs and Community Based Organisations. 
• Proven ability to work cooperatively with colleagues from other departments in a team environment, and to lead a diverse group of people.
• Understanding of participatory methodologies for project design, implementation and evaluation.
• Good organizational and project management skills. 
• Knowledge of humanitarian standards and codes, including SPHERE, CHS is an asset.
• Working understanding of procurement, administration and finance systems.
• Demonstrated familiarity with the MS Office software (i.e., Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) is required. 
• Demonstrate knowledge of the Middle East conflict context and understands project needs.
• Commitment to high level of confidentiality with sensitive information. 
• Proficiency in Arabic and English language written and spoken is essential. Excellent written English is desired.

Success Factors

The successful candidate will have proven experience working effectively and respectfully with NGOs and CBO representatives, and will have effective verbal and written communication as well as multi-tasking, organizational, and prioritization skills. S/he will have demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines, and work independently and cooperatively with team members. S/he should have excellent coordination skills, the ability to manage multiple deadlines and show initiative to improve program implementation. Sensitivity to multi-cultural humanitarian and development work and ability to train and facilitate dialogue among a diverse group of individuals with various skill sets and working styles are all critical. An ability to creatively solve problems, juggle multiple priorities under tight deadlines, and to calmly and diplomatically deal with unexpected and sudden events impacting program operations are also essential.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Beirut, Lebanon and requires occasional travels to Amman, Jordan.

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.