Project Coordinator

Background

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is a global, nonprofit organization that strives to share God’s love and compassion for all through relief, development and peace - www.mcc.org.

Established in 1921, MCC has almost 100 years of experience in peacebuilding, disaster response and development and has had an ongoing presence in the Middle East since the 1960s. MCC primarily works through national partnerships to improve the lives of local communities.

MCC is an equal opportunity employer, committed to employment equity. MCC values diversity and invites all qualified candidates to apply.

Start Date:  As soon as possible

Benefits: Severance, medical insurance, life insurance, child education benefits and vacation days

Hours: 40 hours per week (9:00 to 17:00, about 10-15% overnight travel involved)

Contract basis: 34 months (3-month probationary period)

The MCC Project Coordinator will be the lead point-person for a three-year European Commission project. The successful applicant will coordinate all MCC activities for the European Commission project. The project aims to combat religious intolerance and discrimination in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq through enhancing mutual understanding and respect between different faiths, sects or none. The project will accomplish this aim through supporting local CSOs with sub-grant projects, peacebuilding and project management capacity-building, and promoting inclusive and strategic partnerships with religious leaders and civil society leaders.

Based in Beirut, Lebanon the worker is primarily tasked with supporting partners with planning, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting (PMER). The project coordinator’s responsibilities will include field monitoring visits, support with proposals and reporting – both narrative and financial, logistics and administrative tasks, coordinating with external stakeholders, translation, external communications, and a willingness to support MCC’s mission in other tasks.

Qualifications:

Education/certification

• Bachelor’s degree in humanitarian assistance, international development, social work, economics, finance, or a related field.
• Master’s degree in a related field, preferred

Experience

• Essential:
  • Strong capacity in project management including planning, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting
  • Experience with project budgeting, and financial management and monitoring
• Desirable:
  • Experience of working for an NGO, CSO or faith-based organization
  • Familiarity with M&E tools (i.e., KAP surveys, most significant change), logical frameworks and theory of change
  • Practical experience and training in peacebuilding and related projects
  • Experience with print, electronic and social media communications

Skills/abilities

• Essential:
  • Strong writing, communication, and organizational skills
  • Strong relational skills to interact with CSO sub-grant organizations in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, & Jordan
  • Proven ability to understand and advise on the challenges that local partners (NGOs, CSOs, faith-based organizations, etc.) might encounter in project implementation
  • Proven abilities in the analysis of narrative and financial documents in order to monitor and evaluate project success
  • Fluency in Arabic and English (written and spoken)
  • Computer literate in Word, Excel and Outlook
• Desirable
  • Ability to provide capacity building of small NGOs/CSOs including identifying needs and providing support
  • Experience with remote management
  • Ability to think strategically about projects and program
  • Awareness of protection issues and best practices
  • Ability to plan and carry out training sessions for adults

Personal qualities

• Essential:
  • Self-disciplined with ability to work proactively, using own initiative
  • Willingness and ability to travel to Syria, Iraq, & Jordan, at least one time during the three-year period
  • Ability to respectfully interact with people of all faiths
  • Ability to work as part of a team, to focus under pressure, and to work on tight timelines in support of MCC’s mission
  • Understanding of the complexity of religious conflicts in the region, openness to listen to all perspectives without judgment, and ability to focus on a politically neutral humanitarian and peacebuilding response
  • Friendly and respectful of confidential information
• Desirable:
  • Creative and innovative approach to work
  • Highly reflective and committed to developing themselves and others through reflective ongoing learning.
  • Demonstrated interest and involvement in issues of justice, compassion, and mercy

Assignment Narrative:

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), an international NGO established in 1921, has almost 100 years of experience in peacebuilding, disaster response and development and has had an ongoing presence in the Middle East since the 1960s. As a global leader in peace, MCC supports peacebuilding, restorative justice, trauma healing, inter-religious tolerance, and conflict prevention work around the world, playing a significant role in innovations and providing advanced peacebuilding training globally.

Since February 2012, MCC has been responding to the Syrian crisis through numerous local partner organizations in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, and to the Iraq crisis since 2014  in the areas of food assistance, shelter, WASH, NFIs, peacebuilding, protection, health, education, and psychosocial support. MCC has recently been awarded a three-year peacebuilding project by the international development and cooperation branch of the European Commission through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), entitled “Promoting religious tolerance and mutual understanding within and between faiths in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq.” This project will be implemented in collaboration with the Lebanese organization, Development for People and Nature Association (DPNA), based in Saida, Lebanon.

There are three main goals of the project:

1. Support local civil society organisations (CSOs), including local NGOs and community-based organisations (CBOs), through sub-grant funds for projects to engage religious leaders and laypeople, including women and youth, to understand, respect and promote religious tolerance within communities.

2. Increase the ability of CSOs to cultivate religious tolerance and mutual understanding among the target beneficiaries via peacebuilding training, networking, capacity-building, and mentoring for sub-grantee CSO’s.

3. Promote inclusive and strategic partnerships, networking and cooperation between religious and civil society leaders of Shi’a, Sunni, Alawi, Druze, Yezidi, Catholic Christian, Maronite Christian, Orthodox Christian and Evangelical Christian traditions among other minority sects from these countries.

The person filling this assignment will be the lead point-person for the MCC European Commission project, and the primarily responsibility will therefore be the coordination of the MCC European Commission project. This will include monitoring sub-grantee organizations and reviewing reports, field visits to sub-grantee CSO project locations, coordinating workshops, conducting management and evaluation trainings for CSO subgrantee organizations, evaluation work, and external communications to promote the visibility of the project. The successful applicant will also be responsible for supporting and coordinating with four country-based field monitors and will work closely with the project Senior Peace Advisor (located in Saida, Lebanon) who will be responsible for training and supporting CSO sub-grantee organizations in the technical peacebuilding aspects of the project. Additional responsibilities will include translation work, supporting program visits, logistics and administrative tasks for various capacity building trainings, coordinating with external stakeholders and a willingness to support MCC’s mission in other tasks.

Duties (specific tasks & responsibilities):

• Supervise the monitoring, evaluation, and reporting for 18-21 total CSO sub-grantee organizations who will implement peacebuilding projects and report to MCC
• Conduct field visits (at least one for each CSO organization over three years) to partners in different locations in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, & Iraq to monitor projects, strengthen programming and build the reporting capacity of the CSOs
• The project coordinator will be responsible to help conduct a total of six training workshops with CSOs in areas such as M&E, financial reporting, grant writing, and general project management. These trainings will be led jointly with the DPNA Senior Peace Advisor.
• Coordinate and provide program management assistance to CSO organizations, together with the four country-based field monitors in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, & Jordan.
• Work closely with the DPNA Senior Peace Advisor (who will be responsible for the peacebuilding sector capacity building work of the project)
• Assist in the assessment of initial CSO sub-grant project proposals
• Collect stories, photos, and videos from CSO projects to support MCC’s communications and fulfill European Commission visibility requirements
• Assist MCC in translation work (written and spoken) to support programming.
• Logistical and administrative support for six partner workshops (four in Lebanon and two in Jordan)
• If possible, attend coordination meetings to coordinate, become aware of external grants, and build relationships with other INGOs/NGOs.
• Develop contacts and relationships with relevant external agencies (local government, national government, community based and NGO entities) to enhance program implementation and sustainability.
• Prepare narrative and financial reporting templates, with reference to European Commission reporting requirements
• Submit weekly activity reports to MCC Lebanon Representatives
• Attend MCC partner conferences, program retreats, and regional retreats.
• Attend MCC weekly program meetings.
• A willingness to help with various tasks to support MCC’s mission.
• A willingness to work extra hours when necessary (i.e., reporting periods).
• Communicate regularly with the MCC Program Coordinator and Lebanon Representatives.
• Model non-violent peacemaking in the workplace and community through respectful interactions with others.

Challenges:

• Political instability, especially in Syria & Iraq. The worker must be willing to adhere to security guidelines and heed the advice of local partners and the MCC Representatives on security issues.
• At certain times of the year, reporting deadlines may lead to heavier than normal workloads. Meetings or activities with partners can occur in the evenings or on the weekends. Flexibility will be needed.