County Project Coordinator - Isiolo & Marsabit Counties at Mercy Corps

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.