Girls Improving Resilience Through Livelihoods (GIRL) Program Manager at Mercy Corps

Program / Department Summary

Girls Improving Resilience through Livelihoods (GIRL) is a three-year 10 million USD program to be implemented in Kenya, Uganda and Haiti that seeks to improve the well-being of adolescent girls and young women by increasing their access to skills and knowledge, health resources, formal education and economic opportunities.

GIRL also fosters an enabling environment by working with communities to transform unhealthy social norms and create opportunities for girls to access education and economic opportunity.

Key to GIRL is a robust learning and research agenda that reaches across three countries to contribute to the evidence base on what works to secure access to opportunities for adolescent girls within the most marginalized communities and to better understand their contribution to household resilience.

This evidence and learning will be shared to elevate Mercy Corps’ influence in the adolescent girl space and to bolster fundraising efforts to scale the model.

General Position Summary

The GIRL Program Manager will manage the successful implementation of the GIRL program within Kenya, ensuring positive impact for all participants and driving innovation and learning to refine a replicable and evidence-based GIRL programming model.

As a result, the GIRL Program Manager is responsible for leading intervention of the GIRL-H program within Kenya, including program start up, implementation, adaptation and close out.

In conjunction with Program and Country Leadership, the Program Manager will develop a clear vision and strategy for the program in Kenya to ensure that the program activities are impactful and remain on budget and schedule.

In addition to direct program implementation, the Program Manager plays a critical role in refining GIRL programming in Kenya through technical assistance to peer programs implementing GIRL activities.

Essential Responsibilities

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

• Lead program start up and implementation within Kenya, including identification of team members and implementing partners
• Manage and oversee program implementation in Kenya, in cooperation with key project stakeholders, including local non-governmental organizations, local government officials, community-based organizations, other international agencies on the ground, and key donors
• Lead engagement with local implementing partners within Kenya
• Collaborate with program, finance and administrative staff to ensure systems comply with donor and Mercy Corps policies and procedures, including adherence to Mercy Corps program management minimum standards
• Ensure program implementation is on time, target and budget, using effective M&E systems to reach desired impacts
• Increase Mercy Corps and partner organization staff capacity by designing and delivering technical training and coaching plans on topics related to building resilience and achieving gender-equitable program outcomes
• Provide leadership and oversight in all aspects of program implementation, management and evaluation within Kenya
• Establish and oversee effective program monitoring, evaluation, and reporting systems for both internal and external use and ensure high quality input is obtained from team members
• Ensure documentation of achievements and lessons learned to ensure best practices are captured and disseminated in quarterly and final program reports

STRATEGY AND VISION

• Collaborate with program leadership in the development of a clear vision and strategy for the program in Kenya and ensure it is shared with all relevant program team members and key stakeholders.
• Play an active role in identifying and developing new initiatives that foster and/or improve strategic objectives of the program and the country office
• Support refinement and expansion of GIRL programming, including through resource mobilization, proposal development and technical assistance
• Collaborate with other related Mercy Corps programs to create synergies wherever possible
• Ensure that program implementation is responsive to communities and partners and aligned with Mercy Corps’ principles and values
• Guide the technical implementation of women’s and girls’ leadership country strategies based on Mercy Corps’ Country Strategy for Kenya
• Promote gender strategies across the country portfolio and adapt and improve them as needed.
• Engage support services and risk management resources to enable the program team to execute their respective strategic priorities
• Collaborate with relevant team members regarding the measurement and analysis of key program performance and quality indicators and metrics to inform strategic decision making

TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Develop the capacity of the team, deepen understanding of their roles and assist with career development
• Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance & reach 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
• Oversee program staff and partner performance and quality of program implementation and if security context allows, conduct frequent field visits to all program sites

FINANCE & COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

• Monitor adherence to the donor grant agreement as well as Mercy Corps’ and donor’s policies and procedures for procurement and compliance
• Create and maintain systems to ensure effective and transparent use of financial resources for timely and informative reporting in line with program, donor and Mercy Corps’ needs
• Work closely with financial and operational management to optimize resources through sound budgets, consistent financial tracking, and timely submission of reports to the donor

HUMAN RESOURCES, SAFEGUARDING AND DIVERSITY

• Support Mercy Corps global and regional initiatives for human resources, including safeguarding and diversity, and talent development
• Collaborate with the people team to promote staff access to high quality learning opportunities, with a special emphasis on national team member development
• Assist with the on-boarding of senior team members, ensuring they are set up for success and familiar with agency systems, procedures, and protocols

RISK MANAGEMENT

• Engage and support program areas across the country to ensure that adequate risk management systems are in place
• Collaborate with country and program leadership to support preparedness and response to major disruptive events
• Participate in the internal audit (IA) process to track findings and ensure program compliance with IA findings and recommendations
• Work closely with the country team 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

INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION

• Represent Mercy Corps at government, donor, NGO and other relevant events, in close coordination with the Program Director
• Assist Program Director in maintaining active and cooperative relationships with all key stakeholders, including government officials, project partners, other implementing agencies, and related institutions
• Coordinate activities with consortium partners, subgrantees, local government and other implementers, as well as with other Mercy Corps programs

Supervisory Responsibility: Capacity Building Officer

Accountability

• Reports Directly To: Mercy Corps Kenya Director of Programs
• Works Directly With: Director of Programs, GIRL Program Director, GIRL Program Management Unit (PMU) Manager, Country Director, Program Managers, Chiefs of Party, local partner organizations, support staff (Finance, HR and Operations)

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

• Masters or equivalent experience in international development, political science, women’s studies, economics, sociology or other relevant field.
• 5-7 years’ experience in gender and youth development work including experience developing and conducting gender training, gender/youth mainstreaming and engaging in gender advocacy.
• Experience in program start up
• Demonstrated ability to implement a program, manage a team and develop their capacities.
• Demonstrated capacity to lead the collection, analysis and utilization of information from a broad range of sources to ensure effective integration of gender and youth concerns throughout the project’s duration. In-depth understanding of gender, age and other socio-cultural factors in the context of livelihoods programming.
• Ability to foster commitment and build capacity among project staff and in-country actors around gender and youth integration.
• Strong public speaking and facilitation skills required.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office.
• Fluency in written and spoken English required
• Fluency in written and spoken Kiswahili required

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

• The position is based outside of Nairobi (final location TBD, based on selected candidate).