GIRL Officer at Mercy Corps

Program / Department Summary: Mercy Corps has been operating in Kenya since 2008, focusing its interventions around four objectives:

• Peace and Conflict Management;
• Livelihood/Market Systems;
• Governance (particularly at the county level); and
• Youth Employment / Employability (including the social and economic development of adolescents).

The four objectives serve to increase community resilience to drought and other shocks and stresses, and to decrease fragility with a particular focus on Kenya’s Arid Lands. Mercy Corps’ vision for change requires the private sector, government and civil society to work together to create meaningful and sustainable change.

Mercy Corps is recruiting one GIRL Officer to support human capital development for resilient individuals who are well placed for commercial engagement for a five-year USAID-funded Feed the Future (FtF) Livestock Market Systems (LMS) Development Activity for northern Kenya.

This position will support the Strengthening Community Capacities for Resilience and Growth component which is part of USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative and specifically will improve households’ income, productive assets and resilience to drought and other shocks.

Specific areas of focus include strengthened and sustained rangeland and water management; strengthened drought risk management; strengthened conflict management; improved and sustained health, nutrition, and hygiene practices; improved literacy, numeracy, and life skills; and collaborative action and learning for community empowerment.

General Position Summary: The GIRL Officer will be responsible for technical oversight and management of the Girls Improving Resilience with Livelihood (GIRL), a 9-month adolescent girl personal agency empowerment safe space model aimed at supporting human capital development for resilient individuals who are well placed for commercial engagement.

S/he will define implementation strategies in coordination with the County Project Coordinator, Deputy Chief of Party and leadership team. GIRL Officer will train staff and partners, providing them with technical assistance; and ensuring that common strategies and approaches are applied consistently in all communities. S/he will coordinate closely with the M&E team to ensure that systems are in place to track, analyze and report results.

The GIRL Officer will keep abreast of changing contexts and integrate new ideas and approaches as appropriate, seek additional technical assistance as needed and ensure effective working relationships with collaborating agencies.

S/he will work closely with our partner ACDI/VOCA, who will be leading the implementation of the LMS, and look for opportunities to link programming and clients with their programming and programming across the LMS.

Essential Job Functions:

• Contribute to team work plans and guide successful implementation of GIRL and Learning activities, ensuring teams follow work plans so activities are on time, target and within the approved budget, and program deliverables achieve desired impact;
• Provide technical guidance on a 9-month adolescent girls personal agency empowerment safe space model and ensure that interventions are responsive to stakeholders and consistent with Mercy
• Corps’ relevant program guidelines, principles, values, quality standards and strategic plan. Ensure that interventions are evidence-based and adhere to adaptive management principles;
• Engage community members (community representatives, teachers, religious leaders, government officials and gatekeepers) to form an Advisory Committee to support and inform program activities;
• Organize community events to sensitize communities on human capital development for resilient communities;
• Assist in the creation of technical curricula, basic education (numeracy & literacy), basic nutrition literacy, WASH awareness and campaign, financial literacy and reproductive health;
• Participate in recruitment and train Community Facilitators and Girl mentors to deliver technical curricula to girls;
• Identify and recruit girls in the community to participate in safe space groups;
• Identify and engage local animal and human health workers to provide training and technical assistance to safe space groups;
• Monitor and track the success and failures of safe space groups;
  Link women to other traders, markets, financial institutions, public and private institutions;
  Implement monitoring and evaluation tools;
• Play a key role in the development of intervention designs, sector strategies and M&E frameworks;
• Integrate community approaches, gender sensitivity and capacity building into all activities as appropriate. Certify all interventions adhere to Mercy Corps’ Gender Policy, Do No Harm principles, and beneficiary accountability standards;
• Facilitate planning meetings and workshops with government, NGO, private sector, and community partners to revise plans and promote partner acceptance/buy-in;
• In coordination with the MEL team, monitor the implementation of activities through regular field visits and assessments to ensure program quality and impact. Document approaches, successes and lessons learned;
• Coordinate with procurement, logistics, security, administration and human resources teams to ensure operational systems support field activities;
• Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance and reach objectives;
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one-on-one and performance reviews;
• Orient and lead team Community Facilitators.
• 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 duties as assigned.

Organizational Learning: As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Supervisory Responsibility: Community Facilitator and GIRL mentors

Accountability

Reports Directly To: County Project Coordinator with a dotted line to WASH/Nutrition Advisor

Works Directly With: Chief of Party, Deputy Chief of Party, Livelihood Officer, Technical Advisors, finance and operations teams, HQ Regional Program Team, HQ Technical Support Unit, Partner Organizations, and broader LMS team.

Knowledge and Experience:

• Minimum of 3 years’ experience working with NGOs/CBO’s in civic engagement, livelihoods and education;
• Degree in Community Development, Economic Development, Business, Agriculture, Livestock or related field or diploma with over 3 years’ experience;
• Should have knowledge of quantitative and qualitative data collection, reporting techniques and should understand and be able to apply basic measures of central tendency and spread;
• Commitment to working with Women, Girls, youth and vulnerable groups in need, regardless of race, tribe, religion or gender;
• Understanding of working with local partners and commitment to working with BOMA Project and LMS team;
• Good problem solving, written and oral communication skills;
• Strong written and spoken English and Swahili;
• Local language skills required;
• Ability to work without constant supervision and as part of a mixed team;
• Good knowledge of MS Office software such as Excel, Word, and Access.

Success Factors: S/he will combine exceptional facilitation skills and capacity to work with different stakeholders including the greater LMS team. The position requires an ability to think creatively about improving opportunities for women and adolescent girls.

The GIRL Officer will have the capacity to spark innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to programming and to inspire groups to collaborate closely to implement high-quality programs.

S/he will be committed to long-term program sustainability and the delivery of high-impact activities at the community level. Multi-tasking, prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail and strategic vision are essential.

The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority.