Deputy chief of party - pastoral marketing and livelihoods advisor

Program/department summary:

Mercy Corps has been operational in Kenya since 2008, initially in response to the Post Election Violence in Rift Valley, and then expanding to a national program under USAID’s Yes Youth Can! initiative. In July 2011, Mercy Corps began operations in Northeastern Province through integrated humanitarian response in Wajir County, which currently focuses on supporting increased resilience through strengthening the livestock value chain, supporting diversified livelihood options and improving access to pasture and water resources.

The REGAL- IR program will support USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative through improving resilience to drought and other shocks. The objectives of the program include: strengthened and diversified livelihood options, increased inclusiveness of value chains, improved nutrition, improved capacity to peacefully manage conflicts, community-based natural resource management, and disaster risk reduction.

General position summary:

The Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) will play a key leadership role in the implementation of a proposed 5-year $49 million program to support increased resiliency and economic growth in Kenya’s Northern and Arid Lands. The DCOP will assist the COP in projects oversight, technical, administrative, operational and logistical management of the project. In absence of the COP; the DCOP will undertake some of the CoP responsibilities. S/he, with the assistance of other personnel will provide technical assistance in Objectives 1 & 2: strengthened & diversified livelihood options, and advancing value chain inclusiveness. The DCOP will also have direct oversight of program operations and M&E functions.

Essential job functions:

Program Management

• Provide leadership and strategic vision to the livelihood diversification; and pastoral livestock and marketing components of the REGAL program including workplan development, market analysis, partnership selection and management, and overall sector strategy.

Monitoring & evaluation (M&E) and reporting

• Facilitate the achievement of program targets and objectives and lead efforts to design effective M&E systems.
• Oversee the scheduling and production of formal and informal reports on all aspects of the program in a timely and efficient manner.
• Ensure that M&E staff focus on assisting programs to generate practical information that can be used for ongoing program decision-making while also capturing results at the impact level.

Team Management

• In close partnership with the COP, create a work atmosphere conducive to professional growth and development of excellent personnel at all levels.
• Implement, and ensure all staff are effectively using, the performance planning and management system, establishing performance expectations and regularly providing constructive feedback.
• Promote accountability by conducting staff annual performance reviews with direct supervisees, and ensuring that supervisory staff do the same.

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 towards 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:

Direct supervision of: Livelihoods and value chain component technical teams, program operations staff.

Reports directly to:

Chief of Party

Works directly with:

Component leads in disaster risk reduction, NRM, conflict mitigation, and nutrition.

Knowledge and experience:

• MA/S in international development, livestock, agriculture, economics, or related field of study
• 5-10 years of overseas experience including five years in a senior management position
• Strong understanding of U.S. government compliance issues
• Strong written and oral communication skills in English, including report development, writing and editing
• Strong management skills, with good understanding of relevant cross-cultural issues
• Experience in value chain development, facilitation and agribusiness is added advantage
• 5+ years’ experience in Kenya or the Horn of Africa preferred
• Knowledge of Somali and Kiswahili preferred

Success factors:

The successful candidate will have excellent verbal and written communication skills, M&E skills. S/he will be able to establish good inter-personal relationships and network, and have already established relationships with and/or substantive knowledge of key players in the drylands of Kenya.