Location: Surkhet, Nepal 
Position Status: Full-time, Regular 

Program / Department Summary 

Mercy Corps is expected to begin a new program to enhance food and nutrition security, reduce future humanitarian caseload, and improve the resilience of communities to recurrent shocks in the Karnali Province in Nepal, on or around October 1, 2020. The program will be a Multi-Year Emergency Food Security Activity funded by USAIDs Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs1, with a goal to enhance food and nutrition security, reduce future humanitarian caseload, and improve the resilience of communities to recurrent shocks in 6 districts (Mugu, Jumla, Kalikot, Surkhet, Achham and Dailekh, with cluster hubs in Surkhet and Jumla) in the Karnali River Basin area. The new program, called Bhakari, is somewhat built upon many of the successes of the Nepal team’s previous Food for Peace program which ended in January 2020, the PAHAL program, but with some new districts and a much heavier emphasis on emergency response. It includes program components of agriculture and market systems, disaster risk reduction, water for productive use, natural resources management, and a large emphasis on a gender and social inclusion approach, all with a highly integrated multi- sectoral approach. For emergency work, the program includes a potential for shock and stress triggered unconditional cash transfers, conditional cash such as cash for work, and agriculture input vouchers. In May 2020, Mercy Corps was awarded the “Assumed Solicitation Awardee” position, and entered into a non-competitive co-creation phase. The final detailed proposal and budget was submitted July 30th, 2020 and barring anything unexpected, the program should be on track to start October 1st, 2020. Since early 2020, the Mercy Corps Nepal team has begun Start-up planning, and in full earnest beginning in June 2020, so by the start of the program, the program’s leadership team should be ready to hit the ground running quickly.. The program is a 3-year, $15 million program across 6 districts in the hills and mountains of the Karnali River Basin of Nepal. 

For a detailed description of the Activity, please see the USAID APS and Nepal annex. 

General Position Summary 

The Deputy Chief of Party (DCoP) will work directly with the Chief of Party (CoP) to help provide the overall leadership, management and strategic vision to the implementation of a three year multi-million dollar USAID/ Food for Peace funded Emergency Food Security Activity, to ensure that the program meets its targets and deliverables on-time and within budget. The DCoP will provide the CoP advice, context, support and backstopping to ensure the program best helps meet the real, dynamic and complex needs of the people in the program implementation area. S/he will directly manage the program and technical staff and resources related to the program to ensure that the program meets its targets and deliverables on-time, on scope, and within budget. Based in Surkhet with the majority of the technical leadership team, s/he will provide front-line leadership to field implementation, for Mercy Corps staff and partners. S/he will be expected to drive an innovative, integrated technical approach to program implementation, that focuses on long-term change and sustained impact. S/he will be responsible for supervising program staff and ensuring accountability to Mercy Corps' policies and donor rules and regulations. This program will be a resilience flagship program for Mercy Corps globally, and the DCOP will have the unique role of ensuring integration of resilience across programmatic components. 

As gender equality and social inclusion (GESI), safeguarding, governance, and environmental sensitivity are cross-cutting and core components of all MC projects, the Deputy Chief of Party is required to own these components and ensure these components are integrated into his/her work area. 

Essential Job Responsibilities 
Strategy & Vision

• Under the guidance of the CoP, set direction by prioritizing and organizing actions and resources to achieve program objectives. 
• Under the guidance of the CoP and with support from the program team, develop and drive a coherent, integrated vision, ensuring innovation, influence and impact across the program areas. 
• Support the development of annual, integrated strategic work-plans for the program, as well as regular reporting to the donor. 
• Serve as Head of Sub-Office for Surkhet and oversee the Cluster Coordinator in Jumla, ensuring the programs approach and vision to implementation management remains safe, efficient, coordinated and beneficiary- responsive. 

Program Implementation

• Lead the development of detailed implementation plans, flowing from annual strategic work- plans, and ensure the delivery of the same. 
• Serve as the primary role responsible for not only an integrated programming design, but most specifically, ensuring that resilience is closely integrated into all sector areas with an overarching resilience approach, inline with Mercy Corps’ global model. 
• Lead the socialization of the program with Government of Nepal stakeholders at the Region and District level, ensuring necessary approvals and collaboration as required. 
• Ensure that beneficiaries are effectively targeted according to vulnerability criteria. 
• With the CoP and Program Team, drive the development and roll out of systems that support program quality and integrated implementation approaches across sectors, partners, and program geographies. 
• Work closely with the Senior Manager for Emergency Response, to set shock and stressor trigger criteria, predetermined list of vulnerable households, and ensure capacity building on emergency response management with local authorities. 
• Integrate community approaches, gender sensitivity and capacity building into all activities as appropriate. 
• Provide managerial and programmatic oversight to partners and sub-grantee(s). 
• Produce written reports on program activities, capturing the impacts of activities. 
• Oversee efforts to design effective M&E systems for the program, and linkages with internal M&E systems. 
• Create and follow effective stakeholder management plans, ensuring sound and proactive communications with Mercy Corps Nepal, partner organizations, Mercy Corps headquarters, USAID, Government of Nepal authorities, and colleague agencies. 
• Conduct frequent field visits to all project sites - spend up to 45% of time away from home base. 
• Fulfill Mercy Corps’ Program Management Minimum Standards based on the organization-wide guide. 

Team Management and Capacity Building

• Provide strategic guidance and mentor team members to achieve the program objectives to the highest quality standards. 
• Drive a culture of learning, curiosity and urgency among program teams, supporting innovation, influence and impact. 
• Ensure all teams members and partners have internalized the programs vision and theory of change as per the resilience framework and related learning. 
• Identify where capacity development is necessary, and directly provide guidance or identify technical support. 
• Facilitate opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed. 
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence. 
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews. 
• Set-up regular team-building efforts and regular review and reflection processes among team members and ensure the integration of all team members into relevant decision-making processes. 
• Supervise and manage all program staff to ensure day-to-day activities are implemented in a coordinated fashion according to schedule, budget and the highest quality standards. 
• Supervise and manage all program partnerships to ensure sound coordination in the context of an overall program strategic and resilience-building framework. 
• Manage and help with the recruitment orientation, professional development and ongoing training of OFAP staff to ensure they are of the quality and technical capacity necessary to ensure the successful implementation of activities. 

Finance & Compliance Management

• In collaboration with the country program's operations and finance departments, ensure proper financial management, procurement, administration, human resources and logistics (including transport, warehousing and asset management) needs of the program are conducted within Mercy Corps' policy and with the maximum benefit to the program 
• Monitor adherence to grant agreement, Mercy Corps' policies and procedures and relevant external rules and regulations, including those of the Government of Nepal. 
• Support the CoP in leadership of monthly Budget vs. Actual (BvA) analysis processes, with monthly forecasting, tied to work plans, and help lead the process of adaptive management to make adjustments to spending and work plans accordingly, as needed, but also in compliance with donor regulations. 

Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) and Reporting: 

• Facilitate the achievement of performance-based targets and outcomes and lead efforts to design effective, proactive, and iterative M&E systems following the program's logical framework and results chain measurement. 
• Oversee the scope of work, deliverables and overall quality of work of any internal or external evaluation or research partners. 
• Oversee the scheduling and production of formal and informal reports on all aspects of the program in a timely and efficient manner. 
• Ensure program data and analysis is used for learning by holding and leading semi- annual CLA program workshops with all program partners. 
• With the support of the M&E Director, support the roll out of monitoring and evaluation framework, and strategic research that contributes to program learning related to resilience. 
• Document achievements/impact of innovative program components of the program. 
• Ensure that M&E and all team members’ together focus on assisting the program to generate practical information that can be used for ongoing program analysis and decision-making while also capturing results at the impact level. 

Representation and Coordination: 

• Facilitate the development and management of positive relationships with the agencies and ministries within the Government of Nepal relevant to the program's successful implementation. 
• As agreed with the CoP, liaise with and represent programs to USAID and other cooperating stakeholders. 
• As directed by the CoP, represent Mercy Corps at government donor, NGO and other relevant events in the field, in close coordination with the CoP and Country Director. 
• Develop clear coordination plans and with support of the CoP, drive systematic coordination and information sharing with consortium partners, sub- grantees, local government and other implementers as well as with other Mercy Corps programs. 

Security

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership. 
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies. 
• Serve as the Head of Sub-Office in Surkhet, being ultimately responsible for security and other office- related policies and strategies. 

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: Direct supervision of Program Units, all based in Surket or other field offices, such as Senior Technical managers and Cluster Office Coordinators, and with and through them, of the Program Units at the regional levels. 

Accountability 

Reports Directly to: Chief of Party Works Directly with: Program Managers, M&E Manager and in-country finance and operations teams, HQ Regional Program Team, HQ Technical Support Unit 

Knowledge and Experience 

• MA/S or equivalent experience in international development, management, economic development or other relevant field. 
• At least 12-15 years of relevant professional experience with positions of progressively greater responsibilities. 
• At least five years in a senior management role is required with experience in program management related to multi-sectoral program activities strongly preferred. 
• Strong knowledge of integrated programs and resilience concepts- and ability to demonstrate how to implement such program design. 
• Experience in at least two, and ideally more, of the following sectors is required: resilience, food security, emergency response (including cash and vouchers), agriculture, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, adaptation to climate change and disaster risk reduction. 
• History of working effectively and respectfully with national government, L/INGOs, contractors and other partners. 
• Experience with USAID rules, regulations and requirements is preferred, ideally having worked directly on a complex USAID program previously. 
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members. 
• Experience working at national level required. 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English. Short-listed candidates will be requested to submit a writing sample in English. 
• Strong computer literacy with a full knowledge of office applications. 

Success Factors: The successful DCoP will combine exceptional management skills and experience in building and maintaining donor and partner relationships. S/he will have an ability to think creatively about improving food security, community development and resilience. The DCoP will have proven experience with cross-cultural team and capacity building, individual staff development and strong mentoring skills. Multi-tasking, prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail as well as 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 in all situations 

Ongoing Learning in support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development 

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives. 

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today. 

Equal Employment Opportunity: Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact. 

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work. 

Safeguarding & Ethics: Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.