Location: Kathmandu, Nepal- with frequent field visits.
Position Status: Full-time, Regular  
Salary Level: D 

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps is preparing a number of emergency response programs and is looking for a strong Emergency Response Consortium Director to manage the emergency response work as a whole, including a large consortium of international and local implementing partners. The program will ensure basic needs for the most vulnerable in Nepal, as a response to the COVID-19 epidemic but also to ensure that the resilience of vulnerable households is strengthened and maintained into the monsoon season. Activities will include unconditional cash transfer, mostly via digital platforms, social and behavior change communications, WASH, health and nutrition programming, cross-cutting protection work, and key linkages to government shock responsive social protection systems, including influencing the humanitarian community via key lessons learned and knowledge management materials. The program will cover three provinces, including 7 districts and is expected to last approximately 6 months. However, Mercy Corps is scoping a number of new opportunities and interested in expanding some of this work beyond this particular program duration, so the ideal candidate will be interested in making a long-term commitment to a progressive, cutting-edge and dynamic team with Mercy Corps Nepal.

General Position Summary

The Consortium Director serves as a strong team leader for the consortium as a whole and oversees technical quality, represents the interests of all consortium partners, and ensures it is working effectively and efficiently across member agencies. S/he will be an effective communicator with exceptional team building and coordination skills. S/he is responsible for managing the relationship between the five international NGO partners implementing a common, rapid response, in addition to downstream partners of local NGOs and financial service providers. S/he is detailoriented with excellent planning skills, experienced in donor representation, reporting and budget management, as well as demonstrated technical capacity in emergency response, especially multi-purpose cash assistance.  

The Consortium Director will provide operational leadership to the consortium. S/he will manage the contractual relationship between the different partners and the current donor; coordinate the delivery of high quality programming; report on the activities implemented based on donor regulations, ensure on-time, on scope, and on budget-status of the entire program, and build relationships between the consortium, the different clusters and working groups.

As gender equality and social inclusion (GESI), safeguarding, governance and environmental sensitivity are crosscutting and core components of the all MC programs, the Consortium Director is required to own these components and ensure these components are integrated into his/her work area.

Essential Job Responsibilities

The specific duties and responsibilities of the Consortium Director include, but are not limited to, the following:

Strategy & Vision

• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed
• Oversee the set-up of the Consortium structure, including operations, administrative, financial and programmatic start-up elements to ensure common understanding and ownership of the program
• Lead the development of the Consortium, ensuring clear, consistent vision behind the technical design is articulated and rolled out across the team

Consortium & Program Management

• Manage consortia’s Operational Coordination Unit, consisting of technical leads for each INGO partner, to work out day to day implementation issues Board
• Lead regular consortia check in meetings, ensure consistency of service delivery
• Maintain strong and transparent communication with consortium partners
• Lead the development of the Consortium, facilitate detailed planning and alignment of all programmatic components, and ensure successful roll- out of the technical design and work plan
• Maintain implementation momentum by consolidating implementation strategies and plans
• Oversee operational planning for ongoing program activities across the consortium
• Ensure that program implementation is conducted with the respect to grant agreement(s) and timeframe
• Ensure monitoring systems are in place, including gathering data for case studies and lessons learned
• Conduct planning and progress review meetings; ensure regular analysis and adaptation based on data, especially with a dedicated GESI-focus
• Adhere to all Mercy Corps procurement, logistics and administrative regulations related to programming
• Develop and manage a clear system for tracking and reporting against deliverables; Ensure timely submission of high quality donor reports on behalf of the consortium
• Engage the team in discussions on developments in thinking and backstop where necessary to ensure programme quality
• Troubleshoot any technical and administrative issues that come in the way of a successful program implementation

Coordination & Representation

• Participate in external representation of the consortium with various groups including donors and, other humanitarian stakeholders;
• Represent consortium progress to donors as well as within the Cash Working Group;
• Share learning from the consortium with the greater humanitarian community within Nepal as well as regionally and globally as relevant

Financial & Operational Management

• Ensure that procurement and logistic planning is done in a routine and effective way
• Oversee budget and regular Budget vs. Actuals status and analysis
• Manage the procurement plan and any other operational planning needs
• Monitor quality adherence to grant and sub grants agreements, Mercy Corps’ policies and procedures and relevant external rules and regulations

Team Management & Capacity Strengthening

• Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance & reach programme objectives
• Play an active role in providing regular mentoring support to MC and partners team
• Provide ongoing technical assistance to local partner staff, MC staff and community stakeholders on the implementation of the activities
• Design and facilitate capacity building training to Mercy Corps and partner staff as and when required
• Identify technical skills gaps of project staff to provide necessary support through training, workshops, and materials as per need.
• Regularly convene partners and Mercy Corps team to monitor progress against project milestones and share lessons learned
• Serve as an overall member of the Mercy Corps Nepal team, including participation with various team building and capacity strengthening initiatives

Security

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership
• Proactively ensure that team members and community operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies

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
• Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues

Safeguarding, Ethics & Integrity

• All Mercy Corps staff members are expected to behave ethically and demonstrate the highest integrity in their professional and personal life. Mercy Corps has zero tolerance to any form of fraud, corruption, abuse, harassment or exploitation. Any breach of our policies or misconduct will lead to disciplinary action or may lead to termination
• Mercy Corps has zero tolerance for abuse, sexual misconduct and sexual exploitation (PSEA) of the people we work with and our own staff members. All staff must commit to internal policies

Others

• Ensure proper integration of safeguarding and GESI aspects into sector specific project planning and implementation
• Mercy Corps as a humanitarian agency is expected to respond as and when crisis and humanitarian situation engulfs. As an MC employee all staff are expected to be part of humanitarian and emergency response in addition to their regular roles and responsibilities
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence
• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and not to jeopardize its humanitarian mission
• Other duties as assigned by his/her supervisor and or Country Director

Supervisory Responsibility: This person will have direct supervisory responsibility over a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Manager; a Knowledge Management and Capacity Building Manager; a Partnership (subawards) Manager, and a Technical Program Manager who oversees Mercy Corps’ local NGO partner. S/he will also manage an Operational Coordination Unit, with dotted line responsibility over the technical lead roles of the other four INGO partners.

Accountability

Reports Directly to: This position reports directly to the Mercy Corps Country Director, with a dotted line reporting responsibility to the consortium Steering Committee, consisting of the Country Directors of each of the five INGO Consortium members.

Works Directly with: Mercy Corps Nepal’s operations, HR, finance and other program teams; Mercy Corps’ HQ teams including technical advisors in cash and digital cash, gender, protection, emergency response and M&E, plus the UKbased finance and program support teams.

Knowledge and Experience

• Master’s Degree in any relevant field preferably in International studies, finance, economics or management.
• 10 years or more working experience in an international relief and development program management
• Prior experience working for an emergency response and strong understanding of digital cash.
• Previous experience in managing consortiums or managing/facilitating/influencing in network or partnership settings preferred
• Combination of direct and remote management experience preferred
• Experience developing and managing a complex work plan and budget, and facilitating adaptations where necessary.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with colleague agencies and donors, including DFID and/or USAID
• Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving
• The ability to work closely in a team, be patient, adaptable, flexible, able to improvise and work in an environment that is often stressful and potentially volatile.
• Good interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate and negotiate clearly and effectively at all levels, taking into account cultural and language difficulties.
• Strong written and oral communication skills in English required, including report development, writing and editing; experience with direct donor reporting.
• Excellent negotiation and representation skills and the ability to work under tight deadlines and often stressful situations.

Success Factors

The successful will combine exceptional team building, planning and communication skills and experience in maintaining donor and partner relationships. S/he will possess a high level of adaptability and be able to adjust to a constantly changing working environment. S/he will also have proven experience with cross-cultural team and capacity building, individual staff development and strong mentoring skills. Prioritizing, problem solving, ability to seize opportunities, 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 in all situations. Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Please Note: This position is targeted to high capacity Nepali candidates. However, we will accept applications from NonNepali who are already based in Kathmandu, and willing to be employed with National employment status.