Location: Surkhet
Position Status: Full-time, Regular
Salary Level: M3

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 USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs, and implemented 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 “Building Hope Along the Karnali River Basin (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.

General Position Summary

The Senior Agricultural Manager provides overall leadership to the Bhakari program’s Agriculture component design and implementation. S/he supports and manages a team of field professionals to ensure that Mercy Corps is implementing high quality, impactful programming with the necessary management and support structures to sustain agriculture programs. The role also includes ensuring appropriate systems and support mechanisms are in place to track, analyze and report on results as well as engaging with senior management on the strategic direction of the overall agriculture component. Specifically, S/he shall provide overall leadership to the agriculture strategy, will create, roll-out and help manage a component of agriculture which focuses on strengthening community and institutional systems to be able to cope, respond and recover to a range of ecological, health and economic shocks and stresses for the ultimate purpose of food security. The ASM will design a clear strategy to roll out agriculture input and voucher interventions in 210 vulnerable and food insecure communities in the mid hill and high mountains of the Karnali river basin alongside a capacity strengthening of farmers group, private and public sectors actors. The Agricultural component will be fully sequenced, layered and integrated with other complementary emergency food security activities including emergency cash mechanisms, water access and management and DRR interventions. The Bhakari program will coordinate and collaborate with other USAID funded initiatives including KAWAS, KISAN II and SUHAARA II and wider actors to contribute to sustainable emergency food security systems development in the Karnali River Basin. 

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

Essential Job Responsibilities

STRATEGY & PLANNING

•  Develop Agriculture technical strategy paper for the Bhakari program, elaborating the vision initially laid out in the proposal. Set a clear vision for the response, working closely with field leadership.
•  Develop detailed program work plans, approaches and relevant tools based on Bhakari overall strategy (theory of change, pathways, approaches) for agriculture; agribusiness; climate change adaptation; and natural resource management (NRM).
•  Develop standard operating guidelines (SOG) for use of field staff and partners for each of the major interventions of agriculture (i.e. permagardens, agroforestry, animal husbandry)
•  Ensure Agriculture activities, approaches and tools fit within country and regional strategies, as well as USAID goals and national government agriculture development policies and frameworks.
• Prior experience in USAID funded complex food security programs is highly preferred.
•  Support resilience integration in design, recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed.
•  Lead on measurement and analysis of agriculture key performance indicators to inform strategic decision making and embed resilience measurement into monitoring, evaluation, research and learning framework and tools.
•  Lead in a vision for agriculture approaches that target the most remote and vulnerable households, and when successful, lead on the knowledge management and learning transfer to the wider humanitarian community.
•  At the MC Nepal country program level, advise the Country Diretor, Chief of Party and Deputy Chief of Party as to strategic investments and decisions to be made to better implement agriculture and food security strategy and programs.
•  Serve as a member of the Bhakari program Senior Management Team.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION

•  Lead the program team(s) in design and implementation of the Agriculture and Food Security and facilitate coordination with emergency response, water and DRR especially around EWS, climate and weather information and mitigation and adaptation technologies.
• Develop program(s) agriculture input and voucher implementation strategies, including partnership frameworks, shock and stressor triggers, program participants targeting and distribution process.
•  Support the assessment, design, authorization of all agriculture and food security interventions for Bhakari, that includes oversee farmers group mobilization and strengthening; establishment of weather and climate information system, strengthening of capacity on business development service providers, implementation of integrated community action plans, mainstreaming of community action plans into the development planning process of the local governments.
•  Oversee and lead all market studies/assessments, workshops, training and orientation programs and formal/informal interactions with program participants, partners and stakeholders.
•  Oversee work planning and implementation of Bhakari’s agriculture, food security and nutrition strategy including operationalizing sequencing, layering and integration of activities and, design risk informed work plans, standard operating procedures.
•  Facilitate adaptive management and review meetings with central, field teams and partners.
•  Oversee program startup and ongoing program management and administration of teams across various field locations.
•  Coordinate with other Bhakari sector managers to integrate the activities that are cross cutting and build the capacity of the provincial and district agriculture staff to understand the points of coordination and support them to implement the activities accordingly.
•  Support teams to conduct systemic vulnerability and risk assessments, analyze data and utilize findings on an on-going basis to inform and adapt program design/approaches.
•  Assist in the review of implementation/project proposals for soundness of approach, particularly around agriculture and food security within a resilience framework.
•  Ensure that program implementation is responsive to communities and partners, and consistent with Mercy Corps’ relevant program guidelines, principles, values, quality standards and strategic plan.
•  Ensure that program participants are effectively targeted according to established vulnerability criteria, and that feedback mechanisms are in place.
•  Fulfill Mercy Corps’ Program Management Minimum Standards- based on the organization-wide guide.
•  Ensure program implementation is on time, target and budget, using effective M&E systems to reach desired impacts.
•  Engage closely with M&E systems to ensure effective and useful gathering of monitoring information, especially post-distribution monitoring and feedback from CARM systems, and engage closely with the program’s collaboration, learning and adapting (CLA) processes to practice quality adaptive management of the emergency response component.
•  Ensure all interventions adhere to Mercy Corps’ Code of Conduct; Gender, Diversity and Inclusion guiding documents; Core Humanitarian Principles and Do No Harm

FINANCE AND COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

•  Create and maintain systems ensuring effective and transparent use of financial resources for timely and informative reporting in line with donor and Mercy Corps policies and procedures.
•  Ensure compliance with USAID and Mercy Corps regulations related to emergency programming.
•  Build and/or maintain operational systems that ensure proper administrative support for programs.

INFLUENCE AND REPRESENTATION

•  Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, local governments, other USAID implementing partners (i.e. Tayar program, KAWAS program) and other stakeholders.
•  Identify, build and manage collaborative relationships, at the direction of the Chief of Party, with key donor partners within the Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs, in Washington, DC, the regional office in Bangkok, and the USAID/Nepal mission.
•  Represent Mercy Corps- both the Bhakari program and our entire country program, to national platforms for DRR and resilience including Provincial and National Government departments and staff.
•  Represent Mercy Corps programs with national and international media and participate in community activities as appropriate.
•  Demonstrate flexibility, resilience and ability to maintain positive relationships and composure.
•  Maintain high ethical standards and treat people with respect and dignity

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.

Others

•  Ensure proper integration of safeguarding and GESI aspects into agriculture 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 themselves 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 their supervisor and or Chief of Party

Supervisory Responsibility: Directly supervises Agriculture Advisor and indirectly the agriculture staff of consortium partners.

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.

Reports Directly to: This position reports directly to the Deputy Chief of Party (DCoP)

Works Directly with: Senior Managers for DRR, Emergency Response and MEL Director, international, national and local partners team; regional resilience hub and regional and global TSU colleagues.

Knowledge and Experience

•  Must have a Bachelor’s degree, preferably a Master’s degree, in agriculture.
•  Must have a minimum of 7 years’ professional experience working on similar, large-scale, donor-funded agriculture development projects, preferably in Nepal; at least 3-5 years of progressive senior management experience on same projects.
•  Must have proven experience managing large complex teams and coordinating effectively with multiple partners and stakeholder groups.
•  Experience on USAID funded large complex food security programs highly preferred.
•  Strong experience of managing INGO's and N-NGO 's staff under one umbrella.
•  Must have specific technical skills and significant experience with agriculture systems, with a good understanding of both the production and the market sides.
•  Preferred experience in climate smart agriculture (CSA) and conservation agriculture (CA) approaches, including a familiarity with related initiatives in Nepal.
•  Good understanding of basic nutrition requirements to be embedded within agriculture programs
•  Ability to write and communicate effectively in English.
•  Understanding of local structures and processes in Nepal; understanding of current agriculture related Government policies and programs is also desirable.
•  Demonstrated ability to create and maintain effective working relationships with national level ministries, NGO partners, international agencies, and U.S. government agencies
•  Excellent analytical and self-motivation skills; excellent advocacy and persuasion skills; able to think critically
•  Demonstrated skills in capacity building, mentoring, leadership, and organizational development.

Success Factors

The successful Senior Agriculture Manager will combine exceptional management skills and experience with their technical sector. S/he will have an outstanding ability to develop, implement and manage innovative programs within the current and future program structure of Mercy Corps in the region. S/he will also have proven experience with cross-cultural teams and capacity building, individual staff development, and strong mentoring skills. 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 in all situations. 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. 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