Location: Surkhet, Nepal
Position Status: Full-time Regular Staff
Salary Grade: M3

Program and Team 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. Bhakhari will strengthen foundational skills and capacity of disaster management bodies to prepare for, recover, and manage impacts resulting from recurrent and concurrent shocks and stresses in the Karnali river basin. The program will implement a community-based DRR and emergency response approach through development and implementation of integrated community and watershed assessments and management plans while supporting functional early warning systems, saving lives and improving the lead time to secure and save assets while establishment of GESI first emergency cash funds which will improve the response and recovery for those impacted by shocks and stresses.

Position Summary

The Senior Manager Disaster Risk Reduction provides overall leadership to the Bhakari program’s DRR 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 DRR 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 response.

Specifically, this role will provide overall leadership to the DRR strategy, designs a clear strategy to roll out community based DRM processes in 210 vulnerable and food insecure communities in the mid hill and high mountains of the Karnali river basin alongside a capacity strengthening and institutional support process to Municipal disaster risk reduction committees and emergency operation centers to enable longer term disaster management, emergency response capacities and handover of certain aspects of the strategy to local government. The DRR component will be fully sequenced, layered and integrated with other complementary food security activities including emergency cash mechanisms, water access and management and agricultural components. 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 DRM systems development in the Karnali River Basin S/he will technically support, backstop and supervise all DRR related program staff at the regional and field levels. The DRR Component Manager along with the DRR field based staff will work to design DRR related activities and support its implementation with sound technical oversight through capacity building of local partners, coordination and technical advice to strengthen program such as – the Early Warning System, DRR/DRM, data analysis and management, establishment of community response capacity; raising of general risk awareness levels and the institutionalization of all interventions and initiatives within government plans at VDC, Municipal and District levels with a regional perspective.

As genderequality and social inclusion (GESI), resilience, governance and M&E are cross cutting and core components of the Bhakari program, the DRRSM is required to own these components and ensure GESI sensitivity and integration, resilience, governance practices and M&E systems are integrated into this area of DRR work.

Essential Responsibilities

The specific duties and responsibilities of the Senior Manager Disaster Risk Reduction includes, but are not limited to, the following:

STRATEGY AND PLANNING

• Design and draft an DRR 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.
• Ensure DRR activities, approaches and tools fit within country and regional strategies, as well as USAID goals and national government disaster reduction policies and frameworks.
• 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 DRR 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 community DRR 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 Director and Director of Programs as to strategic investments and decisions to be made to better implement DRR 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 DRR and facilitate coordination with emergency response, water and agriculture especially around EWS, climate and weather information and mitigation and adaptation technologies.
• Develop program(s) implementation strategies, including partnership frameworks, shock and stressor triggers, program participants targeting and distribution process
• Support the assessment, design, authorization of all DRR interventions for Bhakari, that includes overseeing DRR committee’s formation and strengthening; establishment of early warning system, strengthening of capacity on disaster response, implementation of household DRR planning, mainstreaming of DRR plans into the development planning process.
• Oversee and lead all DRR events related to 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 DRR strategy including operationalizing sequencing, layering and integration of activities,design risk informed work plans and 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 regional and district DRR staffs 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 DRR and CCA within a resilience framework.
• Ensure that program implementation is responsive to communities and partners, and consistent with MercyCorps’ 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 desiredimpacts.
• 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 guidingdocuments; 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 progra -, 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, especially related to staff and partners’ security during emergency distributions, as well as digital information security related to digital emergency transactions.
• Contribute to creating a secure environment for team members.

Supervisory Responsibility

• Directly manages the Disaster Risk Reduction Advisor based in Jumla

Accountability

Reports Directly to: Deputy Chief of Party

Works Directly with: Senior Technical Advisors, international, national and local partners; country-wide emergency response working group and roster; regional resilience hub and regional and global TSU colleagues. 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, monitoringand evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in international development, management, economics or other relevant field
• At least 7 years of relevant, professional experience in progressively responsible positions. At least 3-5 years in a senior leadership role for DRR in Nepal.
• Experience in USAID programming, especially for DRR (EFSP or OFDA), is preferred, including knowledge ofUSAID DRR approaches and strategies, as well as compliance parameters
  a. Demonstrated experience in conducting integrated community risk and vulnerability assessments
  b. Proven experience in designing and implementing bioengineering intervention
  c. Demonstrated skill in training and DRR capacity development of field staff
  d. Demonstrated skill in coordinating information across technical sectors and in the field
• Familiarity with National DRM policies, strategies and working with Provincial and municipal government structures for DRR, EWS and climate and weather information and integration of DRR into formal planningprocesses and budgeting procedures.
  
• Strong management skills, with experience directly supervising staff and partners.
• Experience leading the implementation of DRR work with an eye to longer-term, multi-sector integrated projects, with a strong understanding of resilience approaches as well.
• Ability to work independently in the field and show initiative. Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work cooperatively with team members.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills; ability to develop good relationships with a wide range of actors required.
• Effective writing and organizational skills for report development, complete analyses and make presentations.
• Experience representing the organization and its interests to a diverse range of local stakeholders, private sector actors, Government and partners.

Success Factors

The successful Senior Manager Disaster Risk Reduction will skillfully represent programmatic priorities of the agency to donors and regional partners while providing effective leadership to the Mercy Corps program team in the transitional response environment. S/he will be capable of multi-tasking, rapid decision-making, initiative, drive and a lot of energy, as well as high emotional intelligence, constructive mentoring skills and proven experience with capacity building. S/he will be committed to long-term program sustainability and the delivery of high-impact activities at the community level. Successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and challenging environments, and make effective written and verbal communication a priority. In particular, s/he will be flexible and adaptable with a donor that is piloting a new multi-year emergency mechanism in the context of the new creation of the Bureau for Humanitarian affairs. S/he will also be highly committed and willing to go out of his or her way to ensure dedicated, intentional integration of gender and social inclusion, one of the key tenants that this  Bhakari program is built upon. Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions The position is based in Surkhet, Nepal and it requires up to 40% travel to field locations, which may include travel to remote areas where amenities are limited. 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 eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.