Location: Dhangadhi

Position Status: Full-time, Regular

Salary Level: M1

Current Team Member: N/A

Program / Department Summary

Managing Risks through Economic Development (M-RED) project is a 2-year program with the goal to develop and implement a model for integrated disaster risk reduction (DRR) and economic development activities, building sustained and market-driven approaches to DRR that increase resiliency to multiple disasters. The program targets vulnerable communities in Nepal and Timor Leste, building on Mercy Corps’ experience in both countries, this program has been recently expanded in Indonesia.

MRED promotes the system approach to preparedness, response and recovery working with stakeholders at community, sub-national to national level. Interventions at the community and household levels will be those that both mitigate disaster risks and increase income levels. Communities will increase their DRR knowledge and capacity. While at the same time, increasing their economic opportunities by engaging in the production, value addition, and sale of crops utilized for disaster mitigation with the dual purpose of increasing household incomes.

The program will reinforce new or improved economic opportunities by enabling communities and households to access markets for inputs and sales of high-demand/ high-value commodities. By carrying out market assessments, and by facilitating linkages between household level producers and local markets, the program will work to overcome these obstacles.

General Position Summary

The Inclusion and Accountability Advisor will be overall responsible for the Gender, Diversity and Inclusion along with Transparency, Accountability and Feedback handling and implementation of the M-RED

Nepal program, and takes leadership on cross cutting approaches, GESI sensitivity and integration, governance practices along program strategies, approaches and methods closely coordinating with the Program Manager M-RED program. They must be a dynamic and effective who has a sound understanding of both disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and market-driven programming and will have strong stakeholder management, team management, communication, and representation skills.

The Inclusion and Accountability Advisor will design and implement a strategy to ensure the program appropriately addresses the varied needs of women, men, girls, and boys, and that program staff are sensitive to gender, age, caste, ability, and other social markers along with the transparency and accountability at community level. The Inclusion and Accountability Advisor will ensure that the social inclusion dimensions of disaster resilience is effectively addressed across all activities and components. They will manage staff and coordinate closely with partners to fulfill the gender and social inclusion goals of the program.

They will be expected to drive an innovative, integrated technical approach to program implementation that focuses on long-term change and sustained impact. As gender and social inclusion (GESI), governance and MEL are cross-cutting and core components of the MC, the Inclusion and Accountability Advisor is required to lead these components and ensure GESI sensitivity and integration, governance practices and MEL systems are integrated into their work area.

Essential Job Responsibilities

The specific duties and responsibilities of the Inclusion and Accountability Advisor include, but are not limited to the following:

Program Implementation and Technical Support

• Facilitate and support the program team and district implementing partners to fully implement the program activities on the ground through an inclusion and accountability lens.
• Lead technical input, guidance and communication for the program’s governance strategies, providing technical direction, developing work plans in collaboration with regional team, and program staff, monitoring implementation and impact, training staff in all relevant technical areas as required.
• Document the progress and achievements to ensure best practices are captured and disseminated.
• Integrate community approaches, gender sensitivity and capacity building into all activities as appropriate.
• Support rapid gender assessment for a gender and social inclusion analysis, manage data collection, lead data analysis and develop recommendations based on findings. Work closely with the program team to integrate the findings from the gender analysis into the project’s work plan and milestones.
• Develop Gender and Social Inclusion and Governance Strategy to guide gender and social inclusion integration and priorities across the life of the program along with designing the new program.
• Support the program team, including partners, on gender and social inclusion integration including conducting capacity building and training.
• Support integration of gender and social inclusion into the program’s M&E to ensure that gender and social inclusion are reflected in output, outcome and impact level indicators.
• Advise on technical aspects of good governance, community mobilization/engagement program and institutional capacity building activities in the program to develop responsive government structures and participatory governance mechanisms in target areas
• Integrate community approaches, gender sensitivity and capacity building into all activities as appropriate

Monitoring, Evaluations, and Learning (MEL) and Reporting

• Coordinate closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team to generate and collect required information and data for measuring program intervention results.
• Contribute to the production of formal and informal reports of the program in a timely and efficient manner.
• Contribute to ensuring program data and analysis are used for learning by actively participating in all program workshops with program partners, donors and others as directed.
• 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.

Program Administration And Operations

• Lead and Coordinate with District Coordinators, Technical leads and Officers for all field activities.
• Coordinate and facilitate district/regional level events related to studies/assessments, workshops, training and orientation programs and formal/informal interactions with program participants, partners and stakeholders.
• Draft and/or review scope of work to hire and manage any technical consultants, including review for technical efficacy and contract budget.

Liaison, Coordination and Collaboration

• Organize critical review and reflection meeting periodically to share plan, progress, issues and way forward
• Coordinate with Mercy Corps Technical Support Unit (TSU) teams to leverage supports and acquire technical guidance on a regular basis.

Finance and Compliance Management

• Ensure all internal control procedures are adhered to and that necessary measures are put in place to ensure high standards of accountability and compliance.
• Work closely with finance/compliance to mitigate fraud, conflict of interest and legal ramifications of Mercy Corps activities.
• Support and orient on MC Code of Ethics and uphold Mercy Corps’ Zero tolerance of corruption policy.

Influence & Representation

• As required by the program management at both district and province levels liaise with and represent the program to local government officials, humanitarian clusters, AIN forums, civil society/community leaders, political parties and other key stakeholders.
• Establish and maintain professional and productive relationships with communities and local government.
• Serve as a key focal point for program related issues and problems in the ground and seek support from central level as required.

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.
  

Accountability to Program Participants

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging participating 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.
  

Others

• 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 Country Director.

Supervisory Responsibility: NA

Accountability

Reports Directly to: Program Manager

Works Directly with: Program team, Mercy Corps Nepal country office, partners, and Mercy Corps headquarters support.

Knowledge and Experience

• At least Bachelor degree in social sciences, Gender, Development Studies/Management, agriculture market livelihood, DRR or any related discipline. A Master's Degree is preferred.
• At least 3-5 years of experience working with I/NGOs, and/or private sector organizations focused on Gender, Community Governance in food security, disaster risk management, agriculture & livelihood and humanitarian assistance program.
• Demonstrated ability to work in complex environments under tight deadlines.
• Strong coordination skills, including capacity to coordinate large teams remotely.
• Strong organizational and logistical skills with demonstrated experience in strategic planning and ability to work independently are required.
• Good writing and computer skills, including preliminary research and information gathering from the internet, MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint preparation are required.
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Nepali required.
• Effective writing skills to prepare reports, complete analyses and make presentations.
• Negotiation, networking, advocacy, coordination and representation skills with key local actors is preferred
• Ability to work effectively with an ethnically diverse team in a sensitive environment.
• Proven ability to learn quickly, facilitate program implementation to achieve stated results and objectives;
• Skills in participatory learning, action, and facilitating collaborative problem solving.
• Demonstrated ability to foster commitment and build capacity among program staff and in-country actors to ensure gender and social inclusion integration and empowerment.
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members.

Success Factors

The successful Inclusion and Accountability Advisor will have strong technical skills combined with strategic visioning and leadership. They will have an outstanding ability to inspire teams to deeply understand social dynamics and integrate this understanding into activities to enhance program impact. They 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

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.

Shortlisting will be done on the basis of your answers while applying, please answer the questions carefully. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Telephone enquiries will not be entertained.