Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

The Program

Mercy Corps has been operational in South Sudan since 2005 and is currently engaged in both Development and humanitarian responses. In Western Equatorial, Mercy Corps has been partnering with SDC, AFD, and many partners to Strengthen the Resilience, Agriculture, and Markets (STREAM) in Mundri East, Mundri West, and Mvolo Counties. Mercy Corps has a country office in the capital of Juba and field offices in states. Mercy Corps programs include Food security and livelihoods, Expanding Economic Opportunities, Peace and governance, and Water Security.

Mercy Corps is recruiting for an FSL Technical Advisor to provide leadership to the STREAM program in South Sudan during which the FSL Technical Advisor will guide the STREAM team to fully roll out the program in Mundri West, Mundri East, and Mvolo counties and work with country and regional team to support fundraising of STREAM co-finance. Potential candidates should have specialized Market Systems Development (MSD) experience, especially MSD in crisis in complex crises including in emergencies, flooded areas, internally displaced persons, and or refugees.

The Position

Working under the direction of the Director of Programs in Juba the FSL Technical Advisor is expected to contribute to the quality assurance of program implementation of FSL and integrate gender, youth, protection, monitoring, and evaluation and ensure that Mercy Corps programs/projects bring a significant contribution to reducing poverty and build secure productive and just communities and play a leading role in transforming Mercy Corps programs in South Sudan.

FSL Technical Advisor will oversee and develop high-quality design and implementation of long-term development and emergency programs and lead the development of new and innovative initiatives that effectively address the underlying causes of poverty. The successful candidate must also ensure that systems and people are in place to ensure proper management of these projects and programs. They will work closely with all FSL clusters and ensure standard FSL practices are applied throughout the Programme area.

FSL Technical Advisor will also play a pivotal role in building the capacity of the country on MSD, local partners, national staff, and other stakeholders in the principles and practices of MSD in FSL. They will design and conduct appropriate training modules and mentor staff, colleagues, and partners in order to build their capacity on MSD across key outcome areas. They will work with the country team and TSU to develop an MSD strategy for Mercy Corps South Sudan ensuring MSD is mainstreamed across the 4 objectives of Food Security, Economic Opportunities, Water Security, Peace, and Good Governance.

Essential Responsibilities

PROVIDE TECHNICAL FSL SUPPORT TO THE FSL CLUSTER AND RELIEF REHABILITATION COMMISSON PARTNERS

• Provide technical advice to cluster program managers to ensure that partner FSL strategies are aligned, and to help provide quality control.
• Provide training to partner FSL staff as required.
• Conduct monitoring visits to partner field projects, where security permits
• In coordination with the WASH Technical lead, develop a monthly monitoring tool to track project progress.
• Represent the Mercy Corps at FSL cluster meetings.

PROVIDE TECHNICAL FSL SUPPORT AND COORDINATION OF MERCY CORPS FSL PROJECTS

• Lead roll out of all STREAM program activities.
• Identify priorities in terms of assessments, designing and overseeing KAP and other surveys.
• Provide technical advice to program managers (including quality control monitoring visits) and trainings/workshops as required.
• Proposal/concept note development.
• Report writing.
• Set of an information management/project monitoring system for FSL Programmes.
• Lead the development of a Food Security and Expanding Economic Opportunities strategy to contribute to Mercy Corps country strategy, especially ensuring integration of MSD principles in the strategy.

EXTERNAL COORDINATION

• Share relevant project information with other stakeholders.
• Participate in FSL coordination meetings.
• Examine and pursue funding opportunities from donors and partners, in collaboration with the CD (including developing and submitting concept papers, proposals, etc).

QUALITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

• Coordinate with the team in the Country Office and in HQ to build systems that promote beneficiary accountability by ensuring that communities participate in initial assessments and program design.
• Ensure that communities are informed about our programs and what we do, are aware of their entitlements, are comfortable to give feedback, and that feedback is used to improve the quality of our programs.
• Support and inculcate a culture of learning between programs through consistent sharing of M&E processes and systems.
• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission.

ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

• Develop and implement a comprehensive staff training series to build team capacity in the area of FSL and reporting.
• Build the capacity of local partners in FSL and reporting.
• Build the capacity of all relevant team members to develop and maintain a robust FSL system, including periodical reflection and analysis of program monitoring data.
• Develop plans to mentor and coach colleagues to build their capacity to enable them to develop high-quality reports and other documents.
• Facilitate the development and execution of context-specific solutions to improve collaboration, coordination, and performance.

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

• Manage the development of monitoring and tracking systems.
• Ensure that all communications are in line with Mercy Corps values and goals in relation to DM&E and communications.
• Develop and implement plans for further integration of information management systems within Mercy Corps and across partner agencies.
• Manage the institutional knowledge within the South Sudan program and contribute to wider knowledge management.

PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT AND REPORTS MANAGEMENT

• Coordinate with field program staff and other relevant Mercy Corps stakeholders on proposal development, project design in pursuit of high-impact and cost-effective program strategies and activities.
• Maintain a comprehensive list and schedule of private and institutional funding reports, including the detailed requirements necessary for each donor/grant and/or project.
• Develop a program reporting schedule and share it among all PMs and ensure all reports are completed and submitted on schedule.
• Develop program operational reporting templates that facilitate the acquisition and aggregation of information in programs.

Supervisory Responsibility

Technical oversight of field-based activities undertaken by STREAM team members including program officers, and M&E officers, works closely with all country PMs and sector specialists.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Director of Programs, Juba

Works Directly With: Country Director, Finance Director, Operations Manager, HR manager, Security Manager, Program Development and Reporting Specialist and other team members

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.

Minimum Qualifications & Transferable Skills

• Degree in Social Sciences or Agriculture related.
• Experience in donor relations in a humanitarian/developmental context.
• A minimum of 5 years’ experience in FSL projects.
• Significant experience in developing NGO country FSL strategies.
• Good understanding of the MSD approach.
• Must have extensive training skills and experience working with a variety of donors.
• Advanced computer skills and experience developing data management systems.
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methodologies is required.
• Previous experience in South Sudan and/or Sudan is strongly preferred.
• Team player who takes initiative and is a problem-solver.
• Effective verbal and written communication, multi-tasking, and organizational skills.
• Ability to manage priorities autonomously.
• Willingness to travel to the field frequently (security permitting)
• Professional language skills in English (required), and Arabic (strongly preferred)
• Effective verbal and written communication, multi-tasking, and organizational skills.
• Prior experience living overseas and ability to work in a fluid security environment.

Success Factors

The ability to interact effectively with international and national personnel both in a managerial as well as training capacity. An ability to support programmatic objectives with timely and meaningful financial information. A demonstrated ability to multi-task, meet deadlines, and process information in support of changing program activities. An impeccable professional standard of FSL and reporting as well as the willingness and ability to enforce compliance with Mercy Corps and donor policies and procedures. The FSL Technical Advisor must be willing to travel regularly to Mercy Corps field offices and project sites. The South Sudan FSL program is relatively long standing, with a growing portfolio in a fluid security environment. The FSL Advisor must, therefore, demonstrate a high degree of flexibility and a willingness to perform a wide range of tasks.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

This position will be based in Juba, South Sudan – the location of Mercy Corp’s Country Office – with travel to other States as needed including Unity, Warrap, Upper Nile, and Western. This position will require to reside in a serviced living environment in guest housing; and must be able to work in an environment with energy, transportation, and communication challenges. This position is unaccompanied. The team member must always follow all security protocols.

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 and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. 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.

As a safeguarding measure, Mercy Corps screens all potential US-Based employees. This is done following the conclusion of recruitment and prior to assuming full employment.

Our screening process is designed to be transparent and completed in partnership with new Team Members. You will have the opportunity to disclose any prior convictions at the conclusion of the recruitment process before the check is initiated. We ask that you do not disclose any prior convictions in your application materials or during the recruitment process.