Job Title:   Program Officers GIRL-H    

Organisation: Mercy Corps

Duty Station:  Moroto and Amudat, Uganda

About US:

Mercy Corps is an international non-profit organization which implements high-quality, analytical development programmes in very difficult places. Mercy Corps has been operating in Uganda since 2006. It has and continues to implement programs in Acholi and Karamoja sub regions. Mercy Corps is taking a community-led, market driven approach to address poverty and food insecurity needs through interventions that get to the root causes and contributing factors of economic vulnerability.

About GIRL-H Program:

Girls Improving Resilience through Livelihoods and Health (GIRL-H) is a three-year, 10-million-dollar program to be implemented in Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria that seeks to improve the well-being of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) and boys/men by increasing their access to skills and knowledge, health resources, formal education, and economic opportunities. GIRL-H also fosters an enabling environment by working with communities to transform unhealthy social norms and create opportunities for girls to access education and economic opportunities. Key to GIRL-H is a robust learning and research agenda that reaches across three countries to contribute to the evidence base on what works to secure access to opportunities for adolescent girls within the most marginalized communities and to better understand their contribution to household resilience. This evidence and learning will be shared to elevate Mercy Corps’ influence in the adolescent girl space and to bolster fundraising efforts to scale the model. In coordination with APOLOU Gender & Youth and Adolescents team, the GIRL-H Program Officer will support the Program Manager in the routine implementation of the GIRL program activities.

Job Summary:  Under the Program Manager’s direct supervision, the Program Officer will respond to the needs of communities through GIRL-H services. The PO will work with GIRL-H Partners, APOLOU’s Adolescents Coordinator, safe space mentors, and community structures to ensure that eligible adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), and boys are attending weekly life skills and business mentorship sessions. In coordination with the mentors, Senior Economic Empowerment Officer, Public-Private Partnerships Officer, and MEL Officer, s/he will ensure that quality and timely safe space services and interventions are delivered to the enrolled AGYW and boys, within scope and targets/he will build and maintain essential relationships with relevant community stakeholders, DLG, partners, and CBOs. S/he will work directly with girl mentors and build their capacity to ensure quality and timely implementation of GIRL activities. The Program Officer will be responsible for ensuring that GIRL-H activities are within the agreed project timeframe and approved budget.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Program Implementation

• Provide leadership and daily oversight for planning and implementation of GIRL-H Activities including mentorship and support supervision to partners and mentors
• Support the Program Manager in the development of activity plans and reporting formats for activity implementation
• Support the Program Manager in advocacy and maintenance of partnerships with the relevant departments of the Local Government at Sub County and District level to elevate GIRL-H objectives.
• Support the Program Manager in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the program activities, by Mercy Corps GIRL-H objectives.
• Contribute to the development of training curriculum, project tools, and IEC materials; facilitate GIRL-H-related training for girl mentors
• Supervise the activities and performance of partners, mentors, and TOTs; conduct routine team meetings, adhere to performance review timelines, troubleshoot challenges, and standardize implementation approaches.
• Identify and document best practices and failures in the GIRL-H program and provide timely feedback to the Program Manager.
• Work with the Finance team to ensure that activity budgets are prepared, and payments are processed promptly
• Ensure timely and consistent submission of project reports, success stories, and other relevant data to the MEL Officer and the Program Manager (weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports)

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Provide ongoing mentorship to the implementation team on data collection processes for completeness, accuracy, and timely submission.
• Oversee the governance structures filling system in the GIRL-H program implementation districts and ensure that information is organized according to the reporting and auditing needs of the program.
• Responsible for data collection including gender and age disaggregated data, data validation, assuring quality control measures, and timely data submission in coordination with MEL Officer/team
• Through the field staff, support and mentor community partners and structures on data collection and use.
• Supervise Mentors in data collection and entry to regularly update the Activity Tracker

Influence and Representation

• Support and coordinate field learning visits from district and sub-county government, partners, and external visitors, such as donors and media, in collaboration with GIRL-H Program Manager and APOLOU Team
• Support the Program Manager in coordination and communication of field activities with other NGOs and local government partners to avoid duplication of services and support an enabling environment for GIRL-H program interventions.
• Establish and maintain a productive working relationship with the local Government and Sub Counties, working in unison to develop complementary joint monitoring, evaluation, and adaptive management structures where possible.

Ethics and Integrity

• All Mercy Corps staff are expected to behave ethically and demonstrate the highest integrity in their professional and personal life. Mercy Corps has zero tolerance for 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.

Security

• Ensure data protection policies are adhered to, establishing security controls for software, hardware, and archive beneficiary databases.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• The applicant must hold a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology, Anthropology, Business Administration, Public Health, Agribusiness, or in a related field
• Three years of related professional experience in adolescent girls’ programming, youth, women empowerment, or livelihoods.
• Demonstrate skills in Partnerships and supervision
• Demonstrated skills in data collection, verification, and documentation
• Proven skills in networking, team building, community consultations, and organizational development.
• Excellent reporting, communication, and representation skills
• Willingness to consider new perspectives, promote gender equality and engage in gender training
• Ability to ride a motorcycle and he/she should be in a possession of a valid riding license
• Proven knowledge and capacity in using computer basic applications MS Word, Excel, and internet
• In-depth knowledge of the social, cultural, and economic context of Karamoja is a plus
• Fluency in local languages prevalent within the operational district was assigned (highly desired)
• The ability to communicate effectively, respectfully, and enthusiastically with community structures will be one of the position’s three success factors.
• The second will be the degree to which the Program Officer drives results, producing scheduled outputs at the deadline and to expected quality.
• The third success factor will be the degree to which the officer effectively gathers activity monitoring and evaluation data and utilizes data to inform activity implementation and program learning.

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified and interested applicants must submit their cover letters and updated CVs saved in 1 document as PDF of no more than 5 pages at the link below.

Click Here

NB: Please note that any application submitted that does not follow the above instructions will be automatically discarded. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Mercy Corps does not charge any fees at any stage of the recruitment process.

Deadline: 21^st October 2022

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