Mercy Corps recrute un Coordinateur des propositions RFSA de la RDC, Goma, RDC
About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future.
The Program/Department Summary
Mercy Corps has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since August 2007, with a staff of around 400 people working in Eastern DRC, with the overall country goal being to support vulnerable communities through crises, while fostering programs that build resilience and promote long-term change. Mercy Corps’ national office is in Goma with sub-field offices in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri. Mercy Corps DRC’s key programming areas include a combination of longer-term development and immediate humanitarian response programs in order to 1) Improve water service delivery and ensuring equitable access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services, in urban and rural areas; 2) Improve food security and nutrition; 3) Promote diversified livelihoods, economic recovery and development; 4) Support peacebuilding and local governance. Mercy Corps DRC’s humanitarian programs aim specifically to assist populations affected by the conflict and crisis in Eastern Congo.
Mercy Corps is seeking a Proposal Coordinator to support the proposal development of a five-year USAID Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) for DRC. The design team will create a technically sound and donor-responsive funding application for a program that will contribute to food and nutrition security for households and communities in Eastern DRC.
The Position
The DRC RFSA Proposal Coordinator is the main communicator and connection point between HQ design team and DRC country office for inputs into the program proposal and annexes. S/he works closely with the DRC team to provide organization and facilitate the gathering of information and inputs. S/he keeps the train on the tracks for the DRC inputs, ensuring deadlines are being met, and offering guidance to team members when needed. Candidates should have USAID proposal experience and excellent written and oral communication.
In addition to the coordination of the proposal development team in the country, the role includes ad hoc Grant Management support to the ongoing BHA funded RFSA Food Security Program (FSP) in South Kivu, focusing mainly on quarterly reporting and support to the development of learning products and briefs for dissemination. The BHA-South Kivu Food Security Project (FSP-Enyanya) covers a 7-year period (October 2016- September 2023) and is implemented by a consortium of five NGOs for which Mercy Corps is the prime. The program aims to ensure that households and communities in the targeted areas improve their food and nutrition security and economic well-being. The program works across the three different purposes: Agricultural Livelihoods and Market integration (P1), Maternal and Child Health and nutrition-MCHN and WASH (P2), and effective governance (P3), with a primary focus on women and youth. The program reaches 250,000 participants. Travel to Bukavu will be required as part of this support.
Essential Responsibilities
Key tasks for the coordinator will be assigned from the Director of Programs (DoP) and RFSA Team Lead and be detailed in the proposal roles and calendar. Duties are likely to include:
- RFA ANALYSIS: Reads and analyzes RFA. Ensures donor requirements are understood including outlining annex and budget requirements from RFA.
- TEAM: Works with DoP and PaQ Director to request and confirm DRC team resources. Leads updating of proposal workplan once RFA is released, working closely with team lead. Ensures the DRC team understands roles and deadlines.
- INFO GATHERING: Leads gathering of lessons learned from across MC DRC programs. Inputs on assessment scope and acts as coordinator for or conducts assessment work or information gathering in DRC. Assists Technical Design Lead in analysis of assessment information. Maintains stakeholder consultation registry (minimum standard). May support document gathering and resource library and assessment analysis. Assists technical team with information gathering requests as part of detailed design after RFA.
- COORDINATION/COMMS: regularly checks with HQ and DRC proposal team on deadlines and tasks and flags issues for problem solving with DoP, PaQ director, and Team Lead. Supports Team Lead in regular all team email updates. Takes meeting minutes during all proposal related meetings. Maintains Google Drive of proposal documents according to PM@MC standards, working closely with Lead Writer, Technical Design Lead and Team Lead. Supports organization of and logistics for a design workshop and may facilitate exercises or parts of the design workshop.
- PARTNER LIAISON: Supports partner scan and information gathering on potential partners. Once teaming agreements are signed, manages local partners, completes partner instructions, communicates expectations, and keeps partners informed throughout the proposal process. Support partner registration in USAID platforms. Communicates feedback to and consolidates feedback from partners on technical design issues. Works closely with Proposal Budget Manager on partner budgeting.
- TECH REVIEW: reviews and comments on logframe proposal in reference to the RFA
- ANNEXES: Assists with gathering of information for annexes. May author some annexes.
- SUBMISSION: produces and maintains submission checklist with status of all deliverables in consultation with the Team Lead and DRC proposal team.
- Ad hoc Grant Management support to the ongoing BHA funded RFSA Food Security Project in South Kivu includes:
- Work closely with the implementation team and senior leadership to support the technical review, consolidation, translation into English and revision of the program’s quarterly reports and annexes before submission to BHA
- Lead the development of technical learning briefs, summarizing learning agenda products for onward dissemination internally and externally.
Supervisory Responsibility
None
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Director of Programs
Works Directly With: Will work closely with RFSA design team including team members from DRC, Technical Support Unit, Regional Program Team, finance, RFSA 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.
Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills
- 2 years of experience with US institutional donors
- Strong written English skills and ability to synthesize information and present it in a format which is suitable for the donor within short timeframes
- Demonstrable ability to produce high quality deliverables at speed and with minimal direction
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
- Ability to multi-task and juggle several tasks and relationships at one time, with little direction
- Proven ability to work effectively in multi-cultural teams and with technical and administrative staff
- Ability to work in a sometimes solitary environment with moderate to high levels of insecurity and significant restrictions on personal movement
- French desirable
SUCCESS FACTORS
A successful candidate will have experience in workflow coordination across teams, ideally on proposal development. S/he needs to be able to work independently, be proactive and take initiative with tasks and self-learning, and be extremely well organized and a strong communicator both verbally and in writing. S/he should be an excellent writer, with an ability to interpret technical information and produce products which are clear and adapted to a donor audience. It is absolutely essential that this person is able to self actualise and create results, even with little or unclear guidance.
S/he will be able to live and work closely with a diverse team of individuals in a highly intense and fluid work and security environment with demonstrated sensitivity to the people and issues in the region. The ability to demonstrate exceptional interpersonal, relationship and cross-cultural communication skills especially in high stress environments is essential for success.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
This position is an unaccompanied position. Shared accommodation will be provided in Goma according to Mercy Corps DRC housing policy.
Goma is a provincial capital of over 700,000 inhabitants. Living in Goma is comfortable, although water and electricity can be unstable. Outside Goma, travel can be dangerous and unpredictable due to armed forces and rebel activity. While conditions in the country are improving, and security is quite stable in Goma, there are still pockets of violence and insecurity. Mercy Corps’ sub-offices experience variable levels of insecurity, with the situation closely monitored by UN peacekeepers. Air travel is necessary to get from one end of the country to the other. Mobile phones and cellular service are widely available. Internet is available in all Mercy Corps offices. There are a number of health services available with evacuation options for serious illnesses. There’s reasonable access to most consumer goods, although they can be expensive.
Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. 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.
Fostering a diverse and open workplace is an important part of Mercy Corps’ vision. Mercy Corps is an Equal Opportunity Employe regardless of background. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment.
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.