Senior Program Officer – Powering The Uptake of Climate Change Mitigating Pumps Uganda Program (PUMP-UP)

Senior Program Officer – Powering The Uptake of Climate Change Mitigating Pumps Uganda Program (PUMP-UP)

 

Position Description

Location: Gulu, Uganda

Position Status: Full-time, Regular

Salary Level: Grade 6 

Minimum Salary: 3,373,553/=

Current Team Member: Replacement

 

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is an international development organization that works in over 40 countries to promote community-led and market-driven development. With a strategic focus on countries in transition, Mercy Corps takes a progressive approach to supporting communities, entrepreneurs, governments and the private sector from relief to long-term economic growth. With a network of over 3,700 experienced professionals around the world, we are uniquely positioned to respond to complex environments and the needs of local communities.

 

In Uganda, Mercy Corps has been in operating since 2006 in Karamoja specifically in Kotido, ,Abim, Amudat, Kaabong and Moroto; in Northern Region in Gulu; West Nile in Yumbe and Central region specifically Kampala district. Mercy Corps offers technical expertise in Market Development, Gender, Peace and Conflict Management, Economic Empowerment, Food Security Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning, Agriculture and Agribusiness.

 

Mercy Corps has implemented and still implements multiple donor-funded projects within and outside the West Nile region with her major donors including but not limited to DANIDA (Danish Government Overseas Aid), Austrian Development Agency, Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Private foundations among others.

 

Program / Department Summary

The Agronomy & MSD Advisor will provide support for the implementation of the PUMP-UP program. The Danida-funded Powering the Uptake of Climate Change Mitigating Pumps Uganda Program (PUMP-UP) seeks to enable farmers in Northern Uganda, including women, youth, and refugee farming communities to build resilient livelihoods and to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change. The project aims to achieve this by supporting viable investments in climate resilient technologies such as solar water pumps (SWPs) coupled with best practices in climate smart agriculture (CSA) and Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). The project is implemented by a consortium led by Mercy Corps, as the administrative partner; Energy 4 Impact, Mercy Corps’ energy access platform, which will provide business model and technology advisory services; and Tulima Solar and Simusolar as commercial partners. The PUMP-UP project will improve capacities of the commercial partner to adapt and localize their product in Yumbe and Gulu areas by improving their PAY-GO consumer financing offer and developing cost-effective and inclusive go-to-market and sales strategies. The project aims to reach 2,220 people with opportunities for increased income and/or improved livelihoods; create 50 decent jobs; and support 500 SHFs including women and youth to engage in off-season production. The project will run from July 2023 to June 2026 for a total duration of three years.

 

General Position Summary

The Senior Program Officer is responsible for project implementation, designing interventions, managing partnerships and resources and will support M&E activities. The SPO will ensure accountability to Mercy Corps policies and donor rules and regulations. He/she will report to and work with the Program Manager to engage in program representation to stakeholders, relevant government entities, partners, other implementers, and external stakeholders.

The primary focus of the Senior Program Officer will be to support the community level teams in adapting and scaling integrated activities in respective Districts in collaboration with local government and private sector structures. The Senior Program Officer will be responsible for oversight of quality activities in the assigned District and supervising the Program Officer. The SPO will ensure the day-to-day implementation of the diverse Pump-up activities in consultation with the other program management team members and work closely with the partners. He/she will provide technical and operational support to the other Program staff, ensuring that activities are implemented according to scope and timeline.

The Senior Program Officer will directly respond to the needs of communities through the integrated set of activities under Pump-up. The Senior Program Officer will work closely with the Technical Team to best determine layering of activities within a community, based on need and availability of resources. The SPO will collaborate with the wider Implementation team to ensure that activities are sequenced, layered and integrated for comprehensive service delivery. The SPO will closely work with staff from local partners in the Pump-up Activity to strengthen integration. The SPO will work closely with MEL teams to ensure that data capture takes place.

 

Essential Job Responsibilities

Safeguarding Responsibilities

• Actively learns about safeguarding and integrates it into their work, including safeguarding risks and mitigations related to their area of work ·
• Practices the values of Mercy Corps including respecting the dignity and well-being of participants and fellow team members ·
• Encourages openness and communication in their team; encourages team members to submit reports if they have any concerns using reporting mechanisms e.g., Integrity Hotline and other options

 

Technical Responsibilities

Program Implementation

• Provide leadership and daily oversight for planning and implementation of Pump-up Activities including mentorship, support supervision and managerial support to the program team in the respective two districts.
• Support the program management team in the development of activity plans, budgeting and reporting formats
• Support in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the program activities, in accordance with Pump-up objectives.
• Supervise the activities and performance of Program Officer; participate in routine team meetings, adhere to performance review timelines, troubleshoot challenges and standardize implementation approaches.
• Identify and document best practices and failures in Pump-up Activity programming and provide timely feedback to the program team.
• Assist with ensuring timely and consistent submission of project reports, success stories and other relevant data (i.e. weekly, monthly and quarterly reports).
• Provide oversight to the program assistant regarding adhering to procurement, finance and security policy and procedures, ensuring proper documentation of processes.
• Work closely with the overall program team to coordinate day to day operations and logistics to maximize use of resources and ensure complementary programming.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Provide ongoing mentorship to Program team on data collection processes for completeness, accuracy and timely submission. And entry to regularly update the Activity Tracker.
• Responsible for leading with the MEL team on data collection including gender and age disaggregated data, data validation, assuring quality control measures, timely data submission and communicating to MEL sector focal person.

Influence and Representation

• Lead on the support and coordination of visits from district and sub-county government, regional and HQ based staff and external visitors, such as donors and media.
• Support the program manager in coordination and communication of field activities with other NGO and local government partners to avoid duplication of services.
• 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 to 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.
• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership. Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

Organizational Learning

As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, agribusiness, agriculture, agriculture land use and management, or other relevant fields required.
• Background in market systems development for smallholder farmers, with minimum of 5 years’ practical experience in the NGO working with Private Sector engagement or related experience
• Experience in MEL (data collection, verification, documentation and reporting)
• 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 advanced gender training
• Ability to ride a motorcycle and he/she should be in possession of a valid driving/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 the project areas
• Fluency in local languages prevalent within the operational district where assigned (highly desired)

 

Supervisory Responsibility

• Direct supervision of Program Officer

 

Accountability

Reports Directly to: Program Manager

 

Works Directly with: Tulima solar and Simsolar staff and all project team.

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.

 

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically
  to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Success Factors

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 Senior Program Officer drives results, producing scheduled outputs at 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.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Yumbe, Uganda. The region is secure with access to most basic amenities.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours. 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 locations.

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.

 

Safeguarding & Ethics

Risk levels assigned to all positions; Delete the levels that do not apply to this position.

Level 3: Frequent contact with participants, direct contact with children, access to sensitive data , and/or high level of accountability.

Level 2: Some contact with participants; unplanned non-direct contact with children

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. By applying for this role an applicant confirms that they have not previously violated an employer’s sexual misconduct, sexual exploitation and abuse, child safeguarding or trafficking policy. 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. As an applicant, if you witness or experience any form of sexual misconduct during the recruitment process, please report this to Mercy Corps Integrity Hotline (integrityhotline@mercycorps.org).

 

 To Apply:

Interested applicants must submit their Cover Letter & CV saved in 1 document as a PDF of no more than 5 pages by 28^th August 2024.

Please note that any application submitted that does not follow the above instructions will be automatically discarded.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Locals with the required qualifications are encouraged to apply.

Mercy Corps does not charge any fees at any stage of the recruitment process.