MCHN Karamoja South-Team Leader (Internal Advert)

Program / Department Summary

The $41 million USAID Food for Peace Activity (Apolou) and the $5 million USAID Resilience Challenge Fund (RCF) Activity support agriculturalists, agro-pastoralists, and pastoralist households living across the districts of Amudat, Kotido, Kaabong, Karenga, and Moroto in Karamoja.

Apolou is implemented by a consortium of actors led by Mercy Corps, including Save the Children, Whave Solutions, four local partners (KAPDA, NARWOA and Riam Riam), TUNADO, FIDA Uganda, Strong Minds and Tufts University’s Feinstein International Centre (FIC). Apolou’s goal is to “improve the overall food and nutrition security of vulnerable households in Kaabong, Kotido, Moroto and Amudat districts within the Karamoja region,” and has major 4 objectives as follows:

1. Inclusive and effective governance contributes to food and nutrition security
2. Adolescent girls, Pregnant and Lactating Women, and Children under 5 are nutritionally secure
3. Reduced incidences of WASH related diseases
4. Improved livelihoods and income support household food security

The RCF program works in the districts of Kaabong and Amudat, with the goal to “Improve the veterinary governance and increase public and private investment in disease prevention, surveillance, control and response systems to strengthen productive assets for improved resilience in Karamoja.” RCF has the following objectives:

1. Increased domestic resource allocation into animal health services in Karamoja
2. Central and local government develop animal health services capacity-strengthening plan for the Karamoja region
3. Disease control plan for economically prioritized diseases (PPR and FMD) developed and implemented
4. Private sector animal health development strategy developed and rolled out

 GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:

The MCHN Team Leader will be responsible for oversight of quality activities and coordination within the sector and among partners related to the nutrition objective, including Save the Children and Whave. MCHN activities will focus on the enabling environment around the caregiver, targeting husbands, elders, community opinion leaders and other influential persons to speed progress towards healthy behavior change. The Team Leader will work with technical and district implementation staff to capture learning from the field and to support strategy designed to increase the uptake of key health and gender behaviors and make tactic adjustments as needed. The MCHN team leader  will frequently write project reports, analyze data, capture stories and other learning to articulate the work of Apolou in the health and nutrition sector.

The ability of the Team Leader to effectively scale up mother care groups, male change agents, health systems strengthening and community dialogue activities in Moroto and Amudat  will be one of the position’s three success factors. The second will be the ability of the TL to effectively build evidence of program coverage and quality, and documenting lessons learned. The third success factor will be the degree to which the team leader  effectively collaborates with the MCHNteam, other Apolou sectors and consortium partners driving integrated programming through mutual learning and programmatic support to ultimately benefit pregnant and lactating mothers and children under five.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

 Program Performance and Quality

• Develop effective work plans and ensure the MCHN activities are implemented according to agreed annual, quarterly and monthly plans and budgets; delivering against timeframes, output and outcome targets.
• Provide leadership and daily oversight for planning and implementation of activities including; mentorship, support supervision and managerial support to all the staff, spending approximately equal amount of time in Amudat.
• Work in liaison with the MCHN Manager, provide activities progress updates highlighting any deviations against plans and budgets with suggestive corrective actions to ensure overall compliance, integrity and success of the program.
• Develop and review necessary and appropriate training modules and IEC materials that would best translate into the achievement of the programme goal in accordance with theory of change.
• Recommend program priorities, explore, evaluate and present new opportunities that heighten potential for impact in adopting Apolou specific behaviors for improving maternal child health and nutrition.
• Ensure an integrated approach to program implementation in order to maximize resource utilization and synergy between the staff and different MC programs, especially the care groups, and health facility services.
• Ensure an integrated approach to program implementation with MCHN Manager and District Implementation Managers, other Apolou sectors and Apolou consortium to maximize resource utilization and synergy
• Increase focus on the advocacy potential of MCHN, with regional exchanges and improved integration with the Gender Focal Persons at district level for integration. .

Partnership Management

• Introduce the program to and work with relevant stakeholders; partner NGO’s, District Leadership, local representatives, informal community structures and community members to foster ongoing positive cooperation with these stakeholders.
• Establish and maintain positive working relationships with Whave and Save the Children, working together to develop complementary monitoring, evaluation, and adaptive management structures wherever possible
• Develop and manage partnerships with the local governments and other partners to coordinate and maximize influence at local and regional forums
• Represent the MCHN sector and actively participate in district technical working groups and other relevant forums as well as coordination structures with Government, donors and NGOs, including the District Nutrition Coordination Committees
• In liaison with the MEL team and MCHN Manager, prepare advocacy and communication materials such as success stories, case studies, newsletters, etc

Gender and Youth Integration

• Ensure that program activities apply gender equity and youth empowerment principles, and meet the varying needs of men and boys; women and girls; and other vulnerable groups.

Team Management

• Oversee team growth to Apolou program areas, lead recruitments, trainings and capacity building of MCHN Officers as per programmatic/ operational needs and requirements in accordance with Mercy Corps' performance management system.
• Provide strategic support to team members, establishing an effective supervisory structure to help them deliver their activities as per agreed work plan and achieve scale.
• Participate on the Country Coordination Team (CCT) when deemed necessary, program managers' meetings and MCHN team meetings as key platform for collaboration and coordination of core functions
• Ensure project compliance with procurement and financial regulations is in accordance with the field procurement policy and procedure manual, field finance manual, work plans and approved project expenditure.
• Actively mitigate the Apolou project's operational, reputational, technical and unique implementation risks.

Monitoring and evaluation

• Take primary responsibility for data gathering, quality control and communicating to MEL focal person.
• Compile monthly and quarterly reports with emphasis on both output and outcomes as well as lessons learned, good practices and success stories.
• Create a dynamic culture of learning and knowledge sharing within the program; sharing good practices and addressing under performance in a timely manner.
• Monitor and measure implementation, impact, standards, and operational compliance to identify constraints to program success and provide timely recommendations.
• Oversee the program filing system and ensure that information is organized according to the reporting and auditing needs of the program. Ensuring required levels of confidentiality.
• In liaison with the MEL team and MCHN Manager, prepare advocacy and communication materials such as success stories, case studies, newsletters, etc.

Representation and Coordination

• Support and coordinate visits from regional and HQ based staff and external visitors, such as donors and media, in collaboration with DCoP, and MCHN Manager.
• Establish and maintain contact with all key actors as relevant for program implementation; government ministries, UN agencies, NGOs, private sector partners; establish mechanisms for contacting community organizations, partners and other local NGOs/CBOs in line with key Apolou areas of work.

Coordination with District Implementation Team

• Build the capacity of the members of the implementation team on their particular sector through orientations, one on one discussions and demonstrating in the field.
• The district implementation team after conducting a needs assessment will decide an intervention to be layered. The district implementation team will require support in developing a sector specific plan for a particular community. The member of the technical team will support the district team to plan the intervention that is related to the particular sector and purpose.
• The district implementation team member will mobilize the extension service agents which will go on to mobilize the community groups to provide the services to conduct the activity in the field. The member of the technical team will coordinate with the district implementation team to conduct the activities in the field.
• The technical team member will monitor the activities conducted in the field and provide feedback to the technical extension service agents to improve the quality of implementation of activities.
• The technical team member will meet quarterly with the district implementation team to review the activities conducted in the field and reflect with the team to understand how the quality of implementation of activities would be improved.
• Collaborate with the MEL team on the design and implementation of the Apolou CLA/Learning Agenda.

Ethics and Integrity

• All Mercy Corps staff are expected to behave ethically and demonstrate 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.

Accountability to Beneficiaries

• 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.
• Sensitise communities on Apolou's CARM system and encourage them to share feedback through the promoted channels

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.

Other:

• 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
• Other duties assigned

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY:   MCHN Officers

ACCOUNTABILITY

REPORTS DIRECTLY TO:  MCHN Program Manager

WORKS DIRECTLY WITH: District Implementation Team, Technical Team, Gender and Youth Team, MEL and other Mercy Corps program, finance and operations staff

 KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

• At least 4 years of related professional experience, with 2 years management experience a plus
• Bachelor’s degree in public health or related field with Master’s degree a plus
• Demonstrable writing and analytical skills and dexterity in data collection & analysis, verification and documentation.
• Experience developing BCC materials and curricula.
• Proven skills as a trainer of trainers, with experience in gender training a plus
• Proven skills in networking, team-building, community consultations and organizational development;
• Excellent reporting, communication and representation skills; messaging, branding and visibility of the Apolou program
• Intimate knowledge of the social and economic context of Karamoja, with a specific understanding of the Uganda health systems and health challenges and gender empowerment in Karamoja
• Willingness to consider new perspectives, promote gender equality and engage in advanced gender training.
• Fluency in Nga’Karamojong a plus.

Closes: 15th August 2021