Chief of Party, Growing Agriculture and Incomes in Syria, USAID/Syria

Description

Position is contingent on funding.

About Mercy Corps
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.

Mercy Corps works in places of transition, where conflict, disaster, political upheaval, or economic collapse present opportunities to build more secure, productive, and just communities. Providing emergency relief in times of crisis, we move quickly to help communities recover and build resilience to future shocks, and promote sustainable change by supporting community-led and market-driven initiatives. Recognizing both the great potential and the complex challenges faced by the Middle East, since 1989 Mercy Corps has been implementing a range of humanitarian assistance and development programs tailored to the specific needs of the region and of those communities where we work.

Program / Department Summary
Mercy Corps has been implementing emergency, life-sustaining, and resilience activities in Syria since 2012. Mercy Corps partners with a range of strategic institutional donors to deliver at high quality and a large scale. The evidence and learning component of Mercy Corps’ work and relationships with donors is critical to a meaningful impact on the lives of vulnerable people in Syria.

Mercy Corps is seeking a Chief of Party (COP) to lead implementation of the USAID Growing Agriculture and Incomes in Syria (GROW) activity. This five-year, $30-45m contract is expected to strengthen agriculture markets in non-regime held areas of Syria. The Activity is expected to increase the earnings of small and commercial farmers and other market systems actors by reducing constraints to production, strengthening private sector engagement, improving market access, and increasing economic opportunities for women and youth in agricultural value chains.

The Position

The COP will provide overall leadership, management, and strategic vision for the implementation of the anticipated Activity, ensuring that the program meets its targets and deliverables on time and within budget. The COP will supervise all program staff and ensure accountability to Mercy Corps policies as well as all donor rules and regulations. The COP will be the primary representative for the program with stakeholders including USAID, other government entities, and all other partners.

The COP is responsible for leading all aspects of contract performance, providing technical guidance to all tasks under the contract, and representing the Contractor’s activities as a whole to outside audiences. The COP is responsible for leading the strategic planning of the project, including annual work plans; ensuring close coordination with USAID and program partners in the private sector, business associations, universities, and donor communities; ensuring close collaboration and teamwork; and for the day-to-day operational oversight and administration of the project.

Essential Responsibilities
STRATEGY AND VISION

• Provide overall technical and administrative leadership and expertise. Responsible for administering and managing the implementation of the activity and has the overall responsibility for assuring that all assistance provided is technically sound and appropriate to meet activity objectives.
• Lead the development of a vision and strategy for the program shared with the program team and key stakeholders.
• Integrate and embrace all voices into shared strategies for inclusive, peaceful, and responsive governance.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

• Oversee program management and administration for the duration of GROW. Ensure implementation is on time, target, and budget, using effective M&E systems to assess impact.
• Ensure that program implementation is responsive to communities and partners and consistent with Mercy Corps’ relevant program guidelines, principles, values, quality standards, and strategic plan.
• Develop partnership frameworks, partner agreements/Memorandum of Understandings, and oversee capacity building for partners.
• Integrate locally-driven approaches, gender sensitivity, and capacity building into all activities, as appropriate. Certify that all interventions adhere to Mercy Corps’ Gender Policy, Do No Harm principles, and program participant accountability standards.
• Ensure program strategies and activities represent global good practice for systems thinking, resilience, peacebuilding, and governance approaches.
• Coordinate with procurement, logistics, security, administration, and human resources teams to ensure operational systems support field activities.
• Fulfill Mercy Corps’ Program Management Minimum Standards based on the organization-wide guide.

TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Oversee recruitment and onboarding of Activity staff and consultants.
• Develop the capacity of the team, deepen understanding of staff roles, and assist with career development.
• Provide team members with information, tools, and resources to improve performance and reach objectives.
• Promote staff accountability, communicate expectations, and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one-on-one meetings and performance reviews.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
• Support Mercy Corps global and regional initiatives for human resources, including safeguarding and diversity, and talent development.

REPRESENTATION

• Represent Mercy Corps at government, donor, NGO and other relevant forums in close coordination with the Country Director.
• Coordinate activities with consortium partners, subgrantees, government and other implementers as well as with other Mercy Corps programs.
• Serve as an active contributor and collaborator with regional and global counterparts to promote best practices.
• Maintain close working relationships with counterparts in other organizations working on the Syrian response.

FINANCE & COMPLIANCE

• Ensure compliance with USAID and Mercy Corps’ regulations.
• Create and maintain systems to ensure effective and transparent use of financial resources for timely and informative reporting in line with program, donor, and Mercy Corps’ needs.
• Ensure sound financial management, including programmatic budgeting, spending projections, and monitoring of payments in compliance with USAID standards.

SECURITY & RISK MANAGEMENT

• Collaborate with country leadership to support preparedness and response to major disruptive events.
• Work closely with the country team’s security focal point to develop and maintain systems that promote the safety and security of all team members.
• Ensure that activities are designed and implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security.

Supervisory Responsibility

Supervise the GROW Team. The number of direct and indirect reports will be determined at a later stage.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Country Director, Syria

Works Directly With: GROW Team, Regional Directors, Country Director, Director of Programs, Program Performance and Quality Director, other COPs, HR, finance and operations teams, HQ Regional Programs Team, and HQ Technical Support Unit

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

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

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• A Graduate degree or equivalent in a relevant field to the technical direction of GROW (In circumstances where a candidate possesses exceptional relevant experience but lacks a graduate degree, relevant post-education experience might be considered.)
• A minimum of seven (7) years of recent experience (within the last 15 years) at a senior level on a successful project(s) similar in scope and scale to GROW, with experience in agri-business and market systems approaches, rural and peri-urban economies, productive sectors and other relevant topics.
• A minimum of five (5) years of recent senior management experience (within the last 15 years) for projects including the private sector with similar magnitude and complexity in developing countries.
• Proven ability to perform and achieve results under challenging or nonpermissive environments.
• Proficient understanding of USG contract rules and regulations.
• Strong interpersonal and managerial skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English; Arabic is preferred but not required.

Success Factors
A successful candidate will have a demonstrated ability to lead and communicate effectively with team members and other stakeholders of varied work styles and cultures, follow procedures and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving. This position requires an ability to think creatively about civic engagement to strengthen inclusive, peaceful, and responsive governance. They will have a proven ability to learn quickly, multi-task, prioritize, take initiative, and be accountable for results, understand the larger picture while remaining focused on the details, problem solving, work within a complex and sensitive setting and to follow laws and security protocols. The most successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Amman, Jordan and it requires up to 15% travel to other regional Mercy Corps hubs, including Gaziantep, Beirut, and Erbil. This is an accompanied position. Housing is individual accommodation, and staff enjoy unlimited freedom of movement beyond the house/office.

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.

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.

Ongoing 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.

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.Apply For Job