Mercy Corps Niger Recruits Social Cohesion Program Assistant

Summary of the program:Mercy Corps is an international humanitarian and development NGO whose mission is to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build safe, productive communities around the world. Mercy Corps has been operational in Niger since September 2005. It works in partnership with the Government and Nigerien communities to contribute to the country’s sustainable socio-economic development.

Mercy Corps Niger operates in Niger in the area of ​​food security, livelihoods, economic recovery, social cohesion, governance and emergency response. Its main mission in Niger is “to support vulnerable and/or at-risk populations to improve their lives, recover from shocks and exclusion in order to be able to secure viable opportunities for the development of a sustainable livelihoods economy. “. Currently, Mercy Corps Niger is implementing five development and humanitarian assistance projects with an overall budget of over $9 million. Mercy Corps Niger has four field bases: Tillaberi, Filingue, Maradi and Zinder and satellite offices in Baleyara and Abala.

Instability is increasing in West Africa – and particularly in the border areas of Mali, Burkina-Faso and Nigeria, where non-state armed groups are rampant, attacking civilians and institutions representing the state and defense and security forces. Niger’s Tillabéry region sits at the confluence of these larger conflicts with the continued activity of violent extremist organizations (VEOs) from Mali moving into new territories, merging, splitting and reforming into different iterations. Mercy Corps has studied the dynamics of and worked with communities in the Tillabéry region over the past few years and has a wealth of evidence from community-based participatory action research. As a result of this research, Mercy Corps implements programs focused on social cohesion and community resilience to violence. In this context, Mercy Corps will implement the AVERT (Addressing Violent Extremism and Instability) project funded by the PATRIP Foundation (KfW), in Niger (Abala-Tillaberi) and Mali (Anderamboukhane-Menaka)

Job Title: Social Cohesion/Community Infrastructure Program Assistant

Workplace : Abala, Niger

Job category: CDD (Full Time, 12 months renewable)

Number of places: 1

JOB SUMMARY:

Under the supervision of the Senior Program Officer – AVERT, AVERT Program Assistant support in the administration and general operation of the AVERT program. The assistant will work in close collaboration with the program staff and the Senior Program Officer, he/she will work in coordination with the logistics, administration and finance departments. She/He will carry out the assigned tasks on a daily basis, the implementation of the “hard” activities (infrastructure/cash for work) of the project in the field, the direct link with the communities in placedata collection and reporting within the framework of the project, analysis of results and feedback on the progress of the project at the level of the senior Program Officer.

TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Accompany the community, under the supervision of the Senior Program Officer, in the realization of all community projects identified during community meetings (rehabilitation of infrastructures or construction of small infrastructures, development of entrepreneurship or IGA activities); at the administrative, technical, logistical and methodological levels;
• Initiate, monitor and learn about the progress of files submitted to finance, management, administration, logistics, partners and/or any other institution to respond to questions and project expectations;
• Put forward the young people of the community in the realization of all the community projects, follow their training and the realization of the community projects (in the form of cash for work, professional training, small entrepreneurship according to the relevance and the type of work chosen) ;
• Ensure the follow-up of the sites, the link with the technical trainers of the young people and the specialized companies involved by guaranteeing the advancement on time, the quality as well as the respect of the action plan of the young people;
• Provide administrative support in all Program tasks requested by the Senior Program Officer AVERT;
• Coordinate field assessments, audits, organizational mapping processes, trainings and other capacity building activities conducted by the program, respecting Mercy Corps administrative procedures;
• Provide weekly plans and reports on the progress of the project and the achievement of results,
• Support the Senior Program Officer with monitoring the implementation of action plans and assist with data collection;
• By working with the Senior Program Officer, ensure the archiving and filing of documents, update them and share them;
• Support with the synthesis and entry of information and results from evaluations and audits, and participate in the drafting of reports;
• Ensure good external communication at the local level: organize meetings with stakeholders and partners, and write and distribute minutes;
• Ensure the proper management and maintenance of program materials;
• Communicate on an ongoing basis with all project team members in particular and Mercy Corps Niger staff in general;
• Perform other tasks as needed and at the request of the hierarchy;
• Behave, in the professional but also private context, in an appropriate manner in order to preserve Mercy Corps’ brand image and not to endanger its humanitarian mission in Niger.

Do This

REPORTS DIRECTLY TO: Senior Program Officer AVERT

WORKS DIRECTLY WITH: All the project staff, the technical advisors, the Filingué Base Manager, the members of the MEAL team, the communicator, the members of the logistics and fiance support teams as well as the Management and the Social Cohesion program team in Niamey

Organizational Learning

As part of our commitment to organizational learning and supporting our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to engage 5 % of their time to learn activities that both serve them and Mercy Corps.

KNOWLEDGE AND QUALIFICATIONS

• Have a university degree in any field relevant to the project
• Have at least 2 years of experience in the implementation of community projects: basic infrastructure development, community rehabilitations, CfW
• Demonstrated experience and good administrative knowledge of NGOs, support services and operations.
• Very good communication skills (oral & written) and a required knowledge of computers (Word, Excel, Explorer, Outlook, Power Point, etc.), good knowledge of database management;
• Skills in analysis and synthesis;
• Solid experience in the implementation of community-based projects;
• Good knowledge and experience in project monitoring and evaluation;
• An excellent command of French and the local languages ​​spoken in Abala (Tamashek or Fulfulde and Gherma or Hausa);
• A very good knowledge of the project area (Abala) and the prior experience required in the area;
• A motivated and proactive attitude;
• Being bilingual (English French) will be an asset.

SECURITY

• Ensure compliance with the security procedures and policies defined by the organization and the institutions in place;
• Contribute to the analysis of the security situation in the project area;
• Bring up all information that could affect the safety of the teams and the implementation of the project.

CONDITION OF WORK

• The position is based in Abala and requires at least 50% of the time for regular visits to the program intervention sites (border villages of Mali) in areas where the security context remains very volatile.

SUCCESS FACTORS:

• A good knowledge of the program management cycle and previous successful experiences in the implementation of community-based development projects.
• A clear understanding of administration ethics, as well as personnel management ethics, absolute willingness and ability to adhere to and reinforce adherence to Mercy Corps policies and procedures.
• Works very well in a team, has a strong sense of motivation and the ability to find creative solutions.
• Proven ability to interact effectively with national and international staff is required.
• A demonstrated ability to be able to work quickly, correctly and accurately to simultaneously accomplish multiple tasks in a required time frame with minimal supervision is strongly required. The ability to process the necessary and correct information to effectively support the activities of the various programs is necessary. Have an interest in developing their learning and skills in gender and development.
• Ability to work in difficult contexts, with difficulties in accessing the service, the internet and in insecure areas.