Resilient Livelihoods Coordinator-Samburu(Maralal)

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

With funding from USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), Mercy Corps’ Nawiri Program is leading a consortium of Kenyan and international partners on a five year journey to sustainably reduce persistent acute malnutrition in Samburu Counties of Kenya. Through a phased approach that emphasizes evidence gap analysis, as well as partnership, learning, and co-creation, the program takes a robust county-centered design with government leadership, active engagement from communities, the private sector, and civil society. Mercy Corps’ consortium brings together the global leadership, research capacity, technical expertise, and implementation experience necessary to partner with local institutions to test, adapt, and scale evidence-based solutions. Together we will sustainably reduce persistent acute malnutrition for vulnerable populations in Samburu counties.

The Position Summary

The Resilient Livelihoods Coordinator(RLC) will be responsible for providing supportive leadership, guidance and coordination for timely and quality field level implementation of USAID Nawiri nutrition-sensitive resilient livelihood project portfolio of interventions in specific technical areas of; Climate Smart Agriculture (irrigated crop and livestock) production systems, private sector and financial inclusion, enabling market systems to last miles to support ultra-poor, Household Economic Strengthening (HES) and coordination support for adapted Ultra-Poor Graduation aimed at reducing poverty and improving nutrition outcomes -while reducing women’s time burden.

The RLC works with the technical advisors to ensure quality implementation of all resilient livelihood initiatives within the county to meet or exceed planned outcomes and are implemented in full compliance with the project's guidelines. H/she oversees quarterly, monthly and weekly activity approved work plans and budgets from the County RL team are in place (and approved) for effective activity implementation. He coordinates with a team of technical advisors for technical guidance and the translation of strategies into actionable work plans. He/she coordinates with RL technical managers (leads, advisors) for joint team planning (including sub-office and thematic workplaning), coordinates implementation and review of progress against DIPs, budget utilization and reporting, approval of technical approaches for implementation and endorsement of completion quality. H/she coordinates the development of sub-office RL workplans. The RLC coordinates regular project progress review meetings with staff and communities, and coordinates community feedback for accountability in line with agreed standards. Accountability includes ensuring achievement of planned milestones, on time, of high quality, and are community driven while influencing an enabling policy and implementation environment is supported at multiple levels (county, sub-county, ward, villages, households). The RL coordinator supports the Field Director in ensuring the sustainability strategy is embedded in the implementation of RL interventions.

The RL coordinator will support adaptive management and will be part of the RL team charged with coordinating with the CLA team in co-designing and implementation of the learning agenda. Specifically, H/she applies adaptive learning tools and processes within planned interventions, documents, shares project’s best practices, organizes activity reflection sessions working with support of the County Learning Coordinator, M&E and CLA team. The RLC supports regular monitoring, reporting and documentation of interventions. H/sh develops monitoring plans with communities and partners agreeing on the required standards for monitoring, with support from the M&E Coordinator. H/she coordinates stakeholder’s engagement, networking and partnership building. This includes participating in sector and multi-sectoral platforms at sub-county and ward level -and as delegated to County Sector TWGs. Under the technical leadership of the technical coordinator, H/she is the convenor of team capacity building sessions at county level for the RL team,local CSO implementing partner staff and local actors.

The RL coordinator will have a full view of planned interventions in the RL portfolio and contribute to guiding decisions on integration, layering and sequencing of interventions at household, community and systems level, aimed at sustainably maintaining food security of vulnerable households despite exposure to shocks and stresses. With technical supervision, guidance and support of designated RL Lead, s/he/support achievement of a harmonized approach by the diverse county-based USAID Nawiri Resilience Livelihoods team and local implementing partners that enables translating the programmatic vision and strategies to implementation of contextually relevant livelihood interventions for vulnerable households in specific livelihood zones.

The County Resilient Livelihoods Coordinator will work under the multi-scope technical guidance of the Alternative Livelihoods & Markets Advisor and Climate Smart Agriculture Advisor, HES Advisor as well as access technical support from the Nutrition Resilience Advisor to implement agriculture-based livelihoods and household economic interventions more holistically than traditionally siloed livelihoods and micro-businesses -maintaining the pathways to nutrition resilience. The RL Coordinator will jointly with the RL team plan for and support continuous mentorship, coaching, supervision and support the county-based RL team to deliver high quality interventions.

Essential Job Functions

VISION AND STRATEGY & ITS IMPLEMENTATION

• Supports the Resilience Livelihoods Technical Team (Climate Smart Agriculture, Alternative Livelihoods and Market Systems, Household Economic Strengthening, Natural Resources Management) in creating and evolving a strong vision for Nawiri’’s approach for supporting vulnerable households to address household food insecurity and work towards maintaining food security despite exposure to shocks and stresses.
• Technically support the Field Director and take overall implementation leadership, technical oversight and coordination of USAID Nawiri nutrition-sensitive Resilient Livelihoods Interventions aimed at sustainably maintaining food security of vulnerable households, despite exposure to shocks and stresses.
• Specifically, provide leadership and in-depth technical guidance in translating the programmatic vision, strategies and evidence to implementation. These strategies include Resilient Livelihoods Strategy, NRM & conflict, Community Engagement Strategy while collaborating with other coordinators to translate program strategies into Livelihood interventions i.e. Gender Equity and Social Inclusion, Health, ASHR and Nutrition, Social and Structural Behaviour Change, Governance among others.
• Member of the USAID Nawiri Resilient Livelihoods Team and participates in co-design of USAID Nawiri resilient livelihoods interventions. Use learning to develop and scale up implementation strategy, approaches and activities; integrating agriculture resilience into additional technical areas as needed.
• Translate the USAID Nawiri Sustainability and Exit Strategy into action while taking active leadership on implementation of sustainability approaches. The Coordinator will be supported by a team of advisors in these thematic areas to practically operationalise these approaches.
• Coordinate development and updating stakeholders analysis and a collective impact mapping approach with specific analysis of strategic partnership opportunities for layering, sequencing and or intergration to amplify impact of interventions.
• Forge strong, institutional partnerships and linkages and maintain a productive working relationship with Government of Kenya, PREG Partners, and other relevant stakeholders partners in agriculture, and market system development, social protection, gender, water, adolescents, youth, women empowerment in livelihoods related activities.
• Ensure that cross-cutting aspects of the program such as gender equity, social inclusion, youth, and water systems are included and well-integrated into the agriculture and resilient livelihood activities.
• Represent USAID Nawiri at county government level and other stakeholder platforms aligned to multi-sectoral and resilient livelihood interventions and contribute to County Strategic development, prioritization and resourcing (budgeting) of Nutrition Sensitive interventions in line with the Governance for Nutrition Strategy.

TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP AND & ITS IMPLEMENTATION

• With technical leadership support of the technical team in Resilient Livelihoods (Climart Smart Advisor and NRM coordinator, Alternative Livelihoods and Market Systems Advisor, take the lead in designing implementation modalities and roll out of Nawiri’s Resilient Livelihoods Strategy, at the County Level, ensuring the development of an operational work plan and its implementation in line with overall Nawiri Operational Program Strategy.
• Leads the management and implementation of the specific livelihoods project scope under Mercy Corps, within the consortium implementation modalities, including supporting contextual design and roll-out. These include and not limited to coordinating with a diverse county-based Resilience Livelihoods team drawn from all USAID Nawiri consortium and local implementing partners to manage coherent program implementation within specific geographies and intervention areas, as informed by and continued reference to evidence that informs programmatic decisions and actions.
• Lead county-level coordinated implementation of the consortium-wide scope ensuring effective layering, sequencing and integration of interventions, as well as integration of nutrition-sensitive interventions in specific technical areas of; Climate Smart Agriculture (irrigated crop and livestock) production systems, private sector and financial inclusion, enabling market systems to last miles to support ultra-poor, Household Economic Strengthening (HES) and coordination supportive oversight of adapted Ultra-Poor Graduation aimed at reducing poverty and improving nutrition outcome -while reducing women’s time burden - ensuring coherence, on time and on budget and of quality.
• with technical guidance and support of the thematic resilient livelihoods technical team, coordinate a sustained results-focused implementation working collaboratively with the internal team and relevant stakeholders to ensure vulnerable households and targeted participants adopt and sustain dry-season milk availability, improved, diversified and sustained nutrient dense foods, sustainably improved household economies, access labour opportunities, while increasing adaptive, absorptive and transformative capacities of highly vulnerable households and participants (including adolescents -male/female, women of reproductive age, male and female youth).
• Draws technical assistance and support for self and for the diverse team members from the Consortium Resilient Livelihoods team to lead quality implementation. Specifically works with support and draws from technical supervision of the Alternative Livelihoods & Markets Advisor and Climate Smart Agriculture Advisor, Household Economic Strengthening advisor to address agriculture and household economic strengthening, more holistically than traditionally siloed livelihoods and micro-businesses.
• Support development of adaptive learning and collective impact strategy within RL collaborative partnership strategy (ies) and support integration of adaptations into the project’s work-plan and implementation approaches.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION

• Coordinate with and work closely with various technical advisors to build systems that promote participant accountability by ensuring that those most impacted by agriculture and resilient livelihood issues are represented during program-facilitated community dialogue events, assessments, and activities. These include in Resilient Livelihoods, Health and Nutrition, Gender, Youth and Social Dynamics scope (including the USAID Nawiri Alternative Livelihoods & Markets Advisor and Climate Smart Agriculture Advisor, Household Economic Strengthening Advisors, as well as - the Gender, Youth and Social Dynamics Lead, Health and Nutrition among others
• Lead RL implementation coherence in line with the program strategy, with technical support and guidance of technical interventions, ensuring effective layering, sequencing and integration to strengthen collective impact, within the consortium and within similar geographies and opportunities with diverse stakeholders. These will include leading partnership discussions and translating into tangible actions. With support of a senior technical team of advisors, jointly mentor, coach and support officers in implementation of priority pathways to nutrition resilience. These include coordinating implementation of nutrition resilience interventions including in food production (crop and livestock production), market system development and improving household economies.
• Directly manage the Mercy Corps team, Lead and coordinate the portfolio at county level, including implementation tracking across the sub-office level for agriculture and resilient livelihoods strategy and interventions.
• Supervise timely implementation of interventions in line with the approved work plan, ensuring that key milestones are of high quality, are community driven and an enabling policy and implementation environment is supported at multiple levels (county, sub-county, ward, villages, households).
• Coordinate periodic review (weekly, monthly, quarterly) of the work plan across all implementing partners, identifying progress, gaps and acting on them timely.
• Identify opportunities for integration and synergies within other sectors such as nutrition, health, alternative livelihoods, and governance.
• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed; promote and model a culture of learning and adaptive management.
• Review all program documents and relevant literature including county plans and priorities including opportunities for co-investments and support alignments and influencing priorities to strengthen nutrition resilience.
• Plan, develop tools, support training of staff in delivery approaches; and participate in any field assessments including periodic market monitoring to collect context specific information that will inform regular program design and implementation.
• Coordinate the provision of tailor-made agriculture and resilient livelihood nutrition enhancing services to vulnerable households and market actors.
• Work closely with the Climate Smart and Alternative Livelihoods and Inclusive Markets Advisors to develop tools and templates that model household economies under different scenarios and evaluate seasonal risk and recovery costs or opportunities.
• Facilitate field teams in testing of profitable agriculture and resilient livelihood innovations with vulnerable households.
• Contribute technical expertise that feeds into a dynamic community of practice of USAID Nawiri staff and partners; sharing best practices across all intervention areas and workstreams, while seeking opportunities to build staff’s capabilities.
• Collaborate with the USAID Nawiri learning team to develop and maintain a culture of learning between programs through consistent sharing during reflection points and through analysis and interpretation of M&E data, processes and systems.
• Co-lead learning, coordinate and responsible for implementing adaptations
• Assist in activity budgeting and target setting for all county based resilient livelihood interventions and milestones for team members.
• Provide direct training and other capacity-building assistance to resilient livelihood county teams and partners.
• Work with Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth (PREG) partners to strengthen linkages with other actors to enhance organizational learning which directly impacts staff performance and productivity.
• In the event of a natural disaster, lead design and budgeting of livelihood life-saving emergency, protection and recovery response activities.
• Support collaboration with county leadership and support the county RL team to ensure that communities are informed about USAID Nawiri programs and what we do, are comfortable giving feedback and that feedback is used to improve the quality of our interventions.
• Develop and implement capacity building plans for the County RL team including partners, including implementation quality and reporting.
• Lead RL team in translating program work plan into component-work plans per geography (sub-county/wards, villages), and operational budgets while maintaining accountability for results.
• Speak thoughtfully to the evidence to action products and learnings that Nawiri is continuously using to inform evolving programmatic strategy.
• Support USAID Nawiri accountability to mainstream gender, youth and social dynamics in Resilience Livelihoods interventions.

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND REPORTING

• Generate Implementation reports on the RL implementation while also supporting drafting of learnings and policy briefs, issues-papers and case studies on specific thematic issues, including integration. Ensure USAID Nawiri is capturing the required level of participant information - including participant categories such as gender, adolescents, children, youth -as well as services provided and capture specific success stories.
• Supporting the review of program reports and documents to provide a holistic view of diverse interventions
• Collaborate with a county-based M&E team to develop and implement relevant monitoring and tracking systems.
• In coordination with the county-based learning team, manage the institutional knowledge related to county resilient livelihoods and contribute to wider knowledge management;
• Lead reporting on implementation of county resilient livelihoods activities under the Field Director, .

Supervisory Responsibility

Directly supervises Livelihood Officers (5) and manages all consortium county-based resilient livelihoods team members.

Accountability

• Reports Directly To: Field Director
• Works Directly With: MC USAID Nawiri Climate Smart Advisor, Alternative Livelihoods and Inclusive Markets Advisor (also direct Technical guidance and leadership support); Also, directly works with BOMA USAID Nawiri REAP for Nutrition Project manager and SAVE the Children USAID Nawiri Household Economic Strengthening Advisor. Also works directly with the County Systems Strengthening Manager, Stakeholder and Social Accountability Manager, County Learning Coordinator, County M&E coordinator, partner agencies, local government (county, sub-county, ward) and support departments (Finance, HR and Operations).

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

• Advanced degree in Agriculture, agribusiness management or agricultural economics
• A minimum of 5 years experience in a technical role on an international development program related to livelihoods, food security and nutrition.
• Demonstrated expertise and ability to lead and coordinate a diverse team drawn from different implementing partners.
• Demonstrable familiarity with Kenya’s ASAL, agriculture crop and livestock, resilient livelihoods, and natural resources sectors political and policy environment.
• Proficient analytical skills that demonstrate an understanding of the current concepts, priorities, and issues in program monitoring, data collection, and evaluation.
• Highly developed written and oral communications skills as well as strong interpersonal communication and team building skills to ensure effective coordination within USAID and effective advocacy of Agency positions externally with both specialist as well as non-specialist audiences.
• Advanced computer skills and experience developing data management systems.
• Team player who takes initiative and is a problem-solver.
• Effective verbal and written communication, multitasking and organizational skills.
• Ability to manage priorities autonomously

Success Factors

Success factors for this role include: Having technical and managerial experience in core Resilience Livelihoods approaches that USAID Nawiri is advancing, coordination and implementation experience of multi sectoral nutrition-sensitive interventions especially in Arid and Semi-Arid counties in Kenya; adaptive management, thought leadership, agility to learn, staff management and a learning mindset. S/he will be a master trainer with the ability to effectively nurture and build capacity across team members and partners. S/he will have demonstrated the ability to develop and motivate team members to implement work plans, follow procedures and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving. The RL coordinator will have proven ability to learn quickly, multi-task, prioritize, take initiative, lead, coordinate and motivate a team and be accountable for results; and integrate this understanding into activities that enhance program impact. S/he is open-minded to uptake technical assistance that is critical to take the program to scale rapidly. S/he will also have proven experience with cross-cultural teams and strong mentoring skills. S/he will have demonstrated the ability to follow procedures and meet deadlines; demonstrates flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving. The most successful Mercy Corps staff 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 Maralal including travel to program sites which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited.

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 theInteragency 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.

How to apply

For the detailed position description and application procedure please visit the following link: https://bit.ly/3syDRwS

Applications should be submitted on or before 20th May 2022 and will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Female candidates are highly encouraged to apply.

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