Cash Assistance Senior Program Officer at Mercy Corps

Program Summary
Mercy Corps’ Ukraine crisis response seeks to meet the humanitarian needs of vulnerable Ukrainians and other conflict-affected people where they are: displaced inside Ukraine, refugees in Poland, Romania and Moldova, or trapped behind frontlines. We aim to reach 500,000 vulnerable people with multi-purpose cash assistance, in-kind humanitarian support, and protection services across four countries. Almost all of our impact will be delivered in partnership: with Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian and Moldovan civil society organizations through a granting program that matches humanitarian action with capacity strengthening, and with peer international NGOs through a consortium in Ukraine.  Mercy Corps is responding to the Ukraine crisis with large-scale consortium programming with a focus on Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA). The Consortium is a partnership between four international humanitarian aid agencies to model and deliver innovative, effective cash and other humanitarian assistance programs to support people affected by the Ukraine crisis within Ukraine.

General Position Summary

The Cash Assistance Senior Program Officer will provide day-to-day oversight of cash and voucher assistance (CVA) program activities conducted through local partners including needs identification, participant registration, and reconciliation. The Senior Program Officer will support, the strategic decision, program implementation, coordinate and supervise local partners, vendors and contractors and other Mercy Corps teams members. S/he can work both independently and proactively with a diverse team and can motivate managers to achieve results. The successful candidate will have an eye for detail, is able complete documentation and reports to a high standard, can monitor the work of others and has the communication skills to mentor others to improve.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Strategy and Vision

• Develop the weekly work plan and overall schedule of assessments and monitoring.
• Support the broader cash team in the identification and consolidation of gaps, needs, and opportunities.
• Plan the schedule for commodity, cash and voucher distributions, shelter rehabilitation and distribution monitoring.
• Support the strategic definition of new areas of intervention for cash according to the changing context and needs

Program Implementation

• Lead in the identification and capacity assessment of partners for the implementation of cash interventions according to the performance and quality criteria defined by Mercy Corps.
• Ensure that program implementation is responsive to communities and partners, and consistent with Mercy Corps’ cash minimum standards and other relevant program guidelines, principles, values, quality standards and strategic plan.

• Conduct and supervise general and sector focused needs assessments as needed (including population movements, needs assessment, market price surveys, market assessments & vendor assessments, shelter needs rehabilitation); ensuring documentation is correctly completed and submitted in a timely fashion.
• Conduct and supervise local associations capacity assessments, local associations performance reviews and vendor capacity assessments and share results and recommendations promptly.
• Support and guides the identification of modalities (in-kind, vouchers, cash) that are appropriate for different communities and a decision and risk matrix to determine the impact of the intervention on local markets.
• Ensure that Mercy Corps humanitarian mission and principles are clearly communicated understood by all stakeholders in the field and that fair and transparent program participant and vendor selection processes are established and shared widely.
• Organize, supervise and implement trainings for vendors, local partners and program participants.
• Communicate with local associations to ensure they are aware of pending deliveries of vouchers or commodities and that they develop distribution plans in a timely manner. Ensure that vendors are informed and prepared before voucher distributions commence.
• Coordinate with the MEL team on monitoring of CVA and NFI distributions.
• Lead and monitor local associations’ communication with the community, their documentation, storage facilities and distributions, and payments requests.
• Lead and monitor vendor performance to ensure that vendors adhere to their agreement with Mercy Corps (type of items, quantity, quality, prices, services and documentations).
• Participate in the elaboration of vouchers as well as insuring counts and reconciliation and guarantee that the vouchers are organized, packed in the agreed manner with all necessary supporting documentation.

Team management

• Ensure team members improve performance & reach objectives.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and
• formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve
• excellence, and cultivate resilience and well-being under challenging situations.

Qualification Requirements

• BA/BS or equivalent is desired.
• At least 4 years of previous related experience preferable.
• Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members in a cross-cultural environment is required.
• Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving.
• Effective verbal and written communication, multi-tasking, organizational and prioritization skills.
• Ukrainian language (written and spoken) is required. Russian language is desirable. A fair command of English (spoken and written) preferable.
• Ability and willingness to work effectively with an ethnically diverse team and other groups of various cultural, social, religious and ethnic backgrounds in a sensitive environment.
• Demonstrated attention to detail.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills: Ability to interact effectively with other team members, as well as with project partners, vendors and community members.
• Ability to deal with people fairly and tactfully while not compromising Mercy Corp’s own standards and procedures.
• Ability to conduct oneself with sensitivity and respect toward others.
• Mentoring skills will be an asset.
• Honest, hardworking and committed to community work.
• Ability to work as part of a team and coordinate with project personnel.
• Computer skills – Word and Excel will be an asset.
• Willingness to travel and work.

Success Factors

The Cash Assistance Senior Program Officer will able to work independently and self-manage themselves with partners and program participants while also staying within the guidelines and timeline of a larger team. S/he will have a sense of urgency to the program and humanitarian goals while also being able to keep clear records and data.

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:

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. 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.

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.

2022-08-22T07:33:41.000 2022-09-22T23:59:59.000 Full time TELECOMMUTE Україна Mercy Corps