Job Title: Partnerships Manager
Hiring Organization: Mercy
Corps
Location – Locality: Nairobi
Location – Region: Kenya
Industry: NGO
Job Type: Full
Time
Salary: KES
Date Posted: 05/01/2024
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.
The Program / Department / Team
Mercy
Corps’ Sudan crisis response seeks to meet the humanitarian needs of vulnerable
Sudanese and other conflict-affected people across the country. Mercy Corps
Sudan is recognized as a leader in market systems, agricultural, and food
security and building on this experience, the MC Sudan humanitarian program
will layer in resilience and other program activities where appropriate and
feasible to do so. Assistance is delivered with a focus on needs, in
partnership with local actors and civil society.
The Cash Consortium of Sudan (CCS) is a collaborative platform to advance a
progressive vision of the potential of cash assistance to transform
humanitarian response and recovery in partnership with vulnerable
conflict-affected populations. CCS is led by Mercy Corps, building on its
global experience and learning on leading cash consortia in multiple country
contexts, as well as general expertise in cash coordination and breadth of
technical resources. International partners include Acted, CARE, the International
Rescue Committee (IRC), and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), each of which
bring strong cash and complementary technical competencies, as well as
expansive operational coverage in Sudan. The CCS also includes nine Sudanese
NGOs as partners in alignment with global aid sector commitments to enhance the
prominence of local actors in driving humanitarian response and recovery.
IMPACT is a non-implementing partner dedicated to Monitoring, Evaluation,
Research and Learning. IMPACT will support quality data systems and an
objective evidence base that will be essential to CCS’ accountability and
adaptive management to refine programming approaches to enhance impact as the
Sudan crisis context evolves. The CCS will work closely with other consortia
and actors in Sudan to deliver an effective CVA response for communities
affected by the crisis.
The core pillars of the CCS response include: 1) basic needs through cash
assistance both at the community level through Group Cash Transfers (GCTs)
delivered to Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), as well as at the
household-level through Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA); 2) strengthening
market systems to ensure resilience of key market actors and supply chains as
well as strengthening the availability and affordability of key commodities; 3)
strengthening capacity of local partner organizations with an emphasis on
accompaniment and mentorship; and 4) generation of learning and evidence to
inform broader response efforts.
The
Position
The
purpose of the CCS Partnerships Manager – Capacity Strengthening is to lead in
supporting activities under the CCS pillar 3) strengthening capacity of local
partner organizations with an emphasis on accompaniment and mentorship. The
Partnerships Manager – Capacity Strengthening is responsible to establish a
common approach and good practices for partnership between international and
local partner organizations, and to manage a team to support accompaniment and
mentorship with CCS’ local partner organizations. Beyond the local partner
organizations, s/he will coordinate with the CCS Secretariat, representatives
of international partners, and other NGOs and will attend key coordination
meetings and support information sharing across partners.
Essential
Job Function
Capacity
Strengthening
- Develop
strong relationships with all partner organizations– national and
international.
- Lead
common due diligence exercises for all national partners.
- Lead
common capacity assessments for all national partners.
- Establish
local partner capacity strengthening agenda for the CCS.
- Coordinate
with CCS and partner teams to plan capacity strengthening sessions as
needed, managing resource allocation to work with any other country,
regional and/ or global support colleagues, consultants, etc.
- Manage
CCS Partnerships team of 2-4 team members dedicated to accompaniment and
mentorship with local partner organizations.
- Coordinate
with the CCS Partnerships team on planning and implementing training and
coaching interventions provided for local partners.
- Support
CCS and local partners in ensuring consortium planning, design and
implementation are inclusive and oriented towards enhancing the voice and
role of local partners within the consortium.
Team
Management
- Advise
and mentor Secretariat and partner staff on implementation of capacity
building activities and approaches, including support for strengthening
coaching skills within the consortium.
- Develop
team member capacity to assume greater planning and implementation
responsibilities with attention to high quality program outputs.
- Program
Management & Quality
- Maintain
accurate records of capacity building activities, prepare periodic
progress reports, and contribute to donor reporting requirements as
relates to the CCS Partnerships pillar.
Finance
& Compliance Management
- Ensure
the consortium partnership activities are compliant with donor and grant
holder rules and regulations.
- Manage
the consortium partnership budget and ensure partner expenditures are in
line with agreed upon budgets.
- Monitor
expenditures and forecasts, ensure timely identification of under/over
spends and propose and implement solutions.
Representation
And Coordination
- Participate
where relevant in external representation of the consortium with various
groups, including donors, UN agencies, the World Bank and local
authorities as feasible.
- Represent
consortium progress to donors as well as within the Cash Working Group,
the Emergency Livelihoods Cluster, other relevant clusters, working groups
related to Social Protection, and other coordination fora as strategic.
- Share
learning from the consortium with the greater humanitarian and development
community within Sudan as well as regionally and globally, as relevant
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.
- Accountability
To Beneficiaries
- Mercy
Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards
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.
- Supervisory
Responsibility
Knowledge
and Experience
- Bachelor’s
or Master’s degree in international development, social sciences,
management, or a related field.
- At
least 3-5 years of relevant experience in capacity building,
organizational development, or NGO management, preferably in Sudan or
similar contexts.
- Prior
experience with civil society programming and interest required; strong
preference for previous capacity building, community mobilization,
advocacy, or grassroots organizing experience (particularly in crisis
setting).
- Previous
team management and training skills are required.
- Proven
experience in conducting capacity assessments, designing capacity building
interventions, and delivering training and mentoring support to local
organizations.
- Strong
understanding of capacity development methodologies, adult learning
principles, and participatory approaches.
- Excellent
communication, facilitation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to
work effectively with diverse stakeholders.
- Fluency
in English and Arabic, both written and verbal
- Commitment
to the principles of partnership, local ownership, and sustainability in
development programming.
Success
Factors
The
successful Partnerships Manager –
- Capacity
Strengthening will combine will have an ability to work independently,
take initiative in tasks and self-learning, be proactive in communications
and development of professional relationships, and persistent and flexible
in tackling challenges.
- S/He
will have strong remote management skills and experience in building and
maintaining partner relationships in a fragmented operational context.
- S/he
will possess a high level of adaptability and be able to adjust to a
constantly changing working environment.
- 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.