Description

Position Description

Location Kassala and Nyala, South Darfur (remote start)

Position Status Full-time, Temporary (4 months Contract)

Salary Level Expat 6

Risk Level:      ☐ Level 3       ☐Level 2           ☐Level 1 

Level 3: Frequent contact with participants, direct contact with children, access to sensitive data, and/or high level of accountability.  

Level 2: Some contact with participants; unplanned non-direct contact with children.

Level 1: Likely to have no contact with participants or sensitive data

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.

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps has been operational in Sudan since 2004 and currently has a country office in Port Sudan and field offices in Central & South Darfur, North & South Kordofan, Northern State, River Nile, Kassala and Gedaref states. We work with Sudanese communities to build resilient scalable solutions that interrupt the cycle of fragility and crisis due to conflict and climate change by improving food and water security, peace and governance and enabling economic opportunities in the agricultural sector. 

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, agriculture, 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. Mercy Corps Sudan is scaling up to reach upwards of 200,000 conflict-affected people with multi-purpose cash assistance, targeted voucher programs, and in-kind services provision across the country. Our impact will be delivered with a focus on needs, in partnership with local actors and civil society, and embrace the safe, appropriate, and accountable use of digital systems and technologies to support the response. 

Working with a diverse base of donors that includes the World Bank, United States Government, Switzerland Development Cooperation (SDC), Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), Sudan Humanitarian Fund (SHF) and others, Mercy Corps empowers people to recover from crisis, build better lives and transform their communities for good. We work closely with the private sector, civil society and governance structures at local, regional and national levels to facilitate change and ensure that opportunities are inclusive of all Sudanese. Innovation is an important part of our programs, and we are leveraging new technologies and modalities to alleviate suffering and poverty, thereby helping people build secure, productive and just communities. 

General Position Summary

The Inception Start-up Lead will oversee the initial 4-month inception phase of the EC Youth program. They will work collaboratively with the EC, the prime DRC, Mercy Corps and partners to develop and execute an inception phase strategy aligned with donor expectations and the requirements of the grant agreement. The Inception lead will mobilize in-country team members, regional and global advisors in a process of data collection, analysis, and redesign to produce high quality deliverables and effectively communicate results. The Inception Lead must successfully lead the achievement of the inception phase against tight deadlines, applying a data-insights-action approach, and effectively represent this process and its results to the donor. At the successful conclusion of the Inception phase, they will hand over the transition report that includes the program logic with clear indicators and a detailed intervention strategy matrix (for all program components); risk register and a staffing/capacity assessment for the long-term team to a long-term program lead who will oversee the implementation phase.

Essential Responsibilities

Strategic Evidence Generation, Analysis and Design

• Develop a strategic and achievable plan for the inception phase focused on meaningful evidence generation, analysis and redesign.

• Lead an evidence gap analysis process, reviewing existing information and data from the program proposal, existing assessments, internal and external sources to identify evidence gaps that can be addressed in the inception phase.

• Orient key team members to the program’s logic model and evidence gap analysis process.

• Mobilize donor representatives, partners and team members to plan and facilitate an initial workshop to come to a shared understanding of evidence gaps and priorities for the inception phase.

• Develop and implement a workplan for the inception phase based on the critical path for key milestones.

• Develop a draft workplan for the entire project, to be revised throughout implementation.

• Develop and adapt scopes of work or protocols for assessments, studies, or community consultation activities.

• Ensure scopes of work of different studies are effectively layered and complement one another as part of one cohesive, achievable strategy for data collection.

• Work with relevant advisors to develop an analysis framework to draw out findings of each required study or assessment and understand the findings in the context of the program's expected outcomes and outputs.

• Plan and facilitate a sensemaking session and a session to revise or refine the program Theory of Change and/or Implementation Plan.

• Interpret and prioritize key takeaways and communicate these in a compelling way internally and externally.

• Produce a draft Cash-for-Work (CfW) implementation framework and labor market integration plan.

• Ensure the final intervention strategy cohesively links the three core program components (CfW, skills training, and market linkages) based on the inception evidence.

Start up

• Participate in the hiring of and onboarding of key program roles, including the Program Director and technical advisors as needed.

• Conduct a structured, two-week shadowing and mentorship period for the incoming Program Director to ensure deep contextual knowledge transfer and successful adoption of the refined program design.

• Negotiate the signing and approval of Technical Agreements and relevant MOUs with authorities.

• Facilitate the signing of subaward agreements with partners.

• Complete relevant inception phase assessments including but not limited to: 1) Community assessments and selection; 2) Participatory Needs Assessment, engaging communities to identify priority public works projects, assess infrastructure conditions, and analyse labour market dynamics; 3) In-depth gender and social inclusion (GESI)-informed  joint labour and market assessments, analysing the challenges/gaps and opportunities faced by different genders in the workforce, ensuring that strategies are inclusive and equitable for all youth; 4) Stakeholders mapping; 5) Conflict sensitivity assessment

• Develop relevant SOPs and project planning documents to support effective and efficient implementation of the program.

Donor Engagement

• Act as a thought partner to the donor and build a relationship of trust, transparency and mutual respect.

• Collaborate with HQ and country team members to closely monitor award requirements for the inception phase and deliver products according to our best interpretation of the requirements and donor regulations.

• In coordination with HQ teams, proactively communicate contextual changes or delays to donors and follow agreed communications protocols for ad-hoc communications, regular communications, and reporting. Follow up proactively on documents or plans that require donor approval.

• Effectively present and share the overall strategy of the inception phase and present progress updates at key points (inception planning, data collection, sensemaking, culmination).

• Act as a primary liaison with the prime partner (DRC) and local partners to align expectations and roles for the implementation phase, ensuring the inception strategy is co-owned by all stakeholders.

Organizational Learning 

• Capture lessons learned to improve future inception phases

• Prepare a post-inception transition plan to inform program implementation.

SAFEGUARDING RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Actively learns about safeguarding and integrates it into their work, including safeguarding risks and mitigations related to their area of work.

• Practices the values of Mercy Corps including respecting the dignity and well-being of participants and fellow team members.

• Encourages openness and communication in their team; encourages team members to submit reports if they have any concerns using reporting mechanisms e.g., Integrity Hotline and other options.

Supervisory Responsibility

Start-up Coordinators/Advisors, Program Team members

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Director of Programs

Works Directly With: Country leadership, program team members, support departments, program partners, Regional Program Team members, SIP team, Global Advisors in Evidence & Learning and Technical Resources and Quality

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 

• BA/BS degree in a relevant field, MS preferred.

• A minimum of 5-7 years managing field-based development or humanitarian programs.

• Experience successfully leading time-bound inception phases with donor approval requirements.

• Experience developing strategies to implement interrelated multi-sectoral studies and developing analysis frameworks to interpret their results.

• Experience with designing and managing learning activities and tools, including surveys and evaluations. Demonstrated ability to analyze data, manage data quality, and visualize/report results for varied audiences.

• Familiarity with adult learning, adaptive management and program learning processes, such as sensemaking, pause and reflect sessions, and other similar approaches.  

• Strong background in cash and markets, with experience leading the design, planning and implementation of Mercy Corps CVA and Markets programming.

• Experience designing, adapting or implementing youth employment and enterprise development programs, especially those that utilize Cash-for-Work (CfW) or other labor-intensive methods as a pathway to market-based employment is highly preferred

• Excellent influence, negotiation and representation skills and experience representing programs to donors.

• Demonstrated attention to detail, meeting deadlines and working and problem-solving independently and cooperatively. 

• Excellent facilitation and training skills, ability to train and mentor team members on complex processes and ideas.  

• Effective English verbal and written communication. Arabic fluency highly preferred.

• Candidates with experience working in Sudan are highly preferred.

• Ability to obtain a Sudan and Chad visa for deployment to Eastern and Western Sudan.

• Ability to deploy in an insecure environment.

• Completion of a Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) within the last two years, or commitment to complete prior to deploying.

Success Factors

The successful Inception Start-up Lead is an effective leader who can develop a strategic vision, mobilize collaborators to quick action, rapidly adapt the strategy to dynamic security and access constraints and effectively communicate the vision and strategy to diverse stakeholders. They will bring the right balance of technical expertise, curiosity and desire to learn and challenge commonly held assumptions. They will effectively manage deadlines and demands of different stakeholders while prioritizing the actions that will have the biggest impact. The Inception Start-up Lead will demonstrate an inclusive approach to leadership and collaboration to ensure team members engage fully in the work and access opportunities to grow. Demonstrates exceptional diplomacy and negotiation skills to manage the expectations of multiple high-level stakeholders, including the donor (EC), prime partner (DRC), and Sudanese authorities.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position will be based in Kassala and Nyala. Travel is anticipated to be 80% to the following states where the program is implemented Kassala, North Kordofan, South Darfur, and River Nile. The Startup Team Lead will first travel to Eastern Sudan – Kassala and River Nile; then proceed to travel to the West through Chad – South Darfur. Due to access constraints, travel to North Kordofan is unlikely.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/STA 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.

Fostering a diverse and open workplace is an important part of Mercy Corps’ vision.  Mercy Corps is an Equal Opportunity Employer regardless of background. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment.

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

Team Engagement and Effectiveness  

Achieving our mission starts with how we build our team and collaborate. By bringing together individuals with a variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives, we strengthen our ability to solve complex challenges and drive innovation. We foster a culture of trust and respect, where every team member is valued for their contributions, empowered to reach their full potential, and motivated to do their best work.

We recognize that building a strong and effective team is an ongoing process, and we remain committed to learning, improving, and growing together.

Equal Employment Opportunity 

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristics protected under applicable law.

 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.