Venesperanza Cash and Livelihoods Consortium Director - Bogota, Colombia

Programs Bogota, Colombia

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Description

Location: Bogota, Colombia
Valid unrestricted work authorization in Colombia is required at the time of application for this position. We welcome applications from interested Colombians and Venezuelans. In an exceptional case, we may consider individuals who do not have current work authorization in Colombia. If so, Talent Acquisition will be in contact about the salary range during the interview process.
Position Status: Full time, Regular
Salary Range: $20.250.000-27.000.000 COP monthly

 

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. 
 
Program / Department Summary
Mercy Corps has worked in 17 departments in Colombia since 2005, impacting over 1,000,000 people, creating alliances and opportunities with the public, private and civil society. Led by Mercy Corps in partnership with Save the Children (Save) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) as well as national NGO partner Fundación Halü, the VenEsperanza Cash Consortium has operated since 2019 to deliver food assistance through multi-purpose cash transfers and complementary livelihoods support to more than 517,000 vulnerable People in Need (PIN): Venezuelan refugees and migrants (in transit and those who intend to stay in Colombia); pendular migrants who regularly cross between Venezuela and Colombia; Colombians returning from Venezuela; and host community members. VenEsperanza requires strong leadership and coordination in order to operate effectively and deliver on its promise as a premier mechanism for humanitarian assistance in response to the Venezuela complex crisis. 

 

General Position Summary
The VenEsperanza Director leads the consortium through strong management skills and consistent, inclusive and participatory leadership. They represent the interests and vision of the partnership and ensure that it is working successfully across member agencies. The humanitarian context is constantly changing, as is the work of the Consortium and the Director's role. Hence the Director works closely with partner members, the program donor and other key stakeholders to ensure that their role is adapting to the needs and opportunities at hand.

 

The consortium director must be an effective communicator and manager with exceptional team building and coordination skills. They are responsible for managing the relationship between the partners implementing a common food assistance and livelihoods response to the Venezuela humanitarian crisis. They are detail-oriented with excellent planning skills. The Director must also demonstrate proven experience in networking and donor representation.

 

The Director provides operational leadership to the consortium and manages the contractual relationship between the different partners and the Consortium donor. The Director must also facilitate the delivery of innovative high-quality programming, ensure robust data collection and monitoring systems and clear and concise reporting on the activities implemented based on donor regulation while also building/consolidating relationships among the Consortium, donors, UN coordination structures, and the Government of Colombia. 

 

Essential Job Responsibilities
STRATEGY AND VISION
  • Act as the main champion for the strategic vision and provide operational leadership for the Consortium.
  • Recognize and lead opportunities for innovative action within the Consortium.
  • Effectively recognize and develop funding and consortium strengthening opportunities, as needed.
  • Maintain implementation momentum by consolidating and aligning implementation strategies and plans.
  • Develop and manage a clear system for tracking and reporting against deliverables and ensuring programmatic quality.
  • Ensure strong, proactive, inclusive and transparent communication with consortium partners.

 

PROGRAM LEADERSHIP
  • Coordinate closely with the Mercy Corps, Save and IRC Country Directors and other senior members within each agency to guarantee alignment and quality implementation and guide decision-making throughout the response.
  • Provide leadership to ensure coordination, collaboration, communication and harmonization of VenEsperanza Consortium programming and other response operations inside Colombia;
  • Facilitate sharing, exchange and learning across member agencies.
  • Engage the Steering Committee and Program Technical Working Group in contextual analysis as needed to identify programmatic or operational adaptations necessary to respond to changes in the political/economic context in a timely manner.  
  • Provide rapid solutions and program adaptation measures in situations of crises (such as changes in the conflict environment, changes in migration trends, etc.)
  • Create and maintain systems to ensure efficient and transparent capture of program data for management decision-making and timely and informative internal and external reporting.
  • Participate and support decision-making in the national Cash Working Group. 
  • Participate in shaping policy positions and advocacy messages pertaining to the overall humanitarian situation inside Colombia.
  • Convene and chair regular Steering Committee and Technical Working Group meetings.

 

REPRESENTATION AND COORDINATION
  • Lead external representation of the consortium with key stakeholders including members of the donor community, financial service providers and private sector partners, UN and INGO partners and the GoC.
  • Maintain a close relationship with USAID/BHA in Colombia and Washington DC and provide regular implementation updates. 
  • Represent the Consortium in engagement with the US Office of the Inspector General (OIG) when necessary.
  • Present consortium progress to BHA, the Cash Working Group, the Grupo Inter-agencial sobre Flujos Migratorios Mixtos (GIFMM), the GoC, and others as requested.
  • Share Consortium learnings with the greater humanitarian community within the Venezuela response and other regional and global cash and livelihoods actors.
  • Participate in regular Complex Board meetings led by MC HQ and provide regular updates. 

 

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
  • Manage the contractual agreements with partners and Mercy Corps, and regularly monitor progress on key indicators and program quality.
  • Oversee operational planning for ongoing program activities across the consortium.
  • Ensure that program implementation is conducted with respect to grant agreement(s) and timeframe and a commitment to high quality of implementation; lead and/or support corrective action processes as necessary.
  • Ensure monitoring systems are in place, including gathering data for case studies.
  • Conduct planning and progress review meetings.
  • Adhere to all Mercy Corps procurement, logistics and administrative regulations related to programming.
 
FINANCE AND COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT
  • Regularly address compliance and regulations inquiries and programming needs, and ensure the consortium is in line with BHA and Mercy Corps compliance rules and regulations.
  • Oversee the drafting and monitoring of the consortium overall budget and projection models and ensure partner expenditures are in line with agreed upon budgets.
  • Work closely with the Mercy Corps finance and grant teams and Mercy Corps headquarters to ensure timely financial reporting on behalf of the consortium.
  • Ensure overall compliance with OIG requirements to report and manage sensitive fraud and ethics complaints. Maintain the information flow with the donor when notifications are submitted. 
  • Keep up-to-date with fraud trends and regional and national risks and lead fraud mitigation and management efforts across the Consortium.
 
SECURITY
  • Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership. Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies. 
  • Share relevant security information that could affect programming with all Consortium members as needed.

 

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 PARTICIPANTS:
  • 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 
Consortium Deputy Technical Director, Program Development and Reporting Manager, Strategic Alliances Specialist, Research and Learning Coordinator, Communications Coordinator.

 

Accountability 
Reports Directly To: Country Director / VenEsperanza Steering Committee
Works Directly With: Consortium Partner Agencies, Mercy Corps Programs, Operations and Finance, Compliance and Ethics teams, Regional/HQ Technical Support Units, MC Complex Board. 

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 qualifications and transferable skills
  • BA/BS or equivalent in international studies, economics or other relevant field; MA/S strongly preferred.
  • 7-10 years of international relief and development program management experience, including 3-5 years in emergency and recovery program management; direct cash and/or livelihoods implementation experience strongly preferred.
  • Previous experience in managing consortiums or managing/facilitating/influencing in network or partnership settings is a plus.
  • Previous experience working with USAID and strong knowledge of US government regulations required and BHA strongly preferred.
  • Combination of direct and remote management experience.
  • Proven track record of managing interdisciplinary teams effectively, fostering collaboration and achieving program objectives
  • Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with colleague agencies and facilitate negotiations.
  • Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving.
  • Experience working with local authorities, national and international NGOs.
  • Effective verbal and written communication, multi-tasking, organizational and prioritization skills; experience leading representation activities in public fora.
  • Excellent oral and written English and Spanish skills required. Spanish fluency is required. 
 
Success Factors
The successful VenEsperanza Consortium Director will combine exceptional team building, coordination, negotiation, planning, program management and communication skills and experience in maintaining donor and partner relationships. They will possess a high level of adaptability and be able to adjust to a constantly changing working environment. They will have previous experience in implementing programs in insecure and conflict contexts. Prioritizing, problem solving, ability to seize opportunities, attention to detail and strategic vision are essential. 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 Concerns:
The position is based in Bogotá and requires up to 30% time for travel by air and land to project sites in sometimes insecure environments. Mercy Corps Colombia has security protocols and a robust security team and expects staff to follow these protocols to minimize security risk in the field.

 

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.

 

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 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.
As a safeguarding measure, Mercy Corps screens all potential US-Based employees. This is done following the conclusion of recruitment and prior to assuming full employment.  Our screening process is designed to be transparent and completed in partnership with new Team Members. You will have the opportunity to disclose any prior convictions at the conclusion of the recruitment process before the check is initiated. We ask that you do not disclose any prior convictions in your application materials or during the recruitment process.

 

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