Program Manager – TRAIL – Mercy Corps

About US:
Mercy Corps is an international non-profit organization which implements high-quality, analytical development programmes in very difficult places. Mercy Corps has been operating in Uganda since 2006. It has and continues to implement programs in Acholi and Karamoja sub regions. Mercy Corps is taking a community-led, market driven approach to address poverty and food insecurity needs through interventions that get to the root causes and contributing factors of economic vulnerability. Donors include the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the European Commission (EC), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC).

Job Summary: The Program Manager will offer support to multiple programs, including the USDA-funded Revitalizing Agricultural Incomes and New Markets (RAIN), Walmart Foundation-funded Building Women’s Income through Agricultural Training (BUILD) and the Sweden-funded Transforming Agriculture for Improved Livelihood (TRAIL) programs, as well as the MasterCard Foundation-funded Driving Youth-led New Agribusiness and Microenterprise (DYNAMIC). Working in consortia with GOAL, VSO and Restless Development, DYNAMIC will strengthen systems and facilitate creation of economic opportunities for disadvantaged youth. DYNAMIC’s goal is to increase the number of young people who are in secure employment or self-employment and to promote agricultural market systems for youth, reaching 125,000 out-of-school youth aged 15–24 in eight districts over five years. Through a market facilitation approach, youth already engaged in on-farm activities will move to more productive and profitable farming. DYNAMIC will increase facilitate access to technical skills, knowledge and market information, as well as link agribusinesses and microenterprises to market opportunities, and ensure they can utilize financial services. The Program Manager – TRAIL is a key position in program quality assurance, accountability, documentation and learning unit, which exists to support program design and implementation. The position holder will support planning and execution of monitoring and evaluation, ensuring quality in accordance with accepted standards, providing essential feedback for learning, accountability and decision making. S/he will be responsible for providing internal capacity building for program staff on monitoring and evaluation activities as well as review and development of necessary tools that feed into needs of Mercy Corps and donor reporting requirements.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:
1. MEL Strategy and Design:
· Ensure that Acholi program MEL systems are in compliance with Mercy Corps global, regional and country policies, procedures, standards and strategic initiatives
· The incumbent will assist in program strategy design, planning and implementation to ensure adherence to Mercy Corps’ Minimum Standards, including the use of standardized indicators and documentation methodologies.
· Oversee the design and implementation of assessments and other pre, ex-ante and post data collection and analysis.
· Technically support learning-to-action events, reflection session to analyze data for programmatic use and to document and incorporate lessons learned into program design, planning and implementation.
2. Management of Data and Information System:
· Support program teams to develop and maintain knowledge and Information management system to support data collection, reflection, analysis and reporting needs.
· Ensure quality control procedures and accuracy of entered data and comparing it with the existing filing system to make sure all records are consistent and aligned.
· Offer technical support in the development of MEL Plans, tools, survey design, methodology, data analysis, and other services as may be required for program monitoring and evaluation.
3. Technical Support and Capacity Building:
· Play a key role in the development and leading in the review of result chains, sector intervention strategies and M&E frameworks and document changes to generate learnings and ideas for programs.
· Maintain an up to date database that reflects progress on mission (including disaggregated beneficiary counts) and donor indicators.
· Build capacity of all relevant team members to develop and maintain MEL.
· Remain updated with developments among the Mercy Corps Uganda MEL community and agency-wide MEL trends and resources.
· Leverage lessons learned, best practices, program data, evaluations and provide evidence based information, proposal annexes, success stories, case studies and other high quality, results-based documentation.
· Work closely with MEL and IT staff to maximize the value and utility of ICT4MEL initiatives.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
· The ideal candidate for the Mercy Corps Program Manager – TRAIL should hold a bachelor’s degree in Economics, Agriculture, Demography, Statistics, Business administration or relevant field.
· A minimum of three years of program management, monitoring and evaluation experience (experience with INGO is preferred).
· Broad knowledge and understanding of the concepts and demonstrate skills in monitoring and evaluation, project cycle, results chain and frameworks, and participatory monitoring.
· Previous experience with both quantitative and qualitative data collection, reporting techniques. S/he should understand and be able to apply basic measures of central tendency and spread, with excellent writing and analytical skills.
· Ability to design and implement surveys, have knowledge of commonly used probability and purposive sampling techniques.
· Significant experience in leading learning extraction, development and sharing as part of the monitoring and evaluation feedback process.
· Previous exposure and experience using appreciative inquiry and conflict sensitivity techniques and dynamism in working with multi-cultural team environment.
· Past experience with facilitation, capacity building, formal and informal knowledge transfer, partnership strengthening and empowering staff through opportunities for growth and development.
· Computer literacy i.e. proficiency in Microsoft Excel and at least one data management software including Ms Access, SPSS, and STATA.
· Must be fluent both spoken and written English. Luo language skills highly valued.

How to Apply:
All suitably qualified and interested candidates should send their E-mail applications including a cover letter clearly stating the salary requirements, updated CV (with three professional referees), and copies of academic qualifications/certificates to the HR/Admin Manager, Kampala Head Office on 4th Floor Embassy Plaza, Plot 1188-1190 Ggaba Road. The E-mail applications with cover letter should be sent to: mcjobs@ug.mercycorps.org

Deadline: 11th December 2015

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