Local Partnership Manager – Tshikapa, Kasai Province, DRC

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To create a better world, 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.

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since August 2007, with a staff of around 400 people working in Eastern DRC, with the overall country goal being to support vulnerable communities through crises, while fostering programs that build resilience and promote long-term change. Mercy Corps’ national office is in Goma with sub-field offices in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri. Mercy Corps DRC’s key programming areas include a combination of longer-term development and immediate humanitarian response programs to 1) Improve water service delivery and ensuring equitable access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services, in urban and rural areas; 2) Improve food security and nutrition; 3) Promote diversified livelihoods, economic recovery and development; 4) Support peacebuilding and local governance. Mercy Corps DRC’s humanitarian programs aim specifically to assist populations affected by the conflict and crisis in Eastern Congo.

In September of 2023, Mercy Corps signed an agreement with the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA-USAID) for the implementation of the Graduating to sustainable Agriculture, Income, Nutrition, and food Security (GAINS) Program. The overarching goal of this 5-year Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA), with a start date of October 1st, 2023, and an end date of September 30, 2028, is: Food, nutrition and economic security is sustainably improved among vulnerable households.

Mercy Corps is seeking a Local Partnership Manager (LPM) to proactively lead and support the institutional capacity of GAINS’ local partners and stakeholder engagement efforts with local communities and organizations, as well as government partners. He/s will focus on capacity-building to support partners’ organizational and program management skills to effectively manage subgrants, and adequately contribute to the program’s technical implementation.

General Position Summary

The LPM will backstop and reinforce a large and diversified local partners team to building a successful partnership with the DRC decentralized Governmental institutions operating in the Kasai on various topics, including natural resources management, prevention of Gender Based Violence as well as gender, youth, and social inclusion, WASH, nutrition, and conflict management. S/he will be an experienced partnership manager, with knowledge of how to execute and manage performance-based sub-awards across a network of local partners, as well as government agreements. S/he will be responsible for tracking and supporting partner performance at all levels, while working in a participatory and inclusive manner to execute capacity and performance strengthening plans that increase both local partners, communities, and decentralized government institutions’ ability to support the implementation of interventions aimed at strengthening livelihoods and increasing incomes and improving the utilization of quality food among vulnerable people.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Partner Organizational Capacity Strengthening

• Develop tailored capacity strengthening material to support GAINS partners and Government agencies to increase their institutional and technical capacity to support market-based economic inclusion initiatives across the targeted program areas.
• Use a combination of self-assessment (e.g., Organizational Readiness/Capacity Index Tools) and performance-based analysis to establish an understanding of the strengths and areas for improvement of GAINS’ partner organizations in relation to technical and operational areas of economic inclusion programming.
• In partnership with the MEL, Program Performance and technical teams, develop and periodically update a capacity and performance-strengthening plan for local partners based on assessments.
• Support GAINS Partners to regularly refine and update their performance goals and objectives in line with GAINS’s resilient livelihoods, market systems development and social cohesion lens.
• Facilitate ongoing application of organizational capacity review and monitoring tools; adapt and apply tools to monitor and support partners to reflect on their performance.
• Support in representing GAINS in key internal and external meetings where requested by the Chief of Party.
• Contribute to the development of quarterly reports, Annual Results Report, and PREP.
• Reinforce the local partners’ capacity in drafting qualitative reports, including technical sections for the quarterly and annual reports, and financial reports.

Partnership Management

• Building off established good practices, develop a partnership management Standard Operating procedures for local partners and government engagement in the context of GAINS.
• Work with DCoP, operations and finance team, to actively manage partners against agreed upon procedures and mechanisms, and their signed sub-award agreements.
• Support P1 and P2 Teams in partnership management, and lead partner management meetings at Tshikapa and Kinshasa levels, including sub-award kick off and close out.
• Develop and track workplans for partner management, including execution and regular updates of partner sub-agreements linked to performance milestones, and regional agreements.
• Liaise with MC Head Office to prepare subaward grant agreements, ensuring necessary clauses are added, and subaward documents are complete and reviewed.
• Work closely with the compliance team to ensure compliance with Mercy Corps and USAID regulations related to subaward management, including issuance, management and monitoring of subawards as well as training team members on processes and guidelines.
• Maintain the partnership tracking and issues log with input from the MC Finance Team – Subgrants and Programs Department and report monthly to the Senior Management Team.
• Review monitoring and close-out visit reports and follow up on all subgrant compliance issues and audits and document resolutions.
• Participate in the GAINS Steering Committee meetings as required to discuss with Program Managers and other support departments on subgrants’ status for each grant.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Program Performance Director

Works Directly With: DCOP, Program team members, PaQ Director, M&E and research teams, partner organizations, HQ Regional Program Team, HQ Technical Support Unit

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 projects.

Knowledge and Experience / Qualification and Transferable Skills

• MA/S or equivalent experience in social science, political science, international development, or another relevant field.
• A minimum of 3 to 5 years of experience in development sector (international or national).
• A minimum of 2-3 years’ experience in roles substantively focused on building the capacity of third parties, including (but not limited to) national NGOs, local government bodies or local civil society organizations.
• Understanding of livelihood, economic development, and market systems programming
• Demonstrated experience of developing and implementing organizational management tools, strategies and/or standard operating procedures.
• At least 3 years’ experience with managing USAID projects, including strengths in grant management, coordination, and donor reporting.
• Demonstrable ability to produce high quality deliverables at speed and with minimal direction
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, and the capacity to work at a strategic level with senior leaders (both internal and external) is essential
• Ability to multi-task and juggle several tasks and relationships at one time, with little to no direction
• Proven ability to work effectively in multicultural teams and with technical and administrative staff and consultants.
• Fluent in both English and French.
• Ability to work in hardship environment with moderate to high levels of insecurity and significant restrictions on personal movement.
• Prior work experience in the DRC and demonstrable understanding of the context a significant advantage

Success Factors

The successful candidate will have excellent team and interpersonal relationship skills, with demonstrated ability to work effectively in complex environments. S/he will combine strong communication skills, creativity, initiative, participatory leadership and tactful decisiveness to assist in program implementation. Multi­tasking, prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail and strategic vision are essential. S/he must have the confidence and humility to work effectively with a diverse group of people – as well as be sensitive to political and cultural nuance. S/he must ­ be able to consistently apply excellent judgment to a variety of demanding and fast-­changing situations while working as part of a team and coordinating with program personnel.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

Mercy Corps offers a competitive benefits package for positions based in the Kasai province, which is an unaccompanied duty station. Tshikapa is the capital of the Kasai Province, a lively rural city of 971,000 inhabitants where humanitarian actors are present. In the city center water and power are quite stable thanks to the cash power system and hotels, small restaurants, shops and banks are reasonably accessible. There are 3 main hospitals which provide adequate health care services, with evacuation options to Kinshasa or surrounding areas as required. Telephone landlines, internet and mobile network capacity exist but are frequently at a less than optimal level. The temperatures is often between 30-35 degrees.

Mercy Corps’ sub-offices experience variable levels of insecurity, with the situation closely monitored by UN peacekeepers. Air travel is necessary to get from one end of the country to the other. Mobile phones and cellular service are widely available. Internet is available in all Mercy Corps offices. Travel to field sites will be required where living conditions are clean and secure, but basic. There are a number of health services available with evacuation options for serious illnesses. There’s reasonable access to most consumer goods, although they can be expensive.

Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and Mercy Corps’ 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. 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.