Peacebuilding and Governance Advisor

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 collaborate to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future.

Mercy Corps has been working in Mali since 2012, supporting vulnerable communities and at-risk Malian women, men, and youth to cope with food security and conflict-induced shocks and stresses, restore peace and stability, and address humanitarian, development, and stabilization structural challenges. With a growing portfolio, Mercy Corps Mali is increasingly striving to integrate its humanitarian, development, and conflict-prevention programming to create a sustainable and impactful improvement in the stability and development of some of Mali’s worst conflict-affected areas.

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps is currently expanding its portfolio of programs across Mali to support communities in preventing the further spread of violent conflict through addressing root causes of conflict in communities situated in the buffer zones between the relatively stable South and the more volatile Centre. Alongside several multi-year programs aimed at supporting human security, justice and stabilization, there are an increasing number of interventions supporting similar efforts in terms of conflict management, prevention of violent extremism, and locally led peacebuilding across the country, including the northern region of Ménaka and the southwestern regions of Kayes, Sikasso and Segou.

General Position Summary

The Peacebuilding & Governance Advisor is a member of the Program Development and Quality unit, working under the supervision of the Director of Program Development and Quality. S/he will be responsible for ensuring the delivery of high-quality Peacebuilding & Governance interventions, developing, and evolving the organization’s strategy and future direction in Peacebuilding & Governance; engaging actively with the related coordination platforms, local governments, and all other Peacebuilding & Governance actors; providing technical across Mercy Corps programs and a team of staff in various locations; and managing program budgets. The position includes developing tools for planning, assessment, quality implementation and intervention monitoring; building active community participation into project design and implementation; ensuring design of high-quality interventions suited to the local context; monitoring and tracking program activities; designing training modules and delivering trainings for Mercy Corps’ staff and designing and supervising baseline and end line surveys.

The position holder will provide technical support to program managers, program coordinators and Senior Program Officers –across several programs, some specifically pertaining to peacebuilding and governance and others multisectoral (including Food Security, Water Security, and Economic Opportunities) all of which span the Humanitarian, Development & Peace Nexus.

He/she will supervise and build the capacity of the team, leading and supervising all technical components. He will ensure that all aspects of conflict are adequately assessed, appropriate strategies – particularly those preventing individuals and communities vulnerable to violent extremist organizations, community-led youth economic and natural resource projects – are designed and implemented, and peace messaging to raise awareness of the economic and other costs of conflict are developed and disseminated.

The Peacebuilding & Governance Advisor will support effective coordination and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, development of new initiatives and quality assurance across Mercy Corps Mali’s peacebuilding and governance portfolio. He/she must have broad and applied experience in conflict prevention, stabilization programming, preventing, and combating violent extremism, social cohesion, and governance program experience in developing countries, especially those undergoing conflict and political transitions.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Strategy & Vision

• Refine and document countrywide peacebuilding/social cohesion and governance approaches, working with all associated program team members to align approaches into a coherent and impactful Mercy Corps Mali response. Alongside the DPI, DPDQ, and Justice & Resilience Program Director, prepare a Mercy Corps Mali Peacebuilding Strategy
• Provide technical leadership, guidance on peacebuilding and governance program design, including with assessments and proposals, related to governance, citizen engagement, and civil society development.
• Identifies documents and promotes best practices and learning with peacebuilding portfolio programs and with the broader governance sector.
• Identify, document, and communicate the ideas, trends and emerging capacities in Mali that fall in the intersection between economic development and peacebuilding, including cross-border initiatives, as appropriate.
• Provides technical support for governance, civil society, and community engagement programs and activities across Mercy Corps Mali.

Design & Planning

• Support the Mercy Corps team in identifying new Peacebuilding & Governance funding opportunities.
• Provide technical support to the country team in new business development/proposals by leading or actively supporting the DPDQ in the development of new programs/initiatives related to social cohesion, CVE, peacebuilding, governance etc.
• Integrate the use of community approaches in the design, implementation, and maintenance of projects.
• Collaborate with finance and program teams to develop budgets for Governance & Peacebuilding activities in proposals.
• Lead Governance & Peacebuilding aspects of technical assessments in coordination with other thematic areas and/or other external sector agencies.
• Ensure the mainstreaming of core protection principles through design and planning of sector interventions.

Program Management & Implementation

• Develop needs assessment & intervention strategies for newly funded programs.
• Conduct conflict & peacebuilding analyses of communities in Mercy Corps Mali intervention areas as may be required. Support project leads in community-led conflict mapping, design, planning and implementation of CVE, social cohesion, conflict mitigation and peacebuilding activities, including support and monitoring processes to ensure implementing/local partners have a high level of quality in all aspects of the program cycle.
• Ensure Governance & Peacebuilding staff in various programs have the tools and requisite support to drive technical excellence in Governance & Peacebuilding programming.
• Support the implementation and refinement of Mercy Corps Mali peacebuilding and governance activities throughout the project cycle in line with Mercy Corps program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices. Ensure project implementation in alignment with Mercy Corps’ program management standards. Develop realistic and quality work plans per grant in conjunction with relevant sector leads and the Director of Programs Implementation.
• Assist Program Managers, Program Coordinators and Senior Program Officers in ensuring all program implementation is on time, target, and budget, using effective MEL and CARM systems and in accordance with all Mercy Corps and donor rules & regulations.
• Ensure the adaptive management of projects to conduct course-changes if needed
• Work with Program Managers, Director of Program Development & Quality, Director of Implementation, and other sectoral leads to identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, donors, and other stakeholders.
• Assist Program Managers to identify and develop relevant local technical expertise in the areas of CVE, conflict mitigation and peacebuilding.
• Ensure that all reports (both internal and external) are timely, of high-quality, and responsive to donor requirements in collaboration with a variety of teams.

Program Quality & Performance

• Provide support to program teams at key moments including program start-up, kick-off meetings, inception meeting check-ins, quality audits and spot checks, and end of program transition meetings.
• Contribute to the development of processes to support the program implementation team in capturing and integrating cross-program learning and ensure that lessons learned are used to inform adaptation of activities, future program design and thought leadership.
• Ensure the development and implementation of a program research and learning agenda to build evidence and support the production of robust thought leadership and advocacy efforts in Peacebuilding & Governance.
• Document and disseminate lessons learned and best practices from Mercy Corps Mali’s CVE, conflict, and peacebuilding portfolio to internal and external stakeholders, including at international conferences and similar forums.
• Provide technical input and indicators to the M&E Unit to be incorporated into tools and formats as needed.
• Work with M&E Unit to translate assessment criteria to tools and methodology for monitoring and evaluation of interventions related to Peacebuilding & Governance.

Team Management Mentoring & Capacity Building

• Focus on building the capacity of the project leads (managers, coordinators, and senior project officers) and the project teams. Create strong, durable teams able to grow and adapt to turnover.
• Provide technical assistance and mentoring of Bamako and field-based program teams on best practice principles, disciplines, and methodologies related to CVE, conflict mitigation, peacebuilding, social cohesion, and governance.
• Provide technical oversight to the field teams and mentor staff in the design of Governance & Peacebuilding activities.
• Provide team members with information, tools, and other resources to improve performance and reach objectives. Promote career development amongst colleagues
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence. Promote accountability, communicate expectations, and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews.
• Contribute to country team-building efforts, help team members identify problem-solving options and ensure the integration of all team members into relevant decision-making processes.
• Assist with development of training materials and deliver training to teams during field visits.

Influence, Representation & Coordination

• Lead efforts in sharing best practices with other NGOs working in Mali.
• Collaboratively identify and nurture collaborative partnerships with appropriate local leaders, program partners, and other stakeholders.
• Participate in relevant fora/cluster/working group meetings in Mali related to peacebuilding, social cohesion, CVE, governance (and where it is related, youth and economic development).
• Leadership in identifying the need and developing, where appropriate local/regional or national level working groups on CVE/social cohesion/peacebuilding.
• Alongside the DIP, DPDQ and the Country Director maintain relationships with relevant social cohesion/CVE/peacebuilding donors.

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.

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 toward 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 (Technical)

CVE/Social Cohesion/Peacebuilding Project Managers and/or Program coordinators (currently estimated up to three local and/or international staff)

Accountability

• Reports Directly To: Director of Program Development & Quality
• Works Directly With: Mercy Corps Peacebuilding/Social Cohesion, CVE, and governance Programs staff, PAQ Advisor, DIP, DPDQ, Humanitarian Program Lead, Justice & Resilience Program Director, MEL Manager and teams, Proposal Development & Grants Manager, Support departments and teams (Operations, Finance, Human Resources), field offices, and relevant Mercy Corps headquarters units as necessary, including Mercy Corps’ relevant Technical Support Unit teams

Knowledge & Experience

• MA/S or equivalent in social science, management, business, peace/conflict or international development, humanitarian response.
• Formal training in conflict management/mitigation and/or social cohesion, CVE, peacebuilding.
• At least seven years’ experience conflict and/or social cohesion programming in a development and/or humanitarian setting.
• Experience in highly volatile security situations and a commitment to team safety.
• Commitment to the principles of participatory team management and participatory, community-oriented development.
• Effective verbal and written communication, multi-tasking, organizational skills in English and French.
• Fluency in written and spoken French and English required.
• Experience with integrated youth, economic development and peacebuilding interventions preferred.
• Experience/understanding of CVE issues, drivers of violence, conflict related to agriculture/land/pastoralists, and the context of CVE and Islam in the Sahel is a plus.
• Familiarity with the Mali, Sahel, the Liptako area (Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso) context valued.
• Demonstrated ability to work respectfully and constructively with local partners and stakeholders to help build capacity and ensure quality programming.

Success Factors

The successful Peacebuilding & Governance Advisor will have demonstrated ability to implement a program ensuring its proper project cycle management and to multi-task, meet deadlines and process with strong interpersonal and intellectual skills. S/he will be proactive, will have the ability to provide effective leadership and will be willing to learn and work in accordance with Mercy Corps policies. 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 Conditions

The Peacebuilding & Governance Advisor will be based in Bamako, Mali with regular field travel. The location is accompanied (this might change based on how the security context evolves). Individual housing is available with freedom of movement beyond the house and office. There are international schools in Mali. Staff have good access to essential services, such as medical care, electricity, water, etc. This position requires up to 40% of travel by road to field locations in relatively secure environments but climatically harsh conditions. This position is not eligible for hardship benefits but is an R&R post.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside 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 MC’s policies, procedures, and values always and in all in-country venues.