SAFER Consortium Director at Mercy Corps

SAFER Consortium Director - DR Congo

Location: Goma, DRC

Position Status: Non-exempt, Regular

Salary Level: Level 6

About Mercy Corps

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

The Program

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, Ituri and the Kasai.

Mercy Corps DRC’s key programming areas include a combination of longer-term development and immediate humanitarian response programs in order 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.

Mercy Corps is the lead agency for the SAFER Consortium (Strategic Assistance for Emergency Response). The Consortium, funded by FCDO and ECHO, is composed of ACTED, Concern Worldwide, Mercy Corps, NRC and Solidarités International. SAFER has the overall goal of allowing population affected by conflict and shocks to cover their basic needs. The program supports the specific outcome of delivering a coordinated humanitarian response that enables vulnerable households affected by conflict and shocks to have safe and equitable access to multi-sectoral emergency assistance (in the form of Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) or in-kind) and basic WASH services to reduce reliance on negative coping mechanisms. With an annual budget over $55 million (£29,500,000 from FCDO and €20 million from ECHO) in 2024, SAFER has assisted 613,671 people in 2024 and more than 4.4 million people since the start of the initiative in 2019.

The Position

The SAFER Consortium Director is a key leadership role for the consortium. The position is hosted by Mercy Corps but the Director is accountable to the Steering Committee (SC, composed of the 5 Country Directors). The Director serves as a strong team leader for the consortium as a whole, represents the interests of all five partners, and ensures SAFER is working effectively and efficiently across member agencies. The Director supervises the Deputy who is in charge of partners’ coordination on the operational side, the program harmonization process and quality improvement through the internal working groups. The Consortium Director represents the consortium at the highest levels in DRC with external stakeholders and donors, leading on communication and advocacy in coordination with partners Country Directors, and lead on the programmatic discussion including coordination with UN bodies and other Rapid Response implementing actors

STRATEGY & VISION

• Lead the implementation of the SAFER Consortium multi-year strategy and vision and ensure successful role-out of this strategy including program development.
• Ensure the unity and shared vision of the SC on the Consortium mandate, external communication, and donor engagement, including coherence in the interaction with external stakeholders.
• Maintain strategic vision shared across the members and ensure in coordination with the Consortium Coordination Unit (CCU), timely harmonization and roll out of harmonized tools.
• Lead the development and roll out of Communication and Advocacy strategy with the aim of mainstreaming RR needs and achievement and to raise SAFER’s visibility.
• Leads on the reconversion of SAFER into a cash consortium.

CONSORTIUM COORDINATION

• Organize and Chair monthly Steering Committee (SC) meeting and ad hoc SC meeting when required by any partners or by the initiative of the Consortium Director. Communicate minutes and Action point follow the meetings in a timely manner.
• Ensure in coordination with the Deputy Consortium Director an efficient coordination amongst partners in terms of implementation and involvement in the DRC coordination structures.
• Co-chair OCU and Working Group meetings.
• Maintain strong and transparent communication with all consortium partners and facilitate relation between partners and the Grant Holder.
• Provide to the SC consolidated talking point and narrative on the program, its achievement and future programmatic development.
• Take an active role in the Mercy Corps Complex Board program raising any outstanding issues and support requests, flagging any new risks to the program. If other partners set up similar Board meetings, ensure same involvement.

COORDINATION AND REPRESENTATION

• Ensure SAFER’s representation with external stakeholders and donors and lead on the programmatic discussion including coordination with UN bodies and other Rapid Response implementing actors.
• Lead the monthly and quarterly meetings with donor in accordance with donor schedules and in collaboration with the SC and OCU members and provide clear talking point to the SC members prior the meeting.
• Represent consortium progress to donors, the Cash Working Group (CWG) and the DRC humanitarian community.
• Share learning from the consortium with the greater humanitarian community within DRC as well as regionally and globally as relevant

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

• Working with the Deputy Director and CCU team, ensure harmonization of technical standards/approaches/tools, mainstreaming best practices.
• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and explore implementation possibilities with SAFER.
• Support the Deputy Director to ensure the CCU team has a clear workplan and roadmap, implements activities timely, and has a strong, up to date and clear system for tracking and reporting against deliverables.
• Ensure monitoring systems are in place within the Consortium, including gathering data for case studies and lessons learned.
• Oversee, in collaboration with the Deputy Consortium Director, the operational planning for ongoing program activities across the consortium.
• Ensure that program implementation is meeting donor expectations and agreed standards and timeframe by having regular check-in with the Grant Holder. In case of discrepancy between agreed standards and implementation approach, support the Grant Holder to get the program/partner back on track.
• Support the Grant Holder to ensure timely submission of high-quality donor reports and proposals on behalf of the consortium

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

• In close collaboration with the SC, ensure at proposal stage that the budget share is aiming at equal share to all partners and in line with Steering Committee decisions and ensure sustainability of the CCU team.
• In close collaboration with the grant holder and partners, follow up with budget spending’s at least on a quarterly basis and inform the Steering Committee in case of significant over/underspend.

SECURITY

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.

Supervisory Responsibility: Deputy Consortium Director

Reports Directly To: Director of Programs – Humanitarian (DoP-H)

Works Directly With:

• All partners: Country Directors, Program Directors.
• Grant Holder: Grant Manager, Finance Director.
• MC HQ: Complex Program Board, 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 field projects.

Application link: Mercy Corps Careers - SAFER Consortium Director