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Job Title:    Senior Economic Empowerment
Officer

Organization: Mercy
Corps

Duty Station:
Uganda

Reports to: Economic
Empowerment Team Leader

 

About US:

Mercy Corps has been
present in Uganda since 2006, focusing its interventions on economic and
agricultural development, maternal child health and nutrition, governance,
conflict management and humanitarian response. In 2017, Mercy Corps had an
impact on almost 1 million beneficiaries in Uganda through our work focusing on
building resilience and enabling economic growth, improving opportunities to
attain better health and nutrition, and improving governance and conflict
management. Common themes include community engagement, inclusive development,
gender, and working in partnership with local government, the private sector
and civil society actors.

 

Job Summary:  The primary focus of the Senior Economic
Empowerment Officer will be to support the roll out of economic empowerment
trainings and other interventions at individual level by the officers within
their assigned district. Activities will focus on two populations; Groups of
pregnant and lactating women and male change agents building life skills,
access to finance, and business development skills. The second population will
be a cohort of youth. Youth will be initially engaged by Save the Children in
intensive life skills and general economic development curricula. Senior
Economic Empowerment Officer is responsible for ensuring quality of trainings
by the Officers and Service contractors, compliance of all activities and
standardization across and within teams.

Key Duties and
Responsibilities:

Strategy &
Vision

·        
Support
Economic Empowerment Team Leader in developing the training strategy and
implementation work plan, moving from direct service delivery model to an
integrated approach embedded in local private sector/government delivery
mechanisms.

·        
Coordinate
with the Financial Inclusion, Gender and Youth, MCHN and Adolescent teams on
program implementation to leverage synergy and maximize impact.

Program Management

·        
Coordinate
the activities of officers and service contractors to ensure training and
mentorships are delivered on a timely basis and in line with best practice.

·        
Provide
technical support and quality control checks for skills building trainings,
troubleshooting challenges, and standardizing implementation approaches in
delivery of Livelihoods messages.

·        
Support
the cultivation of PLW/CU2 and Adolescent micro scale businesses as a means to
sustainable economic empowerment and poverty reduction.

·        
Contribute
to team reporting, data collection, cash projections and other administrative
needs as necessary.

Gender and Youth
Integration

·        
Ensure
that program activities apply gender equity and youth empowerment principles,
and meet the varying needs of men and boys; women and girls; and other
vulnerable groups.

Influence and
representation

·        
Represent
Mercy Corps’ approach at key government, coordination and advocacy platforms
and ensure coordination with other youth and PLW/CU2 training program as
necessary.

Coordination with
District Implementation Team

·        
Build
capacity of the members of the implementation team on your particular sector
through orientations, one on one discussions and demonstrating in the field.

·        
Support
the district implementation team in developing a sector specific plan for a
particular community based on needs assessment. Your will support the district
implementation team to plan the intervention that is related to the particular
sector and purpose.

·        
The
district implementation team will mobilize the extension service agents which
will go on to mobilize the community groups to provide the services to conduct
the activity in the field. The member of the technical team will coordinate
with the district implementation team to conduct the activities in the field.

·        
The
technical team member will monitor the activities conducted in the field and
provide feedback to the technical extension service agents to improve the
quality of implementation of activities.

·        
The
technical team member will meet quarterly with the district implementation team
to review the activities conducted in the field and reflect with the team to
understand how the quality of implementation of activities would be improved.

·        
Collaborate
with the MEL team on the design and implementation of the Apolou CLA/Learning
Agenda.

Finance, Compliance
and Operations Management

·        
Ensure
team adherence to MC Uganda Field Finance Manual and Field Procurement Manual
for all Economic Empowerment activities, and oversee implementation of key
budget lines

·        
Strictly
follow Mercy Corps Fraud and Corruption Prevention guidelines.

·        
Generate
scopes of work with guidance from team leader.

Ethic and
Integrity.

·        
All
Mercy Corps staff are expected to behave ethically and demonstrate highest
integrity in their professional and personal life. Mercy Corps has zero
tolerance to any form of fraud, corruption, abuse, harassment or exploitation.
Any breach of our policies or misconduct will lead to disciplinary action or
may lead to termination.

Security.

·        
Ensure
data protection policies are adhered to, establishing security controls for
software, hardware and archive beneficiary databases

·        
Ensure
compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by the 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
Beneficiaries

·        
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.

·        
Sensitize
communities on Apolou’s CARM system and encourage them to share feedback
through the promoted channels.

Other

·        
Conduct
himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring
credit to Mercy Corps and not jeopardize its humanitarian mission.

·        
Other
duties assigned.

 

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

·        
The
applicant for the Mercy Corps Senior Economic Empowerment Officer  job should preferably hold a Bachelor’s degree
in Agribusiness, Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, Agriculture
Economics, Community Development, Project Planning and Management, Business
Administration or any other business related fields. Post graduate certificate,
diploma or degree on earlier mentioned disciplines is a plus.

·        
At least
5 years of related professional experience in youth/gender skills building or
employability

·        
Experience
in Team management and team building

·        
Experience
in savings, financial empowerment or functional adult learning is a plus

·        
Experience
with private sector financial institutions or income generating activities is a
plus

·        
Demonstrated
skills in data collection, verification and documentation

·        
Proven
skills in networking, team building, community consultations and organizational
development

·        
Excellent
reporting, communication and presentation skills

·        
Willingness
to consider new perspectives, promote gender equality and engage in advanced
gender training

·        
Fluency
in Nga’Karamojong is and added advantage.

·        
Valid
Motorbike (class A) riding permit is required.

·        
The
ability of the Senior Economic Empowerment Officer to ensure standardize,
market based life skills and livelihoods training will be the first success
factor.

·        
The
second will be the ability of the Senior Economic Empowerment Officer to
effectively ensure compliance and standardization of activities across the team
within his/her district.

·        
The
third success factor will be the degree to which the Senior Officer actively
collaborates with MCHN, Financial Inclusion, Gender and Youth; and Save the
Children teams in driving integrated programming through mutual learning and
programmatic support that ultimately benefits pregnant and lactating mothers
and children under two as well as adolescents.

·        
Increased
number of youths and women in Apolou villages participating in off-farm
activities sustainably.

 

How to Apply:

All candidates
should apply online at the link below.

 

Click
Here

 

Deadline: 16^th November 2020

 

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