The primary focus of the Program Assistant will be to respond to the needs of communities through the integrated set of activities under Apolou. The Program Assistant will focus on mobilizing the different groups / platforms within their community, and determine the capacity building needs of the group leaders. The Program Assistant will also mobilize the surrounding government and private sector systemic structures and similarly identify capacity building needs of these structures. The Program Assistant will adopt an “adaptive” management approach to understand the needs of the groups within the community and the external support structures to determine appropriate capacity building measures to sustainably strengthen the capacity and commitment of community leaders and extension agents. This will provide an opportunity for staff growth in various technical areas but also benefit the participants in that they receive a cross sector of interventions/services delivered at the same time through community dialogues. The role of Program Assistant will be to identify community needs for capacity building, seek for technical support through the Program Officer to train, oversee, support and work with other Governance structures both formal (VHTs, WUCs, ALCs etc.) and informal (Traditional Authorities i.e. elders, kraal leaders etc.) in community engagement meetings/dialogue processes. The Program Assistant will ensure that activities are sequenced, layered and integrated for comprehensive service delivery. The Program Assistant will closely work with staff from local partners in the Apolou Activity to strengthen integration. Team. Program Assistants will work closely with MEL teams to ensure that data capture into CommCare takes place .

Essential Job Responsibilities
Program Implementation
• Implement weekly, monthly and quarterly workplans aligned to the DIP
• Sensitize community leadership on different Apolou thematic areas i.e. Governance, MCHN, WASH, Gender, SBCC, Adolescents and Livelihoods.
• Conduct participant identification exercises for the different activities in the community.
• Mobilize participants for planned activities in respective locations for technical teams to work with.
• Organize and supervise community trainings in line with the approved work plan and budget based on Multi Sectoral approach.
• Lead and/or support respective community members to lead community dialogues based of the different technical areas.
• Coordinate with all sectors in Apolou to ensure complementary approaches, monitor implementation of project activities and document learnings and success stories.
• Collaborate with fellow Program Assistants to ensure team success, including but not limited to logistics coordination, temporary support during leave, etc., as advised by Program Officers
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
Monitoring and Evaluation
• Responsible for data gathering, data validation, quality control and timely data submission including gender and age disaggregated data.
• Support and mentor community structures including but not limited to VHTs, MCGs, MCAs, AVAs, LCs, RACs, Mentors, FA, PDCs on data collection and use.
• Troubleshoot monitoring and evaluation challenges for proactive problem solving with support of team leader and M&E team.
• Utilize qualitative and quantitative data to inform program implementation.
• Actively documenting best practices and lessons learned to share with team during routine monitoring, coordination meetings and other learning opportunities.
• Prepare and submit timely and quality weekly and monthly reports
Influence and Representation
• Promote Apolou Activity visibility at both Community and Sub County level.
• Ensure establishment and maintenance of relationships with communities, village councils and local government in Apolou target areas.
• Coordination of field activities with other NGO and local government partners to avoid duplication of services and support an enabling environment for health promotion.
• When needed, support visits from district and sub-county government, regional and HQ based staff and external visitors, such as donors and media, in collaboration with Program officers.
• Support Apolou activities with key stakeholders, ensuring collaboration with counterparts in partner organization in relevant meetings, internal and external.
• Establish partnerships to leverage resources
Ethics 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 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.
• Sensitise 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 to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission
• Other duties as assigned
Supervisory Responsibility
There is no staff supervision assigned to this role.
Accountability
Reports Directly to: Program Officer
Works Directly with: Technical, MEL, Gender and Partnerships and Compliance teams; partners; and other Mercy Corps program, finance and operations staff

Job Skills: Not Specified

Knowledge and Experience
● A Diploma or Degree in a related field
● At least 3 years of related professional experience.
● Demonstrated skills in data collection, verification and documentation
● Proven skills in networking, team-building, community consultations and organizational
development;
● Excellent reporting, communication and representation skills
● Willingness to consider new perspectives, promote gender equality and engage in advanced
gender training.
● Ability to ride a motorcycle and he/she should be in possession of a valid driving/riding license.
● Proven knowledge and capacity in using computer basic applications MS word, Excel and
internet.
● In-depth knowledge of the social, cultural and economic context of Karamoja a plus.
● Fluency in local languages prevalent within the operational district where assigned (highly
desired).
Success Factors
The ability to communicate effectively, respectfully and enthusiastically with community structures will
be one of the position’s three success factors. The second will be the degree to which the Program
Officer drives results, producing scheduled outputs at deadline and to expected quality. The third
success factor will be the degree to which the officer effectively gathers activity monitoring and
evaluation data and utilizes data to inform activity implementation and program learning.

Submit your CV and Application on Company Website : Click Here

Closing Date : 9 Sept, 2020