Program Summary

Mercy Corps with funding from the Hilton Foundation will address the needs of urban refugees and vulnerable host community members to improve their economic wellbeing and address issues, which limit the integration of refugees within host communities. The program will focus on addressing the interrelated gaps that hinder effective service delivery and local integration. The overall goal of the program will be to strengthen social cohesion and livelihoods in refugee-hosting divisions in Kampala. This will be achieved through three interrelated outcomes:

• Refugees and host communities participate collectively toward a shared vision of sustainable peace and common development goals. Interventions will focus on building linkages between refugee leaders and local authorities, as well as fostering connections between youth, women and men in refugee and host-communities.
• Financial Inclusion is enhanced for refugees and host communities in the divisions of Kampala, interventions will focus on building the capacity of micro-entrepreneurs to further develop and increase their income potential – improvements in understanding of legal regulations and taxation laws, access to microfinance.
• Micro entrepreneurs are supported to develop their businesses to increase income and improve food security. Interventions will focus on building technical skills for existing and future entrepreneurs, supporting product innovation in businesses, which can build ties between host and refugee communities and social impact in communities, and enabling development of urban farming both to increase access to nutritious food at lower costs and as an income stream.

General Position Summary

Mercy Corps is looking for an experienced, qualified candidate to fill the position of Program Assistant to support the Program Officer in implementation of livelihood activities on targeting urban refugees and host communities in Kampala. The specific activities will include building positive relationships with local authorities, protection centres, ensure routine monitoring of activities, work planning and compiling activity reports and after-action-reviews to inform decision making processes. S/he will be a creative, action-oriented, with strong experience in partnership management.

Essential Job Responsibilities

• In liaison with the program officer, organize and support inception and follow up meetings with key stakeholders in the program areas.
• Liaise with consortium partners and other stakeholders to ensure that the intended participants, are targeted by the program as per the pre-established vulnerability criteria for registration to cause impact.
• Support in the development of the beneficiary registration tool as per the agreed upon livelihood and social cohesion pathways for the participants.
• Clean datasets, ensuring that graduated participants are removed from eligibility to minimize duplication of efforts.
• Conduct participants’ verifications as well as standardized post-distribution monitoring to ensure resources including grants and in kind equipment is utilized for the intended purpose.
• Under guidance of the Program Officer and MEL Officer, participate in any rapid assessments and baseline/end line surveys.
• Participate in routine data collection to track progress of livelihood initiatives within the program areas.
• Prepare and submit timely weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports that will be indicative of program progress during implementation.
• Respond to queries if and when necessary by ensuring that the community accountability response mechanism (CARM) is functional and individual complaints are addressed.
• Maintain proper filing system with activity reports, attendance lists and pictures.

Collaboration/Networking

• Establish and maintain good coordination and working relationships with division authorities, representing Mercy Corps and soliciting participation in activities where appropriate and as directed.
• Ensure close coordination and sharing of information with relevant stakeholders such as KCCA division authorities, local authorities and implementing partners including NGOs and CSOs as appropriate and advised by the Program Manager.
• Work closely with the consortium partners, share and request for relevant information on the program.
• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps Uganda and to not jeopardize its humanitarian and development mission.

Security

• Ensure participants’ protection policies are adhered to and implement post distribution monitoring and evaluation system to measure intended and unintended impacts, including monitoring of gender based violence
• Ensure data protection policies are adhered to, establishing security controls for software, hardware and archive participants’ databases.

Organizational Learning

As part of Mercy Corps Uganda’s 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 the program as well as themselves.

Supervisory Responsibility: None.

Accountability to Beneficiaries: Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards 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.

Reports Directly to: Program Officer

Works Directly with: MEL Officer, Support Departments including Finance and Operations, NGOs, KCCA, RLOs.

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.

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, development studies or related fields.
• Experience of at least 2 – 3 years working with communities to improve their livelihoods through savings and loan associations, micro enterprise grants, business linkages, social networking etc is desirable.
• The candidate must possess good mobilization skills, excellent teamwork abilities and interpersonal skills.
• The candidate must possess verbal and written communication skills with good command of the English language. Knowledge of other languages including Luganda, Kiswahili and French is an added advantage.
• Computer literacy with a full knowledge of Microsoft office applications.
• Excellent attention to detail and ability to complete tasks in a timely manner.
• Demonstrated flexibility, creativity and enthusiasm as well as a willingness to learn and to be continually adaptive within a dynamic and often self-directed working environment mandatory.
• Proactive, problem-solving action orientation is essential.
• Possession of a valid driving permit class A and willingness to ride is desirable.