DRC: Community Accountability & Social Inclusion Manager – USAID’s Sustainable Water and Sanitation Systems Activity

Jul 25, 2022 | Mercy Corps
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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/Department Summary

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 and Ituri. 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. 

In October 2020, Mercy Corps started the five-year USAID’s Sustainable Water and Sanitation Systems Activity, with a budget of $32 million to be implemented in 4 locations across North and South Kivu. Building on the successes of Mercy Corps’ IMAGINE program, and those of other WASH actors in Eastern DRC, USAID’s Sustainable Water and Sanitation Systems Activity brings together a consortium of 4 international partners to focus on Market Systems Development and strengthening governance in the water and sanitation sectors. In partnership with USAID and in line with Development Objective 2 of USAID’s DRC Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS), USAID’s Sustainable Water and Sanitation Systems Activity aims to show that it is possible to achieve genuinely sustainable increases in access to clean water by implementing contextually relevant, performance-based contractual models for water service delivery in collaboration with state and local entities including ETDs and Provincial Administrations.

The Position 

The Community Accountability & Social Inclusion Manager will be part of the Program Controls & Quality component within the USAID’s Sustainable Water and Sanitation Systems Activity program, which is responsible for overseeing cross-cutting program management initiatives and workstreams that strengthen the overall implementation of the Activity. The Community Accountability & Social Inclusion Manager will lead Gender, Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) and and Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) for the USAID’s Sustainable Water and Sanitation Systems Activity. S/he will be expected to bring creativity and innovation to ensure that GESI and AAP opportunities are maximized, integrated and mainstreamed throughout the wider program strategy and implementation of other component activities. Within USAID’s Sustainable Water and Sanitation Systems Activity, GESI and AAP are essential functions that should be integrated into the wider program strategy and objectives, specifically those of Market Systems Development and Infrastructure, to ensure maximum reach and impact. 

Essential Responsibilities 

Gender, Equality and Social Inclusion

  • Finalize, review and implement an adaptive and innovative GESI strategy and workplan that connects and complements wider program objectives, specifically MSD and Infrastructure, focusing particularly on gender and youth
  • Supervise the GESI team members, sharing information and knowledge and connecting them to resources as required
  • Oversee implementation of GESI activities, ensuring they are conducted in a creative, effective and efficient manner
  • Lead the collaboration between the GESI team members and the wider team, ensuring that the workstreams are well integrated and enhance each other
  • Actively participate in the global GESI working group; sharing challenges, lessons learned and collaborating to maximize information-sharing and impact

Accountability to Participants

  • Oversee the functioning of program-managed Community Accountability Reporting Mechanisms (CARM) in all program sites 
  • Coordinate with program managers to ensure that robust community feedback mechanisms are in place prior to all activities, including but not limited to community committees and suggestion boxes; ensure sufficient visibility of all feedback mechanisms 
  • Train team members as needed in how to receive and process feedback from participants
  • Work with the Director – Program Controls to ensure the timeliness of reception, treatment and response for all feedback received
  • Monitor key indicators for CARM functionality, including volume of feedback received by channel, grade, and location, disaggregated by sex 
  • Collaborate with the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning Director to ensure that CARM feedback trends inform adaptive program management  

Team Management

  • Contribute to regular reporting and internal communication efforts
  • Support the implementation of internal and external communications
  • Supervise, hire and orient new team members as necessary; communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews
  • Provide continued capacity building to all direct reports and broader program team members and create a pleasant work environment that promotes learning, accountability and ownership

Supervisory Responsibility

GESI Coordinator 


Accountability 

Reports Directly To: Director - Program Controls, USAID’s Sustainable Water and Sanitation Systems Activity

Works Directly With: Program Delivery Managers (M&E, Market Service Delivery, Governance, Infrastructure),LDIP Manager PaQ Director and associated support department Managers.

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.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills 

  • Between 1-3 years of work experience in the international development sectors, preferably with experience of having lived and worked in Africa 
  • Fluent in English and French and/or Swahili, or fluent in one language and basic knowledge of the other (with commitment to improve in early months of work)
  • Passionate, enthusiastic and ambitious about Gender Equality and Social inclusion, with at least basic knowledge and understanding of GESI strategies and best practice
  • Creative and capable of coming up with new and innovative ideas with limited resources
  • Committed to capacity building, training and coaching of a team with diverse skill sets
  • Demonstrable ability of strong written communication skills, and an understanding of external and internal communication techniques
  • Experienced in producing high quality deliverables at speed and with minimal direction
  • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, and the capacity to work with a range of team members is essential
  • Proven ability to work effectively in multi-cultural teams and with technical and administrative staff and consultants
  • Ability to work in a sometimes solitary environment with moderate to high levels of insecurity and significant restrictions on personal movement 
  • Prior work experience in the DRC and demonstrable understanding of the context a significant advantage