Project Manager / Jobtech for Refugees
Location: Kampala, Uganda
Position Status: Full-time (2.5 Years)
Salary Level: 9
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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.
Jobtech for Refugees
Mercy Corps has built a global reputation for innovative economic development programming, particularly working with start-ups, and hosts a venture capital arm called Mercy Corps Ventures. Mercy Corps’ youth employment work places a focus on jobtech and is centered around investing, supporting product innovation, and conducting research on the opportunities for the jobtech sector. In late 2021, Mercy Corps launched the Jobtech Alliance, an ecosystem-building initiative around inclusive jobtech in Africa.
Complementing the work that we’re doing across 10 countries in Africa, in Uganda Mercy Corps’ has a project focused on removing barriers to access on jobtech platforms (gigmatching, jobmatching, ecommerce) for refugees. This “Jobtech for Refugees” project is implemented in collaboration with BFA Global. The program will deploy a range of supports to start-ups including technical assistance, project delivery support, grant capital and connections to partners, and complement it with support to refugees to access these new opportunities.
Present in Uganda since 2006, Mercy Corps Uganda’s aim is to catalyze change through the Ugandan private sector, civil society, and government to create resilient, economically inclusive, healthy, and secure communities by 1) strengthening market systems that enable inclusive growth and resilience; 2) strengthening governance; 3) promoting health and nutrition outcomes; and 4) meeting the immediate needs of refugees and host communities while strengthening market systems and resilience capacities.
The Position
The Project Manager will be responsible for coordinating on-the-ground engagement with refugees, refugee-led organisations (RLOs), government, and other stakeholders in the Jobtech for Refugees project. S/he will work closely with the Venture Building Manager (based in Kenya) and BFA Global, who will be responsible for developing partnerships with jobtech start-ups.
Key Responsibilities
STAKEHOLDERS MANAGEMENT
- Manage relationships with local authorities e.g. Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Refugee-led Organizations (RLOs), community leaders, coordination structures, and other stakeholders.
- Participate in regular meetings with stakeholders in the refugees support space, and identify opportunities for greater engagement.
DEVELOPMENT OF REFUGEE SUPPORT INTERVENTIONS
- Conduct needs assessments to understand barriers to access for refugees in jobtech platforms, and contribute to the overarching Jobtech for Refugees strategy.
- Work with Venture Building Manager to develop concepts for engagement with jobtech start-ups, alongside support packages for refugees.
SUPPORT REFUGEE-LED ORGANIZATIONS (RLOs) TO EFFECTIVELY CONNECT REFUGEES TO JOBTECH PLATFORMS
- Assess RLOs capacity to partner with the project and develop formal partnerships with identified RLOs.
- Based on identified partnerships with jobtech start-ups, design support packages for refugees seeking to gain access to jobtech platforms.
- Support the development of subgrant agreements with RLOs and manage the partner relationship.
- Develop training of trainer (TOT) tools and train RLOs to deliver support packages.
- Assess quality of service delivery by RLOs, and ensure that support packages lead to desired outcomes.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
- Ensure program implementation related to refugee support is on time, scope, and budget through:
- Effective and efficient interdepartmental coordination between the project staff and supporting departments (Finance, Operations, Procurement, Program Quality Units). Collaborate with program, finance and administrative staff.
- Coordinate with Results, Learning & Research Director and MEL team to ensure adequate tracking of results
- Create and maintain systems ensuring effective and transparent use of financial resources for timely and informative reporting in line with donor and Mercy Corps policies and procedures.
- Implement and model Mercy Corps’ philosophy of social entrepreneurship and leverage Mercy Corps’ best practices.
- Contribute to drafting internal and donor reports.
- Coordinate with the regional Jobtech Alliance team, and with our partner, BFA Global
- Ensure adherence to Mercy Corps’ Program Management Minimum Standards (PM@MC).
- Ensure all interventions adhere to Mercy Corps’ Gender Policy, Do No Harm principles, and Community Accountability policy
LEARNING & FIELD-BUILDING
- Write-up experiences, and contribute to learning agenda around what works for refugees
- Represent the Jobtech Alliance and Mercy Corps in internal and external learning events, to share findings from our work.
TEAM MANAGEMENT
- Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance and reach Project’s objectives.
- Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
- Create and sustain a collaborative work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
- Hire, orient and lead team members as necessary, working with the HR team in the recruitment, training, and professional development
Supervisory Responsibility
Training Officer
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Program Director / Jobtech Alliance
Works Directly With: Director of Programs, Jobtech Alliance team, Research and MEL Director, Finance and Operations Teams, Human Resources
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
- A history of excellence in achieving results and self-management.
- Minimum of 6 years experience working in project management, management consultancy, livelihoods or employment. Experience working with refugees is strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated experience in designing livelihoods interventions and/or developing curricula or other engagement tools
- Experience working in management consultancy, with startups and/or ICT4D is a plus
- At least 2 years experience managing budgets and subgrants or contracts with partners
- Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organize a workload among different tasks and team members
- Excellent communication skills (written and verbal), and a collaborative approach to working with others.
- Outstanding analytical capacity, with capacity to bring clarity for others and make quick decisions.
Success Factors
You are a self-manager, who is passionate about livelihood development. You are great at managing relationships with a diverse set of actors. You are geared around impact rather than effort, and are honest about what is working and what isn’t. You have outstanding analytical capacity, and can quickly see opportunities for impact and how to intervene strategically. You love getting your hands dirty.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
Based in Kampala, Uganda.