Resilience Knowledge Hub Team Leader

Position description

The Resilience Knowledge Hub Team Leader oversees the Resilience Knowledge Hub (RKH) under the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) will be the primary point of contact between UNDP and other members of the ZRBF Steering Committee and the contracted entities under ZRBF. S/he will have the responsibility for the overall coordination and implementation of RKH, of its core functions and teams to ensure ZRBF consortia partners have the right guidance, support, and capacity strengthening to implement resilience building programming and influencing related policies. The Resilience Knowledge Hub’s goal is to strengthen the capacity of ZRBF partners (i.e. government and ZRBF) in understanding and applying resilience and landscape concepts, tools, approaches and methodologies in their work to drive the resilience agenda as outlined in the Zimbabwe Resilience Strategic Framework. The intervention will also play an advisory role in supporting ZRBF consortia partners to conduct context, gender and resilience analyses and reporting; improve scenario planning, early warning systems and anticipatory action mechanism to inform ZRBF planning and implementation processes. By doing so the intervention will inform decisions on the Crisis Modifier funding system to strategically sequence, layer, and coordinate ZRBF investments and adapt them to the rapidly changing environment. For the system to function, RKH must serve as a catalyst for generating evidence through strategic resilience measurement and translating it into actionable programme recommendations.

The RKH Team Leader is critical to achieving the objectives outlined above. Specifically, s/he will provide overall leadership, management and strategic vision to the implementation of RKH, to ensure it meets its targets and deliverables on time and within budget.

ESSENTIAL JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP:

• The RKH Team Leader will supervise programme staff and ensure accountability to Mercy Corps policies and UNDP rules and regulations. The Team Leader will be the primary programme representative to ZRBF and donors, relevant government entities, partners, other implementers and stakeholders.
• Lead the development of a Knowledge Management vision and strategy for the programme shared with the programme team and key stakeholders, including UNDP.
• Ensure RKH implementation is high quality and delivers desired impact, in line with strategy and vision and expectations of ZRBF consortia partners.
• Provide leadership to ensure RKH remains agile and adaptive to shifting context/reality on the ground and responds to emerging evidence of resilience and landscape related changes.
• Support RKH Resilience Measurement & Research Specialist in collecting and leveraging key lessons learned from ZRBF1 to develop a comprehensive and strategic resilience measurement approach and system.
• Actively contribute to “sensemaking” sessions with ZRBF partners to analyse and discuss resilience data and generate key insights and programmatic recommendations.

TEAM MANAGEMENT:

• Develop the capacity of the team, deepen understanding of their roles and assist with development.
• Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance & reach objectives.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
• Promote a culture of learning and reflection to ensure RKH remains responsive to evidence and context.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
• Hire, orient and lead team members as necessary.

FINANCE & COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT:

• Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps’ regulations.
• Create and maintain systems to ensure effective and transparent use of financial resources for timely and informative reporting in line with programme, donor and Mercy Corps’ needs.

INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION:

• Represent Mercy Corps at government, donor, NGO and other relevant events, in close coordination with the Country Director.
• Coordinate activities with subgrantees, ZRBF consortia partners, government and other implementers, as well as with other Mercy Corps programmes.
• Foster shared understanding with UNDP of operational approach, strategy and any adaptations.
• Ensure RKH avoids duplication and fosters complementarity to other donor and government efforts.
• Work with learning champions from the different partners to collaborate and develop relevant communication products.
• Advise on and disseminate RKH research projects through written reports, media articles, blogs and presentations. Develop innovative mechanisms to collect and share RKH and ZRBF learning in various forums.

SECURITY:

• Work closely with the country team’s security focal point to develop and maintain systems that promote the safety and security of all team members.
• Ensure that RKH activities are designed and implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security.

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 PARTICIPANTS:

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to our participants and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging participant communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our projects.

SAFEGUARDING RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Actively learns safeguarding and integrates it into their work, including safeguarding risks and mitigations related to their area of work.
• Practices the values of Mercy Corps including respecting the dignity and well-being of participants and fellow team members.
• Encourages openness and communication in their team; encourages team members to submit reports if they have any concerns using reporting mechanisms e.g., Integrity Hotline and other options.

ACCOUNTABILITY

• Reports Directly To: Mercy Corps Country Director.
• Works Directly With: Mercy Corps Zimbabwe Country Office, ZRBF consortia leads, Regional Resilience Senior Director, Global Resilience Technical Resource & Quality team, Global Gender Advisors and partner organizations.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

• University Master’s Degree or Advanced University Degree (or equivalent) in development studies, international relations, resilience, climate change, Disaster Risk Reduction or other closely related fields including research in these thematic.
• At least 9 years of relevant or associated management experience in resilience programming, especially in coordination and leadership roles in an INGO.
• At least five years in a senior management position with experience managing integrated, multi-sectoral programmes of a similar size and scope.
• Experience in international development and with international organizations, in the field of resilience with strong background in research, monitoring, evaluation and analytics.
• Excellent communication skills, including a sound ability to adapt material for different audiences.
• Strong writing skills, including past experience generating substantive written products; excellent verbal communication skills.
• Must be adaptable to and comfortable with shifting priorities.
• Experience in the Zimbabwean context is an advantage.

SUCCESS FACTORS

The successful RKH Team Leader will be an individual keen to coordinate efforts among ZRBF stakeholders. S/he will be passionate about collecting lessons learned from former interventions, developing strategic resilience implementation plans, coordination of vision among actors and ensuring delivery of quality resilience and landscape training and products for a multi-stakeholder platform. Multi-tasking, prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail as well as strategic vision are essential. The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.

Application instructions

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