Senior Program Officer YIS

Position Title:Senior Program Officer 
Location:Six Months Year with possibility of extension.
Department:Youth in Sports

Mercy Corps is a non-profit, non-governmental international humanitarian and development organization, registered in the United States and Scotland with offices in more than 40 countries around the world, including the West Bank and Gaza, where the organization has been active in implementing relief and development programs for over a decade.  Mercy Corps ‘West Bank and Gaza’ has staff based in East Jerusalem and Gaza City offices that implement programs throughout the Palestinian territories.

Mercy Corps has implemented youth in sports programs in Gaza since 2009 with funding from a range of donors. Mercy Corps new youth in sports project, aims to increase participation of young people in sports and especially engage disaffected and isolated youth.
   
Main Responsibilities:

1-Develops work plans and follow up of implementation of ongoing project activities. 
2-Leads coordination of all activities with the partner sports clubs and youth-oriented CBOs.
3-Leads the selection of sports clubs and youth-oriented CBOs to participate in the project.
4-Identifies, in coordination with the sports clubs and CBOs, relevant sports activities in the Gaza Strip.
5-Ensure sports events and tournaments are organized in coordination with sports clubs and CBOs in a high quality manner ensuring work plans and timelines are followed. 
6-Works with sport clubs and CBOs to select youth in Gaza to be trained in Mercy Corps Gaza-specific curriculum to teach life, cooperation and conflict management skills.
7-Assists in the development of a Gaza-specific curriculum for use by the sports clubs and CBOs, drawing from the Moving Forward curriculum which uses participatory games-based methodologies to teach life, cooperation, and conflict management skills.
8-In coordination with psychosocial support coordinators and officer, ensures that sports activities provide referral information about existing psychosocial support services.
9-Regularly conducts field visits to the project sites to monitor ongoing work as well as performance of Mercy Corps staff as required.
10-Coordinates and manages Project Coordinators and provides any necessary administrative or programmatic support to the team.
11-Generate verbal and written translations of pertinent project documentation as needed/required.
12-Participates in relevant (external and internal) project evaluations and/or needs assessments.
13-Develops, in cooperation with Mercy Corps’ Designing & monitoring evaluation  department, evaluation strategy and monitoring tools.
14-Leads in planning baseline as well as end line data collection in line with the established evaluation strategy.
15-Regularly reports on project implementation/ progress to Program Manager.
16-Contributes towards coordinating relevant activities with other organizations.
17-Liaises and coordinates with other Mercy Corps departments as needed.
18-Performance of work beyond normal office hours as required, without additional compensation.
19-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.
20-Any other duties as required by the Program Manager or Program Director.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY:
The Senior Program Officer is responsible for directing the works of the Project Coordinators.

ACCOUNTABILITY
REPORTS DIRECTLY TO: Program Manager
WORKS DIRECTLY WITH: Program Director, PS Team, HR, Admin, Finance and Procurement staff


KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:
1-University degree in psychology, social sciences, management, community development or any other related field.
2-At least three to Four years of work experience in youth development programs.
3-Understanding of the social, political, and economic context of Palestinian territories, especially in the Gaza Strip.
4-Understanding of the development assistance field, including international non-governmental organizations and funding agencies regulations. 
5-Excellent writing skills in English and Arabic.
6-Proficiency in MS Office.

SUCCESS FACTORS:
1-Excellent communication and coordination skills, with strong personality.
2-Excellent planning and administration skills.
3-Initiative, self-reliant and cooperative.
4-Excellent time and organizational management skills.
5-Excellent ability to work under pressure and carry out multiple tasks.


Qualified persons with disability are highly encouraged to apply.

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit a one page cover letter and their CV by e-mail to”
[email protected]  no later than Sunday, November 07, 2010.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
Please indicate in the email subject; Senior Program Officer YIS.
No application will be accepted if the email subject is not mentioned in the email subject line.
Please apply separate application for each position you are interested in.