General Position Summary

The Market Systems Development (MSD) Manager will be responsible for the overall management and coordination of a Market Systems based pro-poor economic initiatives program that is primarily focusing on strengthen service and product delivery across all the Purpose 4 sectors of financial inclusion, business enabling environment, livestock inputs and marketing, and agri-input and commodity marketing. The MSD Manager will lead, coordinate and manage all activities related to the implementation of the program and operations in Karamoja, Apolou operational districts. The MSD Manager provides technical leadership, supervises program staff, and coordinates the implementation of all program activities ensuring the programs are on time, on scope and on budget. The MSD Manager promotes a culture of constant program improvement, mentor the program team, integrate monitoring and evaluation into program activities and ensure the delivery of high-quality program that delivers impact. She/he also identifies opportunities to operationalize recommendations from ongoing context analyses.

The MSD Manager is responsible for: 1) implementation, sustainability and potential scale up program activities 2) management of operations and logistics, 3) security management, 4) team management, 5) reporting, and 6) coordination. The success of the MSD Manager will be measured on the degree to which he/she shall promote pro-poor private sector growth in Karamoja using a light touch approach designed to encourage sustainability and reduce dependency, both of business partners and community beneficiaries. The second success factor will be the degree to which the MSD manager is able to effectively integrate with other sectors in order to maximize impact.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Strategy & Vision

• Develop the strategy for and subsequently implement innovative actions for market systems development, both in building the capacity of local business actors, crowding in additional actors, and ensuring an enabling environment for pro-poor business growth in Karamoja
• Actively advance Mercy Corp’s connections to market actors at local, regional and national level, seeking avenues for partnership, collaboration and coordination of activities.
• Provide strategic and technical MSD leadership across the consortium, in further developing and refining the project strategy; provide guidance for the program leadership, team members and partners on implementation of the MSD related intervention strategies;
• Lead research and monitoring of market systems analyses, business cases and intervention plans in the selected sectors to improve impact, particularly for the scale up of livestock value chains, agriculture value chains and financial inclusion.

Program Management

• Identify and analyze systemic constraints and opportunities within and between the value chains, and design appropriate market driven interventions to address the gaps and barriers in market systems using MSD approach.
• Participate in designing and conducting market awareness-raising campaigns and undertake market assessments and research that will inform the scale-up strategy in Karamoja.
• Use an adaptive management approach to continuously reflect on MSD progress and MSD integration with overall consortium, ensuring active learning and course correction where strategies and coordination are falling short.
• Establish and oversee the effective monitoring and evaluation of MSD activities, developing monthly and quarterly reports and contributing to required indicator tracking
• Ensure MSD activities are gender and youth sensitive with a focus on building resilience in vulnerable populations
• Ensure coordination of consortium and external partners around the MSD approach, contributing to MSD advocacy with district, regional and national partners

Team Management

• Directly supervise team of MSD Officers, mentoring the team in order to build technical capacity and ensure best practice in implementation as well as adherence to Mercy Corps’ internal policies and procedures.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence
• Lead capacity development initiatives for project team members through trainings, mentoring and coaching to ensure there is a cohesive understanding of market systems and project implementation approaches
• Liaise with other Managers and Team Leaders to ensure consortium is integrated in approach, on-scope, on-time and on-budget.
• Guide program team and work with M&E staff to develop, document and implement adaptive management practices that lead to improved quality and responsive implementation
• Work with program and M&E staff to ensure high quality measurement on key performance indicators for MSD

Finance & Compliance Management

• Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to MSD Activities
• Develop MSD team budgets, ensure adherence to MC Uganda Field Finance Manual and Field Procurement Manual for all MSD activities, and oversee implementation of key budget lines

Influence & Representation

• Represent Mercy Corps’ approach at key government, coordination and advocacy platforms.
• Identify and engage with technical, private and public sector partnerships needed to execute program strategies and support the growth and formalization of partnership arrangements as necessary
• 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

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 Beneficiaries

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward 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.

Knowledge and Experience

• At least 5 years of practical field experience managing related market system projects; preferably in Northern Uganda
• BA/S or equivalent in economics, agri-business, rural development and a relevant field; an advanced degree is preferred
• 5-7 years agriculture/livelihoods program implementation and management experience in a market-based approaches
• Demonstrated strong theoretical and applied knowledge of livelihood and market systems development programming and familiarity designing assessments
• Previous experience of working in insecure environments and applying market based approaches in fragile contexts (ideally including experience in an emergency response).
• Strong writing and report development skills
• Experience coordinating and leading partners and stakeholders
• Prior experience in developing partnership with both private and public actors as part of program implementation in     achieving projects desired goals
• Experience managing staff and ability to work with a consortium programming staff
• Must be able to work independently while being a strong team player
• History of working effectively with private sectors, INGO and NGO partners;
• Demonstrated ability to work in complex programming and volatile environments;
• Oral and written English skills required