Essential Job Responsibilities
STRATEGY & VISION
- Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment of empowerment.
- Set direction by prioritizing and organizing actions and resources to achieve objectives and contribute to country-wide strategy development.
- Lead the development and implementation of an Ethics and Safeguarding team department multi-year strategy and annual work plan.
- Ensure the ethics team collaborates proactively and closely with all departments through regular communication and joint planning.
TEAM MANAGEMENT
- Develop the capacity of the Ethics and Safeguarding team, deepen understanding of their roles and assist with career 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.
- Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
- Hire, orient and lead team members as necessary
INTERNAL CONTROLS
- Provide reasonable assurance to country office Senior leadership that there are efficient policies and procedures in place, well understood by team members and that Mercy Corps DRC conforms with all Mercy Corps and donor regulatory requirements
- Assist the country management team in determining effective and efficient solutions to operational issues that ensure compliance with Mercy Corps’ policies and donor regulations, mitigate the risk of fraud or corruption, and facilitate the achievement of program objectives.
- Assist program, operations and finance teams with implementing standard procedures or, as necessary, developing and documenting enhanced procedures for high-risk program activities, particularly those providing a direct financial benefit to participants (e.g. vouchers, cash distributions), requiring high value procurement, or the distribution of in-kind goods.
- In coordination with the country management team and program managers, maintain the country- level Risk Register to identify key risks and document strategies to mitigate these risks. Manage the quarterly update process and ensure communication of action plans.
- In coordination with relevant teams, perform periodic internal control reviews of in-country financial, procurement, human resource/admin, programs and logistics procedures in both the main country office and field offices. In coordination with program and monitoring and evaluation staff, conduct field reviews of program activities to ensure that adequate controls are in place and are functioning properly. Communicate findings and work with the relevant departments to correct weaknesses and improve controls as needed.
- As agreed with the program and finance teams, advise on the development of monitoring plans for partners, including subrecipients, key vendors and other partners that must adhere to ethics policies. In coordination with relevant teams, perform periodic compliance reviews of partners.
- In coordination with the country management team and HQ Finance, assist with the follow-up and resolution of external audit or Mercy Corps Internal Audit findings.
- Develop training programs to ensure team members understand policy and procedure issues and corrective measures needed for non-adherence and better risk management.
RESPONSE
- Following Mercy Corps’ policies and procedures, serve as country focal point for the internal reporting of any allegations of Code of Ethics violations, including fraud, conflicts of interest, corruption, bribery, human trafficking and safeguarding.
- Lead in-country high risk ethics and safeguarding investigations or inquiries to ensure compliance with Mercy Corps Ethical codes of conduct in close collaboration with HQ and regional Ethics, HR and Safeguarding Teams.
- Maintain the country Incident Register and dashboards and liaise with the Headquarters Ethics team, and other teams as needed, in the resolution of all reported incidents.
- Collect, analyze and document the results of investigations and communicate observations and recommendations with the collaboration of the Country Director and senior management team, as appropriate.
- In coordination with the Headquarters Ethics team and the country management team, assist in the preparation of any final reports to fully document the investigation and resolution of incidents.
- Liaise closely with the PAQ Department in implementing the country Complaints Response Mechanism (CARM).
- Respond to Code of Ethics violation referrals received through the CARM and manage the ethics team responsible for intaking complaints/feedback into the country CARM system.
PREVENTION AND CAPACITY BUILDING
- In coordination with established on-boarding processes, assist with the on-boarding of new country team members to ensure awareness and understanding of Code of Ethics policies. Conduct and/or coordinate regular anti-corruption, fraud prevention, Safeguarding and other Code of Ethics training for country staff and partners.
- Lead awareness-raising, training and capacity building efforts across all DRC teams and departments on Code of Ethics policies and procedures. This will target Mercy Corps employees, partners and contractors.
- Ensure capacity building efforts are adapted based on trends from response efforts, internal audits or other compliance check processes.
INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION
- Effectively and efficiently engage external advisors as appropriate
- Participate in sharing best practices with NGOs and governmental agencies.
SECURITY
- Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
- Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.
