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.
The Program / Department Summary
Mercy Corps has been operating in Jordan since 2003. In partnership with civil society organizations, the private sector, and the government, Mercy Corps Jordan has reached more than 3.4 million Jordanians and displaced populations in the country. Working throughout Jordan, Mercy Corps is driven by the mission to contribute to the emergence of a peaceful, resilient, and prosperous Jordan which is inclusive of youth and women. We seek to build a future for Jordan in which all people feel secure, believe in the goodness of communities and institutions around them, and are on a sustainable path toward economic self-reliance. Our strategic directions focus on promoting strong communities and governance, peace and social cohesion and environmentally sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
The USAID Informal Livelihoods Advancement Activity (Iqlaa) is a five-year USAID-funded program that aims to support Jordan's Home Based Businesses (HBBs) and Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) to grow, transform, and become resilient to future shocks. The Iqlaa approach will explore new ways of doing business and improving access to finance, markets, and services. The program focuses on four sectors: agriculture, hospitality and tourism, manufacturing, and services, with special attention to technology development and implementation. Iqlaa infuses a gender, youth, and social inclusion lens throughout all its interventions.
Through research and adaptive, collaborative learning, Iqlaa will identify opportunities, incentives, and market constraints that facilitate or restrict formalization and growth. Based on the findings, Iqlaa will implement best practices in enterprise strengthening, inclusive job creation, and financial sector development within a market systems development (MSD) framework, leveraging innovative behavioral change methodologies to facilitate long-term, sustainable changes in the MSEs ecosystem in Jordan.
Implementing Organizations: Mercy Corps (Lead Implementer), Andersen for Legal and Tax Consultancy (Andersen), Dalberg Design (Dalberg), Expectation State, Middle East Investment Initiative (MEII), Migrate Jordan (Migrate), Q-Perspective, and American Chamber of Commerce in Jordan (AmCham).
General Position Summary
Reporting to the Access to Finance Lead, the Access to Finance Specialist will contribute to and conceptualize ideas of interventions in the access to finance field to better serve HBBs and MSEs. This will be achieved through an evidence-based approach rooted in Market System Development (MSD) principles, and building on Iqlaa’s Financial Sector Assessment, other available research and his/her experience in the sector. The Access to Finance Specialist will support in leading and technically overseeing Iqlaa’s consortium partners, consultants and stakeholders to conceptualize, design, test, promote and deliver new/modified access to finance services and products (covering debt, equity and hybrid models) through new or existing financial service providers to better serve HBBs, and MSEs. The Access to Finance Specialist will also contribute to identifying, designing and delivering ways and means to HBBs and MSEs to enhance their financial literacy and financial management skills to improve their ability to affectively use financial products and services to facilitate and support sustainable business growth.
Essential Responsibilities
The Access to Finance Specialist will work closely with the Access to Finance Lead in designing and technically overseeing the implementation of the Access to Finance Component’s activities to fulfill Iqlaa’s goals and objectives under Result 3 (R3: Increased access to appropriate financial services and products for MSEs) and Sub-Results (3.1: Strengthened MSEs financial skills) and (3.2: Increased capacity of financial service providers to better serve MSEs) through:
Program Implementation
• Coordinate with and facilitate the work of consortium partners (Expectation State and Middle East Investment Initiative) and market actors who are focused on access to finance functions, these functions include, but are not limited to, lending mechanisms to MSEs, MSEs' microfinancing, loan guarantees, digital financing, mobile wallets, and access to banking, financial inclusion for MSEs, financial literacy, and access to investments.
• Provide technical support and oversight of the relevant program partners and market actors in intervention design, work planning and implementation to assure smooth, impactful, and scalable delivery of their activities and interventions (that feed into R3, Sub-R 3.1 and Sub-R 3.2).
• Collaborate with the Access to Finance Lead in planning, coordinating, and executing activities to ensure timely adherence to work schedules, achievement of targets, and compliance with budgetary requirements. •Understand and apply the Market Systems Development (MSD) approach to support the design and manage interventions in line with its principles, and in collaboration with the MSD team as applicable.
• Participate in the formulation of partnerships with local financial services providers, providing a temporary and targeted support package which enables them to implement the required changes to their products and services to better serve MSEs and market systems sustainably.
• Support in managing Iqlaa sub-grants, while adhering to the USAID and Mercy Corps standards and regulations including:
- Negotiate terms of partnerships, draft sub-grants agreements and scopes of work, design deliverables. milestones and budgets.
- Following up with the sub-grantees and ensuring the delivery of the set milestones/deliverables and that the targets are met. And managing sub-grantee payments to ensure timely liquidation of the awarded grants.
Program Quality and Report Writing
• Provide timely and high quality progress reports that would feed into donor reports, this includes weekly, quarterly, and annual reports in addition to other ad-hoc requests by the donor and/or Iqlaa’s leadership.
• Work seamlessly with other components and teams including the research, Outreach, Performance, Quality and Learning (PQL), Market System Development (MSD) Communications, and GYSI teams to maximize synergies within Iqlaa components for optimized results and targets.
• Use PQL assurance tools and materials effectively, to fully comply with all quality and monitoring and evaluation standards, including those related to proper documentation and file keeping.
• As delegated by the Component Lead, oversee the monitoring and evaluation of the component activities in close coordination with the PQL team and consortium partners, including monitoring, data collection, analysis, and report writing in line with the M&E standard procedures as set by the Iqlaa PQL team.
• Gender, Youth, Social Inclusion (GYSI): Work closely with the Inclusion Lead to ensure that all implemented activities are compliant with inclusion standards ensuring the component is sensitive and responsive to different opportunities and barriers faced by women and youth, as well as to fulfill GYSI-related targets,
• Ensure adherence to Mercy Corps PM@MC minimum standards within the component, including Community Accountability Reporting Mechanism (CARM).
• Contribute towards the development of communication materials (including presentations, success stories, etc.).
• Ensure the proper implementation and modeling of safeguarding policies and procedures with regards to all interactions with team members, partners, and Iqlaa’s participants.
Financial and Compliance Management
● Provide essential input for developing the Access to Finance component's budget for each intervention and activity, including TORs, unsolicited grants, and RFAs. This includes preparing budget projections, reviewing them thoroughly, and ensuring accuracy before submission to the Access to Finance Lead, in accordance with established procedures
● Develop and draft the required scopes and procurement/solicitation documents (RFAs, RFPs, etc.) to align with the Component’s work plan needs. As delegated by the Chief of Party (COP) and/or Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP)/Programs, participate in the evaluation process in accordance with established procedures
● Ensure strict adherence to USAID and Mercy Corps regulations, maintaining full compliance throughout all processes and activities.
SAFEGAURDING RESPONSIBILITIES
• Actively learns about 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: Access to Finance Lead
Works Directly With: Chief of Party, DCOP/Programs, DCOP/Operations & Finance, Access to Finance team members, Iqlaa technical teams, PQL and Communication teams, and other relevant support teams.
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
● University Degree in Finance, Economic Development or related fields with at least six years of experience in work related to enterprise finance (debt, equity, hybrid) and relevant access to finance programs.
● Demonstrated knowledge of the Jordanian financial sector (including market actors) for equity, debt, and hybrid instruments, and other financial services targeting HBBs and MSEs with opinions on strengths and weaknesses and ideas on how to improve.
● Demonstrated familiarity with the financing requirements and financial challenges facing HBBs (formal and informal), microenterprises and small businesses.
● Demonstrated familiarity with alternative financing mechanisms such as angel funding, seed funding, early growth and mature growth stage funding requirements for promising businesses, including knowledge of crowdfunding methods, reverse factoring, leveraging loan guarantees, etc.
● Desire and ability to identify new funding concepts and tools as well as a desire to implement new solutions which fit identified opportunities and address challenges.
● Demonstrated familiarity with international practice, products, and services in providing finance to HBBs, and MSEs.
● Demonstrated ability to build, maintain, and manage relationships with multiple stakeholders (including the public sector, private sector at both grass-root and corporate levels, and civil society).
● Experience in project and contract management including (sub) grants management, management of consultants, and procurement, among others.
● Previous proven experience and knowledge working with HBBs, MSEs or Start-ups
● Fluency in Arabic. High proficiency in English (report writing level) required
Success Factors
A successful candidate will have a demonstrated ability to lead and communicate effectively with team members and other stakeholders of varied work styles and cultures, follow procedures, and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and developing solutions to problems through analytical, interpretative, and evaluative ways of thinking. This position requires an ability to think creatively about changing norms that lead to greater opportunities for economic growth at household,
community, and institutional levels. S/he will have a proven ability to learn quickly, multi-task, prioritize, take initiative, be accountable for results, understand the larger picture while remaining focused on the details, problem-solve, work within a complex and sensitive setting, and follow laws and security protocols. The most successful Mercy Corps team 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.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Amman, Jordan and it requires in-country travel across governorates to support
program activities. Staff will have access to good medical services.
Ongoing Learning
In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex
challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.
We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.