Program Coordinator – Jobtech for Refugees and Youth

Program Coordinator – Jobtech for Refugees and Youth

Location: Addis, Ethiopia

Position Status: Full-time (2.5 Years with scope for extension)

Risk Level: Level 3: Frequent contact with participants, direct contact with children, access to sensitive data, and/or high level of accountability. 

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.

Mercy Corps has been present in Ethiopia since 2004 working to drive bold and transformative ideas, working closely with government, the private sector and civil society actors to build a more resilient country, ensuring that programs are responsive to and influenced by participants and stakeholders. With the launch of Mercy Corps Global Strategy, Pathway to Possibility, the country office is poised to operationalize its three-year strategy with a vision to enhance the resilience of climate- and conflict-affected communities through market systems development for improved livelihoods, access to food, and safe and clean water to thrive in the face of crises. Currently, we operate in five regional states – Afar, Oromia, Somali, Amhara and Tigray. Working with a diverse base of donors that includes the United States Government, GAC, Hilton Foundation, United Nations, JOA, Sweden, EKN, and other foundations, Mercy Corps Ethiopia empowers people to recover from crisis, build better lives and transform their communities for good.

Program / Department Summary

Jobtech refers to digital platforms that connect people to work opportunities that build livelihoods. The taxonomy of what we mean by jobtech and examples of technology companies that are solving Africa’s unemployment problem can be found here (https://jobtechalliance.com/what-is-jobtech/). Jobs within jobtech could range from gig-work (think Uber, Glovo) to digital services for microenterprises to tech-enabled skilling.

What are we solving for?

We believe that jobtech, the use of technology to enable, facilitate, or improve people’s productivity to access and deliver quality work, is the future of work, and has the potential to create millions of jobs and/or improve livelihoods. However, it is significantly underdeveloped on the African continent, limiting its promise of job creation. Despite the scale of potential impact, it is poorly understood, the ecosystem is nascent, few start-ups have scaled successfully in this space, and the learning and community infrastructure around it is not consolidated (particularly compared to sectors like Fintech). There has never been a more important time to harness and shape jobtech’s enormous potential to drive meaningful employment for young people.

The Jobtech Alliance, launched by Mercy Corps and BFA Global in 2021, has a portfolio of grants which allows us to conduct a range of acceleration activities with jobtech start-ups, and to conduct wider ecosystem-building activities. We partner with jobtech start-ups across 10 African markets to support strategy, product and operational innovations which make their services more viable and scalable, more inclusive and/or delivering better quality jobs for the users they serve. We conduct research to better understand what makes these innovations work (or not), and conduct exploratory research on emerging themes to help guide the sector. To-date, the program has worked with 50 platforms and created over 40,000 quality jobs across the continent.

Jobtech for Refugees and Youth:

The Jobtech for Refugees and Youth program is a multi-country initiative focused on creating jobs and improving livelihoods for refugees and displaced youth through technology-enabled platforms. Building on the progress of initial programming in Uganda, the program has expanded to include Ethiopia, with Uganda remaining a key implementation country. We support jobtech platforms that are looking to scale, expand, or overcome growth barriers, and work with refugee youth to equip them with the skills, assets and capacities to access these opportunities.

The Position Summary

Reporting to the Jobtech for Refugees Program Manager, the Program Coordinator will serve as the primary implementer and day-to-day operational lead for the Jobtech for Refugees and Youth program in Ethiopia. He/She will lead the recruitment and enrollment of refugee and displaced talent onto jobtech platforms, coordinate and facilitate collaboration between refugee job seekers, partner organisations, and digital work platforms. Additionally, he/she will take ownership of procurement, contracting, and administrative processes for Ethiopia and participate in the documentation of insights and lessons learned for knowledge products published by the Jobtech Alliance.

The role requires strong coordination skills, a proactive leadership orientation, and the ability to work across multiple stakeholder groups including donors, ecosystem actors, private sector partners, implementing organizations, and refugee-led organizations.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Responsibilities:

• Identify, vet, and develop partnerships with refugee-led organizations, CBOs and other potential partners capable of recruiting and placing refugees into work on platforms
• Lead the recruitment and enrollment of refugee and displaced talent onto jobtech platforms through trusted partner organisations and channels (see above)
• Coordinate and facilitate interactions between jobtech platforms and partner organisations, serving as the primary liaison for day-to-day operations with support from the Jobtech Alliance team members engaging with platforms
• Lead and oversee all field activities and program implementation in Ethiopia, ensuring activities are delivered on time, within scope, and to quality standards.
• Coordinate procurement, contracting, and administrative processes within the Mercy Corps Ethiopia country office, ensuring compliance with organisational and donor policies.
• Track and manage activity progress against workplans, ensuring adherence to scope, timelines, and budget allocations for Ethiopia-based activities, with support from Program Manager.

Community of Practice (CoP)

• Plan and facilitate regular CoP engagements (e.g. convenings, webinars, knowledge exchanges) that bring together the diverse set of members (e.g. donors, ecosystem stakeholders, private sector actors, jobtech platforms etc.)
• Drive CoP membership growth, with a particular focus on incorporating new members from emerging geographies with support from the Program Manager
• Track CoP performance against targets outlined in the program proposal and report on progress to the Program Manager.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning & Reporting

• Conduct field visits to verify data accuracy and collect qualitative insights that will help adapt and improve the program.
• Assist in gathering insights and lessons learned, contributing to research as well as donor reporting while ensuring it meets both organisational and donor standards.
• Support the alignment of program activities with key performance indicators (KPIs) and help maintain data integrity for accurate reporting and informed decision-making.

 Safeguarding 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

Supervisory Responsibility

N/A

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Director of programs with technical reporting to obtech for Refugees Program Manager (based in Kenya)

Works Directly With: Director of Programs (Mercy Corps Ethiopia), Venture Partners (Jobtech Alliance), Results Learning & Research Team (Jobtech Alliance), Ecosystem Lead (Jobtech Alliance), Finance and Operations Teams, Human Resources

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.