Sarah Khasawneh, Partnership Program Manager

Sarah Khasawneh

Partnership Program Manager

Mercy Corps

Location
Jordan
Education
High school or equivalent, Business Economics
Experience
13 years, 1 Months

Share My Profile

Block User


Work Experience

Total years of experience :13 years, 1 Months

Partnership Program Manager at Mercy Corps
  • Jordan - Amman
  • My current job since May 2022

Manager of the Mercy Corps' Investing in Syrian Humanitarian Action (ISHA) Project
(funded by BHA) which is designed to advise, support, and coach targeted Syrian civil
society organizations to better and more efficiently serve conflict-affected communities.
The project takes a demand-driven approach to capacity development and utilizes
creative methodologies for remote engagement, including both on- and off-line
e-learning and broadening access to Arabic language resources for the wider Syrian
humanitarian community.
Oversee the ISHA team to provide technical oversight of partners' projects and to
provide the necessary support throughout the project management cycle. This
includes ensuring high-quality design, delivery, and measuring of capacity
strengthening interventions- tools, modules, resources, and coaching throughout the
project lifecycle.
Responsible for project quality and the successful implementation of the ISHA
project, ensuring that it is on time, on budget, and on scope.
Ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met in a way that is
responsive to partners' operating context, constraints and realities.
Lead on drafting donor and internal program reporting as per relevant reporting
schedules
Lead the ISHA team to redesign partner projects in times of contextual change,
working closely with ISHA's Finance & Compliance Manager to ensure necessary
donor modification processes are adhered to.
Support staff to deliver technical (WASH, Shelter, protection, Livelihoods) trainings
and coaching, to strengthen their own facilitation skills, and to seize opportunities for
timely learning for partners.
Lead ISHA's internal work planning processes focused on tailored, targeted strategies
for supporting partners throughout the project life-cycle and in line with the priorities
identified in their capacity strengthening plans as well as those that arise during the
partnership.
Support other ISHA team workstreams, such as investigations or external evaluations,
and audits.
Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members
strive to achieve excellence.
Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive
feedback via regular performance reviews.
Advise and mentor project staff on appropriate partnership approaches.
Provide team members with information, tools and other resources to improve
performance and help them constructively identify problem-solving options.
Facilitate internal workshops, lessons learned sessions, or workshops as necessary.
Support communications with HQ, Technical Advisors, and other key Mercy Corps
stakeholders as necessary.
Proactively identify opportunities for collaboration and learning across the different
project teams and Syria response offices.
Developed and enforced adherence to project budgets.
Collaborated with human resources department to facilitate personnel decisions.
Scoped contracts, prepared proposals and managed agreement fulfillment.

Program Coordinator at Mercy Corps
  • Jordan - Amman
  • January 2018 to April 2022

Mercy Corps - Amman, JO
Lead the development of partners' proposal process, across Syria. This includes
proposal review, selection, scoring in accordance to Mercy Corps and donors'
strategies and guidelines
Provide technical leadership and support to ensure technical soundness of partners'
approaches through significant involvement in and coaching during the project
design phase through to project close-out
Serve as focal point for partners during sub-project revisions and negotiation
processes and throughout the sub-grant lifecycle providing support to them develop
M&E plans, work plans, budgets and other relevant programming documents that
will guide project implementation, reviewing their narrative reports and lead
reconciliation meeting with finance and M&E teams to ensure implementation is in
line with the work plan and Mercy corps and donors compliance, as the capacity
building focal point lead the development of training materials that are needed for
WASH/shelter sectors which are Hygiene promotion, cost recovery mechanism, water
trucking, solid waste management, intro to shelter and shelter rehabilitation
guidance and ensure they are in line with global and Mercy Corps best practice,
Delivering those training to partners through coaching and mentoring techniques to
help build their technical, program and organizational capacities.
Contribute to donor reports, updates to HQ or the region, or the compilation of other
requests for information as necessary and work closely with the M&E team to
aggregate and analyze data provided by partners to both influence programmatic
decision making and contribute to reports to the donor and/ or MC stakeholders at
HQ or in the region
As the partnerships and programs coordinator and sector lead supervise the
WASH/shelter officer/engineer to ensure technical support is provided to the partners
to ensure the technical quality of the project. In addition, ensure that engineer is
delivering technical support and trainings assigned to him.

Program Officer at Shelter
  • United Arab Emirates
  • April 2016 to December 2017

Worked closely with assigned partners to be their main focal point and provide
needed coaching and trainings to build their capacity and support them manage
their projects from design throughout close out
Work closely with M&E, operations and finance teams to make sure budget and M&E
plans are in line with work plan and project activities are implemented as planned
Attend cluster and related meetings and make sure partners are also attending and
coordinating with relevant stockholders
Develop support and development plans tailored to each partner and coordinate to
ensure different department are providing needed technical support
Provide trainings, coaching and mentoring to partners staff as part of their capacity
building plan and project management
Work closely with finance and compliance team to ensure partners designed
projects are in line with Mercy corps and Donors regulation.

Officer at Oxfam GB
  • Jordan
  • September 2015 to March 2016

Coordinate with PHE and external actors to ensure a wide understanding of the
WASH and health landscape at a district level
Build strong relationships with communities within Za'Atari camp and support in
improving governance
Contribute to the longer term planning of the CM program and delegate tasks to the
Education
Languages
CM district team
Disseminate information on planned WASH activities to CM Assistants and to other
actors at meetings, resolve issues escalated by the CM Assistants and ensure that
gender and protection are mainstreamed into all CM activities at a district level.

Field Assistant at UNICEF
  • United Arab Emirates
  • November 2013 to August 2015

- Amman, JO
To supervise and monitor WASH related work such as water distribution, quality of
water and the desludging of black water to make sure that our implementing
partners are meeting the minimum standards requested from them by UNICEF
Prepare daily reports with all the cases and the monitoring process and to monitor
the UNICEF implemented activities on daily basis at district level (WASH, Education,
CP and Health/Nutrition interventions.

Business Consultant at Jeeran
  • United Arab Emirates
  • February 2013 to September 2013
Manager at Bayt.com
  • United Arab Emirates
  • November 2011 to February 2013
Service Representative
  • March 2011 to November 2011

Education

High school or equivalent, Business Economics
  • at University of Jordan
  • August 2022

Jan 2011Bachelor of Economics:

High school or equivalent, Business Economics
  • at Swefeyeh Secondary School
  • August 2022

-

Specialties & Skills

Supply Chain Management
CRM software
Reporting 26 Analysis
BUDGETING
COACHING
DECISION MAKING
ENGINEERING
FINANCE
LEADERSHIP
MENTORING
NEGOTIATION
ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS
PROCESS ENGINEERING

Languages

Arabic
Expert
English
Expert
French
Expert