Job Opportunities at Mercy Corps

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.

PROGRAM QUALITY AND IMPACT

• Participate as an active, integrated member of the Africa regional (ESA + WCA) and TRaQ teams providing technical support to a portfolio of market systems programs in countries including those in complex crises and fragile contexts.
• Support effective interventions in market systems development using integrated approaches and applying systems thinking.
• Help maintain standards of program delivery that apply agency priorities and comply with relevant regulations and requirements.
• Build capacity with country teams and the Community of Practice to better design and implement market systems development programs in fragile contexts. Provide in-country and remote training on MSD and MiC, upgrading materials to ensure contextual relevance. Mentor and coach program leaders and staff to implement high quality Market Systems programming and support professional development.
• Help the team gather, refine, develop and disseminate tools such as training presentations and manuals, teaching notes, best practices and lessons learned, program examples, and monitoring and evaluation tools.
• Support an increased focus on resilience and gender in MSD and Markets in Crisis programs.

Program and proposal development

• Write/review proposals and concept notes for funding from donors including foundations, corporations, and US, European agencies, including USAID, Sida, and AFD among others, to support market systems programming.
• Gather/analyze data and complete assessments, and support field teams to complete assessments, to determine program needs and priorities and Mercy Corps’ competitive advantage for funding. Ensure assessments include dimensions of resilience, gender, and youth as central cross-cutting approaches.
• Work with programs, HQ and country teams, and technical support units on prepositioning and development of program development strategies.

Learning and impact

• Work with the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team at regional and country level to ensure that monitoring and evaluation is practical and reflects Global best practices.
• Support new and ongoing programs with best practice advice and assistance on assessment, implementation, research, and evaluation needs.
• Conduct assessments; write case studies, learning documents, short articles, and blogs; and develop internal and external dissemination plans for all products.
• Lead and facilitate MSD/MiC community of practice within the regions to share lessons, best practices and enhance program impact through better collaboration and networking.
• Ensure learning and evidence of impact reflects how market systems approaches support resilience across diverse gender and age groups.

Influence & Representation

• Represent Mercy Corps at academic events, conferences, media forums, and other events; focused on MSD and MiC.
• Identify and nurture strategic regional partnerships with other organizations and institutions to produce case studies, assessments, and other learning documentation, as well as enhance program quality.
• Contribute to a strong and regularly updated network of technical experts and consultants that can serve as additional deployable resources for program support.

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.

Supervisory Responsibility

• The position has supervisory responsibility over interns and/or volunteers.

Accountability

• Reports Directly To: ESA Regional TRaQ Director, Market Systems Director
• Works Directly With: Regional Directors (ESA + WCA), Deputy Regional Directors (ESA + WCA), Country Directors and Directors of Programs, Program Directors/Managers implementing MSD and MiC programs, Regional and Global TRaQ team members, Evidence and Learning team members 

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required. Formal training in Market Systems Development or M4P preferred.
• 5-7 years of experience in international development work, with a minimum of three years in a program management or technical advisor role, including proposal design and implementation.
• Minimum of 2-3 years of experience in Market Systems Development technical work - including experience with program design, partnership building, technical advising, and/or learning and research.
• Experience working in Africa required.
• Experience working in fragile contexts, conflict, and humanitarian settings required.
• Strong writing skills required.
• Strong presentation and representation skills required.
• It is expected that this position will travel to Mercy Corps country offices within the Africa region, including insecure environments, for up to 40% of time.

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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 

M&E MANAGEMENT AND TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP

• Oversee and revise as necessary implementation of strategic M&E documents, including the M&E Plan, MEL Tech plan, learning agenda, theory of change, performance indicator reference sheets, logframe, indicator performance tracking table, data protection standard operating procedures, and sex and age disaggregation plans.
• Develop the MEL strategy, outlining the necessary systems improvements and trainings to implement the system. Oversee and revise as necessary all principal M&E system components in light of MEL data automation work, including protocols and data flows for monitoring and evaluations, data and information management, M&E budgets, staffing, competency building and technology systems.
• Oversee the implementation of participant-based surveys, including the scope of work, sampling strategies, questionnaires, analysis plans, statistical processing and analysis.
• In close collaboration with the Strategic Learning Advisor, promote collaboration, learning and adaptation (CLA) through intentional and routine periodic learning initiatives sessions to share, discuss and use monitoring data, document and disseminate lessons learned and evaluation findings, support program management to conduct program improvements informed by data.
• Ensure the RFSA adheres to the USAID Policy & Guidance and the Mercy Corps M&E Policy and Record Management & Retention Policy.

DATA AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

• Oversee the continuous improvement, management, and strategic alignment of the Nawiri information management/MEL Data system, including processes and technology solutions for data collection (e.g. CommCare), storage/processing (e.g. Microsoft Azure), analysis/visualization (e.g. Microsoft Power BI, MaxQDA GIS), and reporting for all activity indicators and additional data needs for learning, adaptation and reporting.
• Oversee growth in data automation and efficiency gains in MEL Data Systems/information management.
• Ensure information management/MEL Data systems follow and align with MEL data standards and data standardization principles established within Mercy Corps
• Design and implement data flows that strategically align indicator definitions, data collection tools, databases and sampling frames to ensure traceable, timely, comprehensive, high-quality and demand-responsive data collection, processing, and analysis in compliance with USAID and Mercy Corps requirements.
• Ensure data quality in all aspects of M&E, by conducting periodic DQAs, and integrating corrections and remedies as necessary, to align with Mercy Corps’ and USAID data protection and M&E standards.
• Ensure appropriate levels of timely reporting through Mercy Corps and USAID required systems, including TolaData.
• Participate in regional and global Communities of Practice, share Nawiri best practice and lessons learned to promote organizational learning.

M&E TEAM MANAGEMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING

• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect, accountability and clearly communicated expectations where team members strive and are equipped with the resources to achieve excellence.
• Develop and oversee the implementation of a career development strategy for M&E and partner staff, that promotes M&E competencies and a culture of learning through systematic analysis and reflection of program data.
• Actively provide mentorship and training to program and M&E teams to improve their competencies in quantitative methods, information management, critical thinking, data communication, problem solving, facilitation and data literacy 
• Identify agency-wide learning opportunities for the MEL team, and train teams in appropriate methods for data collection methods, including surveys, focus group discussion and key informant interviews and lead data collection in participating communities as needed. 

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COORDINATION AND REPRESENTATION

• Represent Mercy Corps in M&E forums with the broader humanitarian and development community.
• Develop positive working relationships and coordinate/collaborate with partner organizations and international and national agencies active in the target areas.
• Conduct due diligence of partner M&E systems and processes, including data collection, processing, analysis and reporting, and organize periodic workshops and sharing sessions, ensuring that they are equipped with adequate resources and systems to contribute rigorous data to the overall program.
• Collaborate closely with the Strategic Learning Advisor, HQ- or region-based M&E and research teams, lead and/or collaborate with external evaluators on the design and roll out of the program baseline and evaluations, while setting up effective systems for learning.

Supervisory Responsibility: USAID Nawiri M&E Team

Accountability 

• Reports Directly To: Program Performance and Learning Director 
• Works Directly With: Nawiri team, Kenya country team, Regional and global technical resources and quality team members, Evidence and Learning team unit members, and Media and Communications 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 Qualifications and Transferable Skills 

• MA/S or equivalent experience in a quantitative field (economics, agricultural/ development economics, statistics, biostatistics, nutrition, applied sociology, anthropology, or other relevant field) with significant training in quantitative methods.
• At least seven years (10 years + if only undergraduate degree) of relevant experience leading the M&E of multi-year development or resilience awards. The candidate must have experience leading an M&E team of a large, integrated program at least five of which must be based in country programs.
• Strong conceptual knowledge about theories of change, logic models, food and nutrition security indicators, M&E plans, data quality assurance, mobile data collection, data utilization, and resilience, gender and youth integration into M&E.
• Demonstrated experience and expertise in developing and operationalizing a comprehensive Activity Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plan (AMELP).
• Strong quantitative background and demonstrated expertise in designing annual monitoring surveys including probabilistic sampling strategy and estimating sample size, developing appropriate weights, and analyzing quantitative data.
• Demonstrated experience in participatory community governance, advocacy, capacity and leadership development, and/or management and use of grassroots level-generated data.
• Experienced in developing data quality assurance strategies, data management, and data visualization.
• Demonstrated expertise and experience in data utilization strategies and can creatively think about active data sharing techniques.
• Prior experience with USAID M&E frameworks, and in-depth understanding of food security programming required.
• Experience supporting partner organizations to ensure quality of their M&E systems.
• Demonstrated experience in aligning information management/MEL data systems to meet the needs of strategic data-driven decision making
• Excellent skills in software solutions and platforms for data collection, storage, processing, analysis and visualization, such as MS Office, XLS forms, Open Data Kit (ODK), CommCare, Stata, R, MaxQDA, and/or Power BI. 
• Willingness/ability to travel and work in contexts with challenging conditions
• Knowledge and understanding of Kenya, particularly the ASAL counties, highly preferred. 
• Fluent English required, Swahili preferred.