Regional Market Systems in Crisis Advisor – Africa 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.