Research & Evidence Manager at Mercy Corps

Essential Responsibilities

• Research Strategy and Planning
• Contribute to the MERL Plan/Strategy and, more specifically, the Research & Learning Agenda. Contribute to the program strategy, develop, and manage the annual program calendar.
• Lead or contribute to the design and implementation of all Research and Learning activities implemented in all the three implementation countries.
• Manage the process for and contribute to the selection decisions of external research and evaluation partners where applicable
• Produce and distribute relevant research and progress reports conducted by the program to internal stakeholders.
• Manage and directly work on the program’s data management and dashboard system.
• Research Analysis, Production, and Distribution
• Provide primary or secondary analysis of all research data, involving quantitative and qualitative methods, to support the development of or contributions to critical findings.
• Directly contribute to and manage the creation of research and progress reports and presentations, including drafting the findings and presentations and collaborating with stakeholders on design and production.
• Manage the process and ensure research and program progress findings/reports/presentations are announced and distributed.
• Support the creation and production of original content for dissemination via publications, newsletters, and other media as directed by the Program Director.

MERL Project Management

• Manages MERL activities, including creating and managing plans, schedules, budgets, deliverables, and stakeholder contributions.
• Manage day-to-day relationships with the evaluation partners where applicable.
• Track and report on MERL and program activities, outputs, and outcomes.
• Manage the program data and record storage in compliance with the organization policies
• Participate in regular team meetings to review progress and deliverables
• Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to gender, resilience, and safes spaces programming
• Regional Systems and support functions
• Support country team adherence to Mercy corps and donor policies and procedures**
• Provide dedicated support to country team sin the event of an emergency.
• Human Resources, Safeguarding and Diversity
• Support Mercy Corps global and regional initiatives for Human Resources, including safeguarding and diversity.

Risk Management

• Engage and support GIRL Program across the region to ensure that adequate risk management systems are in place and reported
• Collaborate with GIRL Country PMs to support preparedness and response to major disruptive events.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• MEL Officers in focus countries

Accountability

• Reports Directly To: GIRL-H Program Director
• Works Directly With: Program Manager in the PMU and Country Program Manager

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.

Knowledge and Experience

• Masters or equivalent experience in International Development, Political Science, women’s studies, college degree required, advanced degree preferred.
• A minimum of 6 years of continuous research experience, of which 3 years is directly overseeing research planning, statistical analysis, and project management to development programs.
• Demonstrated expertise participating in the design, analysis, and distribution of research and progress reports.
• Excellent analytical skills, including distilling useful findings from a body of data, relating findings to external factors and context
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including proven success in the ability to present ideas and concepts effectively.
• Demonstrated expertise communicating with and managing relationships with external research partners
• Excellent project management skills, including demonstrated ability to set and manage priorities and multiple tasks.
• Excellent attention to detail, organized and process oriented.
• Ability to deliver high-quality work quickly in a dynamic organization under time pressure.
• Ability to train and build the capacity of programs and research staff in using various research processes.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively use SPSS or other statistical software, Excel for data processing and dashboard creation, Commcare and other ODK based data collection and management platform.
• Ability to speak Swahili strongly preferred.