Learning and Research Officer at Mercy Corps

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.

The Program Summary

Mercy Corps’ Ukraine crisis response seeks to meet the humanitarian needs of vulnerable Ukrainians and other conflict-affected people across geographies including in Poland or trapped behind frontlines. We support vulnerable people with multi-purpose cash assistance, in-kind humanitarian support, livelihoods, and protection services across four countries. Almost all our impact will be delivered in partnership with civil society organizations through a granting program that matches humanitarian action with capacity strengthening. In the initial response to the war in Ukraine, Mercy Corps was focused on the emergency delivery of aid to the affected populations, primarily through Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) and in-kind food and non-food assistance. Mercy Corps will continue this life saving assistance for as long as it is needed but acknowledges that recovery and resilience requires access to steady income alongside functioning markets. Therefore, alongside ongoing emergency activities, Mercy Corps has launched early recovery activities, that contribute to stabilization of livelihoods and improved resilience for IDPs and conflict-affected individuals. Mercy Corps supports self-employment opportunities, SME and agriculture sectors.

The Position

The Learning and Research Officer will support knowledge management and MEL functions in coordination with the Learning Manager within the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team for the Mercy Corps Ukraine Response. They will support the development of evaluation frameworks, communicate with third party evaluation service providers, and contribute to report writing processes. They will work with Mercy Corps’ MEL staff to ensure standardization of tools for comparative purposes, support surveys and evaluations. They will be part of the Program Learning Team (PLT). The selected candidate will support the development and implementation of learning plans and workshops to capture, share, and extend knowledge management and knowledge uptake within the Ukraine Response.

This position will participate actively in defining program evaluation methodologies, as well as support the PLT unit in leading on design and conducting relevant research studies and assessments, as well as identifying and managing external research consultants. They will encourage a culture of knowledge-sharing and collaborative workflow and remind Mercy Corps teams of the importance of promoting a healthy information flow in a knowledge-driven environment.

The position will likely require ad-hoc travel to the field, including partner implementation locations. Every request is discussed and agreed upon separately, taking into consideration security and safety conditions and concerns.

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.

Accountability

Supervisory Responsibility: None

Reports Directly To: Program Learning Manager

Works Directly With: MEL Lead, MEL Team, Program Teams, PAQ Lead

Essential Job Responsibilities:

1. Research and Knowledge Management:

• Provide qualitative analysis and suggest frameworks for quantitative analysis within the needs of research, evaluations and learning activities.
• Perform literature reviews for their research team, support with research and learning, and summarize findings as needed.
• Support data triangulation internally (within departments) and externally (including research).
• Support Mercy Corps Steering Committee in research activities
• Support the selection and management of consultants providing evaluation and research services to the response.
• Collaborate with program staff and relevant stakeholders including governments and research agencies to collect, review, and analyze primary and secondary data to inform program progress and achievements.

2.Implement Evaluation and Learning Strategy:

• Support Program Learning Manager in arranging learning events according to the Learning Plan for each program.
• Work with Response MEL Managers and Program Performance and Quality (PaQ) Lead to ensure that Program and MEL teams use the system effectively, including following up on dissemination of findings and incorporating knowledge into future cycles of the program.
• Support management of the final internal performance review process.
• Suggest processes to develop internal learning and knowledge uptake on Ukraine Response’s activities.

3. Security

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

Any skills you have gained through education, volunteer work, or life experience that are relevant for the position will be considered. Please explain transferable skills and how they apply to this position in your cover letter and interview.

Required

• Academic degree in social sciences, social work, mathematics, statistics, business, or any related fields.
• Two years of experience in Research or Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning.
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative data processes, from design to analysis and report writing. This should include experience in conducting surveys, focus groups and interviews, doing case studies as well as literature reviews.
• Experience writing, reviewing, and presenting information for multiple audiences and in multiple ways (reports, presentations, e-mails, etc.).
• Understanding sampling techniques and their advantages and disadvantages.
• Strong computer literacy with a full knowledge of MS Office applications;
• Language Skills: Working proficiency in English is required. Fluency in Ukrainian or Russian is required.
• Ability to work effectively with an ethnically diverse team in a sensitive environment.
• Communicates well with remote collaborators.
• Manages multiple priorities and deadlines.

Preferred

• Humanitarian or other NGO experience within the current Ukraine context, preferably with international donors.
• Experience in technical writing or creating training/instructional documentation.
• Experience of using R, NVivo or Python for data analysis would be an asset — but not required.

Success Factors

The position requires high level skills in analysis and some experience in report writing, which will be used to review comparative data, reporting, and technical briefs. Soft skills including communication, coaching, mentoring, and teamwork are essential attributes of this role to ensure smooth facilitation of learning processes.

The candidate should be able to support the use of traditional and digital learning approaches to develop and implement innovative, creative, and effective ways to strategically capture and share technical knowledge derived from evaluations, leverage good practices, and improve the effectiveness of Mercy Corps programming in Ukraine and other countries covered by the response.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening, and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination based on race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

2024-01-23T19:51:56.000 2024-02-23T23:59:59.000 Full time TELECOMMUTE Україна Mercy Corps