Learning and Advocacy Advisor - DRC

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.
Department SummaryMercy Corps has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since August 2007, with a staff of approximately 400 people working in Eastern DRC. Mercy Corps’ national office is in Goma with sub-field offices in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces. Mercy Corps’ key programming areas include a combination of longer-term development and immediate humanitarian response programs in order to: 1) Improve water service delivery and ensuring equitable access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services, in urban and rural areas; 2) Improve food security and nutrition; 3) Promote diversified livelihoods, economic recovery and development. Mercy Corps DRC’s humanitarian programs aim specifically to assist populations affected by the conflict and crisis in Eastern Congo with multi-purpose cash assistance and emergency WASH support to displaced and host populations. Currently, the DRC program represents one of Mercy Corps’ largest country programs world-wide.
General Position Summary The DRC Learning & Advocacy Advisor plays a critical role in Mercy Corps’ efforts to realize its commitment to improved program learning, quality, and influence for its emergency programs. Working under the Director of Programs, this position will collaborate closely with the DRC Emergency Programs department to deliver strategic and impactful approaches to learning from current programming. They will help set the vision and direction for all learning activities, linking these to clearly defined advocacy objectives that further Mercy Corps’ ability to reach affected communities with high-quality interventions. They will use communications and media engagement to achieve these objectives, while contributing to broader country-level influence efforts and informing new program design.
Essential Job Responsibilities
STRATEGY & VISION

• Serve as a member of the emergency programs department leadership team along with the DRC Emergency Programs Director, Deputy Director, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Manager, Grants Manager and Cash, WASH and Food Security Managers.
• Support design of new emergency programs, ensuring that learning and evidence from current programming is integrated into technical and management design in collaboration with the Grants Management Specialist. PROGRAM LEARNING
  • Lead the development of a DRC Humanitarian Learning Plan & Agenda, providing a clear vision and objectives for programmatic learning in the coming years to improve the quality, scale and impact of Mercy Corps programming, inform new program design, and influence favorable policy and operating environment change.
  • Improve data use to inform evidence and learning, including use of technologies for more efficient data collection, analysis and visualization.
  • Provide strategic direction to internal and external evaluations carried out as part of the emergency portfolio, including mid-term and final evaluations and cost effectiveness and cost efficiency analyses.
  • Identify opportunities for and carry out research on identified learning priorities for the emergency portfolio, including in collaboration with other DRC programs to ensure relevant cross-programme learning.
  • Collaborate with the DRC Crisis Analysis Team (CAT) for context monitoring and analysis relating to emergency programming, including trends around access and community acceptance.
  • Support Emergency MEL Manager in organizing regular program review sessions to reflect on data and inform adaptive management, including reflection sessions on the results of Third-Party Monitoring initiated by donors.
  • Contribute to designing and delivering the country portfolio-level learning agenda in line with the DRC Country Strategy.
  • Ensure that DRC humanitarian programmatic learning informs agency-wide Pathway to Possibility evidence and learning agendas and contributes to Mercy Corps’ efforts to realize its “Triple Nexus” Humanitarian-Development-Peacebuilding agenda. ADVOCACY AND INFLUENCE
    • Design and oversee a DRC Humanitarian Advocacy Strategy & Action Plan in line with DRC Country Strategy, identifying key issues, policy change objectives, targets, approaches and key activities. Specific sectors of attention include cash programing, protection, and the Triple Nexus, etc.
    • Ensure close oversight of main advocacy issues and identify opportunities for Mercy Corps to raise their profile.
    • Work closely with the Senior Media & Communications Advisor to deliver the DRC Communications & Media Strategy and relevant humanitarian communications plans, leveraging communications to build on learning and achieve advocacy objectives.
    • Support other DRC programs as needed in designing their own advocacy strategies and leading strategic planning events.
    • Contribute to country-level advocacy related to the DRC operating environment as needed. REPRESENTATION
      • Represent Mercy Corps in relevant humanitarian fora as well as sub-groups of the DRC INGO Forum and other coordination fora.
      • Maintain external messaging and develop tailored talking points as needed for DRC country, Africa regional and headquarters leadership media and policy engagement. Accountability
        Supervisory Responsibility: NoneReports Directly To: Director of Programs
        Works Directly With: Emergency Programs Director, Emergency MEL Manager & MEL Team, other Program Directors and Chiefs of Party/Managers, DRC PaQ Team (including PaQ Director and Sr. Media & Communications Advisor), Grants Management Specialist, DRC CAT, as well as Regional and Global PaQ, Technical Support Unit (TSU) and Research & Learning 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 & Transferable Skills
        • Bachelor’s degree required. Masters or equivalent in a field related to Humanitarian or International Development or relevant fields is preferred.
        • At least 5 to 7 years experience in program design, management, learning, or communications and advocacy.
        • Experience working in the Africa region and high-risk contexts preferred.
        • Proven ability to work cooperatively with internal and external stakeholders, and to play a leadership role in convening groups. Astute skills in relationship building and coordination.
        • Extensive experience with program quality, M&E, information management, and other learning efforts and technical areas in at least several Mercy Corps DRC sectors.
        • Willingness and ability to travel frequently to Mercy Corps project sites and field locations, including traveling to insecure environments, is required.
        • Excellent listening, interpersonal, communication and networking skills; and the ability to work with diversified populations.
        • Excellent writing skills and familiarization with AP Style.
        • Skilled at delivering and facilitating training and capacity building interventions, e.g. coaching, mentorship.
        • Analytical, problem solver, with strong experience and understanding of project cycle management and coordination.
        • High level of self-awareness and self-development with the maturity to deal with constructive feedback
        • The willingness and ability to adapt leadership and management style as appropriate
        • Experience of conducting research, drafting and presenting reports to varied audiences is desirable.
        • Fluency in English and French is required.Success FactorsThe successful candidate is an opinionated, fast thinking, experienced leader. they has a thorough understanding of what it takes to deliver impactful programs in challenging environments. they is an excellent communicator who can inspire broad and diverse teams towards achieving a shared goal and drive a fast-paced and adaptive program. they is able to create a stimulating working environment encouraging innovation and accountability. they should have good communication and diplomatic skills. they should be able to facilitate complex team dynamics and achieve aims, have excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, good organizational skills and ability to work independently, with a strong commitment to advancing learning in international development through monitoring and evaluation. they should be active within the M&E and learning community and have strong relationship-building skills and commitment to working collaboratively.
          Living/Environmental ConditionsThis position is an unaccompanied position. Shared accommodation will be provided in Goma according to Mercy Corps DRC housing policy.
          
          Goma is a provincial capital of over 1.2 million inhabitants. Living in Goma is mostly comfortable, although water and electricity can be unstable. Outside Goma, travel can be dangerous and unpredictable due to armed forces and rebel activity.
          
          While conditions in the country are improving, and security is reasonably stable in Goma, there are still pockets of violence and insecurity. Mercy Corps' sub-offices experience variable levels of insecurity, with the situation closely monitored by UN peacekeepers. Air travel is necessary to get from one end of the country to the other. Mobile phones and cellular service are widely available. Internet is available in all Mercy Corps offices. Travel to field sites will be required where living conditions are clean and secure, but basic. There are several health services available with evacuation options for serious illnesses.
          
          There’s reasonable access to most consumer goods, although they can be expensive.
          
          Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.
          
          Fostering a diverse and open workplace is an important part of Mercy Corps’ vision. Mercy Corps is an Equal Opportunity Employer regardless of background. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment.
          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 on the basis of 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.
          Safeguarding & EthicsMercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.