Title: Strategic Communication for Learning Manager

Location: Mogadishu, Somalia

Position Status Full-time,  Regular

Salary Level: 1D

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible.
In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions
into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.
Now, and for the future.

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps has been operating in Somalia since 2005. With a staff of around 100 people and programs operating throughout the country, Mercy Corps’ overall country goal is building a peaceful and prosperous Somalia where all people feel secure, are economically empowered, and are meaningfully engaged. Mercy Corps’ current portfolio in Somalia focuses on humanitarian response and resilience; inclusive economic growth; enhancing trust and accountability between communities and their government; and improving youth livelihood and education opportunities. All Mercy Corps interventions in Somalia are implemented in a conflict and gender sensitive manner.

Mercy Corps is seeking a Strategic Communication for Learning Manager in the five-year USAID-funded Somalia Resilience Population Measurement (RPM) Activity.

RPM aims to develop and lead a resilience measurement system on the collective resilience outcomes at a population level and build the capacity of participating stakeholders to estimate individual contributions to collective resilience outcomes. The program will establish a common measurement and analytics process among diverse actors in Somalia to link single-program-focused resilience capacity measurement methodologies previously piloted in Somalia and advance analytics to link diverse stakeholder-level contributions to collective, population-level resilience outcomes. The goal of RPM is to inform and improve stakeholder activities that contribute to resilience capacities that matter most for populations in the target zone. This will be achieved through two objectives: 1) Participating stakeholders have the ability to estimate individual contributions to collective resilience capacities, and 2) Population level change in resilience is assessed through an innovative mixed methods measurement system.

General Position Summary

The Strategic Communication for Learning Manager role is a senior technical position responsible for leading and supporting implementation of work to help participating stakeholders to estimate their individual contributions to collective resilience capacities. More specifically, the Strategic Communication for Learning Manager will:

• design and implement an overarching strategic communication for learning approach
• oversee the documentation, dissemination and knowledge management of key learnings generated by the Activity
• support implementation of stakeholders’ resilience learning journeys, resilience results chains, interactive maps and approaches for estimating individual stakeholder Activities’ contributions to collective resilience capacities through the provision of easy-to-understand learning products, stories and communication interventions
• work closely with the Research Director to facilitate reflection on collective resilience capacities using Activity and population-level data and support other related activities to document and evidence population level change in resilience is assessed through innovative mixed method measurement systems.

Essential Job ResponsibilitiesStrategy and Technical Management

• Design and implement an overarching strategic communication for learning approach
• Lead the production of specific targeted learning products to enhance the understanding and application of resilience measurement analytics products among target stakeholders, including accessible learning briefs, tailored and digestible analysis infographics, and resilience stories
• Work directly with implementing organizations to contextualize analysis products to their target populations through developing human-interest stories of the “people behind the data.”
• Designing guidance documentation for the development of compelling resilience stories.
• Contribute to setting the strategic vision and detailed implementation plan for the RPM Activity, with an emphasis on user-centered approaches for engaging with and building buy-in among participating stakeholders on resilience measurement and learning.
• Support communications with the USAID Mission regarding Activity implementation, knowledge management, and information dissemination
• Provide quality assurance related to informational content and product development including PPTs, fact sheets, case studies, success stories, brochures, profiles, and the preparation of talking points
• Coordinate, oversee and ensure quality of short-term technical assistance

Program and Team Management

• Provide support to delivery of Objective 1 activities especially scope, on time and on budget and meet Mercy Corps quality and program management standards and are in compliance with donor policies.
• Collaborate with technical leads across the program and build processes for regular feedback loops in order to ensure integrated program delivery and adaptive management
• Establish and oversee a stakeholder management organizational system to maintain clear communication and ensure tracking and knowledge management of work with participating stakeholders.
• Manage the Applied Learning Team Members (including the Learning and Storytelling Officer, Community Youth Reporters, Journalists and other personnel including consultants procured under the Applied Learning Team activities)
• Recruit and oversee journalists and youth reporters as and when needed
• Provide day-to-day management of design and media Short Term Technical Assignments
• Identify and support capacity building needs of Applied Team Members
• Ensure all interventions under Objective 1 adhere to Mercy Corps’ Gender Policy, Do No Harm principles, and beneficiary accountability standards.
• Foster and demonstrate a workplace inclusive of creating opportunity, serving others, building trust, innovation and exceeding expectations

Influence & Representation

• Build and manage collaborative partnerships with donors, local authorities, implementing organizations and other stakeholders.
• Present research and learning to external stakeholders and the program team in a way that influences decision-makers and promotes adaptations from learning.

Security

• Work closely with the country team’s security focal point to develop and maintain systems that promote the safety and security of all team members.
• Ensure that activities are designed and implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security.

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 PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS

• 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

Learning and Storytelling Officer, Community Youth Reporters, Journalists  and communication and learning Short Term Technical Assignments.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Deputy Chief of Party, Resilience Portfolio Measurement Activity

Works Directly With: RPM Director of Research, Resilience MEL manager and other members of the RPM Applied Learning team as well as Short-Term Technical Assistants, Somalia MEL, and Mercy Corps HQ research and technical support team members.