Strategic Learning Lead – Kenya 423 views0 applications


This position is contingent on funding.

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.

We help people overcome poverty and conflict. Working with communities, we leverage local logic to help people transform their lives. To grow more food, earn higher incomes and ultimately advocate for their needs. We see global challenges as an invitation to pioneer innovative, sustainable solutions. During our 34-year history, our work has improved more than 170 million lives in more than 115 countries around the world.

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps anticipates applying for funding for a five-year USAID Food for Peace Activity to support agriculturalists, agro-pastoralists, and pastoral households living in Northern Kenya. The program will be an integrated food security and activity with a goal of sustainably reducing levels of acute malnutrition in the target counties in Kenya.

General Position Summary

The Strategic Learning Lead will lead the program’s approach to collaborating, learning and adapting (CLA) and adaptive management. Working closely with the project’s research and M&E teams, the Strategic Learning Lead will play a critical role in translating formative and implementation research findings (Phase 1) into an evidence-based activity design for the Phase 2 Transition Plan and for Phase 2 implementation. S/he will ensure the activity includes active, intentional, and adaptive learning within and across its activities as well as ensure collaboration and learning across other projects in the implementation area. The strategic learning lead will improve peer-to-peer learning, knowledge sharing and application, activity-based capacity strengthening, evidence and data utilization, and CLA. This position will play a key role in helping build an environment of evidence-based programming and adaptive management at all levels.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Strategy & Vision

  • Work closely with M&E, research, and partner staff to develop comprehensive learning strategies and agenda during start-up, which are incorporated in annual workplans and regularly updated.
  • Work with CoP and senior management team to ensure adaptive program management and CLA principles are incorporated at start-up and throughout implementation
  • Participate in Senior Management Team to set strategic vision for the program, including how research will be integrated into the program design and implementation

Program Management

  • At start-up, develop a program-wide strategy and supportive systems/structures for adaptive management and CLA. During both the research and implementation phases, oversee the execution and adaptation of the CLA strategy.
  • Ensure pilots activities and other parts of program interventions are designed to incorporate research to answer questions around what strategies to replicate, scale, or discontinue
  • Support project staff and partners to implement, monitor and review pilot activities linked to the program’s research agenda and to develop a culture of reflection and learning
  • Lead staff and partners in regular reviews of program activities to reflect on programmatic learning based on implementation experience and monitoring data, to review and revise results chains and theories of change, and suggest programmatic changes
  • Promote and nurture a culture of reflection, critical thinking and learning within the project and among project staff and partners
  • Conduct frequent field visits to all project sites – spend up to 50% of time in the field.

Team Management

  • Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
  • Set a team culture valuing learning and adaptive management in support of an ongoing resilience approach in programming
  • Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews.

Influence & Representation

  • Write and actively disseminate CLA experiences/lessons in case studies.
  • Ensure close coordination and information sharing with consortium partners, sub-grantees, local government and other implementers, as well as with other Mercy Corps programs.
  • Actively disseminate research results both in country to relevant external actors as well as regionally/globally.
  • Represent the program and Mercy Corps with government, donors, and other implementing partners as directed by the Chief of Party.

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

DFSA CLA Team

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Monitoring and Evaluation Lead

Works Directly With: DFSA team

Knowledge and Experience

  • A bachelor’s degree and a minimum of five years relevant experience or an advanced degree (PhD or master’s) plus a minimum of three years relevant work experience is required.
  • Technical expertise and field experience in applying CLA and adaptive management principles in international development programming
  • History of working effectively and respectfully with host government, NGOs, contractors and other partners
  • Strong understanding of M&E and applied research
  • Experience managing or collaborating with research partners
  • Demonstrated capabilities of translating knowledge and evidence from research and M&E into programmatic and policy decisions
  • Excellent written communications, including the ability to tailor communications to program and policy audiences at multiple levels
  • Fluent English required, Swahili preferred.

SUCCESS FACTORS:

  • Innovative, decisive and inclusive leadership
  • Propensity towards creative and insightful programming
  • Excellent communication and team-building skills
  • Proven experience managing and building capacity of diverse teams (expatriate and national)
  • Cultural knowledge, sensitivity and respect

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The Strategic Learning Lead is based in Nairobi with 50%+ travel to implementation areas. The location is accompanied and secure. Housing is individual accommodation with unlimited freedom of movement beyond the house/office. There are numerous International schools in Kenya. Staff have a relatively high degree of access to health and utility services (hospitals, clinics, electricity, water, etc). This position requires frequent travel by road and air to field offices in less secure environments, where basic amenities are lacking (no running water, and limited electricity without generators). This position is not eligible for hardship and/or R&R benefits.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside 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 Mercy Corps’ 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.

More Information

  • Job City Nairobi
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Since 1979, we have helped people grappling with the toughest hardships survive — and then thrive. That’s the heart of our approach: We help communities turn crisis into opportunity.

Throughout our history, Mercy Corps has demonstrated innovation, timeliness and the ability to adapt quickly to changing realities.

Alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities.

Our core values

  • We believe in the intrinsic value and dignity of human life.
  • We are awed by human resilience, and believe in the ability of all people to thrive, not just exist.
  • We believe that all people have the right to live in peaceful communities and participate fully in the decisions that affect their lives.
  • We value stewardship of the earth’s health, pledging to accountably and efficiently preserve and manage its resources.
  • We believe that it is our duty to be effective stewards of the financial resources entrusted to us.

Our philosophy

We believe secure, productive and just societies emerge when the private, public, and civil society sectors are able to interact with accountability, inclusive participation and mechanisms for peaceful change. This theory is illustrated in our Vision for Change ▸

To see how this is articulated for the current fiscal year in our Strategic Roadmap, please contact Anna Young.

Our accountability to stakeholders

  • As an organization and as individuals, we act ethically.
  • We treat all people with respect.
  • We are open and transparent about the work we do and how we do it.
  • Our stakeholders participate in the design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of our work.
  • We are effective stewards of the financial resources entrusted to us and the natural environment in which we live.
  • We commit to achieving demonstrable impact for our stakeholders, using their feedback to innovate, learn and improve.

Mercy Corps stakeholders are people or organizations affected by Mercy Corps’ decisions and actions.

Our primary stakeholders are the people and communities we serve.

Other stakeholders include: donors, partners, governments, Mercy Corps team members, and Mercy Corps board members.

Connect with us
0 USD Nairobi CF 3201 Abc road Full Time , 40 hours per week Mercy Corps

This position is contingent on funding.

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.

We help people overcome poverty and conflict. Working with communities, we leverage local logic to help people transform their lives. To grow more food, earn higher incomes and ultimately advocate for their needs. We see global challenges as an invitation to pioneer innovative, sustainable solutions. During our 34-year history, our work has improved more than 170 million lives in more than 115 countries around the world.

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps anticipates applying for funding for a five-year USAID Food for Peace Activity to support agriculturalists, agro-pastoralists, and pastoral households living in Northern Kenya. The program will be an integrated food security and activity with a goal of sustainably reducing levels of acute malnutrition in the target counties in Kenya.

General Position Summary

The Strategic Learning Lead will lead the program's approach to collaborating, learning and adapting (CLA) and adaptive management. Working closely with the project's research and M&E teams, the Strategic Learning Lead will play a critical role in translating formative and implementation research findings (Phase 1) into an evidence-based activity design for the Phase 2 Transition Plan and for Phase 2 implementation. S/he will ensure the activity includes active, intentional, and adaptive learning within and across its activities as well as ensure collaboration and learning across other projects in the implementation area. The strategic learning lead will improve peer-to-peer learning, knowledge sharing and application, activity-based capacity strengthening, evidence and data utilization, and CLA. This position will play a key role in helping build an environment of evidence-based programming and adaptive management at all levels.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Strategy & Vision

  • Work closely with M&E, research, and partner staff to develop comprehensive learning strategies and agenda during start-up, which are incorporated in annual workplans and regularly updated.
  • Work with CoP and senior management team to ensure adaptive program management and CLA principles are incorporated at start-up and throughout implementation
  • Participate in Senior Management Team to set strategic vision for the program, including how research will be integrated into the program design and implementation

Program Management

  • At start-up, develop a program-wide strategy and supportive systems/structures for adaptive management and CLA. During both the research and implementation phases, oversee the execution and adaptation of the CLA strategy.
  • Ensure pilots activities and other parts of program interventions are designed to incorporate research to answer questions around what strategies to replicate, scale, or discontinue
  • Support project staff and partners to implement, monitor and review pilot activities linked to the program's research agenda and to develop a culture of reflection and learning
  • Lead staff and partners in regular reviews of program activities to reflect on programmatic learning based on implementation experience and monitoring data, to review and revise results chains and theories of change, and suggest programmatic changes
  • Promote and nurture a culture of reflection, critical thinking and learning within the project and among project staff and partners
  • Conduct frequent field visits to all project sites – spend up to 50% of time in the field.

Team Management

  • Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
  • Set a team culture valuing learning and adaptive management in support of an ongoing resilience approach in programming
  • Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews.

Influence & Representation

  • Write and actively disseminate CLA experiences/lessons in case studies.
  • Ensure close coordination and information sharing with consortium partners, sub-grantees, local government and other implementers, as well as with other Mercy Corps programs.
  • Actively disseminate research results both in country to relevant external actors as well as regionally/globally.
  • Represent the program and Mercy Corps with government, donors, and other implementing partners as directed by the Chief of Party.

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, specificallyto 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

DFSA CLA Team

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Monitoring and Evaluation Lead

Works Directly With: DFSA team

Knowledge and Experience

  • A bachelor's degree and a minimum of five years relevant experience or an advanced degree (PhD or master's) plus a minimum of three years relevant work experience is required.
  • Technical expertise and field experience in applying CLA and adaptive management principles in international development programming
  • History of working effectively and respectfully with host government, NGOs, contractors and other partners
  • Strong understanding of M&E and applied research
  • Experience managing or collaborating with research partners
  • Demonstrated capabilities of translating knowledge and evidence from research and M&E into programmatic and policy decisions
  • Excellent written communications, including the ability to tailor communications to program and policy audiences at multiple levels
  • Fluent English required, Swahili preferred.

SUCCESS FACTORS:

  • Innovative, decisive and inclusive leadership
  • Propensity towards creative and insightful programming
  • Excellent communication and team-building skills
  • Proven experience managing and building capacity of diverse teams (expatriate and national)
  • Cultural knowledge, sensitivity and respect

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The Strategic Learning Lead is based in Nairobi with 50%+ travel to implementation areas. The location is accompanied and secure. Housing is individual accommodation with unlimited freedom of movement beyond the house/office. There are numerous International schools in Kenya. Staff have a relatively high degree of access to health and utility services (hospitals, clinics, electricity, water, etc). This position requires frequent travel by road and air to field offices in less secure environments, where basic amenities are lacking (no running water, and limited electricity without generators). This position is not eligible for hardship and/or R&R benefits.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside 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 Mercy Corps' 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.

2019-03-15

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