Mercy Corps
Job Description
VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
Position Title: Research Officer
Duty Station: Baidao, Somalia
Position Category: Full-time
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.
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 Research Officer 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. The mixed methods measurement systems will consist of a: 1). Population-level Panel Surveys, 2). Recurrent Monitoring Surveys (RMS), and 3). Humanitarian Assistance Averted Analysis.
Position Summary
The Research Officer is primarily responsible for implementing the research activities that contribute to Objective 2. Essentially, this will entail planning, implementation and coordination tasks relating to the project’s quantitative and qualitative components. In addition, the Research Officer will work closely with the Resilience MEL Manager and Research Coordinator to support other related activities under Objective 1 and 2 to increase participating stakeholders’ capacities in resilience measurement.
Essential Responsibilities
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
- Work closely with recruited STTA qualitative enumerators to implement interviews and support research preparation in between survey rounds, including monitoring for RMS triggers
- Support resilience storytelling production
- Support qualitative data collection and analysis to support mixed-methods research approach
- Support recruitment a pool of enumerators to conduct phone surveys for RMS
- Oversee and follow-up data collections plans with recruited enumerators
- Support planning, management, and implementation of logistics for the population-level panel survey and RMS data collection, including procurement, planning and managing fieldwork and coordinating with Research Coordinator in successful data collection
- Facilitate community-level engagements, mobilization, monitoring and research supervisions
- Participated in the translation, piloting/testing, and revision of survey tools
- Ensuring quality control procedures are adhered to by the enumerators in the field
- Provide logistical support for the qualitative research components of the project, including but not limited to the procurement
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
- Facilitate trainings, guide enumerators and field activities to support data collection, field research and collaborate with MEL team for quality assurance mechanisms
- Support the Research Coordinator to extract information and lessons learned from evaluation products and facilitate and/or prepare briefs, information products or hold sessions that promote the project outcomes and learnings
- Support the project team in reviewing, capturing learnings, best practices, and supporting the filing system and data registration undertaken with a view to integration of various templates and methods
RESILIENCE MEASUREMENT AND LEARNING
- Review and provide feedback on any data decision support tools, analytical products and any other products developed by the Human-Centered Design firm
- Participate in facilitated learning events and bilateral sessions to draw insights on and estimate individual contribution to collective resilience outcomes
- Support activities related to building participating stakeholder’s data literacy skills important for interpreting and acting on activity and population-level data
- Any other ass assigned by the supervisor, perform other tasks, which are consistent with the expertise needed in this role
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.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY: N/A
REPORTS DIRECTLY TO: Research Coordinator
WORKS DIRECTLY WITH: Research Director, RMEL Specialist/Manager, Deputy chief Party, Chief of Party, Strategic Communications Learning 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.
Skills and Qualifications
- BA/S degree in development studies, research methods, statistics, economics, social sciences, public policy, monitoring and evaluation, or other relevant field required
- Minimum 2 years s’ experience in research works especially quantitative surveys for international development/humanitarian programs; experience in resilience-focused programs preferred
- Experience with quantitative methodologies and techniques, including experience in planning and managing surveys (in person and phone),
- Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and ability to use intermediate Excel functions effectively
- Strong written and verbal English communication and interpersonal skills to engage a variety of audiences
- Strong Somali language skills are required
- Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with donor-funded projects stakeholders including government, local organizations, survey firms, partners, etc.
- Experience working in Somalia is required
Organizational 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 & Ethics
Mercy 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. 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 e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis
How to apply
All interested candidates both internally and externally are encouraged to apply for this position and submit their applications (cover letter, updated CV and contacts of 3 professional referees) through https://www.mercycorps.org/careers/national only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
“Female candidates are strongly preferred to apply, and the candidate must have a good understanding and experience for the vacant position.’’
Deadline for Applications: 13th of November 2022.
To apply for this job please visit recruiting2.ultipro.com.