Consultant – Advocacy and Research, Latin America and the Caribbean - Remote

Description

Background:

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 a1dversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future.

Mercy Corps’ presence in Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC) extends from Central America (Guatemala, with an expanding presence into Honduras and El Salvador), South America (Colombia and Venezuela) and the Caribbean (including Haiti and several Small Island Developing States, or SIDS in the Caribbean Basin). We have built a diverse portfolio of humanitarian, transitional, and development programming in these geographies, with activities including rural development, food security, water security, health, land conflict mediation, land formalization, violence prevention, and more – made possible with funding from a multitude of institutional and private donors. Through decades of programming and collaboration, Mercy Corps has built deep connections with local communities, partners, leaders, and policy stakeholders, and wishes to leverage its presence and impact to date to more effectively amplify the voices of our program participant communities and advocate for them in advocacy and influence spaces.

Position Description:

The consultant will have the responsibility of ensuring the strategic planification and implementation of quality and impactful advocacy for the LAC region. This means being a proactive driving force ensuring the follow-up and coordination with all staff involved in advocacy, gather relevant evidence to propose necessary content and product to serve as a basis of advocacy and engage externally where relevant/needed while ensuring risk analyses and evaluation, learning and adaptation.

Consultant Objectives:

Objective 1: Assess current level of capacities, engagement, challenges and added value for Mercy Corps LAC region and interested LAC country teams to engage in advocacy/influencing (local, national, regional and/or global level) on one or several of the following thematic areas (can change depending on agreed common priorities by country teams):

• Effective localization approaches based on our deep partnerships with local civil society.
• Humanitarian assistance: increase its effectiveness and scale-up of adapted cash approaches
• Migration

Objective 2: Gather Evidence and provide Research and Analysis to serve as a basis to build-up country and regional advocacy strategies on 1-2 identified common thematic priorities (Obj1). The research should include the following:

• Problem analysis of priority issues affecting each chosen theme at national, regional and global level. The problem analysis should include the analysis of root-causes and identification of specific decision-maker’s policy and/or practice change that could address those issues.
• A stakeholder mapping (decision-makers, influencers, allies) and power analysis for each identified priority problems and relevant policies and practices.

Objective 3: Based on Obj 1&2 research, develop short thematic and country-specific stock proposal analysis & language. These should synthetize the issues, policies, key stakeholders, policies and practice changes, and provide language for teams to pick from easily when integrating advocacy into proposals. Additionally, for interested country teams, the Consultant will identify institutional and private funding opportunities in the thematic focus areas allowing for a substantive integration of advocacy into proposals.

Objective 4: Present findings to the region and interested countries and provide advice & support to help them develop their own advocacy strategy based on assessment and research.

Consultant Activities:

ASSESS INTERNAL & EXTERNAL ADVOCACY CAPACITIES, INTEREST & OPPORTUNITIES

• Consult relevant country and regional leadership & teams to identify:

• Advocacy interest & ambitions at country and regional level: identify champion countries

• Identify common priority thematic & issues

• Map out existing & planned programming with potential links with advocacy

• Identify potential program-advocacy complementarities/linkages to be developed based on ongoing and planned programming.

• Identify Mercy Corps added value on which to base advocacy (program, expertise, presence, access, etc.).

• Map out existing in-country and regional resources which could be relevant for advocacy (including key staff with advocacy experience).

• Consult with external actors (other NGOs, partners, donors, Forum, UN, governments) to identify:

• Local and international actors doing advocacy on similar thematic priorities.

• Understand their advocacy goals, approaches and challenges they face.

• Potential external opportunities around which to do advocacy on identified thematic priorities.

• Institutional and private donors funding programs in thematic priorities.

LEAD RESEARCH FOR ADVOCACY (documentary & interviews)

• Problem analysis:

• For each prioritized thematic, identify and analyze the priority issues on which Mercy Corps would have an added value to lead advocacy at country and regional levels.

• Identify decision-making policies and/or practices that should be changed to address priority issues.

• Power analysis:

• Map out the relevant stakeholders to change prioritized policies and practices:

• Primary decision-makers with the power to change targeted policies or practices

• Influencers who can convince decision-makers to make the change

• Potential allies

• Local actors involved in this type of advocacy and their needs to strengthen their advocacy.

• Explain the decision-making processes to change targeted policies and practices.

• Describe key stakeholders positioning, power and motivations regarding proposed policy or practice change.

• Tactics:

• Based on power analysis, propose tactics & approaches that would be the most effective to convince key decision-makers.

• Assess the relevance of using media to leverage change for each specific case of identified policy and practice change.

• Risk Analysis:

• Identify and describe existing risk of potential advocacy initiatives on each thematic

• Make propositions on how to mitigate those risks effectively.

DEVELOP DONOR ANALYSIS AND PROPOSAL LANGUAGE INTEGRATING ADVOCACY

• Identify potential donors interested in funding such a project.
• Identify interested country teams and consult them as well as the regional office to develop a proposal integrating advocacy priorities.

PRESENT FINDINGS & SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT of ADVOCACY STRATEGIES

• To help country teams develop their advocacy strategy on priority thematic based on the research and the assessment.

Deliverables:

• Internal & external assessment report
• Advocacy research report
• Relevant material to prepare the assessment and research (methodology, question guide, list of interlocutors, transcripts, etc.)
• Proposal language and analysis supporting advocacy and influence activities (that can be adapted and plugged into new and existing proposals)based on the assessment and research.

Timeframe / Schedule:

Up to 130 days, beginning in February 2024

The Consultant will report to:

Deputy Regional Director for Programs, LAC Region

The Consultant will work closely with:

Regional Director, Country Directors, Global Policy & Advocacy team, LAC regional team

Application Process:

Please submit a cover letter and CV.

Required Experience & Skills:

• At least five years’ experience of leading advocacy at country, regional and/or global level with ideally at least one year’s experience leading advocacy in LAC.
• Proven experience leading research, ideally in the region and for one of the priority thematic areas.
• Previous experience developing advocacy, development or humanitarian project proposals.
• Previous experience of development or humanitarian project management is a plus,
• Previous experience working in at least one of the following fields: humanitarian responses, climate adaptation, migration, localization.
• Good understanding of the regional and in-country context of one or several of the following LAC countries: Colombia, Haiti, Venezuela, Guatemala, Caribbean SIDS
• Fluent English and Spanish a must, French working knowledge a plus.
• University degree in a relevant field: international relations, development, humanitarian, social sciences, geopolitics, economy, journalism & media, etc.
• Strong capacity to gather, organize, analyze complex evidence & dynamics and translate finding into clear and synthetic written products.
• Team player able to coordinate & mobilize teams and work in a multi-cultural environment.
• Strategic thinking & understanding of decision-making and power dynamics as well as of contextual sensitivities.
• Listening, observation, adaptation and learning skills.
• Good/clear oral expression, external engagement and networking skills is a plus.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to effectively handle multiple tasks, work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
• Proactive capacity to adapt and propose solutions to new challenges and move forward while ensuring to inform and get the right approbation of relevant people.
• Demonstrated proficiency with the MS Office software (i.e., Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

**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 OpportunityWe 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 team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our stakeholders and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects. 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.

Keywords

advocacyresearchanalysisstakeholder mappingpower analysisproposal developmenthumanitarianmigrationlocalizationstrategic planningnetworkingbilingual