Consultant - Resilience Technical Advisor - Remote & Kenya

Background:

Mercy Corps works in places characterized by fragility and crisis, where the impacts of shocks and stresses threaten people's ability to thrive. Through shared analysis, learning, and action, our resilience approach helps communities identify and address underlying vulnerabilities; minimize exposure to risks; and strengthen resilience capacities to achieve inclusive change.

Resilience thinking deepens our collective understanding of complex and dynamic systems. To navigate these systems, we use adaptive management and our five resilience questions. The Resilience Technical Support Unit partners closely with other teams, including the Food Security and Environment Technical Support Units and Research & Learning.

Purpose / Project Description:

The Resilience TSU has two vacant roles. One is focused on Resilience Curricula and Adult Learning. Qualified consultant support is needed to help advance project streams related to resilience and inclusion curricula and resilience standard practices in the program cycle curricula. The other role is focused on Resilience Storytelling and Communications. A consultant steeped in resilience storytelling and communication frameworks and approaches is needed to advance work related to this role while it is vacant. Then, when the new advisor starts later in Quarter 3, the consultant is needed to provide technical orientation and on-the-job support to help with the onboarding of this new role. This will include some lighter support to assist the establishment of refreshed management approaches for the Resilience Community of Practice which will be managed in part by the new role.

Consultant Activities:

The Consultant will:

Resilience Storytelling and Communication Related Responsibilities

• Backstop Resilience Storytelling and Communication role backtopping responsibilities
  • Manage Resilience Community of Practice activities including hosting and following up on planning meetings, scheduling and organizing events, and drafting communications to RCoP members
  • Organize all RCoP materials and develop storage/knowledge management system
  • Synthesize best practices on the RCoP into guidance / standard procedures
• Provide Technical Onboarding and Orientation on Resilience Storytelling and Communication methods:
  • Develop materials for and lead technical orientations on resilience storytelling methods with new Senior Advisor team member.
    • This should include at minimum a customized onboarding plan with links to key resources and an orientation on the existing, most relevant technical resource materials (e.g. review of resilience storytelling frameworks and guidance resources piloted in Mercy Corps to date, analysis of communication products (strategies, plans, training resources, written outputs), and coaching on approaches for successful engagements with program teams on storytelling.
  • Co-create a learning / development plan with the Advisor with recommendations for addressing knowledge priorities.
  • Provide technical backstopping for the Advisor during one program engagement. This program engagement is projected to entail on the ground program collaboration and field work in Nairobi and/or northern Kenya for approximately 4-6 days.
    • This entails providing technical reviews and advising on resilience storytelling and communications facilitation tools, agendas, and templates, and assisting with some writing assignments as deemed necessary. Advise the new Advisor on knowledge management systems for resilience storytelling technical resources.
• Provide Technical Onboarding and Orientation on the Resilience Community of Practice (RCoP):
  • Develop agendas for and support onboarding and orientation of new team members on RCoP management.
  • Share existing management systems and conceptual approach to the RCoP
  • Provide light backstopping and coaching to Advisor on one RCoP engagement.

Resilience Curriculum and Adult Learning Related Responsibilities

• Backstop Resilience Curriculum and Adult Learning role backstopping responsibilities
  • Lead activities to plan and implement working sessions with TSU teams to advance resilience and inclusion linkages. Design and prepare a working session for the resilience and inclusion teams to unpack questions related to core approaches and identify shared technical interests. Document next steps and assist in organizing follow up session.
  • Resilience Theory to Practice curriculum
    • Compile a hyperlinked tool index, with short narrative descriptions, of technical resources from the Resilience Fellowship model
    • Draft a no more than 5 page guidance document / standard procedures approach describing curriculum approach to date in Resilience TSU, current technical limitations, and comparison with other curricula and recommendations
    • Advise Resilience TSU on recommended approach to capture learning from program engagements for curriculum development on resilience standard practices around workplanning. Suggest and develop templates for capture, participate in planning meetings, and identify opportunities to co-create new technical guidance.
    • Design and lead one to two sessions with the RCoP on resilience approach in activity design and practical lessons on resilience practices in workplanning.

Consultant Deliverables:

The Consultant will:

RESILIENCE STORYTELLING ROLE BACKSTOPPING and ONBOARDING – 20 DAYS

• Manage RCoP: planning meetings, schedule/organizing of events in Q3, communications to members
• RCoP material organization into storage / KM system and synthesize best practices
• Synthesize created resources in narrative and include guidance or SOP to go with documents
• Customized onboarding plan with links to key resources and an orientation on the existing, most relevant technical resource materials (e.g. review of resilience storytelling frameworks, guidance, resources piloted in Mercy Corps to date, analysis of communication products–strategies, plans, training resources, written outputs)
• Coaching on approaches for successful engagements with program teams on storytelling
• Develop materials for technical orientations on resilience storytelling methods with new Senior Advisor team member
• Lead technical orientation
• Co-create a learning / development plan with the Advisor with recommendations for addressing knowledge priorities.
• Advise the new Advisor on knowledge management systems for resilience storytelling technical resources
• Develop agendas for and meet several times with new Advisor to discuss management systems, approach to RCoP
• Provide backstopping and coaching to Advisor on on RCoP engagement
• Technical backstopping during one program engagement:
  • Review work plan for field visit and support visit prep
  • Review program/technical documents and participate in team reviews/follow up
  • Review/co-develop the agenda and materials for program team workshop to distill the key narrative
  • Co-develop narrative outlines
  • Review tools for data collection
  • Program site visit
  • Support for documentation and writing of stories/narrative

RESILIENCE CURRICULUM & ADULT LEARNING BACKSTOPPING – 12 DAYS

• Resilience and Inclusion:
  • Synthesize last meeting and send out review
  • Prep future meetings plans
  • Meeting facilitation and follow up
• Theory to Practice
  • Hyperlinked tool index for resilience curriculum material
  • 5 page guidance document / standard procedures approach describing curriculum approach to date in Resilience TSU, current technical limitations, and comparison with other curricula and recommendations
  • Recommended approach to capture learning from program engagements for curriculum development on resilience standard practices around workplanning.
  • As requested, develop templates for capture, participate in planning meetings, and identify opportunities to co-create new technical guidance.
  • One to two sessions with the RCoP on resilience approach in activity design and practical lessons on resilience practices in workplanning.

Timeframe / Schedule:

This consultancy contract is for 32 days and runs from January 30, 2023 until April 15, 2023.

The Consultant will report to:

Global Resilience Director

The Consultant will work closely with:

Resilience Storytelling Advisor; Resilience Curricula Advisor, and other teams from program and TSU

Required Experience & Skills:

• At least 7 years of experience in resilience technical work including in international development contexts
• At least 3 years work experience in adult learning methods in curriculum development
• MA or MS preferred in a relevant field
• Demonstrated professional proficiency in storytelling development and facilitation methods applied in international development contexts
• Strongly preferred familiarity with Mercy Corps Resilience Theory to Practice workstream

**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.