Senior Social and Behavior Change Specialist - USAID-funded Pioneers-Raedat Activity

Position is contingent on funding.

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 worked in Palestine since 1986 and currently operates across Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Mercy Corps works to empower Palestinians to meet their basic needs and overcome the effects of the humanitarian crises, as well as contribute to improving economic opportunities in the long term to become more self-sufficient and civically engaged, to live with greater dignity and create a brighter future. We believe women and youth are vital stakeholders in this vision and we prioritize programming that empowers and enables them to be leaders in their communities. The Palestine program currently has a total budget of USD $45 million, representing 10 active grants funded by USAID, BHA, ECHO, Global Affairs Canada, SIDA, and others. The country portfolio focuses on humanitarian response with a view to aligning with the nexus by integrating sustainable development and durable solutions approaches, as well as longer term development programs focusing on Palestinian youth to ensure lasting impact.

Mercy Corps is seeking a Senior Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Specialist to lead design and support social and behavior change communications approaches and execution for the five-year USAID-funded Pioneers-Raedat Activity. The proposed program will contribute to women’s empowerment in the West Bank and Gaza by increasing women's access to leadership opportunities and enhancing the enabling environment to be more receptive for women's participation in civic, political, and economic decision making. This will be achieved through 1) enhancing women’s representation and leadership capabilities; 2) improving equitable and safe enabling environments for women; and 3) increasing the adoption of inclusive social norms and workplace rights.

**The Position
**The Senior Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Specialist will lead the conceptualization, development, and implementation of social and behavior change (SBC) interventions focused on changing perceptions and behaviors to support women’s empowerment and create transformational changes in gender relations at the family, community, and national levels and in different sectors of the economy, academia, social and political areas as well as in media. This will include working effectively and collaboratively with Activity team members to incorporate SBC approaches in work streams and objectives. They will identify evidence-based strategies to reduce social and behavioral factors that contribute to gender inequalities, including gender-based violence and norms that perpetuate inequalities. They will develop an SBC strategy and implementation plan and monitor the progress of activities. They will also support communications related to activities and learning.

Essential Job Responsibilities TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP

• Responsible for leading the design of formative research to better understand current norms and behaviors. This may include knowledge, attitudes and practices assessments, barrier analyses, social media scans, and other studies.
• Lead SBC strategy development, including community engagement, social mobilization, and communications campaigns.
• Develop a communications and advocacy strategy to promote equitable social norms and address harmful norms that contribute to challenges faced by women leaders and decision makers.
• Provide technical guidance and coordination for participatory design processes and implementation.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

• Develop evidence-based and contextually appropriate SBC strategies and interventions that promote gender equality and the advancement of women’s leadership and draw on proven approaches and results of studies, baseline data and formative research.
• Develop an implementation plan for the overall SBC and communications and advocacy strategy and work with the Activity team and partners to ensure that a focus on changing attitudes and behaviors, including those in virtual environments, is integrated into all activities.
• Advise on technical and operational issues related to SBC approaches and interventions. This includes adaptation, field testing, and use of approaches and tools.
• Ensure that SBC communication and advocacy strategies are tailored to diverse audiences and incorporate adolescent and adult learning methodologies.

MONITORING, EVALUATION, LEARNING, AND REPORTING

• Support the development of effective SBC M&E indicators and evaluation designs.
• Document SBC intervention and community mobilization approaches, successes, and challenges to support programmatic and sector-wide learning. This will include the continual re-evaluation of program activities and information, with resulting activity adjustments in keeping with new insights.
• Lead SBC learning activities and document learning; prepare reports, presentations, short articles for publication to disseminate learning. Ensure timely and quality completion of all relevant SBCC program deliverables and reporting.
• Make recommendations based on assessment findings and regular monitoring to inform program strategies to better meet the needs of the program participants.

PARTNERSHIP AND CAPACITY STRENGTHENING

• Develop capacity strengthening plans and strategies for staff and partners staff to advance knowledge and skills in SBC.
• Provide training, mentoring and technical guidance for the implementation of the SBC communications and advocacy strategy.
• Collaborate with staff and partners to identify opportunities for enhancing SBC strategies and their implementation.

COORDINATION, INFLUENCE, AND REPRESENTATION

• Develop relationships and linkages with organizations implementing other donor-funded programs focused on SBC in Palestine.
• Collect and share learnings and best practices from this program both internally and externally.
• Identify, build, and manage collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, donors, and other stakeholders.
• Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met.

**
Supervisory Responsibility**

Expected to supervise direct reports. The number of direct and indirect reports is to be determined.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Pioneers- Raedat Activity Chief of Party

Works Directly With: Activity Team, Program Managers, Program Performance and Quolity Unit, Partner Organizations, HQ Regional Program Teams, HQ and Regional Technical Support Unit.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

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

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, communications, media, marketing, journalism, public relations or a related discipline. Master’s degree preferred.
• A minimum of five (5) years of relevant experience managing and implementing development activities relevant to SBC and strategic communications.
• Demonstrated understanding of and experience applying a range of SBC approaches that address change in social norms, structures, and individual behaviors, especially those related to gender dynamics and women’s empowerment.
• Experience in implementing advocacy campaigns and utilizing media/technology to achieve transformative change.
• Demonstrated strong technical knowledge in gender equality and female empowerment.
• Prior experience working in the region, especially in West Bank, Gaza, or similar cultural contexts is preferred.
• Strong written and oral presentation skills in English; Fluency in Arabic is preferred.
• Understanding and knowledge of USAID regulations and program administration, management, and reporting procedures and systems is preferred.
• Palestinians and women, people with disabilities, and those from marginalized groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

**Success Factors

**The successful candidate will have a demonstrated ability to lead and communicate effectively with team members and other stakeholders, follow procedures, and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving. This position requires an ability to think creatively about changing norms that lead to greater opportunities for women’s engagement and leadership at household, community and institutional levels. They will have a proven ability to learn quickly, multi-task, prioritize, take initiative, and be accountable for results, understand the larger picture while remaining focused on the details, problem solving, work within a complex and sensitive setting and to follow laws and security protocols. The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments, and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations. The successful candidate will also see the program as part of wider Mercy Corps Palestine and Mercy Corps global programs, and be excited to engage at a country office and organizational level.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions The Senior SBC Specialist position is based in Jerusalem or Ramallah, West Bank in agreement with CoP and Country Director. This is an accompanied position. This position requires travel to the field sites in Mercy Corps Palestine’s operational areas up to 25% of the time, as security allows, including travel to some locations that may be insecure or austere. Frequent travel to project sites in the Gaza Strip will be required. When traveling around the country, strict adherence to Mercy Corps security policies and procedures will be required as well as respect for local cultural norms and traditions. Candidates must be able to work in an environment with energy, transportation, and communication challenges.

Ongoing 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 and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme**.** 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 eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.