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 Nawiri is an eight year USAID-Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) funded program implemented by a consortium of international and national partners led by Mercy Corps. The goal of the program is to reduce persistent acute malnutrition in the two counties of Turkana and Samburu in northern Kenya. Nawiri has just started its fifth year of implementation which included two and half years of operational research which informed the design of the programs. Nawiri is a multi-sectoral program that integrates resilient livelihoods, access to improved water, health and sanitation services, strengthening community health systems, conflict and natural resource management, strengthening community and government institutions and systems amongst others. General Position Summary The Strategic Learning Lead (SLL) will lead the program’s approach to collaborating, learning and adapting (CLA) and adaptive management. Working as part of the Program Performance and Learning (PPL) team, the SLL will collaborate with the program’s research, M&E communications and implementation teams to ensure learnings from program implementation are being used to inform adaptive management and to develop external facing products. S/he will be expected to be up to date with current trends and best practices in the sector and context. This position will play a key role in helping build an environment of evidence-based programming and adaptive management at all levels, including across the Kenya country portfolio to maximize uptake of the learnings. Essential Job Responsibilities STRATEGY & VISION
- The Strategic Learning Lead works closely with the PPL Director to build a culture of learning and adaptive management at every level within Nawiri, from the leadership through to partners and the implementation teams.
- The SLL will oversee the finalisation and operationalisation of the Evidence and Learning Agenda and is responsible for ensuring the deliverables are incorporated into annual workplans, successfully resourced and completed and the strategy is regularly updated.
- Participate in the Nawiri Management Team meetings, working closely with the M&E Lead to prepare and package evidence to lead discussions around Evidence and Learning priorities and in reviewing the program’s progress towards high level results. S/he should ensure close collaboration with the county teams to ensure that contextual challenges and realities are reflected through evidence collected.
- Provide thought leadership to how learning can be integrated throughout program activities and supporting a team culture which is evidence driven and values learning and adaptive management
- Identify and share creative, efficient, and effective ways to document and disseminate learnings and information, engage audiences, and facilitate collaboration.
- Promote Nawiri as a respected generator and consumer of research and other forms of evidence, as a program that implements evidence based programming, and producer of credible and actionable research on persistent acute malnutrition in northern Kenya EVIDENCE GENERATION
- Lead the implementation of high-quality learning and evidence briefs, case studies, white papers or other reports, aligned with the Evidence and Learning Agenda priorities, that showcase key insights from the program’s research and learning initiatives, as well as recommendations for the program, mission, agency and/or donors and other implementing partners.
- Identify opportunities and oversee/conduct mixed methods learning efforts (e.g. qualitative inquiry or research) that complement existing data, to answer the Evidence and Learning Agenda priorities, facilitating sensemaking workshops on the findings.
- Manage and coordinate the work of external researchers and consultants to execute and communicate studies in alignment with the Evidence and Learning Agenda