Mercy Corps’ Technology for Development (T4D) team collaborates with Mercy Corps teams to unlock new possibilities and reach more people through the power of technology. We think beyond today’s context, exploring how we can use current and emerging technology to shrink the global digital divide and help people in vulnerable communities adapt to and overcome evolving challenges. Our mission and purpose is to drive sustainable program impact through responsible application of existing and emerging digital technologies. Ultimately, we drive Mercy Corps to scale the use of digital technologies to broaden our reach,and delivery positive impact more efficiently.
General Position Summary
The T4D Advisor position provides expert advice, guidance and support to country programs in the Mercy Corps Africa Region in the application of digital technologies and partnership development. The ultimate goal of this position is to support the country programs in implementing solutions developed through the Technology for Impact 5-year Cisco grant.
This is a ‘hands-on’ role that provides practical advice that supports solution / partner identification, business development, designs implementation plans, and leads general capacity building on commonly used digital tools. This role will also directly contribute to regional planning activities. The position is specifically focused on supporting the country programs in the Africa region and formally reports to the T4D team, with a strong dotted line to Africa regional leadership for prioritizing geographical locations and programs as well as day-to-day activities.
This position is funded through the Technology for Impact grant ending July 2022.
Essential Job Responsibilities
Strategy & Vision
- Contribute to the digital technology components of the regional and country level strategies.
- Contribute to the development of Mercy Corps’ digital technology strategy via the T4D team.
- Represent the Africa regional needs to the global T4D team.
- Provide input into the development of the Cisco initiatives based on known country program needs, constraints and contexts.
Program Management
- Provide hands-on in-the-field implementation support for digital technology related projects.
- Advise country program teams in the design, development and implementation of digital technology-based solutions.
- Maintain a strong connection to the T4D team in all aspects of leveraging the Cisco Technology for Impact grant and its outputs.
- Gathering requirements, designing, incorporating and implementing digital technology solutions in existing programs in the field.
- Track key advances in technology and consider relevance for advancing Mercy Corps use of technology in country programs.
- Work closely with New Initiatives to support the development of proposals with digital components.
- Work closely with TSU to incorporate digital technology into sectoral approaches.
- Work closely with PaQ and MEL to incorporate digital technology into data collection, monitoring and reporting.
- Promote and support regional digital capacity building in support of above work.
- Ensure that program implementation is responsive to communities and partners and consistent with Mercy Corps’ relevant program guidelines, principles, values, quality standards and strategic plan.
Finance & Compliance Management
- Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations as related to procurement and potential audits related to emergency programming.
- Draft and/or review scope of work to hire and manage any technical consultants, including review for technical efficacy and contract budget.
Influence & Representation
- Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met.
- Develop regional/local technology partnerships, bring external ICT4D resources and innovations into the organization.
- Help manage technical partner relationships for ICT4D products and services.
- Represent T4D and Mercy Corps at donor meetings for general partnership development, proposal development and presentation and status presentation of existing grants.
Organizational Learning
- As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.
- Leverage Mercy Corps’ position as a leader in humanitarian technology solutions to enable coordination across agencies in complex, fluid environments where effective data analysis can enable accelerated, coordinated, joint responses.
- Provide in-country and remote training and support for Mercy Corps team members, partners, and others.
Accountability to Beneficiaries
- Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically
to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Senior Director/CTO, Technology for Development with second reporting line to Africa Regional Technical Director
Works Directly With: Africa Country Directors and field teams, IT teams, partner organizations, Technical Support Units
Knowledge and Experience
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or relevant field
- 4+ years experience in technology and related business
- 4+ years working in international development or related field OR waived if advanced degree.
- Strong technology acumen and experienced implementing technology platforms and tools.
- Knowledge of user experience design methodologies would be advantageous but not essential.
- Experience in working effectively with multicultural and remote teams.
- Experience and comfort with international travel.
- Direct experience gathering requirements, designing, and implementing digital technology solutions in the field.
- English fluency required – French a plus.
- Internationally recognized qualification in project or program management or a commitment to obtain the qualification in the early months of work.
- Knowledge of Sphere standards and other training in humanitarian response preferred.
- Ability to facilitate meetings, effective presenter and open collaborator.
- A keen sense of humor.
Success Factors
To be successful in this role this person will have highly effective interpersonal skills, strong consultative skills, a high degree of comfort in discussing the application of digital technologies, often in complex scenarios. This person will develop trust easily with field teams, other Mercy Corps leadership and external partners. This person should be an excellent written and verbal communicator able to represent Mercy Corps at public events with confidence. This person should be extremely well organized and capable of tracking multiple competing priorities. The successful person will be skilled at reducing complexities to clear and understandable non-technical terms with a focus on practical next steps. They will have an open personality and team building awareness and skills. This person will be capable of maintaining clear status and organization of multiple complex items simultaneously. A sharp sense of humor is a must!
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Kenya or Uganda and requires up to 30% travel primarily to countries in the Mercy Corps Africa region.
Candidates must hold work authorization and/or citizenship for Uganda or Kenya at the time of application.
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.
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