Consultant – Lead Planner & Facilitator, HDP Workshop – Ethiopia At Mercy Corps

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 adversity and build stronger communities from within.

PRO-WASH & SCALE (Practices, Research, and Operations in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene & Strengthening Capacity in Agriculture, Livelihoods, and Environment) is a 4-year (2023-2027) Associate Award funded by the USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and implemented by Save the Children and Mercy Corps. The purpose of PRO-WASH & SCALE is to strengthen the design, implementation, and overall effectiveness of key sector-specific interventions across BHA’s food security portfolio in emergency, early recovery, risk reduction, and resilience (ER4) activities. The Award’s technical intervention areas include agriculture, livelihoods, markets, natural and water resources management, and WASH. Mercy Corps leads activities related to agriculture, livelihoods, natural resources management and markets through the Technical Resources and Quality (TRaQ) Unit’s Agriculture Systems team.

Purpose / Project Description:

As part of its mandate, PRO-WASH & SCALE advances knowledge sharing and practical application of humanitarian, development and peace (HDP) coherence within our technical areas of agriculture, livelihoods, markets, natural and water resources management, and WASH. Recent years have seen a growing number of resources and events devoted to HDP within the international development community. The IDEAL Award, for instance, recently published a collection of HDP-focused tools, case studies and webinar recordings, including a practice note on HDP coherence in Ethiopia. The note demonstrates how the Livelihoods for Resilience (L4R) development activity and the Biruh Tesfa humanitarian project effectively responded to the outbreak of conflict in northern Ethiopia through 1) strategically sequencing, layering, and integrating HDP assistance where appropriate; and 2) ensuring programming is with, by, and through local partners and systems. Wider dissemination and uptake of these learnings is needed, as well as stakeholder discussions on how HDP principles can be practically applied in varying contexts and within specific technical areas.

PRO-WASH & SCALE aims to host a 2-day workshop in Addis Ababa that will engage USAID and USAID-funded partners in Ethiopia working across the HDP nexus to: reflect on the findings from the IDEAL practice note and other relevant literature and events; discuss the practical application of HDP coherence within their operating contexts; identify the potential challenges/barriers to implementation and strategies for overcoming them; and to share additional case studies, tools and lessons learned. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role of market-based approaches in advancing HDP objectives within the technical sectors PRO WASH & SCALE focuses on: agriculture, natural and water resources management, livelihoods and WASH. A consultant is needed to conduct stakeholder consultations to develop and validate the workshop agenda, and to lead all aspects of the planning, facilitation and documentation of this event.

Consultant Objectives:

The consultant will lead all aspects of the agenda development and planning, facilitation and documentation of a 2-day HDP coherence workshop in Addis that accomplishes the following objectives:

• Establish and/or deepen peer-to-peer relationships and communications among emergency, development and peace practitioners in the country
• Raise practitioners’ understanding of HDP coherence, and their awareness of HDP resources and best practices
• Share practical examples, with a focus market-based approaches as applied to agriculture, natural and water resources management, livelihoods and/or WASH interventions (as determined in the consultation phase)
• Identify challenges and/or barriers to implementing these practices and strategies for overcoming them
• Develop a plan with concrete steps for the way forward (potentially including a joint workplan, future partner convenings, etc.) as determined in the consultation phase

Consultant Activities:

The Consultant will:

• Planning phase:
  • Create a project plan for workshop preparations, execution and follow-up
  • Identify and review relevant HDP-related resources, guidance materials and learning briefs, with a focus on those from USAID and USAID-funded programs, IDEAL and other relevant HDP stakeholders
  • Develop list of relevant stakeholders to consult (with PRO-WASH & SCALE inputs)
• Design and Prepare workshops and Sessions:
  • Conduct interviews to inform workshop objectives, agenda, next steps and event outputs
  • Draft, get feedback on and finalize workshop agenda
  • Finalize participant list, including local partners to engage in the event and post-event activities
    • Identify presenters and opportunities for peer-to-peer learning
  • Collaborate with presenters on presentation materials
  • Identify/develop and share pre-workshop reading
  • Liaise with Mercy Corps Ethiopia on workshop logistics
• Facilitate workshop
  • Hold and facilitate 2-day workshop in Addis Ababa
  • Document discussion points, recommendations, action plans, etc.
• Follow Up
  • Final product (potentially a summary report and/or slide deck with experiences/learnings and recommendations for way forward, as agreed with PRO-WASH & SCALE and informed in the consultation phase)
  • Circulate workshop evaluation and resources from the event to participants
  • Summarize results in PRO-WASH & SCALE debrief session

Consultant Deliverables:

• Project plan for this SOW
• Workshop agenda
• Slide decks for day 1 and day 2, including overview/introductory slides, facilitator guide/notes and participants’ presentation slides
• Facilitator guide/notes for 2-day in-person workshop
• Event evaluations and internal debrief
• Event report/summary document as agreed upon with PRO-WASH & SCALE team

Timeframe / Schedule:

The anticipated LOE for this assignment is up to 15 days (excluding travel, if required). Ideal start date is mid-October 2024. All deliverables must be approved by the Mercy Corps representative to be considered final.

The Consultant will report to:

Technical Director – Agriculture, NRM, Markets and Livelihoods, PRO-WASH & SCALE and ISSD-Africa

The Consultant will work closely with:

Global Market Systems Advisor, PRO-WASH & SCALE

Climate Resilient Agriculture/NRM Senior Advisor, PRO-WASH & SCALE

Operations Officer, PRO-WASH & SCALE

Other PRO-WASH & SCALE team members, as relevant

Required Experience & Skills:

• Extensive experience in facilitating multi-partner workshops in the humanitarian sector, ideally with both development and emergency program expertise
• Knowledge of humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) coherence in theory and practice
• Understanding of market-based programming and its application to various technical sectors
• Knowledge of the aid landscape in Ethiopia strongly preferred, including familiarity with development and emergency implementing partner network
• Demonstrated expertise in participatory methods, adult learning and knowledge sharing/management
• Comfort with an array of digital tools and basic formatting – slide decks, standard event reports
• Strong communication skills; written and oral fluency in English required

Candidates based in Ethiopia are preferred but we are open to global candidates. If required, PRO-WASH & SCALE will provide travel, accommodation, and per diem according to Mercy Corps policy to the selected consultant as needed.

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

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 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.