This announcement is a call for qualified applicants, and the position is contingent upon final confirmation of project 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 a long-term impact.
The Program / Department / Team (Program / Department Summary)
Jordan grapples with escalating climate-related disasters, posing a critical challenge to its humanitarian efforts, economic stability, and environmental integrity. Despite its position as one of the world's most water-scarce nations, Jordan is witnessing a distressing surge in flash floods. Factors such as degraded vegetation, haphazard urbanization, and the relentless impact of climate change worsen these floods, devastating local communities and the eco-tourism sector. Moreover, Jordan suffers from devastating heat waves due to climate change, leading to desertification, diminished water supplies, and exacerbated water scarcity.
Since 2021, Mercy Corps Jordan has been working to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities against the impacts of climate change. The Tabeaa (طبيعة): Strengthening Climate Resilience in Jordanian Communities project, planned to start in 2025, builds on this commitment, aligning with Mercy Corps’ vision of fostering resilient communities capable of thriving amid climate challenges.
The project’s approach is multi-faceted, focusing on three key areas: building the adaptive capacity of Jordanian communities, ensuring effective localization and enforcement of national climate policies, and increasing investments in climate resilience initiatives. By integrating these elements, the Tabeaa project seeks to create a sustainable, inclusive response to climate change, in line with Mercy Corps’ mission to strengthen resilience among vulnerable communities in Jordan.
The Tabeaa project will operate both at the national and local community levels. Nationally, it will engage key stakeholders to drive systemic change by localizing and enforcing Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) strategies. At the community level, the project will target five communities across different governorates, selected for their high vulnerability to flash floods, heatwaves, and water scarcity, which are exacerbated by climate change and impede their ability to thrive.
The Position (General Position Summary)
The Advocacy and Influencing Specialist assumes responsibility to lead overall design, management, implementation, and coordination for Tabeaa Project’s policy and advocacy work in climate adaptation and flood/heatwaves resilience in Jordan. This role provides strategic leadership to ensure the project achieves its advocacy and influencing goals, with key responsibilities as follows:
·Lead the development and execution of policy, research, and influencing initiatives in Jordan.
·Provide strategic direction and quality advice on policy analysis and evidence-based research.
·Ensure effective implementation of the project advocacy action plan and influencing strategy.
·Build and strengthen partnerships with government agencies, peer organizations, development partners, civil society, the private sector, think tanks, research institutes, and media at national and local levels.
This role primary focus will be on influencing in a country level (national and local) but will also likely engage with Mercy Corps on global advocacy efforts related to CCA and DRR.
Essential Responsibilities
The specific duties and responsibilities of the Advocacy and Influencing Specialist include, but are not limited to the following:
STRATEGY AND VISION
·Develop and implement an influencing s4trategy to guide the project efforts.
·Identify influencing opportunities at national and local levels for scaling project activities.
·Provide policy landscape insights and project updates to support business development for DRR and CCA initiatives.
·Support capacity building for partners and communities on advocacy and influencing.
·Lead stakeholder mapping and management.
·Produce persuasive advocacy content, such as briefing notes, fact sheets, research papers, and talking points
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
·Develop advocacy tools and train project team and communities on their use.
·Design capacity-building exercises on social mobilization, influencing, and communication.
·Support the production of high-quality donor reports.
·Plan and execute events and campaigns for advocacy both at national and local levels.
·Collaborate with the Project Manager on budget management and donor reporting.
·Ensure project expenditures align with the budget and suggest adjustments as needed.
·Foster a positive team culture that encourages creativity, accountability, and high performance.
·Ensure compliance with Mercy Corps and donor regulations.
INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION
·Oversee stakeholder mapping and analysis of climate and flood resilience interventions at national and local levels.
·Identify, document, and communicate the changes in context and policy at national and local level to develop and or modify project’s influencing strategies if necessary.
·Develop appropriate influencing materials for effective implementation of influencing strategies.
·Produce high quality policy analysis, briefing papers, and other advocacy content such as talking points, key messages and media releases that effectively communicate and promote the project objectives.
·Regular and on-going coordination with key government, non-governmental, donor, private sector and stakeholders related to the climate and flood resilience agenda at national and local level.
· Establish and maintain strategic relationships with local and international actors to inform and improve advocacy efforts.
· Represent the project as needed with relevant stakeholders at the discretion of the Project Manager and/or Director.
MONITORING,EVALUATION, RESEARCH, AND LEARNING (MERL)
·Coordinate and undertake research to build an evidence base for advocacy goals.
·Identify and share best practices and lessons learned related to the project’s goals.
·Contribute to Mercy Corps’ global reports and policy positions.
·Work closely with MEL team to monitor and report on advocacy progress, capturing case studies and advocacy wins.
·Work closely with the project team on knowledge generation and sharing through research, studies, and collaboration with partners and networks.
·Ensure gendered analysis is incorporated into policy development and advocacy.
·Work closely with the MEL team to develop and implement aMEL strategy for influencing, aligned with the overall project MEL framework.
·Oversee media engagement and ensure accurate M&E data is reflected in project reports.
Others:
· Fulfill Mercy Corps Program Management Minimum Standards based on the organization-wide guide.
· Complete tasks as assigned in a timely, professional manner
·Participate in internal office coordination and planning meetings and workshops;
·Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission.
·Other duties as assigned by the direct Supervisor and/or the Program Director.
SECURITY
·Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
·Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.
SAFEGAURDING RESPONSIBILITIES
·Actively learns about safeguarding and integrates it into their work, including safeguarding risks and mitigations related to their area of work
·Practices the values of Mercy Corps including respecting the dignity and well-being of participants and fellow team members
·Encourages openness and communication in their team; encourages team members to submit reports if they
have any concerns using reporting mechanisms e.g., Integrity Hotline and other options
Supervisory Responsibility
Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Project Manager
Works Directly With: Tabeaa project team, Targeted communities, Project partners/stakeholders, Mercy Corps support departments (Engineering department, PAQ, Finance, Admin and Procurement teams) at country, regional, and global levels.
Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders
MercyCorps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
MinimumQualification & Transferable Skills
●Relevant degree (e.g. B.A. or Masters in Environmental Science, Environment Management, DRR, Climate Science, international development, policy influencing etc.)