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 Senior Knowledge and Research Coordinator assumes responsibility for leading the knowledge generation, research, and evidence-building components of the Tabeaa project. This role involves conducting and managing research on climate resilience, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) while ensuring that findings are used to inform policy, advocacy, and resilience-building efforts at both the national and local levels. This role will ensure that knowledge is effectively shared with stakeholders and integrated into community-level resilience-building activities, with a strong focus on gender equality and social inclusion.
The coordinator will collaborate closely with project teams and external partners to ensure that research supports practical and actionable strategies for building climate resilience in targeted communities.
Essential Responsibilities
The specific duties and responsibilities of the Senior Knowledge and Research Coordinator include, but are not limited to the following:
RESEARCH AND EVIDENCE GENERATION
• Develop and lead research initiatives aligned with the project’s goals, focusing on local climate resilience, CCA, and DRR.
• Conduct assessments in targeted communities to understand vulnerabilities to climate change, flash floods, heatwaves, and water scarcity.
• Produce actionable research that informs resilience-building strategies and advocacy efforts at both the community and national levels.
• Capture, analyze, and communicate project impact at various levels using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
• Identify knowledge gaps and propose new research initiatives to strengthen local resilience-building and national policy frameworks.
• Collaborate with external partners to ensure high-quality research outputs that directly inform community-based climate resilience efforts.
• Support the development of evidence that informs the project’s advocacy and influencing work, ensuring that research is directly applicable to policy recommendations.
• Ensure research findings are used to inform resilience-building initiatives in targeted communities across Jordan, developing practical tools for local governments and actors.
• Translate research into community-friendly tools and guidelines to help integrate CCA and DRR strategies into local planning and governance.
• Work closely with local stakeholders to adapt research findings into actionable steps for increasing climate resilience in the project targeted areas.
• Document and share stories of impact from local communities, ensuring lessons from the field are captured and integrated into broader resilience-building efforts.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT, MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION
• Facilitate the development of a knowledge strategy along with a media and communications strategy that supports the project’s Theory of Change.
• Coordinate publication of key project outputs such as policy briefs, country briefs, and research reports, working closely with project team.
• Support platforms (e.g., websites, webinars, podcasts) for sharing and engaging with project knowledge at both national and local levels.
• Disseminate project knowledge products using diverse media (newsletters, blogs, webinars, podcasts) to reach a wider audience, including policy makers and community actors.
• Promote peer-to-peer knowledge exchange between community members, local government officials, and stakeholders to facilitate resilience-building.
• Identify impactful stories from the field and develop narratives that resonate with different stakeholders, ensuring the project's achievements are widely communicated.
MONITORING, EVALUATION, RESEARCH, AND LEARNING (MERL)
• Work with the MERL team to ensure that research activities are aligned with the project’s learning agenda, tracking progress and assessing impact.
• Develop a learning agenda for the project in coordination with the MERL team, focusing on capturing lessons from both research and field activities.
• Identify and document best practices and lessons from the field that directly support the project’s work and internal learning.
• Capture and disseminate learning from MERL processes to inform both practice and strategic decision-making within the project.
• Support actions for institutional memory to ensure knowledge products are accessible and impactful beyond the project’s lifespan.
• Ensure gender-sensitive analysis in all research activities, ensuring that findings and recommendations promote gender equality in local-level resilience-building.
POLICY INFLUENCE AND ADVOCACY SUPPORT
• Support the project team to translate research into policy recommendations that support national and local-level advocacy and resilience-building efforts.
• Collaborate with the Advocacy and Influencing Lead to ensure research products contribute to influencing strategies and support policy shifts in climate resilience.
• Engage with local and national stakeholders to share evidence-based findings that support changes in policy and funding allocations for climate resilience initiatives.
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
Knowledge and Research Officer, Senior MEL 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
Mercy Corps 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.
Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills
● Relevant degree (e.g. B.A. in Climate Change, Environmental Science, Knowledge Management, Communications, research or related fields.)
● At least 5 years relevant experience with designing, managing, and implementing research initiatives. Understanding of system change and past experience working with MERL frameworks to assess impact, capture lessons, and inform evidence-based decision-making will be an asset.
● Demonstrated knowledge of Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation
● Proven ability to capture, analyze, and communicate impact at various levels (local and national) using qualitative and quantitative research methods.
● Ability to summarize and persuasively communicate complex information in written and verbal form to different audiences, with experience producing external knowledge products.