Background:

Mercy Corps has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since August 2007, with a staff of approximately 400 people working in Eastern DRC. Mercy Corps’ national office is in Goma with sub-field offices in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces. Mercy Corps’ key programming areas include a combination of longer-term development and immediate humanitarian response programs in order to: 1) Improve water service delivery and ensuring equitable access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services, in urban and rural areas; 2) Improve food security and nutrition; 3) Promote diversified livelihoods, economic recovery and development. Mercy Corps DRC’s humanitarian programs aim specifically to assist populations affected by the conflict and crisis in Eastern Congo with multi-purpose cash assistance and emergency WASH support to displaced and host populations. Mercy Corps is also currently responding to the unfolding Ebola epidemic in North Kivu and Ituri Provinces.

Purpose / Project Description:

The consultancy for the country strategy will support the development of the DRC country strategy. As part of this support, he/she will co-lead the development and facilitation of a country strategy toolkit into the final strategy validation workshop. He/she will ensure that the final product is a part of an iterative process, used in regular, annual participative updates incorporated into the design.

Consultant Activities:

The Consultant will:

• Review of the pre-existing strategy documents and the updating process undertaken to date to ensure good knowledge of the in-country ongoing process, including latest DRC strategy, minutes and outcomes of the various workshops organized, contextual analysis and so on.
• Define and refine strategy design workshop modules and tools for in-country final validation workshop
• Provide remote support to the DRC country team on how to prepare modules for the strategy design workshop
• Lead the buy-in process of the strategy development, ensuring ownership of all relevant stakeholders at the DRC level of the final product
• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed.
• Set direction by prioritizing and organizing actions & resources to achieve objectives and contribute to countrywide strategy development.
• Stay engaged in follow-up support to draft the finalized country strategy and update sections as needed with inputs from the strategy workshop, with support from the in-country strategy task force

Consultant Deliverables:

The Consultant will:

• Plan and facilitate an in-country workshop (two days, in French) to shape, inform and get all relevant stakeholders’ inputs for the finalization of the country strategy
• As part of this support, if time allows, an in-country strategy workshop methodology focused on addressing the root causes of conflict, as a primary channel to increase the resilience of Mercy Corps’ target populations to conflict and other underlying or compounding stressors will be held. Follow up support to the DRC team to finalize the country strategy will ensure this angle is incorporated. Where appropriate, the consultant will provide practical recommendations for ways to integrate humanitarian and development objectives to address the root causes and build resilience.
• Lead drafting of the finalized country strategy with the inputs from the country strategy workshop.
• Lead the final dissemination plan of the strategy document, in collaboration with the CD, the Program Quality (PaQ) Manager and DCD-P.

Timeframe / Schedule:

2-8 March (remote), 9-17 March (in country), 18-27 March (Remote)

• Workshop preparation / review of strategy draft: 7 days (remote)
• In-country workshop prep, facilitation, internal meetings: 7 days (in country)
• Development of workshop report, final strategy document review: 7-10 days (remote)
• Total duration for consultancy: 21-24 days

The Consultant will report to:

DCD-Programs

The Consultant will work closely with:

PaQ Manager, Country Strategy Task Force

Required Experience & Skills:

• MA/S or equivalent in social science, management, or international development preferred.
• At least 5 years of experience in project design, Monitoring & Evaluations and theory of change methodologies
• At least 5 years of experience working with INGO or NGOs on peacebuilding, humanitarian diplomacy or community development, capacity building and mentoring
• Demonstrated experience conducting strategy development and Theory of Change workshops
• Experience with Mercy Corps as an organization and its internal strategy review processes and toolkit preferred.
• Knowledge of the DR Congo context desirable.
• Fluent written and oral communication in English is required; intermediate to fluent French required.
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members is required.