ASI-04

Organization title: Mercy Corps
Field Location: Jakarta, Indonesia
Policy Location: Washington, D.C.

DESCRIPTION OF ORGANIZATION

Mercy Corps is an international relief and development organization that alleviates suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities. The agency now operates in more than 35 countries reaching 6 million people worldwide. Mercy Corps is known nationally and internationally for its quick-response, high-impact programs. Mercy Corps aims to address the root causes of food and livelihood insecurity through its civil society approach that emphasizes participation, accountability and peaceful change; prioritizes partnership with local government, business and community groups; and values the added strength and impact of community-driven solutions that reinforce and build local capacity. Mercy Corps believes that a healthy civil society contributes to the decreased need for repeated interventions and to more sustainable development. For more information please go to: www.mercycorps.org

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Mercy Corps’ food security programs are designed for effectiveness within local context. Targeted and integrated interventions address the four major factors of food insecurity; availability, access, utilization and vulnerability in countries as diverse as Indonesia, Tajikistan, Mongolia, North Korea and Sudan. Program interventions are unique to the particular needs, assets, challenges and capacities of each target area, while communication between programs and the headquarters based Technical Support Unit helps to ensure the identification, use and documentation of good practices in the areas of health and nutrition, water and sanitation, food security, agriculture and livelihoods and economic development. An Institutional Capacity Building Grant from USAID’s Office of Food for Peace is helping Mercy Corps to better address the root causes of food insecurity through increased effectiveness to assess, monitor, learn from and train others about food security program opportunities; increased technical capacity to protect and strengthen community food security; and increased effectiveness of food aid management.

FIELD PLACEMENT

Mercy Corps Indonesia implements a series of integrated programs in urban Jakarta, throughout Sumatra including Aceh, and Maluku, in the sectors of nutrition and health, livelihoods/food security, access to financial services, water and sanitation, community development, capacity building and conflict mitigation. Cross-cutting themes emphasize community mobilization and participation, and working in partnership with and leveraging the resources of local government, local NGOs, and private sector partners. Mercy Corps is in Indonesia to address the root causes of poverty, thereby improving the quality of life for disaster and conflict-affected, urban and coastal communities.

The fellow will work under the direct supervision of the Country Director based in Jakarta. S/he will work in close collaboration with the Health and Nutrition Adviser and will also work in close cooperation with the Director of Programs and the Urban Program Director.

The overall goal of the Fellowship for the field placement will be to lead Mercy Corps Indonesia’s initiatives in research and analysis in the areas of food security and nutritional variety in the urban preschool population, disease vulnerability mapping and the provision of recommendations and project development within an urban and rural context. Specific objectives may include:

• Review current literature, program experience and existing tools and experience of ‘near’ real time food monitoring,
• Improve the capacity of Mercy Corps Indonesia counterparts to plan, implement and evaluate food monitoring, nutritional habits and disease mapping activities,
• Take the lead in the development of a manual for use by Mercy Corps and partners on the development of ‘near’ real time food monitoring tools and their use,
• Take lead in development of one or more articles for a peer-reviewed journal on the impact of this approach,
• Take lead in development of funding proposals to expand work tackling urban nutrition and health.

POLICY PLACEMENT

Based in Washington, DC, the fellow will become an integral member of the headquarters-based Food Security Technical Support Unit (TSU). The TSU is a globally dispersed team of experts who work with field teams to ensure that Mercy Corps designs and implements high impact, technically sound programming. Further, the TSU helps to ensure that Mercy Corps is a learning organization and that the results of our work are well represented externally. The Food Security team within the TSU takes a multi-sectoral approach to food security. Following assessments of priorities, resources and challenges in targeted areas, Mercy Corps designs programs to address needs across the food security framework, including food availability, access, utilization and risk management. During the policy year, the fellow will contribute to Mercy Corps’ organizational learning initiative by furthering the activities and lessons of the initial field placement for the benefit of the wider organization and development community. The specific objective will be:

• Contribute to agency and industry understanding of identifying appropriate, food security related interventions, particularly in urban settings.

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

• Course work and/or experience relevant to program area. Prefer an applicant with a background in Nutrition, Anthropology, Sociology, Urban Development, International Development, Assessment and Data Management,
• Previous experience desired: Field experience in a developing country, preferably in the South East Asia region, a background in monitoring and evaluation is preferred and experience implementing community-based research is desired.
• Experience working with international development agencies or NGOs, to design, implement, monitor and/or evaluate development programs, preferably in the field of nutrition, urban development/planning, behavioral research,
• Flexibility and initiative are vital to this position as is the ability to respectfully operate in the culture of Indonesia with a diverse team of foreign and national staff as well as Government, business and colleague NGO partners,
• Skills in grounded research methodologies (quantitative and qualitative) and applications, literature reviewing and synthesis, survey/questionnaire development and interviewing are desirable,
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office, internet-based research, and knowledge of appropriate data analysis software,
• Excellent skills in written and spoken English and ability to speak Bahasa Indonesian an advantage,
• Should have demonstrated ability to write for varied audiences, including policy makers, funders, program implementers, general public,
• An understanding of the current scholarly debates surrounding urban development, health, nutrition, food security etc. would be valuable,
• Jakarta, Indonesia provides a secure living environment. It offers a number of individual housing options with good utilities. The fellow is expected to conduct field trips; some of these sites require an awareness of possible security threats and knowledge of changing security environments.