Humanitarian Analyst at Mercy Corps

Location: Maiduguri, Nigeria (with travel to field / project locations)
Position Status: Full-time, Regular
Reports Directly To: Team Leader, Nigeria Crisis Analysis Team
Works Directly With: Program Management (Nigeria), Security team (Nigeria), Field Management (Nigeria), various external stakeholders

Program / Department Summary

• Mercy Corps Nigeria implements a variety of programs with the vision of a Nigeria in which all people are empowered, engaged, resilient and secure. Programme work covers the following sectors: economic development, livelihoods/food security, adolescent girls & boys’ empowerment, financial resilience, conflict mitigation and humanitarian response. Common themes include community engagement, inclusive development, gender, and working in partnership with local government, the private sector and civil society actors.
• Nigeria is a complex, sophisticated society – and the crisis in its north-east has many dimensions. Mercy Corps is committed to the goal of better understanding crisis contexts in order to deliver better impact for the people and communities we serve.
• Mercy Corps’ Crisis Analytics teams aggregate and analyze data to improve decision making and access in complex crises. The teams support our programming in Syria, Libya, Democratic Republic of Congo and other locations. The teams directly contribute to data-driven decision making by layering information from primary sources, open sources and responders’ programmatic data, where it is analysed by subject matter experts and data scientists. This analysis is grounded in Mercy Corps’ status as an operational NGO, keeping products constructive and relevant.
• Typical products and services range from informal briefings to weekly products, contributions to risk assessments, in-depth assessment of the political economy of defined geography, deep-dives on specific thematics, etc., ranging in themes from conflict to market systems to governance, in line with programmatic needs.

General Position Summary

• The Analyst is expected to bring and maintain a comprehensive knowledge of the dynamics of the Nigerian context. The Analyst works with the Team Leader to contribute to briefings to stakeholders, and so is able to present professionally and distil the ongoing analytical outputs for easy consumption.
• S/he will leverage their understanding of the humanitarian and development sector, and their ability to meaningfully engage with the Mercy Corps Nigeria programme teams, to identify trends and issues for the team to monitor and explore. These outputs will improve the ability of Mercy Corps and the wider humanitarian community to operate with impact.
• The Analyst will principally focus on supporting programming in Nigeria’s north-eastern BAY states, with due consideration given to national and regional issues.
• The Analyst will have principal responsibility for the drafting of regular, periodic analytical products. The structure and intent of these products will be set by the Team Leader, but the Analyst will be required to produce relevant, high-qualitycontent that meets the needs of audiences.
• This quality will come from experience in analysis, data collection, local networks, and a collaborative and open-minded approach to problem-solving. The Analyst will adopt a flexible approach and a willingness to use non-traditional tools and information sources in order to generate insights within a dynamic environment. The Analyst will contribute to the creation and utilization of a network of field researchers in difficult to access areas of Nigeria.
• The Analyst will be equally comfortable giving guidance on negotiating access as understanding the relevance of regional economic trends.
• The Analyst will attend programme meetings as directed, to share knowledge and develop an understanding of the information needs of teams.
• The Analyst will be based in Maiduguri, Borno State and undertake regular travel across the northeast, including deep-field sites, in order to ensure comprehensive findings are developed that represent the BAY states.

Essential Job Responsibilities
Systems and Reporting:

• Support recruitment and management of field researchers.
• Support Team Leader to understand information needs of programme teams.
• Support programme teams to define their information needs

Programming and Operations:

• With other analysts, lead on the drafting of periodic analytical products that meet the current and future
  information needs of identified audiences.
• Develop bespoke products as directed.
• Work closely with allocated programme teams to understand their information needs, and provide timely
  and relevant advice
• Identify new areas of focus based on the understanding of audience needs
• Collect relevant and sufficient data to inform analysis
• Collaborate throughout the analytical process with all colleagues in the team
• Provide briefings as directed
• Develop and maintain a network of relationships across the northeast region in order to leverage diverse
  perspectives and deepen insights.
• Conduct regular field visits to gather regular, up-to-date information related to topics of interest.
• Develop and maintain an awareness of humanitarian principles, international humanitarian law and Mercy
  Corps’ culture and values.
• Other activities related to data collection and analysis as directed.

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.

Organizational Learning:

• Commit to supporting their own professional development, and that of teammates
• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries:

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary 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.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• N/A.

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelors Degree qualification
• Minimum of three (3) years experience in conflict analysis, investigative journalism, humanitarian
  programming, research or a related field
• Able to demonstrate extensive experience in a variety of formal and informal approaches to data collection
  within Nigeria
• Demonstrated capacity for analysis that supports decision making
• Experience living and/or working in the north eastern states of Nigeria
• Demonstrated high capacity for writing in English on technical subjects
• Able to convey complex information to a variety of audiences
• Ability to build and maintain networks of information sources across different geographic locations, sectors
  and perspectives.
• Willingness to work and travel in often difficult and insecure environments.
• Competency in internet and Microsoft Office systems including Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Competency in social media tools including Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp.
• Fluency in Hausa and/or Kanuri is required.

Success Factors:

• The successful candidate will be a key member of a small team where curiosity, critical thinking and the ability to see beyond the surface level are highly valuable.
• A professional attitude, demonstration of integrity, discretion and excellent work ethic are key aspects to the success of this new position.
• Strong communication skills (listening, speaking, writing) are imperative to developing positive relationships and representing the analysis team well.
• Interpersonal skills, openness to learning and humility are important attributes to working effectively within a context with significant diversity.
• The Analyst will bring strong time management and organizational skills and will have the ability to work in a fast-moving environment as a team member who will take initiative on projects and support others in their initiatives.