Consultant – Community Accountability Reporting Mechanism (CARM) database and Information Management System – Market Scan Consultant – Remote

Background:

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.

Community Accountability Reporting Mechanisms – known as CARM – was developed as part of Mercy Corps’ global commitment to accountability to affected populations and the prevention of all forms of exploitation and abuse. CARM is a channel for any and all community members to provide feedback, suggestions, complaints, and concerns, in a manner that is safe, confidential, transparent, and accessible, enabling Mercy Corps to respond and make any necessary programmatic or safeguarding adaptations and to ensure the safety, security, and empowerment of program participants.

Mercy Corps’ first CARM policy was approved in 2020 and applies to Mercy Corps Global, Mercy Corps Europe and Mercy Corps Netherlands, their subsidiaries and affiliate organizations, and country representation (collectively, “Mercy Corps”); and Partners, including sub-recipients, partner organizations, contractors, consultants and any other organization or individual that acts on Mercy Corps’ behalf (collectively, “Partners”). This policy applies to all programs and/or projects that Mercy Corps or Partners implement to support program stakeholders, regardless of scope, scale, size, time, budget or funding source.

Purpose / Project Description:

In the first phase of CARM policy adoption, 2020-2021, Mercy Corps country teams worked towards meeting the minimum standards, including development of a CARM database with mandatory fields for documenting and responding to feedback, development of SOPs for handling feedback through the CARM workflow, and the use of standardized feedback grades.

A global consultation period in early 2022 sought to explore what tools and platforms teams are using to manage the CARM workflow. It also sought to engage teams – who were identified as in process, or planning to – automate CARM workflow processes and reporting, to better understand their business needs, and identify possible next steps.

The main output of the consultation period was the compelling need presented by teams, globally, to develop efficiencies, through use of technology and automation, in the manual handling of CARM data (individual pieces of community feedback), which will contribute to the timely response and closure of the feedback loop with community members and stakeholders, while minimizing data protection risks. The consultation also identified teams’ requirement to have dynamic reporting capability on the performance of CARM in each country (monitoring volume of feedback disaggregated by age, gender, case closure times, etc) and dynamic reporting on trends in CARM feedback to inform adaptive portfolio and program management.

In mid 2022, Mercy Corps started the discovery phase of a new project – working name ‘CARM database and information management system’, with a view to identify a scalable solution for use across diverse contexts in which Mercy Corps works. A working group, facilitated by a consultant, has defined system requirements and systems process maps, upon which the next steps of the project – a market scan – will be built.

Consultant Objectives:

The objective of the consultancy is to support the Mercy Corps team by conducting a market scan of available technology/solutions that could fulfill Mercy Corps business needs, system requirements and to make a recommendation for which option/s should be pursued.

Consultant Activities:

To meet the objective, the Consultant will:

1. Review finalized system requirements and systems process maps and query/validate with project team as required;
2. Consult with the Mercy Corps project team and functional experts, and external stakeholders, to finalize criteria and to inform long list of available technology;
3. Conduct detailed review of long listed technologies (internal and external to Mercy Corps, used within and outside of development sector);
4. Iterate all draft deliverables listed below in consultation with the project team and working group until final deliverables are agreed.

Consultant Deliverables:

The Consultant will deliver:

1. Written summary of longlisted available technology, for validation with project team;
2. Report template/skeleton, including finalization of draft criteria (cost, sustainability and its ability to meet business needs/system requirements);
3. Draft written report and accompanying PowerPoint Presentation on each long listed option and its rating against criteria for along with an overall recommendation/s;
4. Final report and presentation;
5. Presentation of recommendation/s to the project team and to the working group.

Timeframe / Schedule:

Activities:

1. Activity 1 and 2: Between Monday 28 November and Friday 2 December;
2. Activity 3: Between Monday 28 December and Friday 9 December;
3. Activity 4: Between Monday 12 December and Friday 16 December.

Deliverables:

1. Deliverable 1: Friday 2 December
2. Deliverable 2: Friday 2 December
3. Deliverable 3: Friday 9 December
4. Deliverable 4: Wednesday 14 December
5. Deliverable 5: Friday 16 December

The total duration for the Consultancy is expected to not exceed 15 working days, and must be completed by Friday 16 December 2022.

The Consultant will report to: Senior Global Advisor – Community Accountability (based in the UK)

The Consultant will work closely with:

1. Project team;
2. Cross organizational working group of system users and functional experts;
3. Other country level system users or related roles, as needed to fulfill the scope.

Required Experience & Skills:

1. 5-10 years of experience in a technical relevant field
2. Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (Masters degree desirable);
3. Demonstrable experience in the development sector;
4. Demonstrated knowledge of customer relationship management, reporting and data management software in the profit and not for profit sectors;
5. Demonstrated knowledge of community accountability in the development sector desired (but not essential);
6. Proficiency with MS Office software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), and Google suite (Google drive, docs, sheets);
7. High level of fluency in verbal and written English.

TO APPLY: Please submit a cover letter including your expected daily rate along with your CV.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our stakeholders and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging 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.

How to apply

To apply: http://app.jobvite.com/m?3CoQDmwk

Please submit a cover letter including your expected daily rate along with your CV.