Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation (CLA) Officer
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 long term impact.
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 now, and for the future.
Mercy Corps has worked in Jordan since 2003 to implement a variety of programs funded by global public
institutions, as well as private donors to meet the urgent needs of vulnerable populations, build cohesive and
civically engaged communities, and increase inclusive economic opportunities. Mercy Corps’ current portfolio in
Jordan focuses on three domains: resilient individuals, strong communities and governance, and environmentally
sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Mercy Corps integrates crosscutting themes of youth, gender equality
and empowerment, governance, natural resource management and technology.
The Program / Department / Team
USAID Informal Livelihoods Advancement Activity (Iqlaa) is a five-year USAID-funded program that aims to
support Jordan's home-based businesses (HBBs) and Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) to grow, transform, and
become resilient to future shocks. HBBs and MSEs are essential drivers of employment and economic stability in
Jordan. Micro and small enterprises represent 98 percent of all businesses in Jordan and compose half of the
country’s private sector employment. Therefore, the Iqlaa approach places formal and informal Jordanian HBBs
and MSEs on a path to recovery, stabilization, and growth, focusing on four critical sectors: agriculture, tourism,
manufacturing, and services, with special attention to technology development and implementation.
Iqlaa works to implement best practices in crisis response, enterprise strengthening, inclusive job creation, and
financial sector development within a market-systems development (MSD) framework and leveraging innovative
behavioral change methodologies to facilitate long-term, sustainable changes in the behaviors or stakeholders and
beneficiaries that align better with the current needs of Jordan’s MSEs. Iqlaa will offer bundled support through
technical assistance and grants. The program will work with market sector actors to offer five main grants:
formalization, start-up funding, business Growth, innovation & Scale, and technology Integration.
General Position Summary
The Collaboration, Learning, and Adaptation (CLA) Officer will play a crucial role in supporting effective
collaboration, learning, and adaptation efforts within our organization. The incumbent will work closely
with different teams within the organization with a focus on expanding and enriching collaborations,
documenting lessons learned and sharing knowledge to guide decision-making processes and adapting the
program’s implementation strategies and approaches based on learning.
S/he will work closely with the implementation and technical teams, partners, and other stakeholders to
co-design, implement and manage learning activities. The CLA Officer will be actively involved in
qualitative research methods, intervention quality monitoring, evidence-based communications and
organizing and leading reflection meetings with relevant stakeholders. S/he will be responsible for
disseminating findings and recommendations to influence stakeholders and to inform decision making
and new initiatives.
Essential Responsibilities
Collaboration, Learning and Adapting:
• Work closely with relevant stakeholders to plan, coordinate, and implement effective CLA
activities.
• Support the CLA Manager in conducting scheduled and ad-hoc reflection meetings with
technical sector leads, implementation team leads, partners, and any relevant stakeholders to
promote the use of evidence and application of adaptive management.
• Implement a systematic plan for the learning agendas and support the periodic review of the
learning agendas and the amendment processes, if necessary.
• Support extraction of learning, lessons, and insights from different systematic sources into
actionable recommendations for program improvements to inform program design and
implementation.
• Collect evidence-based data through various methods such as interviews and field observation.
• Work closely with program teams to identify and document lessons learned, best practices, and
innovations from program implementation to inform programmatic decision-making and improve
overall program quality.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with partners and stakeholders to promote
collaboration, trust and improve sharing of knowledge and experience.
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports to inform strategic
decision-making.
• Proposing changes to program approaches based on learnings and research findings.
• Support the coordination of systematic integration of CLA approach across the program cycle,
applying the relevant tools and resources.
• Follow up to make sure that action plans for adaptation are implemented.
• Support the CLA Manager in collaborating with technical teams and implementing partners to
develop tools and checklists that facilitate evidence-based activity management and oversight,
particularly for data quality analysis, documentation of activity monitoring visits, and presentation
of feedback to partners.
• Support the CLA Manager in conducting program reviews, pause and reflect sessions, workshops,
and any other learning activities.
• Any other duties as may be assigned.
Communication, Documentation and Report Writing:
• Maintain a knowledge management system and/or knowledge management electronic platform to
improve access, sharing and application of program knowledge, lessons learned, and best
practices.
• Support the formulation of program reports in a timely manner while ensuring the quality,
accuracy, and consistency of information, which may include case studies, stories of change,
success stories, learning briefs, or other written materials.
• Support the implementation of effective CLA strategies to help improve development
effectiveness.
• Organizing meetings, workshops, and other events to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and
lessons learned as requested by the CLA Manager.
• Disseminate learnings and recommendations to team members, partners, and other relevant
stakeholders.
• Engage stakeholders on findings from assessments, monitoring, and learning activities for group
analysis, interpretation, dialogue, and a holistic perspective.
• Support in analyzing, reporting, and interpretation of adaptive management workflows.
• Support capacity building for relevant stakeholders to promote evidence-based, knowledge-driven
adaptive practices.
• Any other duties as may be assigned.
Performance Monitoring and Evaluation
• Develop or update monitoring and evaluation data collection tools to capture learnings.
• Support collecting monitoring and evaluation data when needed.
• Analyzes monitoring and evaluation findings to capture and document lessons learned and
ensure that these findings are communicated effectively to program staff and partners.
• Extract recommendations based on key findings from evaluations and assessments.
Supervisory Responsibility
Supervision of other staff is not contemplated.
Accountability
Reports Directly To: The Collaboration, Learning, and Adaptation (CLA) Manager.
Works Directly with: The PQL Director, the Senior Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Coordinator, MEL
Assistants, MEL officers, IM coordinator, IM officer, program team members, Partner staff, MC-MEL
Advisor, and MC-PAQ manager.
Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders
Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program
participants, community partners, and 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
• A bachelor’s degree in social sciences or a relevant field.
• At least 5 years of experience working in development, with at least two years with supporting
adaptive management and cyclical project learning with program teams.
• Experience facilitating CLA activities and developing knowledge products.
• Familiarity with USAID’s CLA Framework.
• Experience working on USAID programs preferred.
• Strong analytical skills and problem-solving skills, including a demonstrated ability to effectively
communicate strategies or plans to stakeholders and co-workers.
• Excellent writing skills, including reports, best practices, case studies, etc.
• Fluency in English and Arabic.
• High level of proficiency in Microsoft Office applications.
• Strong planning, organization, critical and strategic thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Exceptional communication (verbal and written) and presentation skills with a dynamic.
engaging facilitation style.
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work
independently and cooperatively with team members.
• Experience with data management including the ability to structure and collate data sets for ease
of analysis.
Success Factors
The successful CLA Officer will combine exceptional Communication and information sharing management skills
and experience in data management, development of learning tools, learning agenda and case studies and success
stories. S/he will have an ability to think creatively about operationalizing and improving the M&E and
documentation of the program. S/he will have proven experience with cross-cultural team and capacity building,
individual staff development and strong mentoring skills. Multi-tasking, prioritizing, problem-solving and
simultaneous attention to detail as well as strategic vision are essential. The most successful Mercy Corps staff
members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments
and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Amman, Jordan and it requires up to 60% travel to Jordanian’s governorates to support
implementing the program activities.
Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours. 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 locations.
Ongoing Learning
In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities we
serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal
and/or professional growth and development.
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
Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek
out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global
impact.
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 is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether
team members, community members, program participants, or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are
committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary
General and IASC. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team
members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to
conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and adhere to Mercy Corps Code of
Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct
eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.
