Consultant – Curriculum Design and Human Centered Design (HCD): Gender, Youth, Food Security & Resilience – 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.

The Gender and Youth Activity (GAYA) is an Associate Award (AA) under the Implementer Led Design, Evidence, Analysis, and Learning (IDEAL) program. This AA is an $8.8 million dollar program over 5 years designed to provide strategic capacity strengthening and learning in gender and youth to Implementing Partners (IPs) of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) programs and other food security stakeholders. The GAYA award is currently in its second year of implementation.

The GAYA seeks a Curriculum Design and Human Centered Design (HCD) Consultant to play a key role in the Gender, Youth, Food Security & Resilience Fellowship pilot.

Purpose / Project Description:

One of GAYA’s key focus areas is to establish and support peer-to-peer learning and peer mentoring mechanisms in order to support IP staff to demonstrate improved application of gender and youth resources and research. GAYA is in the process of developing a support mechanism primarily focused on supporting Emergency Practitioners (EPs) to better integrate gender, youth, and inclusive resilience into their activities. Known as the Gender, Youth, Food Security and Resilience Fellowship, Mercy Corps is seeking a Curriculum and HCD Consultant to support in the conceptualization and content development of the pilot, as well as co-facilitate the material to the pilot fellow cohort. The Gender, Youth, Food Security and Resilience Fellowship is anticipated to span twelve weeks in duration with four primary phases:

1. Gender and Youth (G&Y) Foundational Learning and Pre-Reading – virtual
2. Intensive In-Person Foundations and Relationship building – 3 day in-person.
3. Application Observation and Adaptation – virtual
4. Learning and Reflection – virtual.

The GAYA has drafted the purpose, objectives, fellow profile, structure as well as identified behaviors GAYA seeks to transform. The consultant will play a lead role in all four phases of the pilot and be expected to co-facilitate many of the sessions directly with the GAYA team. GAYA recognizes a robust suite of tools, resources, and practices exist for Resilience Food Security Activities (RFSA) and will therefore focus on contextualizing existing gender and youth tools to an EP facing environment while grounding the fellowship in the behaviors GAYA seeks to transform throughout the program life cycle. The overarching objective of the fellowship is to foster a robust network of gender and youth-responsive emergency & RFSA practitioners who:

• Feel confident applying core gender, youth, and inclusive resilience frameworks and skills in emergency contexts.
• Have access to meaningful, long-term capacity strengthening opportunities that draw on their strengths to foster sustained paradigm shifts in thinking and action within the emergency space and as shocks and stresses occur within the RFSA space.
• Have practiced, reflected on, and adapted their gender, youth, and inclusive resilience approaches towards food security objectives, in collaboration and consultation with their trusted community of practitioners and advisors, including adapting approaches and tools to an emergency context.
• Feel connected to a network of change agents from emergency and RFSA programs for ongoing reflection and support to work toward collective impact.
• Have contributed substantially to contextualizing existing gender and youth tools to an EP-facing environment.

The pilot cohort will enable GAYA to carefully monitor and seek feedback from participants in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the fellowship program for future iterations. The Curriculum Design and HCD Consultant will play a leading role in this process, working closely alongside the GAYA team.

Consultant Objectives

The Consultant will have three primary areas of focus:

1. Design fellowship curriculum, including modules and learning modalities.
2. Lead HCD process to validate the curriculum and fellowship objectives and resulting adaptations to the fellowship/curriculum.
3. Co-Facilitate 12-week fellowship + 3 day in-person intensive foundational learning experience

Consultant Activities:

1. Design Fellowship Curriculum:

• Recommend similar existing courses/materials, and adapt existing relevant course material to align with fellowship goals, including but not limited to:
  • Sahel Collaboration and Communication (SCC) Activity’s Resilience Collaboration, Learning, and Adaptation (RCLA) Fellowship Curriculum
  • Resilience Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (RMEL) Curriculum
  • Somalia Resilience Population Measurement (RPM)
  • Activity’s Resilience Learning Journey (RLJ) Curriculum
  • MC Gender Analysis in Emergencies Curriculum
• Outline learning modalities for fellowship aligned with the behavior change goals, GAYA principles, and inclusive adult learning best practices.
• Support the GAYA-led design of behavior change and impact measurement systems for the fellowship.
• Regular consultation with Technical Support Unit (TSU) around resilience portion of curriculum to ensure alignment.
• Create 2-4 sample modules before May 19th for GAYA to facilitate, showcasing different learning modalities that are indicative of learning content and demonstrate a range of modalities
• Based on feedback received from the sample modules, design curriculum for the duration of the 12-week fellowship that includes pre-reading, the logical progression of learning modules and the modalities
• Leverage appropriate learning platforms to house curriculum.
• Co-Design recruitment, engagement, and sustainability strategies with the GAYA team

1. HCD and Fellowship Adaptations

• Review and become familiar with GAYA foundational documents.
• Review lessons learned from IDEAL and others AA on experiences working with, and needs, of EPs.
• Incorporate GAYA feedback on all consultant deliverables.
• Collaborate with Fellowship Working Group and make adaptations, as necessary.
• Adapt Fellowship based on findings from periodic surveys used to gather participant feedback and satisfaction, and gauge to what extent objectives are being met.
• Co-facilitate sample modules virtually for a group of potential fellows to take place June 2nd (est) at a GAYA-organized webinar or in-person event, for the purpose of getting feedback on the modules and broader fellowship content.
• Based on stakeholder engagement and participant feedback from the June 2nd (est) event, the consultant will be expected to:
  • Create a framework and plan for design sessions (design work for solidifying next steps)

1. Co-Facilitate 12 Week Fellowship, inclusive of 3 Day In-Person Workshop

Responsibilities within this task may include, but are not limited to:

• Deliver pilot curriculum by co-facilitating the 12-week fellowship, which includes remote and in-person components (3-day in person workshop anticipated)
• Attend and co-facilitate the 3-day in person workshop.

Consultant Deliverables:

• Recommends adaptations/edits to GAYA’s overarching fellowship concept, learning objectives, learner profiles and workplan based on input sought from fellowship working group, participants, EP and RFSA IPs
• Produces 2-4 sample modules designed on or before May 19, 2023, showcasing different learning modalities that are indicative of learning content and demonstrate a range of modalities.
• Designs and/or adapts coursework/curriculum for the full duration of the 12-week fellowship, based on feedback received from the sample modules, GAYA team, working group, and key stakeholders
• Attends and co-facilitates 3 day workshop in mid to late August 2023 (location TBD) for first pilot cohort of up to 15 fellows
• May include updates coursework/curriculum based on feedback received from participants, GAYA, working group and other stakeholders.
• Drafts course training manual for future facilitators

Timeframe / Schedule:

Dates listed below are approximations and are subject to change:

• Mid-April: Consultant begins.
• May 19: 2-4 sample modules showcasing different learning modalities.
• June 2: Co-facilitates sample modules virtually for a group of potential fellows at a GAYA-organized webinar or in-person event.
• July 21st: Draft curriculum due for the duration of the 12-week fellowship + outline of course training manual.
• August 3rd: Final curriculum + outline of course training manual due.
• August – October: Facilitates online/in-person pilot fellowship.
• Mid-late August: Co-facilitates 3 day workshop to first pilot cohort
• Dec 15: Finalized coursework/curriculum + course training manual due, based on participant, GAYA, and working group feedback

The Consultant will report to: Program Director/Senior Gender and Youth Advisor

The Consultant will work closely with: Gender Advisor, Youth Advisor, Technical Officer – Research & Learning**,** Program Officer

Required Experience & Skills:

• Master’s degree in international development, gender studies or a related field preferred.
• At least 5 years work experience in adult learning methods in curriculum development
• 5+ years’ experience working in programs that have a focus on gender equality and social inclusion and/or youth.
• Experience adapting gender and youth tools from development to humanitarian context preferred.
• Familiarity with Mercy Corps’ resilience curriculum workstream a plus
• Exceptional written and interpersonal communication skills.

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.