Background:

Mercy Corps Liberia began operations in 2002 in response to the humanitarian crisis brought about by the two Liberian civil wars which took place from 1989-1997 and 1999–2003.  Since then, Mercy Corps’ interventions have evolved based on the context and needs of the Liberian people. Mercy Corps Liberia has implemented a range of programs focused on renewable energy, food security, agricultural livelihoods, financial inclusion, nutrition, water and sanitation, infrastructure, and youth economic empowerment. Mercy Corps Liberia works closely with the Government of Liberia (especially the Ministries of Youth and Sports, Health, Labor and Education), the private sector, civil society, international and local NGOs to implement its programs from three offices/sub-offices (Monrovia, Buchanan, Rivercess). Mercy Corps is one of the foremost development actors in Liberia implementing strategic and systems driven programming in youth employment and entrepreneurship, market systems development and good governance.

Purpose / Project Description:

PROSPECTS IV is a 45-month, 48 million SEK programme that aims to directly benefit 6,182 young people through improved employment opportunities with an overlapping impact on 14,856 young people. The programme applies a Market System Development (MSD) approach to facilitate systemic change. It builds on previous Government of Sweden’s investments through PROSPECTS I – III but aims to move away from a direct delivery model to place systems change at the heart of the programme. Understanding the structural and systemic challenges that young people face in securing employment is crucial to the programme’s success. PROSPECTS IV is implemented in four defined urban and peri-urban areas – Monrovia (Montserrado County), Ganta (Nimba County), Buchanan (Grand Bassa) and a pilot in Gbarnga (Bong County). PROSPECTS IV is highly innovative, one of the first MSD programs focused on urban youth employment.

PROSPECTS is 75% through its implementation, and will come to a close in June 2025. A Year 3 annual report is anticipated to be drafted from October – November 2024. Support is needed to effectively capture results and learning for scale-up facilitation, and support the Team Leader and the team in packaging, sharing and managing learning in the scaling phase, build team capacity in writing and storytelling.   We aim to develop a series of thought leadership contents and utilize several mediums for sharing them to induce crowding-in and replication. In addition, support is needed to capture stories of impact and learning that can be utilized to scale interventions in the final year.

Independent Contractor Objectives:

• The Market Systems Development for Employment (MSD4E) Thought Leadership Writer is responsible for amplifying learning and visibility of PROSPECTS IV ensuring effective capture of thought leadership opportunities on the programme.
• S/He will review and validate identified thought leadership opportunities and targeted contents across the programme partnerships, across all target sectors and link those back to the overarching objectives, targets, and results of PROSPECTS IV.
• The Thought Leadership Writer will support the PROSPECTS IV team in structuring, packaging, content; and identify, select, curate, facilitate content dissemination through various medium – articles, publications, webinars, visuals, etc.
• She/he will contribute through analytical thinking, innovative approaches to support integration and harmony of thought leadership contents and approaches across all PROSPECTS IV interventions, market systems, and economic opportunity pillar of Mercy Corps Liberia.

Independent Contractor Activities:

• Develop a structure for thought leadership content series to ensure maximum impact and coherence across the series.
• Based on the outlines and content provided, create first drafts of selected content formats for review and discussion with the PROSPECTS IV team.
• Refine papers and other forms of content based on feedback, creating additional drafts.
• Finalize drafts and presentation in catchy infographics and other concise formats.
• Engage with the communications and other economic opportunity pillar related project teams to identify spin-off (secondary) products (e.g., op-eds, blogs) to communicate high-priority messages.
• Discuss and identify high priority messages emerging from writing process.
• Brainstorm secondary products critical for communicating priority messages.
• Support learning initiative of the program for facilitation of replication, policy, and systemic development of targeted sectors.
• Lead the structuring and packaging of learnings and successes for documentation and sharing MSD4E best practices and successful pilot initiatives and lead results/evidence capture for thought leadership presentations
• Curate and lead storytelling, writing and content development trainings and sessions for PROSPECTS IV team.

Independent Contractor Deliverables:

1. Inception report: thought leadership structure and content series including list of mapped contents and sequencing. Including:

• Methodology and information need for creating the pieces.
• Proposed outline and templates

1. Minimum 10 thought leadership products developed and distributed.
2. Minimum of 6 impact assessment reports based on impact analysis data to inform the scale up of successful interventions.
3. Minimum of 10 case studies across intervention sectors which demonstrate impact of the program.

Timeframe / Schedule: 

50 days over six months: August – December 2024 (approx. six weeks in Liberia to engage with team and interact with content for additional self-observations and visuals from September – October 2024).

The Independent Contractor will report to:

PROSPECTS IV Team Leader

The Independent Contractor will work closely with:

Mercy Corps Director of Programs, System Managers, Senior System Officers, GESI Officer, TRaQ, and MEL team

Required Experience & Skills:

●   Bachelor’s degree in relevant technical field (Master’s preferred); relevant training certifications and transferable skills.

•     5-10 years of technical writing experience. Demonstrated writing, conceptualization, research ability, experience in supervising evaluations, and providing written analyses of complex systems, and development of system analysis for knowledge management and dissemination.

●    Track record of producing high quality written products.

●   Demonstrated leadership, management, and training capabilities. Strong skills in planning and organization, partnership, and collaboration.

●   Excellent communication, organizational and prioritization skills and the ability to multi-task.

●   Demonstrated attention to detail and ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work both independently and cooperatively with team members.

●    Fluency in spoken and written English.