consultancy - SPARC Principal Researcher, Innovations in Fragile Contexts

Project/Consultancy Title:  SPARC Principal Researcher – Innovations in Fragile Contexts Location: Remote Duration: Up to 25 days FTE

Background:

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. At Mercy Corps, we aim to be on the cutting edge of developing more efficient, effective paths to social impact at scale. We believe that solutions - to even the most “sticky” problems - are within reach, be that at the community level or the global level. Our years of experience have taught us that often, to break through on a particularly tough challenge, we have to be bold in our thinking and disrupt, we have to innovate, to achieve a lasting and transformative solution. For solutions to advance along a pathway to scale, data, research, and evidence are needed at key stages. Mercy Corps is committed to generating and using evidence to understand and improve our impact, and to enhance the humanitarian and development community’s ability to address the world’s most complex challenges.As part of this commitment, Mercy Corps is a member of the Supporting Pastoralism & Agriculture in Recurrent & Protracted Crises (SPARC) consortium led by Cowater International in partnership with the Overseas Development Institute and the International Livestock Research Institute. SPARC is a six-year (2020-2025) initiative funded by FCDO. The goal is to generate and promote the application of evidence on what works to strengthen the resilience of agricultural and pastoral livelihoods in fragile, drylands contexts in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. The program aims to advance research on livelihoods, agriculture and pastoralism that can be used by FCDO and other agencies to guide decisions on programs and policies to support livelihoods resilience in the drylands. Through research and evidence, SPARC will develop knowledge to enhance the ability of FCDO, the donor community, NGOs, local and national governments and other stakeholders to assist pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and farmers in the context of conflict, climate change, and other shocks and stressors.

Purpose / Project Description:

The SPARC consortium believes innovative pastoral interventions (technologies and approaches) have a role in building resilience in the arid lands. SPARC conducted a review of the innovation landscape during the inception phase of the program. Now that the program is coming to a close, we seek a consultant to refresh the original landscape review as well as SPARC research on innovation to extract cross-cutting lessons learned and propose areas of donor and government investment. The Consultant will collaborate with SPARC researchers as well as experts and programs testing or expanding innovations in dryland communities. She/He will make sense of the innovation ecosystem including the ongoing portfolio of innovations to contribute to better policies and programs and to make sure that these innovations are based on and generate evidence on what works, why, and under what circumstances, and at what scale, and that such evidence is understood and informs the decisions of donors, host governments, private sector actors, investors, and other scaling agents. The consultant will strategically engage diverse public and private actors, including local entities, to design the Innovation Facility.

Consultant Objectives:

1) Review available SPARC documents to identify cross-cutting recommendations.2) Consult with industry experts including from donor organizations on perceptions and experiences with innovations that have had impact, factors of success and failure.3) Collaborate with SPARC leadership to develop a dissemination and policy influence strategy with key products4) (Co-)Produce study products and implement the dissemination and policy influence strategy.

Consultant Activities:

■ Review existing SPARC documents and emerging research agenda and provide technical feedback on these internal documents.■ Solicit ideas and feedback from consortium members on findings from their research on what is innovation, where/when does it make a positive impact, gaps in understanding or attention toward innovation ecosystems and enabling environments.■ Map innovation and investment archetypes using interviews with relevant stakeholders and review of available information to identify gaps and redundancies.■ Based on literature and interviews, summarize cross-cutting lessons learned, gaps in understanding and investment, and recommendations of how to foster a beneficial innovation ecosystem.■ Participate in weekly check-in calls.

Consultant Deliverables:

1) Initial overview document outlining what is known about innovation in the drylands. The overview doc will includeo Initial gaps analysis of the current innovation and technology ecosystem in the target countries,o SPARC’s value addition to this ecosystem,o List of partners and key stakeholders that SPARC has worked w