Data and Geographic Information Systems Advisor

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. Now, and for the future. About Regional Livestock Program (RLP) In the Horn of Africa, Mercy Corps has been working in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, since 2004, working in rural, peri-urban and urban areas and engaging in both development and humanitarian work, that seek to integrate approaches, programs and geographies as much as possible. Our partners include government and intergovernmental organizations, academic institutions, development and private sector actors, civil societies, and the participating public. The Regional Livestock Program (RLP) is a collaborative effort led by implementing partners IGAD, Helvetas, WHH and Mercy Corps. Its aim is to address the challenges that render smallholder and medium-scale market livestock market actors uncompetitive and highly susceptible to economic and environmental shocks. The program is designed based on the insights gained from the experience of implementing partners and a year-long analysis of regional livestock trade dynamics and livestock market systems in the pastoralist and agro-pastoralist ASAL regions of Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Driven by AFD and SDC's commitment to enhancing food security in ASAL areas in the face of climate change, RLP outlines a 12-year vision for transformative change within pastoral and agro-pastoral areas. The goal is to achieve a more productive, climate-resilient, inclusive, and competitive livestock sector that drives the economic well-being and livelihoods of dryland communities. The program focuses on four cross-border live animal trade corridors (Moyale, Tog Wajaale, Galkaayo, and Afmadow), as well as one camel milk trade corridor (Wajir). Phase I (2023-2027) serves as the foundation for future phases and emphasizes building relationships, establishing an evidence base, and preparing for geographical scaling and expansion in Phase II. Phase I's overall objective is to enable pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in target trade corridors to have more climate-resilient, inclusive, and sustainable livelihoods. The emphasis is on increasing production and productivity of poor agro-pastoralist and pastoralist households, with a particular focus on peri-urban and rural women engaged in the livestock sector and youth. The program also aims to enhance domestic markets and trade while leveraging opportunities for regional integration, competitiveness, and cross-border collaboration along the targeted trade corridors. The fundamental strategies involve strengthening rangeland and water resources management, animal health services, feed and fodder market, climate information, live animal trade, access to finance and business development, enhancing linkages between market actors, building business and social networks, and co-investing in financial and technical resources to improve livestock productivity and expand economic opportunities along priority trade corridors. Subsequent phases will build on these investments, with an increasing focus on enhancing the competitiveness of HOA livestock and livestock products in regional and international markets, as well as expanding investments to additional trade corridors. The three long-term outcomes of RLP are anticipated to result from market system changes brought about through systemic interventions. Special attention is given to interventions that create opportunities for women and promote youth engagement and their associated benefits. General Position Summary The Data and GIS Advisor plays a critical role and is focused on analyzing and utilizing data within non-spatial and spatial data systems. The primary responsibilities of a Data and GIS Advisor include leading the collection, organizing, cleaning and interpreting non-spatial and spatial data to support learning, decision-making and adaptive management processes for the Regional Livestock Program (RLP) in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Essential Job Responsibilities DATA and GIS ADVISOR

• Support the design, management and implementation of all monitoring and results measurement data and GIS system components of program in the RLP portfolio.
• Support consortium partners to coordinate spatial and non-spatial information against program implementation and results measurement.
• In this role, the advisor will be responsible for gathering data from multiple sources, such as relational databases, surveys, satellite imagery, and ensuring its accuracy and reliability. RLP will then use GIS software and tools to process and analyze the data, creating maps, visualizations, and reports that provide valuable insights and support informed decision-making and program adaptation.
• In conjunction with the MRM Manager, he/she will plan, coordinate, and supervise all assessments and evaluations data for the program he/she is responsible for. This will entail development of Scopes of Work, development of survey tools, training and management of data collectors, report writing and facilitating results discussion (or recruit and supervise evaluation consultants where necessary).
• A key aspect of the Data and GIS Advisor role is the ability to understand and utilize non-spatial and geospatial data. This involves working with geographic coordinates, spatial relationships, and map projections to accurately represent and analyze data within a geographic context of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. By leveraging this spatial and non-spatial data, advisor can identify patterns, trends, and correlations that are crucial for making informed decisions in various RLP corridors, including rangeland and water resources management, early warning information, conflict management, animal health services, feed and fodder market, milk/meat trade, cross-border live animal trade, access to finance, business development services and policy implementation.
• In addition to data analysis, the Data and GIS Advisor will often collaborate with partners, such as MEL officers, country program managers, trade corridor coordinators, PSE and women economic empowerment advisors, rangeland management officers, community engagement officers etc., to understand their specific data needs and provide them with relevant information and visualizations. Effective presentation and communication skills are essential for translating complex technical concepts into understandable and actionable insights.
• Furthermore, the role requires proficiency in Database Management, GIS software, data collection and analysis tools, such as Commcare, PowerBI, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Fabric, ArcGIS, QGIS, or other specialized software packages. Familiarity with programming languages like Python and R can also be advantageous for automating data processing tasks and conducting advanced spatial analysis.
• Overall, the Data and GIS Advisor role requires proficiency in Power BI, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Fabric for data visualization, data extraction and manipulation, data modeling techniques, collaboration and communication skills, and a mindset for improving data engineering, infrastructure and processes. By leveraging these skills, she/he will play a crucial role in transforming complex data into meaningful insights that drive informed decision-making within the organization. DATA MANAGEMENT AND REPORTING
  • Provide technical support in the different corridors to staff/enumerators for routine data collection, cleaning, management, GIS, livestock market actors tracking system, and capturing lessons learned for data-driven decision making.
  • Support the process of leading and adopting relevant technologies for regular livestock actors’ and routine monitoring data collection, management and improving the efficiency of the program monitoring and results measurement function. This will include supporting rollout of RLP Mobile Data Collection Commcare, PowerBI use case, Azure storage, GIS/GPS data collection for Mapping, provide evidence for donor Results and Data Management (RDM) system, Tola Data, SharePoint, and managing MC’s internal database management platforms.
  • Serve as technical support for RLP team for data management systems and real-time data flow, utilizing appropriate platforms. This includes learning and using data management, storage, interpretation and reporting platforms.
  • Work closely with the program partners to define and execute a robust database strategy and ensure that MRM and GIS data is available to feed into a greater program learning at regional level.
  • Writing and executing Azure/Fabric queries: Strong Azure skills are essential for extracting, manipulating, and analyzing data from various data sources. She/he will be expected to write efficient Azure queries to retrieve relevant data and perform data manipulation tasks required for analysis.
  • Building Data Models: Data modeling is a key aspect of the role. She/he will be involved in creating data models using different techniques, such as star schema or snowflake schema, to organize and structure data for efficient analysis. This includes defining relationships, hierarchies, and measures to support decision-making processes.
  • Assist program teams in setting up appropriate summary statistics, success stories, best practices, and review and reflection sessions and link them to tracking program dashboards.
  • Understand, maintain, and support the MRM information and data management system that improves MC’s ability to implement quality programs through better data collection, management, analysis, and presentation of data, and represent impact to donor, government bodies, peer organizations and communities using standard tools. ADAPTATION, EVIDENCE AND LEARNING
    • Designing and developing strategic reports and dashboards for intervention layering, sequencing and integration: In this role, she/he will be responsible for creating visually appealing and insightful reports and dashboards. This involves understanding complex data sets and transforming them into clear and actionable visual representations that help stakeholders make informed decisions.
    • Collaboration and Communication: As a Data and GIS Advisor, she/he will work closely with cross-functional teams (e.g. knowledge management and communications) to understand their data needs, interpret results, and effectively communicate findings for better program learning and adaptation. Strong collaboration skills are necessary to gather requirements, provide insights, and ensure that data-driven decisions align with organizational goals.
    • Data Infrastructure and Process Improvement: She/he will contribute to the maintenance and continuous improvement of the program data infrastructure and processes. This may involve identifying opportunities to optimize data collection, storage, and retrieval methods, as well as implementing best practices for data quality assurance and data governance systems.
    • Build a collaborative network of relationships with implementing partners (IGAD, Helvetas, WHH) and other stakeholders to encourage learning networks that promote shared learning, evidence generation, aligned approaches, and mutual accountability to quality data and GIS collection and evidence-based programming.
    • Contribute to the development and implementation of data and GIS to further stimulate use of evidence for strategic adaptive management, and high-impact programming.
    • Contribute to program visibility and program adaptation work by assisting in dissemination of program data and GIS results and information sharing.
    • Work with RLP program teams to capture program adaptation and lessons learned during implementation and feed this with evidence into thought leadership and documentation opportunities and into ongoing program management and program design.
    • In coordination with program teams, drive the capacity building of program staff on the Data and GIS utilization through training and new hire orientation, including designing and delivering formal and informal capacity building.
    • Overall, the Data and GIS Advisor role involves providing valuable insights to support decision-making processes. It requires a strong understanding of data storytelling, and effective communication skills to collaborate with stakeholders. OTHER EXPECTATIONS IN THE ROLE
      • Conduct himself/herself professionally and personally to bring credit to Mercy Corps and not jeopardize its humanitarian mission.
      • Other duties as assigned. ACCOUNTABILITY TO PARTICIPANTS AND STAKEHOLDERS
        • Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, 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. Supervisory Responsibility: Enumerators from time to time Accountability: Reports Directly To: RLP MRM (Monitoring & Results Measurement) Manager Works Directly With: RLP Program Director, Deputy Program Director, Country Program Managers, Knowledge Management and Communication Manager, Trade Corridor Coordinators & RLP Field Staff, Country PaQ team and Implementing Partners MEL Focal. Minimum Qualification and Transferable Skills
          • Must hold at least a master's degree in management information system (MIS), Data Analyst, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), Geospatial Information Management, Development Studies, Statistics, or any other relevant field.
          • At least 5-8 years of leading Data analytics in a development and humanitarian program setting.
          • Understanding of the use of technology in database management, MEL, GIS mapping, data analytics, or other program functions at portfolio level.
          • Excellent data storytelling, writing and communication skills required.
          • Must be fluent both local language and English.
          • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, translating data into actionable insights.