Consultant – Livelihoods for the Caribbean – Remote with travel

About the job

DescriptionBackground: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’ Caribbean Resilience Initiative (CRI) identifies and implements strategies that measurably improve resilience for vulnerable communities within Caribbean small island developing States (SIDS). Successful strategies are scalable across diverse communities within the region, and have the potential to measurably improve resilience over several decades of changing climate risks. Under CRI’s resilience framework, we focus on three thematic areas: infrastructure, livelihoods, and (eco)systems.

Purpose / Project Description:As part of CRI’s strategy, the team is seeking to expand its geographic footprint, participant reach, and diversify its pool of funding, while strengthening and broadening its localization efforts in the Caribbean. Part of this work requires initial scoping and pre-positioning efforts in SIDs that are of the agency’s interest: Barbados, the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Jamaica. Recognizing that funding opportunities tend to be multi-country for this sub-region, CRI would like to enhance its decentralized operation model and remote implementation approach to take on a wider scope in the Caribbean and bring successful projects to vulnerable communities in more diverse and disparate areas faster. In turn, CRI’s success also depends on cultivating and maintaining strong partnerships with local communities, CBOs and government agencies.

The Livelihoods Consultant will focus on CRI’s livelihoods priority, and its linkages to supporting vulnerable populations to build resilience to and recover from the impacts of climate shocks, as well as re-integrate into segments of society, and reduce negative coping mechanisms, and conflict and violence. The Livelihoods Consultant would focus on the following four Livelihood subjects:

• Climate-smart technology and practices for smallholder producers/business owners.
• Enhanced watershed governance and strengthened adaptation practices on key water sources.
• Increased access to positive livelihood opportunities to reduce youth recidivism.