Market Systems Development - MEL & Adaptive Learning Consultant - Capacity Strengthening Support

• Troubleshooting real challenges

Mercy Corps is a leading global humanitarian and development organization working with communities in the front lines of conflict and climate change. We partner locally and globally to help people cope in the midst of crisis, adapt to a changing world, and thrive into the future. In 2025, we reached more than 36 million people with urgent aid and long-term solutions. Enhancing resilience is at the heart of what Mercy Corps does and how we work.

Mercy Corps strengthens sources of resilience to enhance the capacities of people, markets, and institutions to handle shocks, reduce risk, build more equitable and responsive systems, and improve well-being. Through our programs, partnerships, and influence, we support communities to cope, adapt, and ultimately thrive. Since the escalation of the war in Ukraine in 2022, Mercy Corps has supported more than 1.2 million conflict‑affected people in Ukraine and neighboring countries.

We have provided humanitarian assistance for people in emergency situations and supported war‑affected micro, small, and medium businesses, including farmers and agribusinesses, to recover their business activities. Increasingly, Mercy Corps is implementing Market Systems Development (MSD) approaches in Ukraine, seeking systemic solutions that build resilient, inclusive, and sustainable economic opportunities for conflict‑affected populations. Notably, nearly all our programming is delivered in partnership with civil society organizations — integrating program delivery, mutual growth, and experience exchange with a genuine commitment to localization.

Mercy Corps Ukraine is investing in strengthening internal team capacity on MSD programmatic and MSD Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) to enable more effective design, implementation, measurement, and adaptation of MSD programming across the portfolio. This includes building the team’s ability to plan and implement MSD interventions, monitor and measure outcomes and impact, demonstrate Value for Money (VfM), and continuously learn and adapt programming.

To support this effort, Mercy Corps is engaging two complementary consultants: one focusing on MSD MEL and adaptive learning (this Scope of Work), and the other on broader MSD technical capacity strengthening (separate Scope of Work). The consultancies are designed to be closely coordinated and mutually reinforcing.

The purpose of this assignment is to strengthen the Mercy Corps Ukraine’s capacity to design and apply monitoring, learning, and adaptive management approaches aligned with MSD principles. The focus is on building practical skills to track adoption, understand partner performance, assess commercial viability, and generate actionable learning to inform MSD intervention implementation, adaptive management and decision‑making.

The primary objective of this role is to strengthen the team’s capacity to plan and implement MSD interventions, monitor and measure outcomes and impact, demonstrate Value for Money (VfM), and learn from and adapt MSD programming. This will be achieved through practical coaching, application of MSD MEL tools and methodologies, and the co‑development of an internal MSD MEL Toolkit that captures tested approaches, tools, and lessons for ongoing and future programming, contextualizing and integrating key aspects of the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) standard.

This capacity strengthening effort will contribute to building a sustainable, practical MSD MEL practice within Mercy Corps Ukraine that supports evidence‑based decision‑making, adaptive management, and scalable impact.

The MSD MEL & Adaptive Learning Consultant will provide tailored technical assistance to strengthen the team’s Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) capacity in support of MSD interventions. Through a combination of practical learning sessions, coaching, and advisory support, the consultant will help the MEL and program team apply MSD‑oriented approaches to results measurement, learning, adaptive management, and intervention validation.

The consultant…