Iraq: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager

Sep 6, 2017 | Mercy Corps
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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. 

Program / Department Summary

General Position Summary

Essential Job Responsibilities

Strategy & Vision

• Work with Syria technical team and supervisor to formalize a strategy and workplan for MEL around coordination and communication with program teams.
• Collaborate with Regional team to create or redesign and then contribute dashboards for program teams and the senior management team to use to have quick access to necessary MEL information.
• Work with the program and MEL teams from other hubs to contribute to a holistic country-level MEL system to accurately collect, monitor and verify program activities and ensure they are aligned with the country strategic and annual plan.

• Provide leadership, training and mentoring in the development of MEL plans, tools, survey design, methodology, data collection, analysis, and other skills required for assessing the progress and impact of programs.
• Collaborate with external evaluators and MEL counterparts, whenever necessary on the design and roll out of the program baseline and evaluations, while setting up effective systems for learning.
• Ensure programs use the necessary MEL systems and tools, to inform and improve each individual program, as well as feed into the broader country-level MEL system and country strategy.
• Take the lead in aligning, collecting and reporting on relevant indicators to the organizational-wide MEL systems, and other external systems, as relevant.
• Provide technical support to MEL staff on design of specific data collection tools (such as surveys, questionnaires) and appropriate sampling strategies as needed by the programs.
• Ensure data is collected with attention to accuracy and consistency.
• Support in the development of appropriate beneficiary accountability mechanisms, as required.

• Contribute to program design to ensure adherence to Mercy Corps’ MEL best practices, including the inclusion of standardized indicators, MEL plans, form templates, and documentation methodologies.
• Lead on the development of logical frameworks and MEAL plans in project proposals, in consultation with the team leader and program teams.
• Work with MIS Manager to contribute to reports with accurate, clear, and high-quality data, presented in the proper format.
• Develop program and operational reporting templates that facilitate the acquisition, aggregation and flow of information in programs.
• Support programs and Team Leader in internal and donor reporting. Ensure tracking tools are in place and updated. Prepare and share assessment and evaluation reports
• Assist field offices in undertaking baseline, livelihoods and/or other studies;
• Actively participate in processing, analyzing and/or reviewing of evaluation findings

• Recruit, manage the MEL team across the geographies
• Plan for capacity building, trainings and other HR needs of team members.
• Proactively plan coordination and communication operating procedures with program teams.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
• Develop and oversees implementation of the MEL staff performance appraisal process and ensure a work environment that promotes a culture of learning through systematic analysis and reflection of work and feedback to the team.
• Build the capacity of all relevant team members to develop and maintain an excellent MEL system, including integrating into the program cycle regular reflection and analysis of program monitoring data.
• Provide support/guidance in the selection of evaluators, development of terms of reference and scope of work for evaluation teams;
• Develop/adopt training materials and conduct training programs to relevant staff of field offices;
• Orient, train, and coach staff

• Collaborate in the consolidation of MEL tools across the Syria program to leverage existing resources and provide comparable data.
• Harmonize and give guidance on methodologies/tools: including needs assessments, indicators definitions, reporting on indicators, beneficiary counting and tracking, research approaches and evaluations.
• Support the collaboration between MEL and program teams to capture the progress and impact of MC activities and overall program footprint.
• In close collaboration with Syria PaQ team support the design of a cloud-base database system to enable analysis of Mercy Corps impact at the program level, in line with regional initiatives.
• Support programme processes, particularly on logic of intervention (country program logical frameworks and MEAL plans), and contribute to Ensure compliance with PM@MC and Design for Impact (DIG) requirements, applying MC’s internal Program Management standard procedures.
• Update and manage indicators to ensure the program level database is up to date.
• Support program teams to ensure indicators are linked to appropriate evidence within the cloud-based system.
• Contribute to the knowledge management repository with best practices in MEL and ensure that it is accessible to all staff and partners.
• Act as lead on the establishment of an improved beneficiary database system (including needs assessment, engaging appropriate technical support, and supporting roll-out across the programme).

• Actively contribute and collaborate with regional and global counterparts to promote the use of MEL best practices.
• Maintain close working relationships with MEL counterparts in other relevant international and local NGOs.
• Coordinate closely with MIS Manager on all processes of the program cycle, particularly for monitoring and assessment exercises.

• Ensure supervisees’ compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

Organizational Learning 

• As part of Mercy Corps’ commitment to organizational learning and in support of MC’s understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, MC expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit MC as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically 
  to beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Supervisory Responsibility

Accountability

Knowledge and Experience

• Degree in social sciences, development, international relations, statistics or related field.
• 5+ years of M&E experience in complex international relief and development programs ideally in remote management and/ or insecure environments. Additional programmatic experience will be an asset.
• Demonstrated experience with designing projects and indicators as part of successful project start up and ensuring they are kept relevant throughout the project lifecycle.
• Experience developing and using mobile-based monitoring systems and dashboards or willingness to learn
• Experience with data management including the ability to structure and collate data sets for ease of analysis. 
• Demonstrated understanding of intermediate statistics and ability to summarize and make predictions from multiple data sets.
• Experience of and commitment to training and building capacity in M&E.
• Ability to managing quantitative data while not losing sight of the bigger picture and meaning.
• Experience working with local civil society organizations to strengthen their own M&E systems and processes (preferable).
• Ability to work independently with minimum supervision
• Knowledge of Arabic and/or Kurdish (preferable).
• Experience with the Syria context (preferable).
• Highly developed interpersonal communication skills.
• Analytical mind.
• Strong remote management skills.
• Deep commitment to humanitarian principles and values.
• Ability to work under pressure, independently and with limited supervision.
• Demonstrated creative problem-solving skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and communicate effectively with team members of varied experiences and work styles, follow procedures, and meet deadlines.
• Multi-tasker with the proven ability to organize and prioritize competing priorities.
• Proven ability to learn quickly, take initiative, and be accountable for results.
• Demonstrate a strong understanding for cultural, political and religious environments and be able to live and work successfully in those environments.
• Ability to maintain a sense of humor in stressful situations.

Success Factors

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions