Mercy
Corps is a leading global relief and development agency saving and improving
lives in the world’s toughest places.
In
more than 40 countries, we partner with local people to put bold ideas into
action, help them overcome adversity and build stronger communities.
We
help communities survive and move beyond emergencies. When natural disasters
strike, economies collapse or conflict flares, Mercy Corps is there.
Mercy
Corps is looking for committed and dynamic individual to take up the following
position.
Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Manager – Nairobi, Kenya
Program / Department Summary: More than ever, we are driven to have impact, be accountable, show evidence, and manage adaptively.
At the
same time, traditional approaches to data collection, monitoring and evaluation
are insufficient to meet the rising expectations for information that is
timely, useful, and complete.
Monitoring
and Evaluation (M&E) today requires a modern grasp of technologies and
tools that support the collection, management, presentation and use of this
information.
And it
requires an understanding of the latest development thinking, including
adaptive management, systems thinking, complexity, social impact, value for
money, etc.
Mercy
Corps is committed to building a stronger commitment to delivering high
quality, high impact programming.
The
MEL Manager will focus on building this internal capacity within Mercy Corps in
Kenya and more broadly in East & Southern Africa.
General Position Summary: The MEL Manager is critical to ensure evidence based impact, accountability, and quality.
He/she
will extend dynamic, targeted support to programs in Kenya as well as tailored
support to Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe
to help our teams set a high standard in program performance by building a
culture of adaptive management, measurement and learning as part of Mercy
Corps’ global commitment to the “Campaign for Impact”.
These
three areas of internal capacity building will allow country teams to maximize
the impact of their programming, thereby improving the quantity and quality of
our programming.
The MEL Manager will provide support to all Mercy Corps country programs in Kenya.
A key
position in Program quality assurance, accountability, documentation and
learning, the MEL Manager will be responsible for providing the core functions
for ensuring strong MEL performance of programs, coordination of documentation,
learning and communication processes.
Tasked
with supporting Mercy Corps Kenya programs in strategic planning and execution
of monitoring, evaluation, learning and communications activities, ensuring
quality in accordance with accepted standards, providing essential feedback for
learning, accountability and decision making, s/he will also be responsible for
providing internal capacity building for program staff on monitoring and
evaluation activities as well as review and development of necessary tools that
feed into needs of Mercy Corps, partners and donor reporting requirements.
Regional priorities involve ensuring a regional MEL support structure is in place, including support for Tola (Mercy Corps’ central platform for program and data management); ensuring all countries in the region use M&E data for learning and influence, and that all staff in the region can articulate and demonstrate the impact that their programs are aiming to achieve.
In
addition, the MEL Manager will work closely with country leadership, country
M&E team members, the regional team and relevant HQ teams to nurture and
help develop an effective, impact-driven leadership culture.
In
particular, this will include driving adaptive management approaches and
supporting data-driven management decision-making throughout the region.
Essential
Job Functions:
Measurement,
Monitoring and Evaluation
- Promote
adherence to Mercy Corps’ standards, including the use of standardized
indicators, M&E, program and adaptive management approaches, and
country-level learning and strategic objectives;
- Provide
in-country program design, MEL and research planning as well as guide the
incorporation of all best practices of MEL in proposal design stage for
effective program management during implementation, and for high quality,
utility focused evaluations to feed into program design, planning and
strategy.
- Provide
leadership and training to ensure programs meet minimum standards, use
necessary PM@MC systems and tools to inform and improve each individual
programs and feed into broader country-wide MEL system, country strategy
and agency level information system
- Ensure
regional and country level program and technical staff mainstream MEL best
practices and replicable/scalable tools into their work;
- Work
with program teams to identify standard tools and processes to gather,
analyze and use data that go beyond descriptive reporting and
indicator-centric processes to develop feedback loops and adapt programs
in response to changing conditions on the ground;
- Support
teams to improve data collection, management, and use to build a culture
of adaptive management, high-quality program performance, and learning;
- Support
the regional roll out of Tola (an open-source software built internally to
improve how we use program data). The process would include: 1) assessing
each country’s Tola readiness; 2) providing pre-prep support to the next
ready country; and 3) support the roll out of Tola in that country. This
would be repeated in all countries in the region;
- Act
as focal point for the roll out of the Mercy Corps ‘Design for Impact
Guide’ (DIG) and provide consistent coaching and capacity building on the
use of the DIG in project design and monitoring and evaluation plans in
the region;
- Use
and train on cutting edge practices in design, monitoring, evaluation and
learning. Promote use of ICT4M&E in the field, including the use of
mobile data collection, GIS-mapping, and online data management platforms.
Support use of new technologies for data visualization, presentation, and
analysis. Contribute to the understanding and application of new DM&E
approaches to emerging themes like resilience, systems thinking, and
complex humanitarian crises.
- Engage
in other agency level tools and initiatives to ensure regional input and
coordinated delivery and messaging and consistent high quality
implementation in the region.
- Keep
abreast of developments in grant/program changes and progress in order to
advise and recommend tools and strategies to increase program performances
and results. Provide guidance in developing and technical back-stopping
from program start-up and planning for new country programs
Capacity
Building and Program Quality
- Support
M&E and ICT staff capacity building that guides Kenya country teams
and the region toward developing technical skills and promotes a culture
of data analysis for decision making and adaptive management;
- Participate
in interviewing and orientation of new M&E staff to promote internal
data management tools, standards and best practices;
- Schedule
monthly training sessions for regional participation to deepen program
staff’s understanding and commitment to M&E best practices;
- Act
as key liaison point to coordinate TDYs. Collaborate with country,
regional, and HQ teams to identify specific capacity building and coaching
opportunities for all levels of leadership;
- Act
as the key liaison point between Regional Office, country teams, and PM@MC
teams to coordinate efforts to roll out adaptive management and PM@MC
training across the region;
- Engage
with country programs on M&E and the relationship between M&E and
program quality.
Knowledge
Management & Learning
- Formalize
a Regional M&E Working Group and ensure effective participation;
- Build
a collaborative network of relationships for M&E practitioners and
other stakeholders learning networks that promotes shared learning,
aligned approaches, and mutual accountability to quality data collection
and programming;
- Contribute
to the development and implementation of knowledge management to further
stimulate use of evidence for learning, strategic adaptive management, and
high-impact programming;
- Connect
best practices and learning from programs across Mercy Corps countries
within the region to ensure an evolving and effective learning system for
improving program implementation. Liaise with other HQ and Regional MEL
advisors in this initiative;
- Work
with country M&E teams and program/operations teams to capture lessons
learned during program implementation, and feed this information into
thought leadership and research opportunities and into ongoing program
management and program design;
- Collect
impact stories and evidence from Mercy Corps’ country teams on a regular
basis.
- Conduct
himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to
bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian
mission.
Other
duties as assigned.
Organizational
Learning: As
part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our
understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and
relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5%
of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as
themselves.
Accountability to Beneficiaries
Mercy
Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability,
specifically to our 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: Dotted line technical reporting relationship with all M&E staff in Kenya
Reports
Directly To: Kenya
Country Director with a dotted line to the Deputy Regional Program Director
Works Directly With: Regional Program Director, Regional Office and Country Directors, MEL and Program field teams, Mercy Corps’ HQ Teams (Tola, MEL, PM@MC, and Technical Support Unit).
Knowledge
and Experience:
- 5-7
years of experience in international relief and development programs, with
3+ years in field postings, and 3+ years working for an international
agency on monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
- MA
in social science, international development, or relevant field (with
coursework in M&E, research and evaluation methodologies, statistical
analysis or organizational development) or similar field of study.
- Strong
technical expertise including passion for handling large amounts of data
and transforming it into compelling visualizations that facilitate
analysis and decision-making. Demonstrated understanding of intermediate
statistics and the ability to summarize, generalize, and make predictions
from large data sets.
- Substantial
background in project management, including experience leading program
design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.
- Experience
managing organizational change initiatives in a relief or development
context with previous Mercy Corps experience strongly preferred.
- Extensive
field experience in developing practical, useful, timely monitoring
systems, both at the program- and country-levels that promote use of data
for adaptive management and learning.
- Experience
with a range of both private and institutional donors such as EC, USAID,
and DFID and familiarity with their measurement, reporting, and evaluation
requirements.
- Comfort
working with qualitative and quantitative methodologies for data
collection and analysis.
- Exceptional
analytical and problem-solving skills and experience with
statistical/graphical software or spatial software.
- Proven
experience with current technologies, such as web-based data management
and analysis tools, digital data collection, mapping, Google applications,
data visualization, interactive dashboards, etc.
- Experience
in building iterative learning systems or feedback loops and approaches in
human-centered design are strongly valued.
- Significant
experience in facilitating learning and capacity building across teams.
- Strong
group process design and facilitation skills, including developing and
leading workshops.
- Demonstrated
ability to manage and communicate effectively with team members of varied
work styles;
- Demonstrated
flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving.
- Excellent
oral and written communications skills in English are required.
Success
Factors: This
role requires a dynamic individual, able to work with program staff and
leadership to build capacity and consensus around data collection, management,
use and research.
S/he
is able to travel on short notice and adapt quickly to new environments, and is
eager to learn and share new and innovative techniques, tools and technologies
to meet changing needs and requirements.
The MEL Manager should be able to problem-solve, identify issues and solutions quickly in many different environments and contexts, and is able to communicate effectively and persuasively, while building strong working relationships.
S/he
should be highly analytical with a willingness to acquire expertise in
different communication, learning and development approaches is a good fit.
Strict adherence to Mercy Corps security policies and procedures is mandatory, as is respect for local cultural norms and traditions and ability to live in various cultural environments.
The
capacity to spark innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to programming and
to inspire groups to collaborate closely to implement high-quality programs is
preferable, as is a desire and ability to learn and grow, both personally and
professionally.
The successful MEL Manager will apply a strong combination of team spirit, program development and implementation skills in a fast-changing environment and the willingness to engage in regular travel to program sites in the field, including insecure environments is crucial.
How to Apply
Interested
candidates who meet the above required qualifications and experience should
submit a cover letter, detailed Curriculum Vitae (CV) listing three
professional references (including a recent supervisor) to
ke-hrkenya@mercycorps.org on or before Friday 12th August, 2016 by
4.00pm.
The
email subject line must clearly show the job title and location they are
applying for.
Applications
without the right subject heading will be automatically disqualified.
Please
do not attach any certificates.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
NB: Mercy Corps does not charge any fee at any stage of the recruitment process.
