Senior Monitoring Evaluation & Learning Manager

Position description

The Senior MEL Manager will provide time-bound leadership as the country transitions MEL leadership to a national MEL Manager. They will primarily focus on capacity development – supporting the strengthening of a nationally-led MEL structure. Reporting to the PaQ Director, this is a technical position working remotely but in close collaboration with MEL Manager and MEL Systems Manager ensuring all program MEL needs are being met and staff have the right skills and capacities needed to effectively support program implementation. The Senior MEL Manager will provide overall technical leadership and management in improving the country’s MEL system and structure.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

CAPACITY BUILDING AND TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Responsible for the performance management of the MEL team.
• Lead on MEL staffing needs and manage the recruitment and training of MEL staff when necessary to ensure staff are of the quality and capacity for successful implementation of activities.
• Facilitate capacity building and technical assistance for MEL staff, to improve the quality of monitoring data and maximize program-wide learning.

STRATEGIC EVIDENCE GENERATION, ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

• Develop strategic and achievable plans for the portfolio focused on meaningful evidence generation, analysis and redesign.
• Lead an evidence gap analysis process, reviewing existing information and data from the reports, existing assessments, internal and external sources to identify evidence gaps that can be addressed.
• Orient key team members to the program’s logic model and evidence gap analysis process.
• Develop/update and implement a MEL workplan based on the critical path for key milestones.
• Ensure scopes of work of different studies are effectively layered and complement one another as part of one cohesive, achievable strategy for data collection.
• Develop and adapt scopes of work or protocols for assessments and studies.
• Work with relevant teams/evaluation firms to develop an analysis framework to draw out findings of each required study or assessment and understand the findings in the context of the program's expected outcomes and outputs.

Evidence Use and Adaptive Management

• Interpret and prioritize key takeaways and communicate these in a compelling way internally and externally.
• Ensuring research, learning and adaptive management are applied as key principles over the life of the program.
• Plan and facilitate a sensemaking session and a session to revise or refine the program Theory of Change and/or Implementation Plan (if needed).

Organizational Learning

• Capture lessons learned to improve future programming

SUPPORT THE DESIGN OF THE MEL SYSTEM

• Providing guidance to the national MEL Manager to lead on the design of County and Program-level MEL systems.
• Lead in designing or reviewing strategic and thematic area specific results chain and/or Theory of Change (ToC) and identify the assumptions that underpin the expected pathways of change, and subsequently direct data collection efforts to test those assumptions, for all programs.

STRATEGY AND PLANNING

• Work with the regional senior leadership team to develop and support the regional strategy.
• Mobilize support services and risk management resources to enable country and regional leadership teams to execute their respective strategic priorities.
• Lead the development and administration of regional and country level reports on key finance, operations and human resources indicators.
• Manage and administer regional core budgets in coordination with regional and global leadership.
• Lead on measurement and analysis of regional key performance indicators to inform strategic decision making.

RISK MANAGEMENT

• Engage and support countries across the region to ensure that adequate risk management systems are in place.
• Collaborate with country leadership to support preparedness and response to major disruptive events.
• Engage with country teams on the internal audit process to track findings and ensure country team compliance with IA findings and recommendations.
• Engage with country level Safeguarding Manager as well as the regional and global Safeguarding and Ethics and Assurance department to track and analyze trends and needs across countries.

SAFEGUARDING RESPONSIBILITIES

• Actively learns safeguarding and integrates it into their work, including safeguarding risks and mitigations related to their area of work.
• Practices the values of Mercy Corps including respecting the dignity and well-being of participants and fellow team members.
• Encourages openness and communication in their team; encourages team members to submit reports if they have any concerns using reporting mechanisms e.g., Integrity Hotline and other options.

Supervisory Responsibility.

• MEL Manager and MEL Systems Manager.

Accountability

• Reports Directly To: PaQ Director
• Works Directly With: PaQ team, Director of Programs, Area Manager, Team Leads, Program and support functions across Sudan.

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.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• BA/BS degree in a relevant field, MS preferred.
• At least 6-8 years of relevant experience in M&E
• Experience developing strategies to implement interrelated multi-sectoral studies and developing analysis frameworks to interpret their results.
• Experience with designing and managing learning activities and tools, including surveys and evaluations. Demonstrated ability to analyze data, manage data quality, and visualize/report results for varied audiences.
• Familiarity with adult learning, adaptive management and program learning processes, such as sensemaking, pause and reflect sessions, and other similar approaches.
• Demonstrated attention to detail, meeting deadlines and working and problem-solving independently and cooperatively.
• Excellent facilitation and training skills, ability to train and mentor team members on complex processes and ideas.
• Good English communication skills. Arabic is an advantage.

Success Factors

The ideal candidate will have a natural curiosity for quantifying and articulating the impact of Mercy Corps’ programs on individuals and in communities. S/he will also have an interest in exploring the larger factors that influence the success of humanitarian and development programs and the well-being of populations affected by natural disasters. S/he will undertake innovative approaches, be agile in the conceptualization of new programme ideas and will be well versed in strategic thinking, planning and monitoring frameworks. A successful candidate will have skills and a passion for data collection, entry, and analysis as well as the ability to mentor others in these areas. This position requires the ability to work effectively in a team as well as assume individual responsibility for supervision and specific reporting tasks.

Application instructions

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