MEL Manager Job at Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps, Kampala, Uganda
negotiable Expired 3 years ago
This job has expired.

JOB DETAIL

Working in Uganda since 2006, Mercy Corps has applied market-driven solutions to communities across the country, equipping individuals and households with the knowledge, skills and confidence to generate improvements in their access to markets, livelihoods, health, nutrition, and security, in order to improve their overall resilience. Our programs focus on:
• Strengthening market systems to enable inclusive economic growth and resilience

• Strengthening governance structures, to prioritize and advocate for community needs, making informed decisions, and allocating resources in a participatory, transparent, and accountable manner
• Building institutional capacity to enable communities to attain better health, nutrition, and sexual reproductive health outcomes
• Meeting the immediate needs of refugees and hosting communities, while strengthening market systems and resilience capacities
Throughout our programs we ensure we focus on women and youth, building resilience to climate change, designing for impact and scale, and ensuring we take a conflict sensitive approach to do no harm. In 2018, Mercy Corps worked in 26 districts across the northern agro-pastoral and pastoral regions bordering South Sudan and Kenya, and into central Uganda including major urban areas such as Kampala and has improved the wellbeing of over 1 million Ugandans. The Mercy Corps Uganda team consists of 300 members, across 10 offices.

General Position Summary

The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Manager is a key position in the Mercy Corps Uganda team, reporting to the Deputy Director of Programs. The MEL Manager will oversee Mercy Corps Uganda’s programmatic monitoring and evaluation activities. They will continue to strengthen a coordinated nationwide MEL system: facilitating the design, set-up and implementation of standard monitoring and evaluating processes in collaboration with program managers and in alignment with Mercy Corps’ global MEL policy and minimum standards.

They will be responsible for information management, using standard Mercy Corps systems such as Tola and Ona. The MEL Manager will ensure that information collected is 1) reflected on; 2) used to make effective and evidence-based programmatic decisions; and 3) incorporated into consistently high-quality reports and proposal development. They will be responsible for fostering a culture of reflection and adaptive management and will lead in strengthening the capacity of the MEL team nationwide. .

Essential Job Responsibilities
Strategy & Vision
• Strengthen the nationwide MEL system by providing leadership to program teams in developing program level M&E systems that inform and improve each program, as well as feed into the overall strategy.
• Participate in management meetings and country-wide strategy sessions.
• Provide leadership on MEL related new business tasks such as advising on logframe, indicator and MEL plan development during proposal development.
MEL System Development
• Strengthen the nationwide MEL system with utility and program quality in mind, providing program teams with real-time data and learning that can inform adaptive management.
• Support program teams to ensure high quality MEL processes exist and are supported in their programs:
• Lead in designing data collection tools, executing data collection activities, and providing guidance on analysis, and visualization to inform adaptive management.
• Coordinate with MEL and program teams to document challenges with MEL processes and provide leadership to improve them.
• Conduct internal periodic data quality assessments and collaborate with the senior management team to address shortfalls in MEL that affects program implementation.
Information Management & Reporting
• Collect, analyze and validate data on performance indicators for all programs.
• Manage Tola, ensuring that program teams are capturing results in Mercy Corps internal indicator tracking software and utilizing them to improve program quality.
• Oversee MEL contributions to programmatic reporting (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, final, etc).
• Support partners in communicating their impact by reviewing programmatic reports, providing feedback and support for them to improve.
• Support the program team to generate high-quality, timely and accurate reports for donors.
Learning
• Develop and oversee the nationwide and program level learning agendas.
• Design and oversee programmatic research and evaluation, contributing to overall learning and evidence.
• Contribute to and facilitate quarterly and ad hoc learning workshops.
Team Management
• Lead in establishing a strong core MEL team to support programs.
• Develop and implement plans to mentor and coach staff to build their capacity.
• Strengthen the capacity of the MEL team to improve MCU’s ability to analyze and represent impact to donors, government, partners, and communities.
• Create an enabling environment to deepen understanding of their roles, promote growth and retention of MEL team members.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations, and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews to the MEL team.
• Foster a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
• Play an active role in hiring, orienting and leading MEL team members, as necessary.
• Conduct a needs assessment and develop a subsequent MEL training plan for relevant partners.
• Supervise MEL contractors and consultants involved in assessments or other MEL activities.
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
• Collaborate with Community Accountability and Response Mechanism (CARM) staff members to strengthen systems to promote accountability to participants and communities.
• Support program teams to ensure communities understand their rights and are comfortable to provide feedback to Mercy Corps on MEL processes and program activities.
• Ensure all MEL and program activities are gender sensitive and in adherence with Mercy Corps’ Gender Equity Policy.
• Apply Do No Harm standards to ensure that MEL activities do not have adverse effects on communities.
• Support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to participants and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging communities as equal partners in design, monitoring and evaluation of projects.

Supervisory Responsibility
MEL Officers, MEL Assistants
Accountability
Reports Directly To: MERL Advisor
Works Directly With: Program Managers, other program staff, CARM team

Knowledge and Experience
• BA/S or equivalent, preferable in business administration, public administration, or international development. MA/S in relevant field strongly preferred.
• 5+ years of experience in the areas of program development and monitoring and evaluation, including relevant experience building and managing an M&E system and team, relevant experience supervising data collection and data validation exercises, and building staff capacity.
• Must have extensive experience working I/NNGOs and key donors including USAID and DFID.
• High degree of computer literacy required including proficiency in the following packages: Excel, Word, and Open Data Kit/Kobo Toolbox/Ona. Statistical software experience is an advantage.
• Extensive experience with mixed-methods data collection, entry, verification, analysis, and reporting.
• Proven leadership, training, and capacity building experience.
• Fluency in written and oral English.
• Ability to produce clear and concise documentation.
• Ability to manage and meet deadlines and work independently on multiple priorities.
• Excellent communication and organizational skills.

Success Factors
The MEL Manager is a bright, energetic, and hard-working leader who is eager to learn. S/he will have a demonstrated passion for development work and for building capacity of their teams. They will be detail oriented, and a strategic thinker, able to produce high-quality work independently. They will be an excellent communicator, multi-tasker and experienced with operating under ambiguity. S/he will be creative and flexible, encouraging innovative solutions while still adhering to crucial systems, processes, and protocols. They will strictly follow Mercy Corps Uganda security procedures and will hold themselves to a high standard when making decisions and managing resources efficiently and will stand out as a role model for Mercy Corps’ values.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Kampala, Uganda and it requires up to 50% travel to field offices.
Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 60

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Job application procedure
Use the link to apply: https://recruiting2.ultipro.com/MER1024MERCY/JobBoard/df92509c-10a2-4fc7-9d8c-ddae2a94d9fc/OpportunityDetail?opportunityId=a1002077-51dc-4105-9585-3c5b27ccf41b

Uganda, Kampala

location

This job has expired.