Country Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Communications Manager-One Vacancy based in Kampala (Open to Uganda Nationals Only) 179 views0 applications

About Mercy Corps

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

Mercy Corps is an international, non-governmental humanitarian relief and development agency with headquarters in the UK and USA operating in over 44 countries. The agency exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities. Mercy Corps’ work emphasizes community-led, market-driven interventions through public, private and civic sector partnerships. After more than a decade of operation in Uganda, the Mercy Corps country team has differentiated itself as a forward-thinking, market-driven agency, having implemented or currently implementing nearly 40 programs, valued at over $141 million, changing the lives of over 2.5 million Ugandans and refugees. In Uganda, some of our donors include USAID, SIDA, DFID, WFP, US Department of State; MasterCard Foundation, and ECHO, with over 20 programs and projects currently in operation in 30 districts.

General Position Summary

The position holder will provide Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Communications (MELC) support to all Mercy Corps country programs in Uganda. The Country MELC Manager is a key position in program quality assurance, accountability, documentation and learning unit. The unit exists to support program design, implementation and utilization of information collected at different stages. The position holder will be responsible for providing the core functions for ensuring strong MELC performance of programs, coordination of documentation, learning and communication processes. The position holder will support 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 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.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Working under the supervision of the Director of Programs, the Country MELC Manager will be responsible for the following key functions.

Strategic Leadership in Program Quality and MELC:

· Lead on the roll out and implementation of country-wide MEL Strategy, including adaptive reviews to improve the strategy on a continual basis.

· Coordinate all Program Management at Mercy Corps (PM@MC) trainings and learning, while maintaining documentation of minimum standards. Position holder should be trained as a PM@MC facilitator and will be expected to co-facilitate PM@MC trainings to ensure our program management team is well-equipped with the minimum standards.

· Lead in developing guidance for quality assurance processes and reviews for all programs, including quarterly reviews across programs, movement towards adaptive management and Data Quality Assessments.

· Ensure that program design, planning and measurement frameworks includes well defined and embedded cross cutting issues to include but not limited to gender, conflict and governance, resilience lens, age and sex dis aggregated data.

· Participate in the facilitation of country and sector level strategic planning sessions, assisting Program Managers, MEL Managers in coordination with Director of Programs, to ensure that activities are implemented on plan and progress towards targets is not compromised.

Mercy Corps Uganda and Global Coordination:

· Coordinating roll out and uptake of new Mercy Corps global initiatives (e.g. PQ/MEL Gap Assessments, TolaData, use of The DIG, etc.) at Mercy Corps Uganda to fit within the overall MEL country strategy.

· Create an environment that supports and offer incentives for Program Managers and MEL staff to see values of MELC, as an opportunity to discuss problems openly, reflect critically, and learn what changes are needed to enhance impact and collective ownership of results.

· Ensure quality engagement with HQ to coordinate agency measurement requirements and other MEL initiatives and learning opportunities by taking more central role in country strategic planning and support achieving and articulating the corner stones of Impact, Innovation and Influence.

Strengthened MELC across Programs:

· Provide support and coordinate with in-country Programs and support function in all aspects of MEL and information management and support the development of good practices and sharing of lessons learned.

· Lead the development and deployment of project specific MEL system, indicator and other MEL plans, in partnership with program-specific MEL teams.

· Oversee monitoring and evaluation, analyses, and assessments from programs, including the data quality assessments, value for money audits (impact management for the project), participatory data collection methods and protocols, and data quality verification techniques, in partnership with program-specific MEL teams.

· Support program-specific MEL teams in coordinating and leading components of a baseline, mid-term evaluation and final evaluation, along with other key research activities.

· Support coordination of reporting with local partners, specifically tracking deadlines, ensuring adherence to formats and requirements, ensuring reporting quality and accuracy, and periodic report writing, editing, and submission, in partnership with program-specific MEL teams.

· Perform spot checks on program data collected and reports each month.

· Ensure that donor, partners, and Senior Management data queries are addressed in an accurate and timely manner and clarify the core information needs of management.

· Guide teams on internal monitoring of 3Is Targets and enhanced quarterly 3Is reporting.

Capacity Building

· Build capacity of all relevant team members to understand and implement MELC related tasks, including systematic reflection and analysis of program M&E data.

· Work with senior leaders and HR to ensure MELC skills are built in to all program PDs and all staffs responsibilities and that there is a system of accountability.

· Navigate learning platforms and Identify the MELC training needs, coach, train, and mentor MELC team and implementing partners with a view to build capacity and maintain high technical standards with the aim of strengthening their technical capacity, exchanging knowledge within the MELC team and providing professional development guidance.

Other Duties as Assigned: At times the position will require the Country MELC Manager to step in other roles when a critical gap is identified that sufficiently threatens the success of a program or the overall portfolio. Country MELC Manager should be ready to take full responsibility and accountability for other roles.

Security

· Ensure 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 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 toward 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

Technical Supervision of all country MELC Staff

Accountability

Reports Directly to: Director of Programs

Works Directly with: Programs, MEL teams, Operations and Finance teams

Ethics and Integrity

All Mercy Corps staff are expected to behave ethically and demonstrate highest integrity in their professional and personal life. Mercy Corps has zero tolerance to any form of fraud, corruption, abuse, harassment or exploitation. Any breach of our policies or misconduct will lead to disciplinary action or may lead to termination.

Knowledge and Experience

· Advanced degree in a relevant discipline and at least 5 years of demonstrated experience designing, and implementing monitoring and evaluation activities and special studies for complex programs in Northern Uganda including previous experience working with DFID funded programs.

· The candidate must have strong writing skills and be able to prepare clear, substantive reports and briefing papers in English, in a timely manner. She/he must be familiar with a wide range of issues, such as program evaluation, gender-constraints to development, agriculture, community development, etc.

· Previous experience implementing and managing a rigorous M&E system including developing performance monitoring plans that track performance as sub-results/results and by funding stream

· Knowledge of data collection protocols to ensure accurate data collection and verification is essential, as well as an ability to identify data trends and communicate this information to allow for changes in program implementation. Strong knowledge of mobile data collection tools and best practices preferred.

· In addition, she/he must have the capacity to manage activities in a multi-cultural environment and in providing MEL support services in helping stakeholders analyze problems, devise and adopt solutions.

· Past experience, leading and building the capacity of stakeholders including remote, field-based staff, to meet program needs and deliverables are desired.

· Extraordinary organizational, verbal and written communication skills to manage project communications and disseminate project information are required with strong written and oral presentation skills in English

Success Factors

The successful Country MELC Manager will combine exceptional management skills and experience in building and maintaining partner relationships. S/he will have an ability to think creatively about operationalizing and improving the M&E system of the program. S/he will have proven experience with cross-cultural team and capacity building, individual staff development and strong mentoring skills. Multi-tasking, prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail as well as strategic vision are essential. The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations. A good sense of humor and the ability to learn from mistakes also goes a long way!

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours. 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 locations.