Job Details

Description

Program Summary

Mercy Corps with funding from the Hilton Foundation will address the needs of urban refugees and vulnerable host community members to improve their economic wellbeing and address issues, which limit the integration of refugees within host communities. The program will focus on addressing the interrelated gaps that hinder effective service delivery and local integration. The overall goal of the program will be to strengthen social cohesion and livelihoods in refugee-hosting divisions in Kampala. This will be achieved through three interrelated outcomes:

  • Refugees and host communities participate collectively toward a shared vision of sustainable peace and common development goals. Interventions will focus on building linkages between refugee leaders and local authorities, as well as fostering connections between youth, women and men in refugee and host-communities.
  • Financial Inclusion is enhanced for refugees and host communities in the divisions of Kampala, interventions will focus on building the capacity of micro-entrepreneurs to further develop and increase their income potential – improvements in understanding of legal regulations and taxation laws, access to microfinance.
  • Micro entrepreneurs are supported to develop their businesses to increase income and improve food security. Interventions will focus on building technical skills for existing and future entrepreneurs, supporting product innovation in businesses, which can build ties between host and refugee communities and social impact in communities, and enabling development of urban farming both to increase access to nutritious food at lower costs and as an income stream.

General Position Summary

The Senior MEL Officer will contribute to the quality assurance of program implementation and ensure that the program is meeting its deliverables, as well as developing tools and reports to demonstrate the impact and results of program implementation. S/he will develop and maintain data management systems. The Senior MEL Officer is responsible for supporting Mercy Corps staff to regularly collect, enter, verify, and analyze data and work with the MEL team to make timely adjustments to measure the impact of Mercy Corps’ programs and to ensure M&E data is accurately incorporated into all organizational reports and information products. S/he will ensure the collection and analysis of useful, timely and actionable information for managers and decision-makers, and contribute to the frequent review, reflection and key learning processes to improve performance.

Essential Job Responsibilities:

 Monitoring and Evaluation

  • Work with program teams, partners and M&E focal points to integrate M&E into ongoing project planning and implementation systems and ensure adherence to Mercy Corps M&E minimum standards;
  • Assist with the development of appropriate monitoring, tracking and reporting systems, tools and templates that enhance monitoring of project outputs and quality, generate quality evidence on project impact and promote and ensure use of data for decision-making processes;
  • Assist the program team to develop and promote the use of standard indicators, tools and forms (as appropriate) and M&E practices across the project and coordinate the collection of information required for country-level management;
  • Coordinate assessments and evaluations;
  • Ensure that monitoring plans are developed for the program and ensure that regular monitoring visits are conducted by MEL staff to the different project locations, ensure that minimum standards are being met, and that reports are shared with the program teams;
  • Work with partners and program team to gather success stories and anecdotal evidence of program impact to share for outreach and with donors.

Data Analysis and Reporting

  • Work as part of a broader team to design, facilitate and support data collection and analysis systems including baseline, annual, and end line surveys, regular monitoring, data collection and analysis, feedback and reporting;
  • Generate data reports (tables/graphs/reports) from the database at regular intervals, ensuring reports/information are available for program implementation staff as required;
  • Facilitate data analysis with program implementation team as requested;
  • Conduct regular field visits to ensure all elements of the data system are being utilized effectively, assessing and identifying breakdowns and areas that require clarifications and improvements;
  • Coordinate with field team and partners to implement system corrections and adjustments, solving operational issues and documenting actions taken and next steps;
  • Work with program teams to ensure data analysis and reports are integrated into programmatic decision making to improve impact of the program;
  • Contribute to monthly reports and other ad hoc reports to meet donor and internal requirements;
  • Report program achievements on TOLA, Activity Info, and other relevant reporting mechanisms.

Database Management

MORE JOBS ( October 2024)
  • Develop and manage a program database that improves Mercy Corps’ ability to inform program implementation, analyze data, and represent impact to key stakeholders;
  • Contribute to understanding of and support for mobile data collection hardware and software, including tools such as Commcare, Tableau, PowerBI etc;
  • Ensure all relevant program staff are able to utilize the database to analyze program information and results;
  • Design, adapt and maintain the database in conjunction with the MEL team to match strategic program or implementation changes;
  • Review data being collected in order to locate and fix problems with data entry or integrity;
  • Document database contents, protocols and update manuals for smooth functioning of the data management system;
  • Manage regular synchronizations of data;
  • Troubleshoot front and back end issues with the database, including any synchronization issues with field-level data entry.

Accountability

  • Coordinate with the team to build systems that promote beneficiary accountability by ensuring that communities participate in initial assessments and program design;
  • Coordinate with program teams to ensure that communities are informed about our programs and what we do, are aware of their entitlements, are comfortable to give feedback and that feedback is used to improve the quality of our programs
  • Ensure that Mercy Corps’ Community Feedback and Accountability Mechanism is clearly communicated to project beneficiaries, and that the hotline numbers are visible to end beneficiaries throughout the program.
  • Ensure all activities are gender sensitive and follow Mercy Corps’ Gender Equity Policy;
  • Apply Do No Harm standards to ensure activities do not have detrimental effects on vulnerable communities;
  • Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and not jeopardize its humanitarian mission;
  • Other assigned tasks, as necessary.

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.

Supervisory Responsibility: MEL Officers and MEL Assistant.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Program Manager

Works Directly With: MEL Advisor, Program Team, Operations and Finance Departments

Knowledge and Experience

  • Bachelor’s degree in statistics, Quantitative economics, Economics, social sciences or related field.
  • At least 3 – 4 years’ experience in monitoring and evaluation of Humanitarian or development programs or in the fields of research.
  • Good understanding and skills at data management.
  • Experience authoring xls forms for mobile data collection (This will be tested)
  • Experience managing different aspects of assessments as a lead, right from tools design, data collection, processing, analysis and report writing (Writing samples will be requested).
  • Strong computer literacy with a full knowledge of MS Office applications and G suite.
  • Proficiency in at least one statistical software (Stata, R, SPSS) in handling large data sets (Stata will be preferred)
  • Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members.
  • Fluent in both spoken and written English. Fluency in languages used by Refugees in Kampala and local host communities (French, Swahili, Arabic, Kinyarwanda, and Luganda) is preferred.
  • Strong team coordination, listening, and consensus building skills.

Success Factors

The successful Senior MEL Officer will be bright, energetic, hard-working and eager to learn.  S/he will take a deep personal interest in humanitarian and development assistance.  S/he will be attentive to detail and able to carry out assigned tasks in a timely manner and according to a very high standard of quality.  S/he will be creative and flexible, contributing to developing and encouraging new and innovative solutions, but at the same time will not have any difficulty in adhering to systems and procedures. S/he will strictly follow all protocols related to safety and security, and holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Mercy Corps’ values.

Closes: 20th July 2021

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