Mercy Corps seeks to recruit a senior monitoring, evaluation, accountability & learning (meal) officer – Mogadishu, Somalia

Position Category : Full Time

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 and Mercy USA having identified education as a priority need in Somalia (South and Central Regions, Puntland and Somaliland), have formed the Wax Bar CarruurtaSoomaaliyeed (Educate Somali Children) Consortium (ESCC) to support integrated and innovative approaches to develop education in Somalia (South and Central Regions, Puntland and Somaliland). In line with the mission, vision and goals of Educate a Child (EAC) , the mandate of the Wax Bar CarruurtaSoomaaliyeed Consortium is to increase access to high-quality, sustainable education for the children of Somalia (South and Central Regions, Puntland and Somaliland).  With vast experience implementing education programs in Somalia (South and Central Regions, Puntland and Somaliland) and strong on-the-ground presence in all three zones (over 15 independently operated field offices), the consortium herein allows each partner to leverage best practices, complement each other, enhance program learning and build on existing relationships with communities and governments for the best possible result in line with EAC’s mandate.

General Position Summary :

The Senior Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Officer  is an important position in the Mercy Corps Somalia program responsible for providing support to country-level monitoring and evaluation (M&E) department staff, ensuring the quality of the portfolio’s M&E, and the timely delivery of M&E reporting to donors, as well as information management via Mercy Corps’ proprietary Tola systems, and other such systems as the Senior MEAL Officer may design and implement. The Senior MEAL Officer’s role is to support and promote coordination of the technical areas across M&E staff and programs. The Senior MEAL Officer is also responsible for the capacity building and mentoring strategy for Mercy Corps Somalia staff on themes related to monitoring, evaluation, accountability, learning and adaptive management. As well as ensuring beneficiaries accountability.

Essential Job Responsibilities :

Strategic Leadership and Accountability :

• Ensure programs are effectively implementing required M&E systems and tools ;
• Consolidate program-level innovations and feedback, incorporating it into the broader country-level M&E system ;
• Administer Mercy Corps Somalia’s multi-level Community Accountability and Reporting Mechanism (CARM) ;
• Participate in internal and external MEAL-related working groups and maintain close working relationships with MEAL counterparts in other relevant international NGOs, local NGOs and associations in Somalia ;
• Promote and learn the use of M&E and ICT best practices ;
• Execute an office-wide M&E agenda, with prioritized subjects of strategic assessment and evaluation.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Information Management :

• With the MEAL Manager and Team Leader, support Mercy Corps Somalia in the setup and implementation of a holistic MEAL system that uses open source software and flexible cloud solutions to more accurately collect, monitor, verify and document program activities ;
• Contribute to program design, ensuring adherence to Mercy Corps’ M&E best practices and minimum standards, including the use of standardized indicators, form templates and documentation methodologies ;
• Support Tola data management system roll-out, utilization, and learning across all Mercy Corps Somalia country programs ;
• Support in ensuring accuracy and comprehensiveness of country-level reporting on indicators such as beneficiary numbers, design for impact indicators and other information as needed.
• Support in the development of a mobile data collected capability, as well as relational database design

Capacity Building and Mentoring :

• Support implementation of the M&E staff and partner capacity-building strategy that promotes a culture of learning and adaption through systematic analysis of program data ;
• Provide training and monitoring in the development of M&E plans, M&E tools as well as survey design, methodology, data collection and analysis and other skills as required for assessing the impact of programs ;
• Under the direction of the MEAL Manager and in coordination with the Team Leader and Reporting & Program Support Officer, support efforts to promote and share internal learning ;
• Work closely with Program Managers and Human Resources to ensure that M&E and ICT skills are incorporated in all program position descriptions
• Contribute to the knowledge management repository with best practices in M&E and ICT and ensure that is tis accessible to all staff and partners.

Knowledge Management :

• Assist in maintaining proper and standardized filing system for storing program documents according to Mercy Corps Program Management Minimum Standard.
• Up the google drive and ensure the information are up to date for all the running and closed projects.

Security :

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country ;
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

Supervisory responsibility : none

Reports directly to : meal manager

Works directly with: all staff

Knowledge and Experience :

• BA/S or equivalent in development studies, statistics, economics, social sciences, monitoring and evaluation, project management, business and public administration or other relevant field required. Post-graduate degree preferred ;
• 3-5 years’ experience in monitoring and evaluation with proven use of database, data-visualization, project management, and other relevant IT platforms ;
• Excellent written English and communication skills, with proven ability to produce high quality final documents and tools (such as logframes, AMEPs, etc.) to reach a broad group of stakeholders ;
• Successful experience with the adoption of mobile data collection tools like Open Data Kit (ODK) or similar data collection ;
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative methodologies and techniques ;
• Excellent quantitative skills and experience with Excel database and statistical packages including Stata and/or SPSS, and experience with GIS tools like QGIS, ArcGIS, and Google Earth Engine is a plus ;
• Experience with data management including the ability to structure and collate data sets for ease of analysis ;
• Demonstrated understanding of intermediate statistics and ability to summarize from diverse sources and analyze trends ;
• Ability to plan and implement quantitative and qualitative research activities creatively, as well as possess the ability to analyze data and utilize lessons learned for the continuous improvement of program implementation and to promote a culture of learning ;
• Proven ability to work productively with a variety of stakeholders to run participatory processes and meet tight deadlines with an emphasis on producing quality products ;
• Actively promote communication, learning and accountability ;
• Ability to work effectively with an ethnically diverse team in a sensitive environment ;
• Demonstrated ability to work in complex programming and volatile environment

Do This Interested candidates who meet the required qualifications should submit their CV and Motivation letter to akhadir@mercycorps.org not later than February 2^nd2019. Only Short-listed candidates will be contacted for the Interview.