Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) Director - Health Facility Electrification (HFE) at ABT Associates

Opportunity Summary

Abt Associates seeks a Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) Director for an anticipated Health Facility Electrification and Digital Connection activity. The activity will advance Africa’s goals to improve health and well-being of communities in sub-Saharan Africa by drawing on private sector capacity and resources to provide rural and semi-rural health facilities with clean, reliable electricity generation and internet connectivity. The activity will address the above challenges in health electrification through a market-based approach, leveraging technical and financial resources. These efforts will complement USAID’s Global Health Strategy and the forthcoming USAID Climate Strategy through the promotion and uptake of cleaner, renewable energy solutions that power health facilities and, in turn, mitigate air pollution and carbon emissions from this growing sector while improving progress toward health goals.

The MERL Director will provide strategic and operational leadership for HFE MERL strategies and strengthening the global evidence base for electrification efforts. S/he will provide direction to develop and implement robust monitoring, evaluation and learning, support monitoring of country implementation, and lead project-wide efforts to reflect on performance and learning to inform continual program improvements. They will promote the results of the program, disseminate evidence and results, and identify strategic opportunities to transfer knowledge to multiple stakeholders at project and country levels. Reporting to the activity Director, and supervising the MEL and research leads, the MERL Director will be an integral part of the activity management team and will oversee, coordinate, and collaborate with the HFE country implementation teams in sub-Saharan Africa so that MERL approaches and processes are rigorous, consistent, and adaptive. This position is contingent upon award and the successful applicant will be expected to travel up to 20% of the year.  This position may be based in a country Abt currently operates, including but not limited to, the United States, England, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania.

Key Roles and Responsibilities

• Provide leadership in MERL and foster a culture of innovation and learning through routine reflection of project performance, identification of lessons learned, and use of evidence to inform programming decisions to maximize HFE activity results and impact
• Manage and ensure technical rigor of activity-wide MERL approaches, including management and support to MERL teams
• Guides and collaborates with country based MERL leads to develop MERL strategies for country and regional activities based on the HFE results framework.
• Provides oversight for the collection of and reporting on impact, output, outcome and program management indicators by the country teams 
• Develops the MERL structure and systems, in collaboration with activity partners, to facilitate and ensure all teams collect and report on impact, output, outcome, and program management indicators. This includes standardized reporting, performance monitoring, and evaluation for the activity, and integrating performance data into program management and adaption plans
• Leads the design and operation of the MERL systems for data capture, data management, data analysis and use, and reporting
• Regularly reviews data collection processes, perform data quality assessments, and make adjustments as needed
• Leads development of the learning agenda and strategy in collaboration with the clients, partners, program managers, and technical leads
• Analyzes data and results across the region for benchmarking and to identify trends and outliers
• Provides thought leadership on the analysis, synthesis and sharing of project results and evidence, and work closely with technical, communications and knowledge management staff and partners to communicate information in compelling ways
• Participates in strategic planning and work planning meetings
• Other duties as assigned

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in Economics, Statistics, Research Methods or related field preferred.
• At least 10 years of experience in the development and implementation of MERL frameworks, systems, and processes for complex international development programs or a Master’s and at least 15 years of relevant experience
• Experience working on M&E methods for energy, climate or health programs.
• Proven capacity to communicate data in accessible and engaging ways – experience in innovative visualization of results highly preferred.
• Demonstrated expertise and experience in data utilization strategies and ability to identify innovative data sharing techniques.
• Solid analytical skills and ability to use MS Office, SPSS/STATA, qualitative analysis packages, and MS Excel.
• Experience with MERL systems (such as DHIS2 or other platforms)
• Proven written and oral presentation skills in English.
• Supervision and coordination of MERL activities across multiple staff preferred.
• Ability to work collaboratively and effectively with colleagues from a diverse set of partners in both public and private sectors.
• Experience managing complex MERL programs required; experience managing global programs highly preferred.
• Must be able to speak and write in English.
• French language skills preferred.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree + Fifteen years of relevant experience, or Master’s Degree + Twelve years of relevant experience, or PhD + Ten years of relevant experience