Monitoring & Evaluation Advisor at FHI 360

Job ID: 18237
Location: Abuja
# of Openings Remaining: 1

Project Summary

• Alive & Thrive is an initiative to save lives, prevent illness, and ensure healthy growth and development through improved breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices. In its first five years (2009 to 2014), A&T demonstrated that innovative approaches to improving feeding practices could be delivered with impact and at scale in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Viet Nam.
• Alive & Thrive continues its work there and is supporting others to scale up nutrition by applying and adapting tested, proven approaches and tools in Burkina Faso, India, Southeast Asia, and Nigeria.
• Alive & Thrive is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the governments of Canada and Ireland.

Job Summary / Responsibilities

• The A&T Nigeria IYCF M&E Advisor will work as part of an A&T Nigeria senior technical leadership team led by the A&T Nigeria Project Director. This specialist is responsible for providing overall technical and program leadership in the design, implementation and oversight of A&T Nigerias M&E portfolio. This portfolio will be focused on the design, implementation, and monitoring of the A&T program components and its partners implementation of these. The program components include: advocacy, interpersonal communication and community mobilization, mass communication, and the strategic collection and use of data.
• The position is also responsible for providing IYCF M&E technical and program input through coordination, collaboration, and participation at high level discussions with partners (and through technical assistance and training as requested) in line with the Government of Nigerias National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition (2014-2019), specifically the FMOH; international donors; private/commercial and NGO agencies and projects; other partners and stakeholders at the federal level and in Lagos and Kaduna states to help in the design and implementation of M&E activities towards tracking and reporting on the improvement of breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices.
• The position will also provide this support to the A&T Nigeria senior technical leadership teams work to integrate IYCF messages, materials, tools, and indicators within these entities and their programs.
• The M&E Advisor will also develop and implement an integrated M&E system for A&T to track the inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes of each of A&T Nigerias core activities, whether directly carried out by A&T or by its international and local subcontractors and partners. In this regard, the Advisor will also oversee quality control and timely production of required project data, tools, materials and products relevant to M&E, including any operational research and baseline/end line surveys.
• This position will communicate, connect, and coordinate with other A&T HQ and A&T Nigeria office technical staff, subcontractors, partners, government and NGO stakeholders, and international donors to ensure successful design and implementation of the M&E portfolio of activities expected.
• This position will provide highest level strategic technical and program M&E leadership and quality assurance in Nigeria and will take a lead role in disseminating lessons learned from M&E at national and regional forums.

Program Summary

• The Nigeria A&T IYCF social and behavior change program focuses on improving rates of early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, timely introduction of complementary feeding, and minimum dietary diversity for infants over 6 months old.
• A&T will work across the public, commercial/private, and NGO sectors to improve IYCF through A&Ts four components: advocacy, interpersonal communication and community mobilization, mass communication, and strategic use of data. At the national level, A&T will predominantly work with its public, private/commercial, and NGO sector partners (Scaling Up Nutrition and other national IYCF initiatives) to improve the implementation, monitoring, and enforcement of key IYCF policies (Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes; maternity leave; work place support; breastfeeding-friendly health care and delivery facilities).
• A&T will also work in two states-Lagos (metropolitan) and Kaduna (urban and rural)-to apply the four components to reach households, communities, and facilities with targeted, age-appropriate social and behavior change communication (SBCC) messaging on IYCF practices:
  • Specifically in metropolitan Lagos, the Nigeria program (as an example only) might work with the State Primary Health Care Board, proprietary and patent medicine vendors, licensed traditional birth attendants, major public and private maternity centers, social franchise-oriented private organizations, faith- and community-based organizations, and related on-going USAID (SPRING) and UNICEF projects to improve advocacy; interpersonal behavior change communication (counseling), and mobilization efforts to reach pregnant women and new mothers; and use mass communication (through broadcast, Nollywood, mobile phone, and signage) to further extend the reach of IYCF messages, provide follow-up counseling, and improve the social norm around IYCF practices.
  • In rural and urban Kaduna, the Nigeria program (as an example only) might work with the State Ministry of Health, the Federation of Muslim Women Associations of Nigeria, the Market Women Association, and related health initiatives by USAID (SPRING), Clinton Health Access Initiative, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Primary Health Care initiative to improve advocacy, interpersonal behavior change communication and mobilization; and use mass communication (through broadcast, Kallywood, and mobile phones) to improve the social norm for IYCF among stakeholders and health care providers.
  • At both the national level and in the two states, while the emphasis will be to build the capacity of the public sector to improve IYCF practices, the involvement and resources from the private and commercial sectors will be pursued to advance IYCF policies, expand the promotion of positive social norms, and extend timed and age-appropriate behavior change messaging through private and commercial facilities to households and communities.
  • Formative research will be conducted to further understand target populations and audiences (stakeholders, providers, beneficiaries), and monitoring systems will be established to ensure that program inputs, outputs, and outcomes are tracked and fed back into improving the program.

Essential Job Functions
General roles/responsibilities:

• Serve as the overall M&E technical and program advisor to GON, international donors, and NGOs
• Participate in various national working groups and task forces related to the National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition
• Facilitate the use of data to develop and implement IYCF and IYCF-sensitive BCC programs at the federal level and in Lagos and Kaduna states as needed and possible.
• Support the A&T Nigeria Senior Leadership Team to integrate IYCF into public, private/commercial, and NGO sectors, organizations, and programs at the federal level and in metropolitan Lagos and rural and urban Kaduna
• Provide capacity building (TA and training) as needed in strategic collection and use of IYCF data.
• Provide in-service input to improve the quality of M&E to track the inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes of the supervisor-health care worker-community volunteer connection to the community and households.
• Develop/refine M&E plans for A&T Nigeria comprehensive interventions, including suggesting possible indicators and proposing M&E strategies to collect data for chosen indicators based on the clearly outlined plan of action and developed project log-frame.
• Provide technical assistance on the design and implementation of qualitative studies and quantitative surveys for IYCF, including sampling strategies, survey instruments, survey implementation, data analysis, report writing, and dissemination of results. This may include household surveys, trials for improved practices (TIPS), sentinel surveillance, lot quality assurance sampling, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews.
• Provide technical assistance to IYCF partners & sub-grantees to develop M&E plans, including suggesting indicators and proposing data collection strategies, activities, analysis and reporting formats.
• Design, conduct and/or actively participate in designing & conducting short, focused evaluation exercises, operational research at designated sites, with topics determined in cooperation with public, private/commercial, and NGO sectors at national and/or state level; and A&T country office and/or HQ staff, to shed light on operational issues concerning implementation of IYCF programs. Share data and lessons learned from these exercises with local, national, and regional partners to continue to build the knowledge base of IYCF.
• Help interpret and disseminate data on IYCF and ensure that state and national results are reported to clients and partners.
• Keep abreast of international developments concerning M&E strategies for IYCF programs and share state-of-the-art information, tools, and approaches with A&T Nigeria and partners

Specific roles/responsibilities include:

• Provide technical assistance, coordination, and implementation support to the FMOH as requested, to include mapping of current IYCF M&E interventions and developing subsequent actions to fill in gaps or strengthen on-going activities.
• Provide technical assistance and training to Lagos and Kaduna state stakeholders on the strategic collection and use of data to track inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes. This will include overseeing overall baseline work and the set-up of M&E frameworks that will track input, process, output, and impact of at-scale state advocacy, IPC and community mobilization, and mass communications activities.

Other Roles/Responsibilities:

• Contribute to the development of A&T annual work plans, budgets (especially the M&E component) and project reports, and ensure timely reporting and responses to requests for information to HQ
• Actively participate in, contribute to, and in some cases conduct or facilitate major A&T program development and implementation activities (strategic planning, program presentations, advocacy and policy meetings, workshops), as appropriate
• Work closely with A&T Nigeria Project Director to leverage other international donor and private sector resources to complement and extend project reach
• Present/disseminate program results, based on program experience, M&E and evaluation data to GON platforms, projects and partners, and other professional colleagues and organizations, both in country and internationally

Qualifications

• Masters degree in Public Health, Nutrition, Demography, Statistics, or related field, with emphasis on quantitative analysis. PhD preferred.
• At least 7 years of relevant experience in Nigeria (similar global experience may be acceptable) required with at least 3 years in a senior technical leadership role providing technical input to a large scale nutrition or public health/development project.
• Experience leading M&E for international, donor-funded projects. Recent senior technical and program work experience (3-5 years in the last 10 years) in Nigeria (similar setting may be acceptable).
• Extensive public health/nutrition field experience in designing, implementing, monitoring and reporting on various types of service delivery platforms (i.e. interpersonal communication, community mobilization and mass communication)
• Experience in analysis and interpretation of quantitative data, including experience drafting reports based on quantitative data