Country MEL Manager at Malaria Consortium

Job purpose

The post holder shall take leadership in development and oversight for a country MEL system which includes design, coordination, database management, data analysis and interpretation, quality assurance and quality improvement. The post holder will be responsible for managing PReS and reporting on the organizational Strategic objectives as well as providing MEL technical oversight for all programmes and projects in the Nigeria Office portfolio.

Scope of work

The position holder will lead the development and institutionalization of a country MEL framework and support project MEAL Specialists to ensure all core MEL requirements (e.g. log frame, M&E Plan) are in place at the start of each project. He/she will be responsible for generating quarterly bulletins from PReS, summarizing project-specific progress (against targets) as well as reporting overall country progress against global strategic objectives. S/he will also provide technical support to and build capacity of project MEAL Specialists to ensure data quality as well as guide the harmonization of MEL approaches across the country portfolio. The position holder shall also contribute to Malaria Consortium’s knowledge management activities through participation in MEL working groups and communities of practice; provide expert technical inputs in data management, analysis, interpretation of findings and writing of progress and scientific reports.

Key relationships

• The Country MEL Manager will report to the SCTC and work closely with other members of the CO technical and management teams.
• Project MEAL Specialists/Managers will have dotted lines to this role to determine MEL needs, develop support plans and build their capacity
• Others include Malaria Consortium Global M&E, Research and business development teams

Key accountabilities

1. Strategic contributions (30%)
   • Identify and implement approaches and methodologies to strengthen internal MEAL capacity
   • Champion the tracking and reporting of country office progress against strategic objectives and targets on Malaria Consortium’s Projects Results System (PReS) and be the country focal point for PReS
   • Serve as the country focal point for data integrity and other national data compliance regulations
   • Lead the development and improvements in value-for-money approach, as well as the regular use of the information for project management
   • Lead quality improvement and quality assurance processes for country projects and programmes MEL frameworks.
   • Work closely with the National Malaria Elimination Programme and other relevant counterparts in the FMoH to ensure that the country MEL system is compliant with government data ownership and management issues
   • Lead the writing or the review of the MEL sections in technical proposals

M&E Technical leadership and oversight (50%)

• Work with the senior CTC to provide technical support to Malaria Consortium portfolio of projects in the area of design, implementation and interpretation of MEL frameworks.
• Support the projects in the development of M&E plans and standard operating procedures for project M&E
• Contribute to the design of data collection tools and database systems for the entry, storage and retrieval of epidemiological data
• Provide technical guidance for monitoring of data quality and supervision activities for projects
• Work with SCTC and project MEAL leads to provide capacity building for relevant technical staff across the portfolio of projects in the area of monitoring and evaluation, and learning to strengthen the adaptive management capabilities of the country team
• The post holder should provide technical assistance to projects in terms of MEL, working closely with the organizational M&E team
• Develop relevant databases and ensure they are maintained and comply with organizational policies and standards as well as host the project portfolio and support donor reporting and reporting into PReS
• Provide technical assistance in the analysis and interpretation of results from surveys conducted and surveillance systems
• Act as one of MC’s M&E CoP core member and ensure participation and engagement with the monthly M&E CoP calls
• Foster data-to-action culture and upskilling data analytical, visualization, interpretational skills among the project team.

Learning and Knowledge Management (20%)

• Lead cross-project learning initiatives and facilitate the knowledge transfer/cross- pollination
• Document cross-project/programme achievements and proactively share through various channels such as written country program updates, learning papers and peer-reviewed journals.
• Contribute to Malaria Consortium cross project knowledge management content and strategy at national, regional and global levels
• Contribute to on-going cross project operational research and preparation of dissemination products across the portfolio of projects
• Represent MC in relevant malaria technical sub-committees, relevant workshops, conferences and other meetings, as agreed with senior CTC.

Qualifications and experience

Essential:

• A post-graduate degree in statistics, epidemiology or similar.
• At least 10 years post-qualification experience at a professional level
• Extensive experience in project/ programme monitoring and evaluation and learning
• Research experience in malaria epidemiology and control.
• Field experience in communicable disease control in a Sub-Saharan African country.
• Experience in design, implementation and analysis of household surveys.
• Advanced knowledge of statistical and data management software, especially Stata, SPSS, CSpro and EpiData.
• Experience in qualitative study design, data collection methods and data analysis using relevant data analysis software like AtlasTi, Nvivo etc.

Desirable:

• Knowledge of mathematical modelling of infectious diseases.
• Familiar with the Nigeria Health system

Work-based skills

Essential:

• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to prepare reports using results data
• Ability to develop lessons learning outputs from programmatic results
• Working knowledge of DHIS2
• Advanced skills in the use of Microsoft Office software.
• Advanced statistical analytical skills

Desirable:

• Skills in database programming for field surveys, especially using PDAs.
• Demonstrable skills in manuscript writing for peer-reviewed journals
• Skills in GIS mapping