Manager, Field Operations, MLE, West & Central Africa at Evidence Action

The Role

• The Manager, Field Operations is responsible for supporting all Evidence Action's monitoring and evaluation field operations for programs within the West and Central Africa Sub-region.
• This is an exciting position that involves overseeing program research and learning activities, coordinating MLE support for programs within the sub-region, leading the development and review of monitoring plans, supporting research and learning projects and coordination between MLE and government stakeholders and other implementing partners as needed.
• A critical part of achieving this is managing systems to ensure that the quality of data for all Evidence Action sub- regional programs meet a high level of standard.

Responsibilities

Planning and Coordination of MLE Support for Programs within the Sub-region

• Improve on and streamline MLE activities ensuring they are comprehensive, cost-efficient, and well-designed to meet program goals. Adopt the most cost effective (and quality) means and ways available in the execution of the budget
• Review and track program MLE results and support the interpretation and application of the results, facilitating data-driven decision-making by program teams in the sub-region
• Ensure adequate representation of MLE team in meetings with program teams, partners and government stakeholders (as required and appropriate)
• Collaborate with the MLE Strategy and Delivery teams to ensure unified understanding of sub regional programs data needs to ensure that the MLE team deliver program needs on time
• Coordinate MLE support to state and national partners and government stakeholders
• Conduct site visits to ensure MLE activities are being implemented as appropriate, meet local context, and deliver support with MLE activity implementation as required.
• Establish and manage strategic partnerships with M&E vendors, where needed, to achieve program MLE goals
• Oversee the sourcing for vendors required to support MLE activities within the programs in the sub-region and manage budget, timelines and deliverables by vendors
• Support MLE Strategy team's research and learning projects to address specific gaps in knowledge about the programs within the sub-region, including the design (methods and sampling), draft and pilot of surveys and survey protocols analysis plans, data collection, cleaning and analysing data, and reporting.
• Make contributions towards the MLE newsletter, sub regional, regional, global, internal and external publications

Data Collection Activities for all Evidence Action programs in the Sub region

• Manage country teams and resources to achieve all data collection objectives- both quantitative and qualitative, to ensure relevant and reliable data is collected for MLE plans
• Coordinate with the program team to ensure free flow of information for planning data collection, and maintain ‘instant feedback' information systems as well as share information with the program team as required
• Development of efficient logistical tools for field teams, basic standards and best-practices for collecting data; including conducting back-checks/spot-checks and documentation of field activities
• Lead the development and maintenance of relevant databases for tracking and managing program information
• Review process monitoring reports shared by the Data Learning team and provide context-based input, capturing and disseminating lessons learnt from monitoring activities as well as tracking improvements in those significant areas over time to ensure that learnings are translated to program improvements

Field Operation Team Management

• Manage the annual MLE team work plans in line with defined scope of work and priorities for the programs in the sub region. Track activities against the work plan, ensuring monitoring and reporting timelines are met
• Draft annual program MLE budgets for scope of work defined by the MLE Strategy Leads to properly budget for planned MLE activities for all programs in the sub-region. Oversee MLE expenditures as approved in the budget, and, routinely, check that actual expenditures vs allocated budget are within a sustainable range
• Coordinate the need assessment, recruitment and onboarding of MLE staff in the sub region in collaboration with the MLE leadership, HR Manager and the necessary representatives from program teams
• Manage country MLE team efforts ensuring compliance to and the high-quality implementation of all M&E activities and that they meet all set deliverables
• Working with Program and MLE teams, identify areas for capacity development, professional development and skill building and develop plans to address those areas for improvement for MLE teams within the sub-region
• Establish and maintain clear and comprehensive reporting templates and timelines to meet internal and external reporting needs
• Support the development of MLE best practices within the organisation and facilitate lesson sharing across Evidence Action geographies
• Manage and contribute to innovative systems and tools to train staff as stipulated in the MLE staff training protocol

Other

• Perform any other monitoring, evaluation and learning duties as may be required and assigned by the supervisor to support the team's shared objectives.

Key Performance Indicators

• Surveys and other data collection assignments are designed collaboratively with MLE-S
• Continuous iteration and improvement of developed systems, protocols, procedures and sharing of relevant feedback to enhance quality training
• Data collation vendors meet the data collection obligation as contracted
• Timely collection of monitoring data for all programs in the sub region
• All country programs collect and report data electronically on available systems e.g. CTO, DHIS2
• Sustain and/or improve the quality of data collected for program monitoring and evaluation
• Maintenance of standards and best practices for survey roll out from design to training, data collection and reporting
• Efficient and effective management of budgetary resources with strict adherence to the finance policy
• Make learning resources available to program team for review and decision making after monitoring activities
• Timely submission of activity progress reports i.e. every Monday of a new week
• Continuous growth in team building, collaboration and leadership skills as evidenced by feedback from direct reports, supervisors, external stakeholders and other support teams
• Field Operation team members' professional development goals are met annually within reason
• Field Operation's teams have the right equipment and materials to conduct their activities and proper accountability is maintained

Requirements

• Master's degree in a relevant field with strong public health, development economics, statistics background;
• 7+ years of experience of M&E programs in the West and Central Africa region
• Strong technical skills and capacity, with at least 4 years of practical experience managing and working directly with large teams to implement data collection protocols
• Fluency "able to express oneself easily and articulately" writing and, reading and speaking in French and English language is a key advantage
• Demonstrable experience working with teams in different countries to implement surveys, support program implementation and other data collection assignments
• Experience using electronic data collection platforms, specifically survey CTO
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Willing to travel on short notice, to multitask, to work in ambiguity and to respond to instruction from multiple sources.
• Naturally inquisitive and curious, detail-oriented and organised;
• Inspired by Evidence Action's mission to bring proven interventions to scale, improving the lives of millions;