MEL Officer - USAID/OTL at International Rescue Committee (IRC)

USAID’s Opportunity to Learn (OTL) is a 5-year project that aims to address the immediate education needs of out-of-school children (OOSC) and youth in Borno and Yobe states, through safer new and existing non-formal education, while laying the groundwork for sustainable improvement of education systems at the community and government levels. The OTL goal is to ensure out-of-school children and youth in Northeastern Nigeria are safely able to gain foundational skills, including literacy, numeracy, and social and emotional skills, to progress to higher levels of education, training, and/or engagement in the workforce.

Job Overview/Summary

• The purpose of the MEL Officer position is to coordinate the collection, compilation, consolidation, and analysis of data to track OTL project activities, monitor progress, and support impact measurement.
• S/he will also conduct development research, engage in reflective practice, generate lessons from projects/programs and prepare MEL plans for the OTL (MEL) sector.
• S/he is responsible for establishing and ensuring better field-level data management systems for the core program s/he is assigned to and coordinates the proper and timely evaluation of project objectives/impact.
• S/he will contribute to the existing client response mechanisms and ensure program staff participation in MEL activities.
• S/he also will work closely with the IRC MEL unit on technical matters and report to the MEL lead.

Major Responsibilities

Program/Project Design and Learning:

• Support in conducting assessments such as midline, and endline evaluations, as well as other surveys like FGDs, classroom observation, performance scorecards, and related activities.
• Conduct training for OTL staff on the MEL system, performance indicators, data quality assurance, and facilitative data collection with local partners and stakeholders.
• Participate in project review, especially in log frames, and contribute to learning
• With support from the MEL Lead, establish and maintain a project-level information management system.
• Closely work with the OTL program team to ensure the project has tested standard monitoring tools that capture both program activity and indicators progress.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Responsible for tracking progress against monitoring work plans.
• Responsible for ensuring the on-time execution of projects’ major monitoring events including but not limited to data quality audit and field supervision.
• Responsible for providing technical support to staff and partner organizations on the information management systems, proper data collection, and record-keeping.
• Responsible for updating MEL plan timely and providing feedback to program staff on status and quality of implementation.
• Responsible for monthly and/or quarterly performance indicator analysis, including generation of reports as well as presentations for staff related to ongoing performance.
• Responsible for conducting regular data verification exercises to ensure reporting and collection of quality data as well as to check for completeness, correctness, and consistency
• Responsible for documenting findings from data quality audits and store in project files to ensure collective and sustainable access.
• Responsible for closely working with staff to ensure they follow correct procedures and criteria during beneficiary registration.
• Accountable for the recruitment of enumerators and support in other surveys including engagement of consultants.
• Contribute to providing MEL inputs for reports written during project implementation.
• Work with project staff to ensure that data is collected and entered the databases as well as tracking sheets, and platform data quality audits regularly to identify and resolve systemic problems affecting data quality.

Information Management and Reporting:

• Support in establishing and maintaining project information management system.
• Responsible for submitting data set to update country office-wide program database on monthly basis.
• Support to ensure all projects have downward/ forward client responsiveness mechanisms and work with project staff to make sure of its implementation.
• Responsible for compiling quarterly, biannual, and annual tabular, and narrative reports (as required by project stakeholders) on projects’ accomplishments by cost and alerting the management for special deviations from the plan.

Capacity building and supervision:

• Responsible for providing assistance to partners in designing monitoring and reporting tools and establishing database management systems.
• Responsible for the orientation of front-line staff, partners’ staff, and volunteers on the monitoring tools and training them on how to use data for decision making.
• Accountable for coaching, mentoring and supervising Data assistant.
• Responsible for her/his subordinate/s in completing performance management activities including performance planning, monitoring, and annual performance appraisals

Key Working Relationships

• Position Reports to:  MEL Lead and State Program manager
• Indirect/Technical Reporting: MEL Lead
• Position directly Supervises: Data Assistant
• Key Internal Contacts:

Country Program:  Program Lead, Reporting and Communication Lead, Consortium Leads, State, Education Officers

 Key External Contacts:  

• Teacher Mentors, Learning Facilitators, Enumerators, Data hub information officers

Qualifications

Education: 

• Degree/diploma in statistics, computer science/IT/or any sector or sub-sector related field

Work Experience:

• At least three (3)-years’ experience working in monitoring and evaluation preferred;

Demonstrated Technical Skills:

• Demonstrated knowledge on the use of statistical packages such as GIS, QGIS, PowerBi, Tableu etc.
• Demonstrated on the use of ICT4D such as Kobo collect, Ona, commcare etc.
• Demonstrated report writing skill, facilitation and communication skills
• Strong data collection, analysis, and report writing skills required.
• Ability to work independently, think analytically and take initiative in solving problems.
• Familiarity with log frame analysis and M&E plan.
• Experience in conducting assessment.
• Most importantly, commitment to IRC values and principles.
• A strong team player with excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work with groups of diverse backgrounds.

Languages:  English is a must, Hausa, Kanuri will be an advantage

Computer/Other Tech Requirements:

Full professional competency in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.