Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant at Plan International

Role Purpose

• Plan International Nigeria is implementing the Home Fortification Project with funding from Nutrition International.
• The Project seeks to provide Micronutrient powders (MNPs) to caregivers of eligible children 6 – 23 months (approximately 55,000) in urban slums of select area councils in the FCT through Community Outreaches and to increase the capacity of frontline health workers and community volunteers to distribute MNPs and support use of both interventions using digital/mobile platforms.
• The Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant is to support the implementation of the Project in Abuja.
• The purpose of this role is to provide timely, accurate information on project implementation and ensure that monitoring and evaluation are in line with specific project and donor requirements, and in line with Plan International MERL standards.
• The role’s support is to achieve accountability, transparency and programme quality in project locations. The post holder is to ensure that project activities are in line with the Logical Framework and relevant guidelines.

Dimensions of the Role

• Under the supervision of the Country M&E Manager and project coordinator, the M&E Consultant will support the establishment and day-to-day implementation of the project Monitoring system, evaluations, and data analysis and interpretation for learning of the project.
• The post holder will interface and support programme team members and programme coordination as well as government actors and local partners regarding monitoring, evaluation, research and learning.
• The role requires strong facilitation and organizational skills along with the ability to analyze and communicate complex information to all staff, partners and other stakeholders.
• This role also requires the capacity to support creatively methods for ensuring high levels of engagement of diverse children/adolescents from marginalized groups in M&E processes. This requires using creativity to support the design studies and data collection tools that are as child-friendly as possible, including adolescents from low-income and low literacy settings.

Accountabilities
In collaboration with the Project Coordinator, CO M&E Manager and other relevant staff, the M&E Consultant will:

• Support the development and implementation of program M&E framework to capture project performance and results, including data reporting, assessments, and all monitoring and evaluation activities.
• Contribute to the monthly and quarterly project target review sessions.
• Support the development of data flow pattern for project that will ensure timely data collection and reporting
• Support to ensure that M&E-specific elements of local partner capacity strengthening plans are successfully implemented
• Report results of M&E activities by providing written documentation about progress toward achieving indicators/targets, as appropriate.
• Support leadership at project location level on M&E to ensure the program technical integrity and achievement of program goal and corresponding objectives and targets
• Ensure high-quality implementation, in close collaboration with the field team and the M&E coordinator, and consistency in protocols, information and reporting systems
• Support efforts at project location to monitor and evaluate project interventions, document results and provide feedback to stakeholders to guide decision-making.
• Lead efforts to utilize training monitoring systems to track and monitor trainers and participants at training events to facilitate follow-up and recordkeeping
• Utilize the training data collected to inform strategic decision-making and project planning
• Support targeted evaluations and operations research, including design, data collection, management and analysis
• Ensure quality of data through data verification procedures, including routine data quality audit
• Support field level partners staff, and enumerators in designing, developing and deploying tools for community-based selection criteria for the selection of beneficiaries.
• Support M&E capacity-strengthening activities with project staff and implementing partners, including on subjects such as child safeguarding in data collection and ethical considerations of collecting data with children. 

Technical Expertise, Skills and Knowledge
Qualifications and Experience:

• Bachelor's Degree and minimum of 3 years’ work experience in monitoring and evaluating programs with an organization that has a robust M&E component.
• Prior experience with Plan International or related non-governmental organization is preferred.
• Experience in developing child-friendly M&E systems/tools or doing research with children is a strong asset.

Skills & Knowledge:

• Strong technical skills in GIS, mobile data collection methodologies, data analysis using one or more statistical software packages and presentation
• Proven expertise in quantitative and qualitative research, report writing, and data quality assessments
• Demonstrated strong management, coordination, teamwork and planning skills with proven ability to function effectively with multiple counterparts in private, public and NGO sectors.
• Strong understanding of gender transformative data collection and measurement, M&E policy and compliance requirements.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English including excellent facilitation skills and demonstrated technical writing skills for publication.
• Openness or capacity to think creatively to design child-friendly studies and data collection tools which are age-appropriate, safe and ethical for children.
• Ability to work effectively with diverse national and international teams.
• Ability to work in a complex environment with multiple tasks, short deadlines and intense pressure to perform.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office packages (Excel/Word document)