Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Advisor at Mercy Corps

Employment Type: Full-time or Part-time, Exempt or Non-exempt, Regular or Temporary
Reports Directly To: Chief of Party
Works Directly With: DCOP, EWER Technical Advisors, Program Managers, and other PARTNER Consortium MERL/Program Officers

Program / Department Summary

• Waves of resource-based, ethnic, and sectarian conflict, rising criminality and banditry, and expanding violent extremism are rendering North Central and Northwest, Nigeria increasingly insecure. While multiple initiatives seek to address the complex causes of violence, community and security responses to drivers and triggers are often piecemeal at best, and ineffectual at worst.
• Existing Early Warning and Early Response (EWER) systems suffer from slow responses, poor coordination, top-down mandates that limit community ownership, weak dispute resolution skills among responders, little political and financial investment, leadership structures that exclude women and youth, and scant rigorous evidence. The result of ineffective EWER systems is that unchecked, violence proliferates.
• To examine and mitigate these barriers, Peace Action for Rapid and Transformative Nigerian Early Response (PARTNER) will pursue a bold approach to collaboration across local, international, government, non-government, community, state, and security stakeholders. Our consortium of Government Agencies and CSOs will be led by Mercy Corps in a mentorship capacity in Years 1 and 2, after which local partners will assume leadership, working hand-in-hand with other consortium members.
• Local ownership, fueled by iterative organizational performance assessment and capacity strengthening, will inform each component of the proposed sustainable, flexible, and evidence-based national EWER system that builds on existing locally-led and gender-sensitive conflict management mechanisms for vertical integration; incentivizes quick responses through horizontal coordination; and fosters increased trust in security and government actors to promote inclusive and collective action. By embedding EWER innovations within formal structures from the beginning, PARTNER will increase Nigeria’s self-reliance in leading a holistic, coordinated, and effective effort to promote sustainable peace.

General Position Summary

• The MEL Advisor will be supporting an Early Warning, Early Response System strengthening program in Nigeria on a full-time basis. The general duties and responsibilities of the MEL Advisor are to provide oversight of project-level monitoring and evaluation activities within the program, ensuring the quality of the project’s MEL activities, information management via the programs reporting system (which may be tied with Mercy Corps’ proprietary Tola systems), and geographic information systems (GIS), where applicable.
• The MEL Advisor’s role is to also oversee and ensure coordination of the various technical areas across the MEL staff of the Project, and other relevant Project staff and components. The MEL Advisor is responsible for the capacity building and mentoring strategy for program staff on themes related to monitoring, evaluation, accountability, reporting and learning.
• The MEL Advisor provides strategic guidance, vision and management for successful monitoring and evaluation of the activity. This individual also supervises MEL staff and ensures the strategic and functional integration of all MEL activities as well as active collaboration with sub-awardees and USAID. The Advisor oversees all MEL activities, provides technical direction and support, and ensures the accurate reporting of results for program activities.

Essential Job Responsibilities
Program Management:

• Set up the MEL system, including all tools and data collection processes for program activities.
• Develop and review frequently the Project’s MEL Plan including Data Management Plan
• Oversee the implementation of the MEL System.
• Plan and lead all MEL activities including the baseline, midterm, and final evaluations, and develop standards for data collection.
• Supervise all sub-contractor involved in data collection activities including the baseline, midterm, and final evaluation teams, and review their standards for data collection.
• Train project team members and partners on their ME&L responsibilities
• Directly manage MEL staff in day-to-day MEL activities, as well as provide technical oversight of additional MEL staff located in field offices.
• Update MEL and project management systems to reflect program progress and needs; enforce proper usage of these systems by program staff.
• Collect, analyze, and validate information and data on the performance indicators
• Present data analysis and periodic reporting in consultation with technical staff
• Ensure that lessons learned throughout the project are captured and communicated to internal and external stakeholders through appropriate channels
• Liaise with various stakeholders and project-related donors on relevant program MEL concerns.
• Take on overall responsibility for project reporting including Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, Final, and ad-hoc reports.
• Address any other task assigned by the COP/Director of Programs.
• Given the nature of the work, staff are expected to be flexible and may be asked to carry out duties that are not specifically listed above. The job description may be revised after discussion between the staff member and the organization.

Team Management:

• Develop the capacity of the team, deepen understanding of their roles and assist with career development.
• Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance & reach objectives.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
• Hire, orient and lead team members as necessary.

Security:

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by Nigeria leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

Organizational Learning:

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries:

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically
  to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• MEL Officers
• Accountability

Knowledge and Experience

• BA / B.Sc or equivalent in any of the following or related fields: Social Science, International Development, Evaluation Research, Statistics, or Economics.
• At least five (5) years of progressively responsible experience in designing, managing, and implementing results-based MEL activities.
• Demonstrated relevant technical skills in analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, with excellent organizational as well as English oral and written communication skills.
• Extensive knowledge of reporting procedures, best practices, guidelines, and tools for monitoring, evaluation, and learning
• A minimum of 4 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation management for international development programs; USAID or another donor, or NGO preferred.
• Experience with ArcGIS or other geographic information systems is preferred but not required.
• A high degree of computer literacy; Excel and Word skills are essential.
• Ability to manage and meet deadlines.
• Ability to work independently on multi-task load.
• Excellent communication and organizational skills.
• Basic mathematical skills and ability to perform job-specific mathematics with experience in statistical analysis and statistical software.
• Should also have experience in the experimental design of evaluations.

Success Factors

• The ideal candidate will have a strong curiosity for understanding and working effectively within the complex cultural, political, security and social environment of Nigeria. He/She will be an excellent communicator, multi-tasker, and able to work in ambiguous situations.
• He/She will be a tolerant and flexible individual able to work in difficult and stressful environments and follow procedures.
• The successful candidate will be focused on team building and capacity-building of national staff; be a strategic thinker, have strong skills in design monitoring and evaluation of development programs and maintain a sense of humour.
• Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values always and in all Nigeria venues.
• Fostering a diverse and open workplace is an important part of Mercy Corps’ vision. Mercy Corps is an Equal Opportunity Employer regardless of background. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment.