Senior M&E Manager - Education in Emergency (EiE) at International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Requisition ID: req8067

Job Title: Senior M&E Manager - Education in Emergency (EiE)

Sector: Education

Employment Category: Fixed Term

Employment Type: Full-Time

Open to Expatriates: No

Location: Maiduguri, Nigeria

Job Description

JOB SUMMARY

Under the supervision of the Education Coordinator, and with technical oversight by the M & E Coordinator, the Senior M&E Manager will ensure that all education projects in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States have functional monitoring and evaluation systems. S/he regularly reviews and maintains updated indicator tracking sheets for all education projects and provides real time data for education program reporting. Accountability is among the core tenets of IRC work, and the post holders will be expected to work closely with education sector team to mainstream client responsiveness approaches in program locations   The Senior M & E Manager will also be responsible to incorporate relevant program indicators into the projects M&E systems that enables to measure the contribution of individual projects in achieving program and Education sector objectives.   In general, the major purposes of the Senior M&E Manager position is to provide strategic guidance and support to education program team in establishing both program and project M&E systems. 

The position holder has the role of supervising all M&E staff for education. As a result, s/he is primarily responsible for building M&E staff capacity through organizing trainings, mentoring, coaching and supervision.  The Senior M & E Manager will also closely work with the Country Program M&E team and provide technically support to meet standards set out in the Strategic Action Plan and IRC’s global Monitoring for Action (MfA) initiative for improving monitoring practice and use of data for decision making within the organization.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Program/Project design and learning

• Lead diagnostic studies, researches, evaluations and surveys within education sector.
• Participate in program/ project design specially in developing logframes;
• Ensure that detailed and feasible project monitoring plans are developed that: i) provide an indicator matrix, ii) consider ethical and safe collection and storage of data, iii) consider data quality audits, vi) consider storing, protecting and sharing project documents;
• Closely work with M&E staff to make sure all education projects have tested standard monitoring tools that capture both program activity and indicators progresses;
• Make sure all education projects have accountability mechanisms up and running;
• Work with  education project and support staff to determine which monitoring activities will take place and which data collection methods will be used to ensure their adequacy and appropriateness;
• Work with education project and support staff to ensure that project design in proposals is logically sound, beneficiary-informed and contextually appropriate
• Assist in conducting and documenting end of project learning reviews, and sharing lessons learned and best practices, incorporating these into new project designs;
• Organize lesson sharing events like lesson bazars to fertilize learning among different projects and/or sectors;
• Assist in identifying, documenting, storing and sharing lessons learned that have implications for refinement of best programmatic practice;

Monitoring and evaluation activities

• Facilitate the preparations of monthly/annual education project activity plans including M&E plans
• Work with education project staff to determine which monitoring activities will take place and which data collection methods to use
• Work with education project staff to ensure that the project work plans include monitoring activities (or that a stand-alone monitoring work plan is in place), is up-to date and progress tracked
• Work with Education and M&E staff to develop, translate, pilot and finalize data collection tools as needed
• Design survey data collection tools and methodologies
• Work with education project staff to ensure that data is collected and entered into databases and/or tracking sheets, and/or the data platform on a regular basis
• Work with education projects staff to track progress on action points related to implementation and M&E activities
• Work with project staff to provide M&E inputs for reports written during project implementation
• Develop and implement strategies for tracking cross-cutting issues
• Conduct data quality audits of project data to identify and resolve systemic problems affecting data quality;
• Document findings from data quality audits and store in project files to ensure collective and sustainable access;
• Document schedule of activities related to sharing reports with the project team, donors and other stakeholders;
• Assist the M&E staff in conducting reflective practice forums at field office/ project level and compile lessons from project implementation processes.

Information management and reporting

• Provide M&E inputs for regular analysis and action planning meetings to (1)  compare data against project milestones, targets, and quality expectations across project sites; (2) identify issues requiring concerned staff attention
• Extract lessons learned from projects, systematically document and make easily accessible to staff
• Support the Education M&E staff in ensuring all projects have downward/ forward accountability mechanisms and functional
• Summarize education sector annual statistics when required on program scale and reach.
• Support Education M&E staff to ensure that data is collected and entered into databases and/or tracking sheets, and/or the data platform on a regular basis;

Staff capacity building

• Prepare M&E staff mentoring coaching plans and implement accordingly;
• Train staff in data collection methods, management, analysis, and how to use data for decision making;
• Assist in recruitment of enumerators and HR onboarding.
• Provide consistent, supportive supervision to strengthen staff performance as necessary to meet monitoring objectives.

Perform other duties assigned by the supervisor

• Perform other task related assignment proposed by his/her supervisor

Position Reports to:  Education Coordinator
Position directly supervises:  ME Officer

Qualifications

• University degree (statistics, education, information management, measurement and evaluation, or a related discipline)
• Minimum five (5) years of experience within the development / humanitarian sector;
• Proven track record of M&E experience supporting education program, most preferably education in emergencies
• Good understanding of  the Early Grade Reading and Early Grade Mathematics Assessments (EGRA and EGMA) approaches
• Proven technical skills in monitoring and evaluation, including experience with multi-sectorial and multi-donor funded programs and experience with qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis
• Proven abilities in developing monitoring plans, data collection, information management, use of databases, and analysis and performance monitoring;
• Demonstrated ability to train and build capacity of others;
• Comprehensive knowledge of humanitarian accountability principles and their translation into practice
• Strong planning, organizational and interpersonal skills
• Excellent analytical, presentation, and reporting skills
• Excellent database, data management and data analysis skills, with experience using at least 2 software applications such as Microsoft Excel, Access, SPSS, STATA, Epi-data, Epi-Info; and
• Strong commitment to IRC’s mission, purpose and values.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct.  These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability.  In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.