Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Director, USAID/PROPEL, Round 3 – Youth (Anticipated Funding)

Amref Health Africa is seeking a qualified Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Director to lead the monitoring and evaluation of the anticipated USAID-funded activity titled Promoting Results and Outcomes through Policy and Economic Levers (PROPEL) Round 3: Youth. The five-year global project with a budget of approximately US$25 million will focus on policy, advocacy, financing, and governance (PAFG) and technical assistance for family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH), and FP/RH integration with maternal health, HIV/AIDs related to youth and adolescents as well as gender equity.

Job Summary

As a key member of the senior staff and the point contact person for all MEL related issues, the MEL Director will be accountable for coordinating all the MEL program activities and documenting the achievement of program results. S/He will provide the MEL technical leadership and guidance to and provide ongoing technical assistance to activity implementing partners. The MEL Director will facilitate youth-led monitoring, research, and evaluation as well as youth participation in collaborating learning and adopting (CLA). They will develop, implement and maintain effective monitoring, evaluation and reporting systems that reflect the priorities of PROPEL Round 3.

Main Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

• Serve as core member of the activity leadership team responsible for providing MEL strategic and technical leadership to the Activity.
• Provide technical leadership and support to the activity and partner staff in fostering a culture of learning across the activity, engaging youth, staff, partners, and stakeholders in learning and adaptation.
• Develop the overall MEL Plan and annual implementation plans for the activity’s M&E systems, in consultation with USAID staff

Collaborative Learning and Adaptation (CLA)

• Oversee the activity’s CLA process in collaboration with the Chief of Party and Deputy Chief of Party. Ensure that the activity’s CLA approach is applied and the Activity learnings inform implementation.
• Communicate information obtained through M&E interventions to staff and various external stakeholders.
• Facilitate processes to regularly and effectively capture and document lessons learned; Lead events to disseminate finding to stakeholder

Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting

• Ensure the activity’s MEL Plan is systematically monitored and activity performance effectively documented.
• Ensure timely and accurate submission of the activity reports to USAID, including capturing progress against targets as per the award agreement, annual work plan, quarterly, and annual reports
• Facilitate the coordination of data collection at the activity sites to monitor program development and ensure timely compilation and reporting of data
• Support the Chief of Party in coordinating the mid-term and final activity evaluations.
• Conduct field visits to monitor the quality and completeness of data
• Enable regular review of data collection processes, perform data quality assessments, and adjust as needed; establish information systems as relevant and enable access to information for Activity decision making.
• Capturing appropriate cost and financial information to track money indicators, including benchmarking information to analyze program effectiveness and cost-effective inputs.

Qualifications

Education

• Master’s degree or higher in statistics, international development, or related field.

Required Experience

• Minimum of eight (8) years of relevant experience leading and designing and implementing M&E and learning systems on complex USAID-funded initiatives; from the activity initiation to closeout;
• Experience partnering with young people to conduct youth-led monitoring, research, evaluation as well as youth-led CLA.
• Expertise in CLA and in supporting project-wide use of data for adaptive management
• Expertise in MEL specifically for policy, advocacy, financing, and governance
• Experience working on USAID global or multi-country awards

Knowledge and Skills

• At-least five (5) years of experience in relevant technical areas, such as designing and implementing monitoring and evaluation frameworks and systems, survey and research tool design, data collection, statistical analysis, qualitative research, and dissemination of results.
• Knowledge of the major evaluation methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, mixed method, and impact) and data collection and analysis methodologies. At least 4-5 years of experience in supervising and leading teams.
• Knowledge and experience in one or more areas of the following is preferred: family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH), and FP/RH integration with maternal health, HIV/AIDs related to youth and adolescents as well as gender equity.
• Familiarity with USAID policies, rules, regulations and reporting requirements.
• In addition, successful candidates must be willing to travel 25% of the time.

PLEASE NOTE: QUALIFIED YOUTH ARE HIGHLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY.

How to apply:

Interested? Please send your application to Recruitment@Amref.org quoting REF: MEL Director/PROPEL/Round 3 in the subject line. Your application should only include your CV with relevant skills and experience and a cover letter detailing why you are the best fit for this position. Do not attached any certificates or recommendations. Kindly note that this position will remain open until filled, and selection process will be on a rolling basis.  Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Duly note that Amref Health Africa does not require applicants to pay any money at whatever stage of the recruitment and selection process and have not retained any agent in connection with recruitment. Although Amref may use different job boards from time to time to further spread its reach for applicants, all open vacancies are published on our website under the Vacancies page and on our official social media pages. Kindly also note that official emails from Amref Health Africa will arrive from an @amref.org address.

Amref Health Africa is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Amref Health Africa is an equal opportunity employer and has a non-smoking environment policy.