Regional Information Management Officer - Ahlan Simsim

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

The Ahlan Simsim Initiative 
Launched in 2018 by the IRC and Sesame Workshop with initial support from the MacArthur Foundation and later the LEGO Foundation, Ahlan Simsim has reached over 4 million children and caregivers across the MENA region through early learning and caregiver support programs. The initiative has co-designed and embedded ECD services within government systems in partnership with Ministries of Education, Health, and Social Development. Building on this success, Ahlan Simsim continues to expand evidence-based, scalable, and sustainable interventions that support children’s development through early education, caregiver training, and multimedia resources. Supported by the LEGO Foundation and the Bezos Family Foundation, the IRC’s Ahlan Simsim team manages core regional ECD grants and provides technical support to country programs implementing national ECD initiatives.
For more information, visit: rescue.org/ahlansimsim.

Scope of Work
Reporting to the Regional MEL Lead, the Regional Information Management (IM) Officer will be responsible for developing and managing information management systems, ensuring accuracy and overseeing analysis of monitoring data of Ahlan Simsim in the MENA region. The Regional IM Officer will also contribute to capacity building of country-level monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and/or IM staff for IRC or partner organizations as needed. He/she will work closely with country teams and the regional measurement team and at some stages might provide shared support to countries or regional measurement unit as needs arise. This will be achieved through the following main objectives:
•    Management and maintenance of IM systems, including for digital IM platforms such as the Program Indicator Dashboard (PID), performance and reporting dashboards, and Client Responsiveness data 
•    Responsible for ensuring data quality checks and data analysis of monitoring data into the regional IM systems 
•    Staff and partner capacity building on IM.

Main Responsibilities

Maintain Ahlan Simsim IM system including partners:
•    Create and manage Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or other appropriate solutions to automate pulling in data from Ahlan Simsim country level to regional level for reporting (creating tools/scripts for importing data from excel sheets, Commcare, Kobo or Ona to automatically populate into PowerBI dashboards).
•    Code, configure and modify standardized Ahlan Simsim data collection tools on CommCare, including their scoring methodologies for countries to be able to manage digital data collection and scoring automatically.
•    Manage the creation, access, maintenance, updates, and improvements of the automated PowerBi dashboards for the Ahlan Simsim program at the regional level (adjustment of visuals, indicator and reference table updates, etc).
•    Conduct trainings and orientation sessions to regional and country staff on using CommCare tools, entering data on PID, and visualizing and using the PowerBi dashboard.
•    Create and update a regional database for all Ahlan Simsim raw data using SQL, Talend, and/or similar software.
•    Maintain and update Ahlan Simsim reporting tools (PID datasets) for all countries. Collect, clean, modify and confirm PID data from country teams. 
•    Pull in regional client responsiveness data from JIRA to be used for analysis and interpretation purposes.
•    Troubleshoot problems that arise in Ahlan Simsim regional information management system, to ensure the system runs smoothly.

Data quality checks:
•    Ensure high-quality collection, management, and security of IRC’s data. Provide training and support to IRC country and partner teams for data quality control, cleaning, and management.
•    Conduct systematic checks through automated and manual review of monitoring data submitted by Ahlan Simsim country teams and follow up with country teams to resolve any issues identified in a timely manner.
•    Advise and support country teams on country-level information management systems, and solve any issues that arise in coordination with the country T4P/IM Managers and MEAL Coordinators (especially issues with data collection tools such as Commcare).

Data analysis, reporting, and learning:
•    Provide analysis of data at regional level as needed for regional learning meetings, donor reports, and ad hoc requests leveraging scripts and PowerBI reporting tools.
•    Support high quality and timely reporting of monitoring data and activities of IRC and partners as part of donor reporting and other IRC regional or global initiatives.
•    Create and finalize reporting numbers in tables, graphs, and other graphics as needed for donor reports.
•    Review, modify and confirm all the numbers for the donors’ reports that are submitted by the country teams.

Staff and partner capacity building:
•    Conduct coaching, guidance, training or support for the IM and M&E staff and partners in IM tools and systems, formulas, best practices of data cleaning and automating the data reports.
•    Support the IM and M&E staff from country teams and partners to solve issues in IM systems and to modify the data reports.
•    As needed, train new staff members and partners in softwares such as Commcare, Kobo and/or ONA as needed to perform their job functions.

Key Working Relationships:
Position Reports to: Regional MEL Lead, Ahlan Simsim
Position directly supervises: N/A
Indirect Reporting: N/A

Other Internal and/or external contacts: The position closely works with the MEAL and IM Staff from Ahlan Simsim’s countries of operation in MENAU, regional Ahlan Simsim colleagues, and with other information management staff from IRC regional and country offices and Ahlan Simsim partners.

Skills and Qualifications 
•    Bachelor’s degree Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, or related field.
•    Certification or specific training in Computer Science and/or Data Management and Visualization software such as: 1- CommCare Advanced, 2- Excel Advanced, 3- Power Bi Developer, 4- XLSForm “ONA and Kobo”.
•    At least 3 years of relevant working experience in the area of computer science, database management, data analytics, information management and/or data visualizations.
•    At least 3 years working experience as an International Computer Driving License, which includes computer and online essentials such as Word Document, Excel Spreadsheets, PowerPoint Presentations, Access Database, IT Security, Data Protection, and Online Collaboration.
•    Excellent programming skills and experience working with a variety of data collection, management, analysis and reporting platforms: google sheets, SQL, Excel, PowerBI, Talend, Commcare, Kobo, Ona, and/or other similar softwares for data collection, management, and visualization.
•    Ability to identify and establish information database requirements and to extract/analyze data from databases.
•    Ability to communicate information management problems and solutions to a variety of technical and non-technical teams.
•    Ability to coordinate and work with multiple team members in different countries.
•    Proactive and solution-oriented.
•    Ability to work in a diverse team both in office environment and remotely.
•    Fluent in Arabic and English (written and spoken).

Preferred:
•    INGO experience.
•    Experience working with Information Management Systems for Monitoring and Evaluation purposes.
•    Experience with use of Stata for data analysis.
•    Experience building the capacity of teams.
•    Working Environment: The position is based in Amman, and may include some travel to Lebanon, Syria, or other countries in MENA.  

Standard of Professional Conduct: The IRC and the IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – our Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability, and Equality.

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