Senior Officer, Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting and Information Management

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies. The overall aim of the IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.”  The IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises.

The IFRC has its headquarters in Geneva, with regional and country offices throughout the world. The IFRC is led by a Secretary General who provides the central capacity of to serve, connect, and represent National Societies. The IFRC’s focus includes providing support to the IFRC governance mechanisms; setting norms and standards; providing guidance; ensuring consistency, coordination, and accountability for performance; knowledge sharing; promoting collaboration within and respect for the RCRC Movement; and expanding engagement with partners.

The IFRC has five regional offices, as follows: Americas (Panama City); Africa (Nairobi); Asia and Pacific- AP (Kuala Lumpur); Europe (Budapest); Middle East and North Africa-MENA (Beirut). The regional office for Africa supports 49 National Societies to strengthen their humanitarian and developmental work, helping them to remain sustainable, relevant partners of choice and accountable for their actions.

The IFRC office in Khartoum (temporally Port Sudan) is the hub to support the Red Cross National Societies of the Khartoum Country Cluster Delegation (Sudan, Eritrea) and has a status agreement with the Republic of the Sudan. The Khartoum Country Cluster delegation delivers the IFRC mandate in the sub-region with a focus on Disaster Management, Capacity Building of the National Societies and Humanitarian Diplomacy.

The incumbent will be part of the Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (PMER) in the delegation and will work closely with other technical units in the delegation and National Societies to ensure PMER functions for emergency and thematic operation is established on sound M&E, Methodologies, practices and IFRC’s standards. This position is subject to support and technical guidance from PMER Unit in the Regional Office in Nairobi.

The PMER Unit is responsible for performance-based management systems and the overall quality and effectiveness of the planning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting systems in the region. This will contribute to improving the impact of Red Cross Red Crescent work in Africa, strengthen strategic planning and management decisions, and promote accountability and learning.

This position will help the PMER team develop and implement appropriate monitoring and evaluation processes and systems to support project management, impact assessment and learning. Providing technical support to Head of Delegation, the Senior Officer PMER will ensure, planning, data collection, analysis and dissemination of monitoring and evaluation results.

1. Planning

• Coordinate the annual planning and appeals process in the delegation to ensure compliance and alignment with IFRC standards in plans and appeals, well written and presented information, and provide input and advice to improve coherence and quality.

2. Support the establishment and maintenance of monitoring systems, including:

• Ensure that monitoring plans are in place for all appeals and plans.
• Develop and maintain monitoring and reporting schedules for all programmes and projects
• Provide technical leadership to ensure monitoring systems include SMART indicators that demonstrate impact or progress, reliable data collection methods and analysis of program and project results.
• Provide technical support during program and project design phase to ensure indicators are well aligned with regional and global results-matrices
• Provide project management support by facilitating the use of regular monitoring reports for analysis and decision making.
• Aggregate and evaluate monitoring results and feedback across the region and technical domains to enable effective program and project management and organizational learning.
• Establish system to remind and prompt personnel to submit monitoring reports against schedules set for all projects and programmes
• Provide checklist to programs and operations to ensure M&E tools are present and utilized during implementation.

3. Support evaluations through technical leadership and management, including:

• Lead or manager Evaluation in the delegation
• Lead and support lesson learn for DREF operation
• Ensure programs and operation evaluations are done as prescribed and in accordance to IFRC evaluation Framework
• Identify opportunities for participatory evaluation and integration with Community Engagement and Accountability to ensure evaluations consider community input
• Use qualitative data when applicable and advise on qualitative data collection methods and good practices (including interview skills, focus group facilitation, and survey design and response categories).
• Advice on sampling techniques (such as random, stratified, and purposive) and their applications and relevance for a selected evaluation or methodology.
• Advise on the utility of various types of data collection and analysis tools using computer software and IT. (e.g., SPSS, Survey Monkey, Computer-assisted Content Analysis)
• Provide quality control during the review and comment phase throughout the evaluation process.
• Support drafting of Management response to ensure learning from evaluations are actioned.

4. Support effective communication of monitoring and evaluation information

• Ensure the collation of inclusion of appropriate program and project monitoring and evaluation information into external and internal reports
• Ensures best practices are captured and disseminated; propose and lead the production of large-scale evaluation material
• Provide constant communication and support to ensure Countries and Delegation are aware of their monitoring and evaluation obligations.
• Collate, write or manage evaluation reports and teams as necessary
• Conduct quality and technical review of donor reports, operation reports, and other reports to ensure all reports are of high quality.

6. Support enhanced PMER capacity within the Delegation and to National Societies

• Provide training on monitoring and evaluation for IFRC and National Society staff as requested.
• Provide tools, tips and guides to help budget holders and National Societies design monitoring and evaluation plans and studies; lead training of staff and NS on monitoring and evaluation.
• Stay current on trends concerning monitoring and evaluation and advise the delegation on adaption and adoption of new tools and technology.
• Identify and secure opportunities for National Societies to build capacity.
• Provide input to the development of quality standards and tools in the areas of monitoring and evaluation.
• Support the sharing of findings and lessons learned to improve overall organizational learning.

7. Data and Information Management Services:

• Ensure Information Management support, centred on the delivery of reliable, accessible, user-friendly, relevant, appropriate, and timely information to support the needs of the National Society and in-country IFRC team.
• Create data visualization outputs such as maps, infographics and dashboards.
• Support and maintain data infrastructure; including systems designed for operational and programmatic levels, including IFRC GO country pages, ensuring proper support to the National Society in use and maintenance of IFRC GO platform.
• Support National Society’s implementation, setup, and maintenance of their own systems to collect, store and analyse operational and programmatic data; and propose improvements to them.
• Provide quality control and technical guidance over tools that support data collection and analysis such as KoBo Toolbox, and GO.
• Support National Societies and IFRC in ensuring quality of data collection processes and data management including encoding, storing, and transferring data to key stakeholders.
• Liaise with technical and thematic stakeholders to ensure their operational IM needs are met, as well work closely with Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation & Reporting (PMER) colleagues to ensure data flows to meet operational reporting requirements.
• Create data visualization outputs and ensure timely preparation of information products such as infographics, dashboards and maps for information sharing and dissemination to relevant stakeholders.
• When required, deploy (potentially on short notice) to affected areas in country to provide emergency response information management support, including support for information analysis and assessments

8. Data and Information Management Capacity Improvement:

• • Facilitate training and dissemination on information management standards, procedures, and tools to IFRC teams and the National Society with the view of enhancing their data and information management capacities.
  • Facilitate sessions aimed at building data literacy at strategic and operational levels of the IFRC.
  • Provide technical guidance and support to the National Society to improve their data collection, analysis, and data-driven decision-making capacities.
  • Support the National Society to implement and integrate IFRC Mobile Data Collection standard tools and software. 
    
    

    Duties applicable to all staff

    • Actively work towards the achievement of the Federation Secretariat’s goals
    • Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles
    • Perform any other work related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager

1. University degree, or equivalent, in relevant discipline (International Relations, Humanitarian Affairs, etc.) or demonstrated equivalent humanitarian related experience (Required)     
2. Relevant post-graduate degree or MBA (or equivalent)  (Preferred)     
3. Relevant professional training or relevant experience in monitoring, performance-based management, planning or evaluation.  (Required)  

1. Minimum of 4 years work experience in corporate reporting and planning. (Required)
2. Minimum of 2 years work experience in an international setting. (Preferred)
3. Experience working in the developing countries (Preferred)
4. Experience working in the Africa Region (Preferred)
5. People Management experience (Preferred)
6. Experience developing, communicating and implementing business plans (Required)     

1. Demonstrated capacity for analytical and strategic thinking (Required)
2. Superior writing and editing skills (Required)
3. Excellent communication and inter-personal skills (Required)
4. Excellent relationship building skills; ability to build and strengthen internal networks (Required)
5. Expertise in planning processes. (Required)
6. Conducting and/or supervising needs assessments and surveys, data analysis(Preferred)
7. Strong attention to detail in both listening and visualisation design (Required)
8. Good knowledge and experience of data collection tools and platforms, such as Kobo Toolbox and ODK (Required)
9. Knowledge of data analysis required as well as data visualization (Required)

• Core Competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust
• Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability
• Functional competencies: Strategic orientation; Building alliances; Leadership; Empowering others
• Managerial competencies: Managing staff performance; Managing staff development.
  
  N/B: This is a National Position to be based in any Location/ Country in Africa region.