Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager,Northeast Syria Consortium for Humanitarian Assistance (NESCHA), Syria

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.
Now, and for the future.

Program / Department Summary

In Northeast Syria, Mercy Crops anticipates a 24 month, multi-million dollar grant to implement a multi-sectoral program through a consortium approach. The Northeast Syria Consortium for Humanitarian Assistance (NESCHA) is led by Mercy Corps and is a collaboration between five leading humanitarian agencies working in Syria. The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team enhances Mercy Corps' ability to deliver high impact programming by supporting the generation and use of high quality data for decision-making. It forms a critical component of the broader agency Strategy and Learning Initiative that seeks to drive greater evidence-based decision-making for greater program impact and accountability. The MEL team works directly with agency leadership – in country and at headquarters – to strengthen MEL by positioning it as a strategic functional area that is a critical mechanism for learning and is a part of good business practice for the agency. The team represents Mercy Corps externally to ensure our experience helps shape the relief and development field and to ensure that Mercy Corps keeps abreast of developments in donor and peer agency approaches to monitoring and evaluation.

General Position Summary

The NESCHA MEL Manager is a field-based role that will develop and implement robust M&E systems for the consortium, enable the use of data collected for decision making purposes and conduct training on M&E amongst partner agencies as needed. The role is further designed to support the other core program performance requirements (e.g., indicators and program design, program quality, and program management principles, adaptive management).

Essential Job Responsibilities

STRATEGY AND VISION

• Update (as required) and implement consortium MEL strategy
• Provide leadership to partner agencies in developing program level M&E systems that inform and improve the program, as well as feed into the broader consortium-wide M&E systems and consortium strategy.
• Lead the consortium M&E team and support partner agency M&E focal points in developing and maintaining a system that improves agencies' ability to analyze and represent impact to USAID, local authorities, colleague agencies, and communities themselves.
• Lead the NESCHA M&E working group and feed information in to the Field Leadership Team

TRAINING AND CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

• Using existing Mercy Corps resources, train Mercy Corps and partner agency M&E and program teams in the area of monitoring and evaluation and report writing, based on needs analysis.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT

• Establish and lead an M&E unit for the consortium that will facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of the program

• Support all consortium partners' efforts to ensure high quality M&E at the program level as well as build a system that captures and presents results at a consortium level.

• Support NESCHA partners to make use of M&E data and contribute to evidence-based learning at all levels.

• Work with partners to address shortfalls in M&E that affect program implementation

GRANTS MANAGEMENT AND REPORTING

• In conjunction with counterparts at partner agencies, conduct project site visits to provide training to field staff on how to capture and organize information for accurate documentation and reporting.
• Coordinate with partners and other consortium staff to ensure that reports are timely, high-quality, and responsive to donors.

PROGRAM PERFORMANCE AND QUALITY

• Coordinate consortium assessments and evaluations
• Conduct program quality reviews (implementation quality, meeting of minimum standards, quality of M&E data collection and analysis).

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

Team of national MEL

Accountability

Reports Directly To: NESCHA Chief of Party

Works Directly With: Consortium Finance Manager, Operations Manager, Grants and Compliance Manager and Partner Organizations M&E counterparts

Knowledge and Experience

• BA in international development or other relevant social science (MA preferred).
• 5-7 years of experience working in international relief and development programs, with at least three years focused on providing M&E technical support to field programs, and at least three years working overseas preferred.
• Demonstrated skill with program design, including assessments, proposal development, indicator selection and M&E planning.
• Demonstrated skill and experience with facilitating program design processes, logical frameworks, theories of change, and overall program logic.
• Experienced in training and capacity-building (in person and remotely) and fostering a collaborative relationship with field practitioners and management,
• Experience with data analysis and presentation using Excel, Access, and advanced data analysis and visualization packages. Additional software and technical skills (databases, mobile technology, GIS, and statistical packages) preferred.
• Experience designing practical and effective monitoring systems, including data and database management systems.
• Strong communication skills; able to work remotely with a geographically dispersed team.

Success Factors

• Strong team player, good communication and diplomatic skills
• Able to facilitate complex team dynamics and achieve aims
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Good organizational skills and ability to work independently.
• Strong commitment to advancing learning through monitoring and evaluation
• Active within the M&E and learning community
• Strong relationship-building skills and commitment to working collaboratively

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The CoP will be based in Amuda, Northeast Syria. The location is a hardship post eligible for rest and recuperation leave. The location is unaccompanied.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY 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 at all times and in all in-country venues.

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