Temporary - MEL Manager - Beirut, Lebanon

This is a Temporary Assignment for 70 days starting the beginning of December. Candidates with prior Mercy Corps experience are highly encouraged to apply.

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

Working in Lebanon since 1993, Mercy Corps has implemented community development programs focused on promoting economic development and increased opportunity for disadvantaged communities, while responding to emergencies as they emerged in the country. In 2012, the program portfolio shifted in response to the massive refugee influx from Syria and Mercy Corps in Lebanon has solidified its emergency response programming while integrating longer-term development programming by focusing on key sectors: Protection, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Governance and Conflict, and Livelihoods.

Mercy Corps is planning to implement a 3.5 years livelihood program in South and Bekaa. The program includes three components: access to vocational training, support toward self-employment and development of job platforms. The program is expected to launch in November 2019.

General Position Summary

The Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Manager will act as a maternity cover and is responsible for the technical design of MEL across for the Program. The MEL Manager will provide oversight of program-level monitoring and evaluation activities, ensuring the quality of the program's MEL activities, information management via the programs reporting system (which may be tied with Mercy Corps' proprietary TOLA systems), and geographic information systems (GIS), where applicable. The MEL Manager's role is to also oversee and ensure coordination of the various technical areas across the MEL staff of the program, and other relevant program staff and components. The MEL Manager is responsible for the capacity building and mentoring strategy for program staff on themes related to monitoring, evaluation, accountability, reporting, research and learning. The MEL Manager will ensure that the program is able to make effective, evidence-based decisions and use results-based management, providing lessons learned and recommendations based on program data. The post holder will have a handover period with the full time MEL Manager before and after the maternity leave period to ensure that there is a smooth transition.

Essential Job Responsibilities

STRATEGY & VISION

• Provides leadership to ensure that the Program's logical framework and monitoring plan meet Mercy Corps' Program Management Minimum Standards and measure program output, outcomes and impact against goals and indicators;
• Supports the Program Manager and Mercy Corps MEL Advisor to design quality information collection strategies that inform a country-wide system and information management platform;
• Designs and promotes strong feedback loops within EMD programs to enable iterative program design, planning, and management to create a comprehensive system;
• Designs and finalizes all the required documents for the potential FORSA II program as needed.

MEL MANAGEMENT

• Oversee program MEL startup and ongoing program MEL management and administration of teams across various field locations.
• Ensure that MEL implementation is responsive to program and donor requirements and consistent with Mercy Corps' relevant program guidelines, principles, values, quality standards and strategic plan.
• Develop MEL implementation strategies, including logical frameworks, tools, or any other required documents as needed.
• Provide guidance and capacity building for implementing partners as needed.
• Ensure program implementation is on time, target and budget, using effective M&E systems to reach desired impacts.
• Create and maintain systems ensuring effective and transparent use of financial resources for timely and informative reporting in line with donor and Mercy Corps policies and procedures.
• Examines program indicators, standardizing and refining based on application, in coordination with Mercy Corps' global standards.
• Provides technical guidance and recommendations on data collection, measurement and sampling methodologies to ensure quality data is collected and applied;
• Develops data collection tools and templates, including assessment, monitoring and evaluation tools;
• Ensure clear standard processes for data management and data quality checks;
• Leads design and implementation of program evaluations and research studies;
• Works closely with Program staff to promote course corrections and organizational learning, using examples to build replicable prototypes that can be used by other programs

TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Develop the capacity of the team (existing and new), deepen understanding of their roles and assist with career development.
• Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance & reach objectives.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
• Hire, orient and lead team members as necessary.
• Spend at least 1 day per week in the field offices.

ANALYSIS AND DATA REPORTING

• Reviews internal and external reports;
• Produces data analysis to help inform the implementation of the program;
• Produces analytical summaries: graphs, charts, tables, narratives and appealing visuals, as requested, to fulfill internal and external reporting requirements;
• Liaises across will other Mercy Corps program teams to ensure that the databases complement and align;
• Ensures proper filing and dissemination of information to relevant staff.

CAPACITY BUILDING AND MENTORING

• Encourages development of culture of learning across program team as well as key program stakeholders through systematic analysis and reflection on data;
• Provides training and mentoring in survey design, methodology, data collection, analysis, etc (Specific tools may include CommCare, ODK Collect, Ona, Tableau and Excel);
• Contributes to the knowledge management repository with best practices in MEL and Information Communication Technology and ensure that it is accessible to all staff and partners.

INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION

• Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with program partners, participants, donors, local governments and other stakeholders.
• Communicate effectively to ensure overall MEL targets and donor obligations are met.

SECURITY

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

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 PARTICIPANTS

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically
  to our participants 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.
• 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.

Supervisory Responsibility & Accountability

Reports Directly To: Program Manager

Supervises: MEL Senior Officers

Works Directly With: MERL Advisor, PAQ team, FORSA program team

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor's Degree in development studies, research methods, statistics, economics, social sciences, monitoring and evaluation, project management or other relevant field required. Advanced degree desired
• 5 years relevant professional experience, including at least two years in economic development/ livelihood and three years working in M&E.
• At least one year of previous experience in a management role.
• Experience leading MEL activities for multi-year; multi component programs.
• Good understanding of program management life cycle and documentation and excellent verbal and written communication skills required within the economic development sector
• Strong research background desired with an ability to design and analyze economic development research through proven methodologies
• Significant experience in training and capacity building of staff and implementing partner agencies.
• Successful experience with use of mobile data collection tools like CommCare, Open Data Kit (ODK) Collect and Ona including XLSForm authoring.
• Excellent data management skills, in particular the use of Excel with ability to structure and collate data sets for ease of analysis.
• Experience developing dashboards/ visualizations to support analysis

Success Factors

The post holder will have strong organizational skills and the ability to interact effectively with international and national personnel. They will have excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, and a demonstrated ability to multi-task and process information into action. The successful candidate will have proven experience working with a cross-cultural team and possess strong capacity building and mentoring skills that promotes a culture of learning. They will demonstrate a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, make effective communication a priority in all situations, and maintain a sense of humor.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Beirut, Lebanon. Housing is in individual accommodation with unlimited freedom of movement beyond the house/office. Staff have easy access to services – medical, electricity, water, etc.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Staff are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs, and Mercy Corps' policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Fostering a diverse and open workplace is an important part of Mercy Corps' vision. Mercy Corps is an Equal Opportunity Employer regardless of background. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment.

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PI114591898

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