Senior Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Officer at Mercy Corps

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps has been present in Nigeria since 2012, focusing its interventions on adolescent girls’ empowerment, economic development and conflict mitigation. With the insurgency spilling over from the Northeast of Nigeria and causing displacement of millions of individuals, Mercy Corps started its humanitarian response in 2014 to address the rising humanitarian needs. With funding from institutional donors, foundations and private corporations, Mercy Corps continues to provide assistance to meet the basic needs of vulnerable populations in the areas of food security, shelter, water and sanitation, protection, and livelihoods.

With the recognition of the protracted crisis in Northeast Nigeria, Mercy Corps’ strategy and expansion plans aim to address the root causes of the crisis and seek to build long-term resilience of communities with integrated programs focusing on the recovery of markets and livelihoods, social cohesion and social protection, and youth empowerment with emphasis on adolescent girls and boys. With multiple funding streams from large institutional donors and foundations, Mercy Corps’ programs in Northeast Nigeria continue to scale up and serve communities by transitioning them from humanitarian aid to early recovery programs.

General Position Summary

The Senior Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) Officer is a key position in the Mercy Corps Nigeria Program Performance and Quality (PAQ) Unit. The position holder will support planning and execution of monitoring and evaluation, ensuring quality in accordance with accepted standards, providing essential feedback for learning, accountability and decision making. S/he will be responsible for providing internal capacity building for program staff on monitoring and evaluation activities as well as review and develop the tools and reports necessary to meet Mercy Corps and donor reporting requirements.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Strategy and design

• Ensure that the MEL systems for the BRICC programs is in compliance with Mercy Corps’ global, regional and country policies, procedures, standards and strategic initiatives.
• As needed, assist in the coordination of BRICC consortium MEL activities.
• Assist in program strategy design, planning and implementation to ensure adherence to Mercy Corps’ Minimum Standards, including the use of standardized tools and indicators and documentation methodologies.
• Lead and support the design and implementation of assessments and other pre, ex-ante and post data collection and analysis.
• Support learning-to-action events, reflection session to analyze data for programmatic use and to document and incorporate lessons learned into program design, planning and implementation.

DATA MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY CONTROLS

• Assist program teams to develop and maintain knowledge and Information management system to support data collection, reflection, analysis and reporting needs.
• Ensure quality control procedures and accuracy of entered data and comparing it with the existing filing system to make sure all records are consistent and aligned.
• Provide support in the development of MEL Plans, tools, survey design, methodology, data analysis, and other services as may be required for program monitoring and evaluation.
• Ensure program teams (including partners) are compliant with donor monitoring, evaluation and reporting requirements (adhere to donor MEL guidelines)

technical support

• Play a key role in the development and review of program, sector intervention strategies and MEL frameworks and document changes to generate learnings and ideas for programs.
• Maintain an up to date database that reflects progress on indicators (including disaggregated beneficiary counts) using TolaData.
• Coordinate assessments, evaluations and monitoring surveys in area of operation. This will entail development of Scopes of Work, development of survey tools, trainings and management of data collectors, report writing and facilitating discussion on the results.

DOCUMENTATION AND REPORTING

Regularly document lessons learned, best practices, program data analysis summaries, and evaluations and provide evidence based information, success stories, case studies and other high quality, results-based documentation.

Produce quality program reports and support program teams to review and improve on quality of reporting.

Visit sites and partners to collect supplementary data, stories and conduct qualitative research both independently and in teams and support partner-organizations with proper documentation and report generation.
leadership and Capacity Building

Build the capacity of all relevant team members (including partner staffs) to develop and maintain an excellent MEL system, and facilitate periodic reflection and analysis of program monitoring information that feeds into programming and learning. 

As needed, support in the training and oversight of enumerators for data-collection.

Additional Tasks

• Maintain professional relationships with local government officials, private sector partners, NGOs, other development organizations, and civil society organizations.
• Maintain an active advisory role with the program and Consortium MEL team to help guide them towards robust and relevant data collection.
• Work with MEL and IT staff to maximize the value and utility of technology initiatives for effective MEL for the Northeast.
• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to credit Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its mission.
• Perform any other duties as assigned by his/her supervisor or representatives.

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

MEL Assistant (x1)

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Country MEL Manager

Works Directly With: Program Director, Program Managers, Field Managers, Program Teams, Communications teams, Program Support Teams

Knowledge and Experience

• Must hold at least a bachelor’s degree in Economics, Agriculture, Demography, Statistics, Business Administration or relevant field (MA/Msc/MBA or equivalent preferred).
• Three years of MEL experience (or similar) – preferably in Yobe State.
• Should understand concepts and demonstrate skills in monitoring and evaluation, results frameworks/program logics, and participatory monitoring.
• Experience with both quantitative and qualitative data collection and reporting techniques.
• Should be able to design and implement surveys, have knowledge of commonly used sampling techniques.
• Experience with facilitation, capacity building, formal and informal knowledge transfer, partnership strengthening, and empowering staff through opportunities for growth and development.
• Experience leading learning extraction, development and sharing as part of the monitoring and evaluation feedback process.
• Familiarity with data visualization and data analytics
• Knowledge of statistical analysis software such as Tableau, SPSS, EPI Info and mobile data collection platforms preferable.
• Experience with market price monitoring and analysis.
• Experience with digital or technology platforms for program and MEL related activities
• Strong ability to work cross teams
• Communicates well with remote collaborators
• Manages multiple priorities and deadlines
• Excellent oral and written English skills (demonstrate good writing skills)
• Fluency in Hausa is strongly preferred.
• Past experience with Mercy Corps is an asset, but not a requirement.
• Ability to work effectively with an ethnically diverse team in a sensitive environment

Success Factors

S/he will be capable of multi-tasking, rapid decision-making, have initiative, drive and a lot of energy, as well as high emotional intelligence, constructive communication skills and proven experience with capacity building. S/he will be committed to long-term program sustainability and the delivery of high-impact activities at the community level. Successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and challenging environments, and make effective written and verbal communication a priority.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Damaturu, Yobe State and it requires up to 30% travel to other location of program within Yobe State.

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.