M&E Lead at Pact

At the heart of Pact is the promise of a better tomorrow. A nonprofit international development organization founded in 1971, Pact works on the ground in nearly 40 countries to improve the lives of those who are challenged by poverty and marginalization. We serve these communities because we envision a world where everyone owns their future. To do this, we build systemic solutions in partnership with local organizations, businesses, and governments that create sustainable and resilient communities where those we serve are heard, capable, and vibrant. Pact is a recognized global leader in international development. Our staff have a range of expertise in areas including public health, capacity development, governance and civil society, natural resource management, poverty, fragile states, monitoring and evaluation, small-scale and artisanal mining, microfinance and more. This expertise is combined in Pact’s unique integrated approach, which focuses on systemic changes needed to improve people’s lives.

Department

Programs – Pact strives for a world where all people are heard, capable, and vibrant. The Programs Team helps realize this objective by bridging program management, technical support, and business development, enabling Pact to achieve its global strategy. We ensure program excellence through continuous learning, monitoring and evaluation and provide organizational and industry-wide thought leadership by leveraging a complementary set of cross-functional, multi-disciplinary skills, expertise, and experiences. The Programs team: influences progressive change through the development and implementation of global and regional strategies and business plans; supports advancement of innovative solutions; pursues new business opportunities; and drives effective internal and external engagement to maximize Pact’s impact across the globe. Across all aspects of its role, the Programs Department adheres to and promotes a culture of inclusion, accountability, and respect.

Position Overview

Pact seeks an experienced M&E Lead for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Comprehensive High Impact Community Based HIV Prevention, Testing, and Treatment Initiation for Sustained Epidemic Control in Lesotho under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This project targets HIV prevention, case finding, linkage to care, and continuity in care among at-risk groups through a strengthened HIV response at the community level.

The M&E Lead provides strategic guidance, vision, and management for successful monitoring and evaluation of the program; as well as for generating and translating evidence to inform programmatic adaptation. The M&E Lead will design and oversee a monitoring, evaluation, and learning system that integrates known standard best practices with innovative methods; and is responsible for ensuring the strategic and functional integration of all M&E activities as well as active collaboration with sub-awardees and CDC. This individual supervises M&E staff and builds M&E capacity of staff and partners; and promotes local ownership and sustainability through participatory and empowerment methods. The M&E Lead ensures adherence to CDC, Pact, and international standards regarding ethical and high-quality data collection and utilization. This is anticipated to be a five-year activity. This position is contingent upon award.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee the design and implementation of the project’s M&E system in coordination with Pact’s Results & Measurement (R&M) Team.
• In collaboration with Pact’s R&M team, develop a system for monitoring progress towards intended results through identifying key performance indicators and developing standard data collection tools.
• Design and manage baseline and follow-up assessments and collection of performance indicator data.
• Oversee the development and maintenance of a comprehensive project data management system, including effective, efficient, and secure flow of data from collection through compilation, storage, analysis and reporting.
• Systematize data quality into all M&E activities to ensure validity, reliability, precision, integrity, timeliness of data, including through Routine Data Quality Assessments (RDQA) and implementation of corrective actions to improve data quality and accountability of staff and partners.
• Ensure accurate and timely reporting to CDC per cooperative agreement and in response to donor’s ad hoc requests; and responsible for the data analysis, writing, and review of the results and learning sections of program reports in collaboration with program staff, before submission to donor.
• Integrate participatory M&E methods for promoting local ownership and sustainability; and ensure inclusive and gender-sensitive M&E.
• Ensure data use for decision making through routine review and interpretation of data, packaging and disseminating findings in a meaningful way, and making recommendations for adaptation.
• Co-create with key stakeholders a targeted learning agenda aimed at generating evidence to guide adaptation of current activity and design of future HIV and AIDS interventions , and lead operationalization of the agenda and dissemination of findings.
• Design and conduct/ manage appropriate methods for responding to learning agenda and providing internal evaluation.
• Coordinate any external evaluation processes, including drafting evaluation ToR and selection of firm, in alignment with award.
• Ensure appropriate capacity development and supportive supervision for staff in M&E procedures, data collection tools, and data management practices in alignment with the M&E plan.
• Work closely with partners to establish their internal M&E systems, M&E plans, and data quality management, oversee partners’ compliance with M&E system, and design and conduct trainings to support capacity for M&E among partners.
• Annually self-assess project M&E system using Pact’s Results and Measurement Standard assessment tool; and develop action plan for addressing gaps together with R&M team.
• Report project targets and results annually on Pact’s Global Indicators through imPact, Pact’s agency-wide data management system.
• Produce learning products and thought leadership pieces relevant to the project intervention; present in conferences or on webinars regarding project’s M&E successes.
• Other tasks as assigned.

Basic Requirements

• Master’s degree in any of the following or related fields: public health, epidemiology, social science, research & evaluation, statistics
• At least seven to ten (7-10) years of progressively responsible experience in designing, managing, and implementing results-based M&E activities for public health sector, particularly HIV programming
• At least five (5) years of supervisory experience
• Demonstrated relevant technical skills in collecting, analyzing and interpreting quantitative and qualitative data for health and HIV interventions and effectively packaging the findings, particularly for PEPFAR
• Successful experience integrating participatory and empowerment MEL approaches
• Strong technical knowledge and experience in evaluation methodology
• Extensive knowledge of and experience with CDC M&E requirements, guidelines, and tools for monitoring, evaluation, and CLA in HIV interventions
• Extensive experience with data management systems, including cloud-based systems
• Strong skills in M&E technical capacity development of others
• Ability to collaborate well with multiple stakeholders
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office programs, i.e., Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc., and relevant statistical software programs
• Experience in Southern Africa, preferably in Lesotho
• Fluency in English (excellence in oral and written communication)

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with DHIS2 platform and mobile data collection software
• Strong data visualization skills including proficiency in data visualization software
• Experience in integrating gender sensitive and social inclusive M&E
• Knowledge and experience in complexity-aware evaluation methods
• Lesotho nationals and permanent residents are encouraged to apply.

Pact is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, citizenship status, genetic information, matriculation, family responsibilities, personal appearance, credit information, tobacco use (except in the workplace), membership in an employee organization, or other protected classifications or non-merit factors.