Sr. MERL Manager At Pact

Pact seeks a Sr. Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) Manager for the anticipated USAID-funded Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, Immunization, and Malaria (RMNCI+M) Activity in Burundi. This Activity will support comprehensive RMNCI and Malaria services at health facility and community level and will strengthen the health system at the national and district levels, to:

1) Improve the delivery of high-quality RMNCI+M services across the continuum of care;

2) Promote healthy behaviors among women, youth and men, and

3) Strengthen the health system to support high-quality delivery of integrated care. It will also improve malaria case management among older children (above five years) and adults.

RMNCH+M is anticipated to be a five-year (2024-2029) cooperative agreement in the $25-49.99M range. This position is contingent upon award; the location of this position will be determined at a later date. There will be frequent travel to provincial offices.

Key Responsibilities

The Sr. MERL Manager 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 MERL Manager will design and oversee the project’s MERL system that integrates known standard best practices with innovative methods; and is responsible for ensuring the strategic and functional integration of all MERL activities as well as active collaboration with sub-awardees and USAID.

The specific duties to be carried out by the successful candidate are:

• In collaboration with Pact’s Results and Measurement (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 formative 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 MERL 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 USAID per cooperative agreement/contract requirements 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 MEL methods for promoting local ownership and sustainability; and ensure inclusive and gender-sensitive MEL.
• 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 adaption.
• Co-create with key stakeholders a targeted learning agenda aimed at generating evidence to guide adaptation of current activity and design of future interventions in public health system recovery and resilience; and lead operationalization of the agenda and dissemination of findings.
• Design and conduct/manage appropriate methods of operational research 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 monitoring and evaluation procedures, data collection tools, and data management practices in alignment with the MEL plan.
• Work closely with partners to establish their internal MERL systems, M&E plans, and data quality management, oversee partners’ compliance with MEL system, and design and conduct trainings to support capacity for MEL among partners.
• Annually self-assess project MERL system using Pact’s R&M 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 MERL successes.
• Other tasks as assigned.

Basic Requirements

• Master’s degree and 6+ years relevant experience or Bachelor’s degree and 8+ years of experience; or equivalent combination of education and experience in any of the following or related fields: public health, epidemiology, social sciences, research & evaluation, statistics.
• At least 4 years of progressively responsible management experience as a MERL/MEAL manager or lead, managing, and implementing results-based MERL activities on USAID-funded cooperative agreements or contracts. Experience with full-cycle M&E programming.
• Demonstrated supervisory skills, and ability to work well on a team.
  Progressively responsible experience in research and learning and/or monitoring and evaluation of peacebuilding activities, program beneficiaries, and program staff.
• Excellent organizational skills; excellent English and French oral and written communication skills. Fluency in Kinyarundi strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated relevant technical skills in analyzing and interpreting quantitative and qualitative data and packaging the findings.
• Successful experience integrating participatory and empowerment MEL approaches.
• Extensive expertise in research ethics and Do No Harm requirements in sensitive research environments.
• Strong skills in M&E technical capacity development of others.
  Extensive knowledge and experience in reporting procedures, best practices, guidelines, and tools for monitoring, evaluation and learning, including impact evaluation.
• Extensive experience with data management systems, including cloud-based
  Proficiency in Microsoft Office programs, i.e., Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc., and the ability to use various commercially available statistical software programs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Burundian nationals are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Working knowledge of DHIS2.
• Strong data visualization skills including proficiency in data visualization software.
• Experience in integrating gender sensitive and social inclusive MEL.
• Knowledge and experience in complexity-aware evaluation methods

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.
At Pact, we recognize your impact, offer you opportunities and support your total well-being. Our comprehensive benefit offerings may include healthcare, retirement (8.8% to 13% based on service tenure) and savings plans, paid time off, disability and life insurance programs, learning and development opportunities, wellness programs as well as other optional benefit elections .
With the continuing impacts of COVID-19 around the world, we are taking action to protect the health and well-being of our colleagues and maintain the safety of the communities where we operate. Pact seeks an environment free from COVID-19 and prefers all employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19. Attestation of vaccination status will be required for employment with Pact. Unvaccinated employees may be subject to additional health and safety requirements to include any federal, state and/or client restrictions.