Director of Monitoring and Collaboration, Learning and Adapting (CLA) at Mercy Corps

Pending Funding

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

Mercy Corps is applying for the USAID NOFO: Civic and Economic Integration Activity in Georgia. Mercy Corps has been working in Georgia since 2000, initially responding to post-conflict needs and promoting community mobilization, and then transitioning to supporting economic/agriculture development, market systems development, rural development, farmers’ cooperative development, governance, disaster risk reduction, and women economic empowerment in six of the country’s ten regions. Since 2000 our programs have reached approximately one million people in all major urban and rural communities of the country’s ten regions.

Guided by our Vision for Change Mercy Corps has been fostering economic development in the ethnic minority communities through facilitation of market linkages and support provided to the private sector entities, small and medium size Enterprises, youth-led enterprises, agricultural cooperatives, off-farm enterprises as well as helping semi-commercial farmers and rural entrepreneurs to improve access to credit. Mercy Corps is seeking a Director of Monitoring and Collaboration, Learning and Adapting (CLA) for the upcoming five-year USAID-funded Civic and Economic Integration Activity with the goal to better integrate ethnic and religious minorities into wider Georgian social, political, and economic life, in order to create the environment necessary for the social cohesion and economic integration as well as acceptance of diversity necessary for democracy to function. Specifically, the activity will achieve its purpose through two integrated and mutually reinforcing objectives:

Increase participation of ethnic and religious minorities in government policies and services; and
Expand and strengthen mutually beneficial socio-economic linkages between majority and minority communities.

General Position Summary

Mercy Corps is seeking candidates for a Director of Monitoring and Collaboration, Learning and Adapting (CLA) who will manage and lead the overall Monitoring and Evaluation and CLA components, with a specific focus on resilience measurement and resilience learning, of an expected five-year USAID-supported Civic and Economic Integration program in Georgia. The Director is responsible for contributing to strategy discussions, providing technical assistance and developing successful mechanisms for learning. The Director will use USAID’s Collaboration, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) principles to effectively identify right-fit data from the program’s MEL system and work with the various teams of the program to promote adaptive management and data driven decision making practices. S/he then should develop and promote the use of learning mechanisms whereby S/he integrate real time monitoring and learning back into the project strategy and program implementation and ensure knowledge is shared with the broader host country community. The Director will will work in close collaboration with the MEL team and partners to ensure resilience building efforts and their impact are effectively measured as well as lead the resilience learning agenda. In coordination with program directors and team members, s/he will be responsible for developing, coordinating, maintaining and constantly improving the program-wide CLA system, as well as implementing an internal CLA capacity building strategy that trains and mentors staff and promote a culture of learning.

Essential Job Responsibilities

TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP AND DELIVERABLES

Develop, set-up, and oversee the MEL system for the program including M&E Plans, M&E tools, survey design, methodology, data collection processes, and data analysis to assess the impact of the programs.
Lead the development of the following documents for the program:
CLA strategy
Annual CLA workplans
CLA budget,
CLA maturity evaluations using the USAID CLA maturity matrix
Learning agenda and
Research plan

In developing, reviewing and updating the following documents work closely and integrate input from the program’s Senior Leadership and all technical teams, consult most recent secondary sources and research on high priority learning themes, including resilience. Ensure to incorporate consultation with partners, peer agencies and donor as necessary and required within the framework of the program’s contractual agreement.

Develop, initiate, facilitate and oversee the implementation of program specific CLA mechanisms, such as including quarterly program performance review meetings, pause and reflection meetings, and other CLA activities from the CLA workplan (may include context review meetings, scenario review meetings and others). Develop additional resources, templates, guidance and tools to support their implementation. Ensure that the CLA tools focus program learning on the technical as well as resilience-related outcomes of the program.
Build the capacity of the team members to effectively use program CLA resources in their work. Monitor their use and adjust in order to meet the needs of individual teams.
Upon the request of the CoP, review contingency plans, emergency preparedness and other strategic plans, provide inputs integrating necessary CLA mechanisms, such as scenario planning, context monitoring, knowledge drop and others identified as relevant.
Lead, monitor and assess the performance of the program’s resilience learning agenda.
On an annual basis in consultation with the program’s senior management and technical team leads, partners, and if necessary donors, assess the relevance of the program CLA deliverables mentioned above. Should gaps be identified, document and address those and reflect them in the revised CLA deliverables mentioned above.
Working closely with the component leads, initiate, oversee and ensure documentation of progress towards the program’s learning objectives, consolidating evidence from research and the data from the program’s MEL system.
Promote and oversee the development of at least one thematic “Results and Learning Briefs” on each of the four program components, and one per year – the for the program overall focusing on resilience.
Technical contributions to resilience measurement
Collaborate with internal HQ-based technical advisors and external evaluators on the design and roll out of the program baseline and evaluations, while setting up effective systems for learning.
Take the lead on aligning, collecting, and reporting on relevant resilience measurement and CLA indicators to the organizational-wide M&E systems, and other external systems as relevant.
Support teams in collecting sex and age disaggregated data and using gender sensitive data collection methods in order to understand and respond to program results with diverse participants.
Participate in planning and the facilitation of country and sector-level strategic planning sessions.
Provide guidance, recommendations, and leadership to ensure that the CLA systems meet the needs of Programs Managers and Country Leadership and help address shortfalls in CLA that affect program implementation.

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Map out decision making gateways, events and meetings. Working closely with the MEL team to identify and align the right-fit MEL datasets feeding into the gateways, meetings and events. During those events ensure that the identified right-fit data is appropriately packaged and made available ahead of meetings, in a format that is user-friendly and applicable. Provide support to the senior leadership as well as the MEL team to ensure that the data is used effectively.
Develop and promote systematic documentation of decisions leading towards program adaptions, and the evidence feeding into those decisions.
For each CLA mechanism ensure appropriate datasets are identified from the program’s MEL system and used during the implementation of the mechanism. Incorporate secondary research and data as necessary on relevant CLA mechanisms, such as scenario planning, context review and others.
Contributes to program design to ensure adherence to Mercy Corps’ resilience measurement and CLA best practices
Develop program and operational reporting templates that facilitate the acquisition, aggregation and flow of information in programs.

CAPACITY BUILDING AND MENTORING

Develop a orientation package on CLA for the program, and ensure that all staff have received a through orientation and understand how CLA is implemented and expected to evolve throughout the life of the program.
Develop and oversees implementation of the CLA staff and partner capacity building strategy that promotes a culture of learning through systematic analysis and reflection of program data.
Identify and train a CLA POC on staff in Georgia
Build the capacity of all relevant team members to develop and maintain an excellent CLA system, including regular reflection and analysis of program monitoring data.
Work closely with Program Managers, Human Resources and Finance to ensure that CLA skills are incorporated into all program position descriptions and positions are budgeted for.
Contributes to the knowledge management repository with best practices in CLA and ensure that it is accessible to all staff and partners.
**Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COORDINATION

Active contributor and collaborator with regional and global counterparts to promote the use of CLA best practices.
Strengthen linkages with other internal resources, including the LMS, Digital Library, Hub, and Connect, to enhance organizational learning where relevant to CLA. Generate impact and learning briefs and other forms of documentation to contribute towards Mercy Corps’ knowledge base.
Maintain close working relationships with CLA counterparts in other relevant international actors and PARA actors in Ethiopia.
Leading certain technical discussions at partner meetings.
Participation in workshops and learning-related activities and their inclusion in the program workplan.
Attendance of learning events hosted by other partners as well as implementation of sector-specific learning events with program partners and local stakeholders.

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 team members

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Chief of Party

Works Directly With: Program Sector Managers, Program Managers, Reporting & Communications Officers, Country Director, Country Program Director, Country MEL manager, Finance, and Operations teams. Coordinates with HQ Program Performance team and the Technical Support Unit.

Knowledge and Experience

BA/S degree in development studies, research methods, statistics, economics, social sciences, project management or other relevant field required
Fluency in Georgian language
5-7 years of managing M&E work at a program or country level, including supervising staff. Proven
use of program technology in an M&E function requiredDeep understanding and experience in implementing CLA within a USAID-funded program.
Demonstrated experience in implementing learning at program level and promoting adaptive management practices, including facilitating pause and reflection sessions, program reviews and other as relevant.
Deep knowledge and prior experience in developing and implementing programmatic MEL systems, including designing log frames, IPTTs, indicators, data collection tools and evaluative studies.
Experience with data management including the ability to structure and collate data sets for ease of analysis preferred
Proven experience with systems thinking or systems approaches to programming
Proven experience developing iterative learning systems or ‘feedback loops’ within development programs or organizational learning contexts
Knowledge of resilience in development programs a plus
Excellent computer skills (especially Microsoft office applications) and ability to use information technology as a tool and resource
Demonstrated experience in training and capacity building across diverse teams and partners
Excellent project management, time management, and organizational skills. Multi-tasking skills and ability to work under pressure
Strong writing, editing, public speaking skill and good leadership skills
Ability to summarize and simplify complex information and communicate it to the targeted groups
Excellent stakeholder management skills
Strong command of English verbal and written skills

Success Factors:

A successful candidate should have experience and expertise leading collaboration efforts and translating programmatic learning into adaptive programming. They should also have a demonstrated ability to lead and communicate effectively with team members of varied work styles and cultures, follow procedures, and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving. S/he should have a proven ability to learn quickly, multi-task, prioritize, take initiative, and be accountable for results, understand the larger picture while remaining focused on the details, problem solving, work within a complex and sensitive setting and to follow laws and security protocols. The most successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.