MEAL Specialist At Adventist Development and Relief Agency International

Adventist Development and Relief Agency Myanmar

Vacancy Announcement

Position Title: Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Specialist

Reports to: Programs Director

Location: Yangon with required field travel

About ADRA:

ADRA Myanmar is an ‘implementing office’ within the ADRA network and a recognized NGO in Myanmar. Established in 1984, ADRA Myanmar is one of the oldest country offices in ADRA providing development and relief assistance opportunities throughout the country. ADRA Myanmar operates under multi sectors that cater to Education, Food Security & Livelihoods, Health, Nutrition, WASH and Humanitarian actions.

Position Summary:

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Myanmar is seeking applications for the position of the country level Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning specialist. The purpose of the role is to ensure that the ADRA Myanmar Country Office has useful, valid and reliable information on the situation of targeted communities, performance of ADRA Myanmar-supported programmes including their relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability, and in emergency contexts, their coverage, coordination and coherence. He/she will support the Programs Director to ensure efficient and effective program management processes, serving as a nexus between various programs and teams. Specifically, the development of effective country level monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning systems; community accountability reporting mechanism (CARM) and rollout and supporting the creation and/or strengthening of mechanisms and techniques for measuring program quality and impact.

The Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Coordinator is also responsible for the capacity building and mentoring strategy for ADRA Myanmar and partner staff on themes related to monitoring, evaluation and learning. He/she will support efforts to manage and sharing information and learnings across programming, ensuring that information collected is reflected upon, used in ongoing programs and incorporated into future program design.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

Contributing to strategic leadership

• Lead the development and implementation of the country-level M&E strategy, in alignment with ADRA M&E standards and country program strategy.

• Ensures programs use the necessary MEAL systems and tools to inform and improve each individual program, as well as feed into the broader country-level M&E system and country strategy.

• As a strategic leader, actively participate in program management meetings and country-wide strategy sessions.

• Support Program Director and other proposal development team members in the development of the theory of change for new funding opportunities/proposal development.

• Lead logical framework design and M&E plan development for proposal development, and work proposal writing teams to ensure that new program logic aligns with the country program strategy.

• Lead and oversee the conduct of assessments in support of the design of new projects/programs.

• In humanitarian response situations, provide professional support for one or more rapid assessments (inter-agency or independently if necessary), working in close collaboration with the humanitarian clusters’ partners and staff.

• Provide leadership and oversight in designing individual, program-level logical frameworks and M&E systems that inform and improve each program, as well as provide feedback into the country-level log frame and strategy to ensure adherence to ADRA’ standards, including the use of standardized indicators and documentation methodologies.

• Lead the development and implementation of a country-level lessons learned mechanism, feeding into program design and adaptive management strategies.

MEAL System Development & Maintenance

• Lead the set-up/implementation of harmonized MEAL systems that use open-source software and flexible cloud solutions to more accurately collect, monitor, verify and document program activities.

• Collaborate closely with Project Directors/Managers and M&E staff in developing and establishing M&E systems that serve the needs of ADRA Myanmar portfolio of programming.

• Lead on the development and/or roll-out of mobile data collection and data management tools, including real time activity monitoring systems. Identify opportunities for countrywide capacity building on key IMS tools (such as Google Team Drive, Google Forms, and other)

• Propose information management solutions for enhanced efficiency through streamlined processes, automation, and electronic forms. Lead the development of ADRA Myanmar GIS capacities and ensure integration of GIS in program design, implementation and M&E. Identify and address shortfalls in monitoring, evaluation and information management that impact quality and affect program implementation.

• Support the development of M&E Plans, M&E tools, survey design, methodology, data analysis, and other services as may be required for program monitoring and evaluation.

• Ensure that monitoring systems meet the requirements of the donor and that performance results can be used for continuous improvement.

• Support programs team in integrating Do No Harm approach throughout project life cycle.

• Serve as a focal point for any temporary or short-term Technical Advisors and Consultants.

• Coordinate internal and external reviews and support/lead the analysis of findings, with a strong emphasis on learning.

• Identify, elaborate plans for, and lead opportunities for research initiatives and impact evaluations, feeding into program design and adaptive management strategies.

• Provide support to program teams at key moments including program start-up, kick-off meetings, inception meeting check-ins, quality audits and spot checks, and end of program transition meetings.

• Work closely and coordinate with ADRA Myanmar Directors on community accountability and reporting mechanism, including on the treatment, analysis and dissemination of feedback and complaints to relevant parties.

• Lead the development and implementation of a mission-level quality checking system, based on regular field visits from M&E staff to program activities, and providing feedback and recommendations to relevant parties to improve program implementation.

Program Performance Monitoring and Evaluation

• Ensure that the Country Office has quality information to assess progress towards expected results established in annual /projects work plans.

• Provide technical support to ensure that a set of programme performance indicators is identified and adjusted as necessary, with inputs of all concerned partners.

• Coordinate with staff and partners to ensure that monitoring systems are properly designed, and that data collection and analysis from field visits are coordinated and standardized across programmes to feed into programme performance monitoring.

• Drawing on monitoring and analysis of key program performance and management indicators, provide professional input to management reports, including relevant sections of the annual reports.

• Ensure that ADRA-supported evaluations are designed and implemented to established ADRA quality standards, and the results are disseminated in a timely fashion to stakeholders in order to improve programme performance and contribute to wider learning.

• Technically support programme managers and partners to formulate Terms of Reference and evaluation designs of high quality.

• Monitor and ensure the quality of the field work and data management during the implementation phase, and the quality of the analysis and ease of understanding during the report writing phase.

• Disseminate evaluation findings and recommendations to the intended audiences in user-friendly methods. In particular, to ensure that effective participatory feedback is provided to community and civil society stakeholders.

• Monitor and ensure that a management response to the findings and recommendations of the evaluation is completed, recorded, and followed up for implementation.

Management, Capacity building and Technical Oversight

• Manage country and program-level M&E staff to ensure that appropriate and timely technical support in monitoring, evaluation, program design, learning, accountability, quality assurance, and information management is given to the program teams.

• Serve as a resource for program staff, advising them on activity design, gathering of baseline data, evidence-based programming, developing and implementing M&E plans, and impact assessment.

• Develops high-impact data visualization applications to facilitate analysis and organizational learning.

• Coordinates high-level reporting on country-level indicators such as beneficiary numbers, design for impact indicators, cluster data and other information as needed.

• Develops and oversees implementation of the M&E staff and partner capacity building strategy that promotes a culture of learning through systematic analysis and reflection of program data.

• Provides training and mentoring in the development of M&E plans, M&E tools as well as survey design, methodology, data collection and analysis and other skills as required for assessing the impact of programs.

• Work closely with Program Managers and Human Resources to ensure that M&E and ICT skills are incorporated in program position descriptions.

• Contribute to the knowledge management repository with best practices in M&E and ICT and ensure that it is accessible to all staff and partners.

• Represent ADRA Myanmar in meetings and discussions on M&E and reporting issues with donors and partners.

• Ensure close coordination with the Implementing partners on M&E system development, ongoing monitoring, formative research and planning for midterm and final evaluations.

THE PERSON: QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Degree or equivalent in social science, Statistics, Information Systems, or international development preferred. Msc is an added advantage.

• 5 – 7 years’ experience managing M&E operations, with a preference for field experience in both humanitarian and development contexts.

• Experience with theoretical and practical background in research or MEAL and knowledge of qualitative and quantitative methodologies and techniques required.

• Experience with community participation in mapping and other M&E processes.

• Successful experience with the adoption of mobile data collections tools like Open Data Kit and Ona including XLSForm authoring, and GIS systems.

• Knowledge of major aspects of program development, implementation and documentation and excellent verbal and written communication skills required.

• Excellent quantitative skills and experience with Excel, Access, and statistical packages including Stata, R and GIS tools like QGIS, ArcGIS, and Google Earth Engine.

• Experience with and commitment to capacity building required.

• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members is required.

• Fluent written and oral communication in English is required.

Key Competencies:

• A successful candidate will have a demonstrated ability to lead a small team and communicate effectively with team members and colleagues of varied work styles and cultures, follow procedures, and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving.

• S/he will 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.

• The most successful ADRA 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.

• Patience, diplomacy, tenacity, compassion, determination and a sense of humor are all required key competencies.