Monitoring, Evaluating and Learning Specialist

Organizational Background:

Heartland Alliance International (HAI) is the international wing of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, a family of organizations that has been leading anti-poverty and social justice work in Chicago for more than 125 years. HAI is comprised of numerous country offices implementing programs on a broad range of human rights issues globally, as well as the Chicago-based Marjorie Kovler Center for survivors of torture. HAI’s technical areas of expertise include mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), gender equity, access to justice, prevention, protection, and prosecution of human trafficking, and stigma-free health care. Across all programs, HAI promotes progressive, innovative approaches to human rights protections, and gender equity.

Overview:

HAI Cote D’Ivoire seeks a MEL Specialist for an anticipated multi-year (at least five years) opportunity with the US Department of State Child Protection Compact (CPC) to strengthen the Government of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire and civil society’s efforts to combat forced child labor and child sex trafficking using a trauma-informed, victim-centered approach across the following objectives (4Ps): Prevention, Protection, Prosecution, and Partnership.

The MEL Specialist will report to the Deputy Program Director and be responsible for the technical oversight of all MEL components of a high-quality program focused on preventing, protecting, and prosecuting child trafficking. The MEL Specialist will provide technical expertise over the program. S/he will liaise with the program team to ensure high quality monitoring, evaluation, and learning of project activities.

Essential duties and responsibilities:

• Design and develop the monitoring, evaluating, learning, and research plan for the project, including selecting and defining indicators, setting targets for all indicators, planning data collection activities, and analyzing data to measure the results of the project and achievement of strategic objectives of US Department of State CPC
• Develop and support the design and implementation of continuous and / or end-of-project evaluations, surveys and other components of the monitoring and evaluation system.
• Work with senior management and project staff to ensure that project learnings are applied, and project activities are adapted, as needed, for innovative and effective programming.
• Develop monitoring activities that capture necessary data to report on program results.
• Develop high-quality quantitative and qualitative methods and participatory methodologies to control the quality of the program in terms of performance and results; design appropriate feedback mechanisms to assess whether the approaches implemented by the project are effective.
• Work with partners to ensure application of high-quality MEL activities and data collection.
• Provide ongoing supervision and technical assistance to partners, as needed, in the implementation of the monitoring and evaluation system, ensuring that the data and analyzes are of high quality.
• Conduct regular visits to field sites to provide assistance and ensure proper monitoring of project activities.
• Collaborate with government stakeholders and local partners and build their capacity to carry out monitoring and evaluation activities.
• Communicate information obtained through MEL activities to project and HAI staff, as well as US Department of State and partners.
• Work closely with HAI’s MEL team based in Chicago.
• Regularly review data collection processes, perform data quality assessments, and make adjustments as needed.
• Produce high quality and timely MEL reports for the project, HAI, and US Department of State, including documentation of successes, data analysis for indicator aggregation and reporting, summary of qualitative results, etc.
• Develop annual performance plans and annual MEL plans.
• Supervise assigned MEL staff.

Qualifications

-Cote d’Ivoire citizenship, residency, or work authorization required. Cote d’Ivoire nationals strongly encouraged to apply.

-Bachelor’s Degree (Advanced degree preferred) in international development, statistics, public policy, demographics, or related field required.

-At least 8 years of experience related to monitoring, evaluating, learning, and reporting on international programs, including demonstrated experience in developing and implementing monitoring, evaluation, and learning plans and/or researching protocol on international programs in Cote d’Ivoire preferred.

-Knowledge of research, evaluation and learning methods, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, and impact data collection and analysis.

-Knowledge of US Department of State rules, regulations, policies, and procedures.

-Experience with indicator selection, target setting, reporting, database management, and developing MEL and performance monitoring plans.

-Ability to set up a solid monitoring system to assess the fidelity of the implementation and the effectiveness of the program, and use this data for adaptive project management.

-Familiarity with innovative MEL methods that can be effective in remote areas with little resources.

-Understanding of gender equality and child protection considerations for the Cote d’Ivoire context preferred.

-Experience providing mentorship and support to MEL field staff.

-Experience designing and implementing surveys and other data collection tools.

-Experience working on programs focused on child protection and child trafficking preferred.

-Strong written and verbal communication skills in English and French required.