Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning Advisor

Location: Washington DC -US, Edinburgh – UK, London – UK or Any Mercy Corps Office Location

Valid unrestricted work authorization in the country in which you will be based (United States, United Kingdom, or Mercy Corps Office location where you will be based) is required at the time of application for this position.

Position Status: Full-time, Regular

Salary:

• US: Starting salary for this role will be USD 64,000 to 76,000 commensurate on experience.
• UK: Entry point of £ 44,320, flexible commensurate on experience.

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse, and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps works to alleviate poverty, suffering, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities. Mercy Corps’ is committed to improve program performance and quality through Standards, Service, and Evidence. The agency operates programs in over 40 countries around the world. The HQ MEL Team of Mercy Corps consists of MEL Officers, MEL Advisors, Senior MEL Advisors, Senior MEL Technical Leads and a MEL Senior Director. The MEL Team of Mercy Corps supports both foundational and cutting-edge adaptive management approaches with design, monitoring, evaluation and learning functions as key processes and benchmarks to ensure evidence-based decision making for quality program implementation.

The MEL Team’s work includes, but is not limited to, the provision of technical MEL support to programs, the integration of MEL technologies at all stages of the data lifecycle, implementation of learning mechanisms and platforms, implementation of and support for data quality assessments, the development of global MEL standards and good practices, and support with agency-level reporting. A major focus area of the MEL team is the implementation of Mercy Corps’ MEL and Program Management policies. The team works across a wide spectrum of stakeholders both internal and external to Mercy Corps, as well as diverse technical program approaches and sectors.

General Position Summary

The MEL Advisor works with the MEL team to collectively support program’s by helping improve Mercy Corps monitoring, evaluation and learning practices across multiple program types and sectors.

MEL Advisors work primarily – though not exclusively – at a program level (vs portfolio/mission level) by providing direct support on program design, field monitoring, evaluation, learning, accountability; data and knowledge management; team capacity building; and resource and tool development. Thus, the advisor provides direct technical assistance across all phases of the program life cycle to field teams as needed, liaise with internal stakeholder teams, contribute to external representation.

Essential Job Responsibilities

MONITORING EVALUATION, LEARNING TECHNICAL SUPPORT TO PROGRAMS (65%)

• Resource improvement, testing and socialization: Contribute to the review and update of existing Mercy Corps MEL tools and approaches as well as development and testing of new resources. Socialize these resources through communications and demonstrations with the country programs.
• Capacity building: Contribute to building capacity, coaching, and mentoring MEL, and program staff on how to apply MEL best practices within their contexts and how to use certain tools and assure donor requirements are met. This includes substantial work in revising and/or developing our “MEL Institute” facilitated and self-administered, online M&E courses.
• TA on MEL Policy and Standards: Provide technical support and oversight to assigned programs in meeting Mercy Corps’ agency-level MEL standards as articulated in the MEL policy.
• TA to programs: Support programs as they conduct baselines, mid-term and final evaluations, Final Internal Performance Reviews (FIPRs), and developing standards for data collection, using programmatic data for decision-making and others. As the MEL Advisor’s technical competency and experience grows, they will support more complex M&E systems and data analysis.
• Assess evaluability of programs through TolaData: reviewing programs’ – as entered in TolaData – to assess how well a program can both monitor and assess their performance given their selection of indicators, targets, reporting periods, results framework and their indicator plans.

IMPROVEMENTS TO – AND USE OF TOLADATA (15%)

• TolaData is Mercy Corps’ inhouse platform program indicators, and is continuously being upgraded. The MEL Advisor will participate with all MEL team members in identification of needed TolaData upgrades as well as testing those upgrades and communicating with our global staff when there are new releases. As such MEL Advisors are expected to quickly become TolaData power users.
• The MEL advisor will work closely with the MEL team to develop SOPs and tools to conduct quality assurance checks of data. She or he will use TolaData for periodic (program) performance assessments independent of – or as part of – mid-term reviews, final internal performance reviews (FIPR) or final evaluations.
• Train Mercy Corps staff around the world in TolaData.

NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (10%)

• Support proposal development teams by reviewing and drafting MEL plans and indicator tables, as well as ensuring compliance with donor requirements.
• Serve as a proposal reviewer for MEL-related sections.
• Help package MEL products, such as Post Distribution Monitoring (PDM), and promote their incorporation in new and emerging technical proposals.

POLICY, ADVOCACY AND REPRESENATIONS (5%)

• Represent Mercy Corps at conferences, media forums, and other events.
• Contribute to Mercy Corps’ MEL-Related Communities of Practice (CoP)
• Conduct internal webinars intended to strengthen technical skills of MEL team members.
• Cultivate and maintain working relationships with partner’s MEL staff.

Supervisory Responsibility: The MEL Advisorhas no supervisory responsibility.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: HQ’s Senior Technical Lead/MEL

Works Directly With: All HQ and Regional MEL team members on a regular basis. works directly with MEL team members at country and program level as needed. Works with other Mercy Corps teams under the supervision of more senior HQ MEL team members.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Required Skills, Experience & Competencies

Applications are open for candidates from diverse backgrounds, including those with field experience in governmental organizations, NGO not-for-profits, or in the private sector provided they have the transferable skills needed in the field of project monitoring and evaluation. With a focus on professional success, we will provide comprehensive training to align with Mercy Corps’ specific requirements and programs, with the aim of enhancing existing skills for a seamless transition into the role of Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning Advisor.

• 3 years of field-based experience developing and managing an M&E system in programs similar to those which Mercy Corps implements, along with a Bachelor’s degree (BA/BS) or its equivalent in a discipline that demonstrates advanced level qualitative and/or quantitative skills in analyzing information and data.

OR

• 5 years of field-based experience developing and managing an M&E system in programs similar to those which Mercy Corps implements, along with a Bachelor’s degree (BA/BS) or its equivalent in a discipline that demonstrates intermediate level qualitative and/or quantitative skills in analyzing information and data.

AND

• English proficiency (reading, writing, spoken)
• Demonstrated experience using qualitative and/or quantitative data analysis software (such as Stata, R, SPSS and/or MaxQDA, NVIVO, Atlas-TI but there are others)
• Demonstrated experience using mobile data collection technologies such as Commcare or an ODK-based platform such as Ona.
• Experience using PowerBI, Tableau, or similar visualization software
• Relevant experience that demonstrates the candidate’s ability to effectively perform the essential job responsibilities outlined in this job description.

Prioritized Skills (although not required, will be considered a plus)

French and/or Spanish proficiency (reading, spoken), with the capacity to handle professional and technical subjects within the scope of this job description.

Desired Skills, Experience, & Competencies

• Experience with project management (private, for-profit not-for-profit, and/or public sector)
• Experience developing quantitative study instruments for large surveys, baselines, etc.
• Experience developing qualitative study instruments for formative research
• Experience using project management software such as Smartsheet, MS Project or similar Experience with M&E requirements for donors including, at least, USAID, DFID, and Foundations.

Success Factors

The success in the MEL Advisor role hinges on a blend of design, strategy, sharp analytics, and proficient data handling, supported by adept report writing and engaging presentation skills. A curious and creative mindset, coupled with unwavering attention to detail and resilience, underscores a purpose-driven commitment to driving sustainable impact and fostering positive change.

The successful candidate will have the ability to work comfortably and effectively across a diverse portfolio. MEL Advisors are excellent communicators, multi-taskers, able to work in ambiguous situations, able to work remotely with a geographically disbursed team and must be team players with a positive attitude toward problem solving and conflict resolution.