Regional MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning) Manager

Career with BRAC International

BRAC is an award-winning international non-governmental development organisation, with the vision of a world free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination, where everyone has the opportunity to realise their potential. BRAC is a leader in developing and implementing cost-effective, evidence-based programmes to assist poor and disadvantaged communities in low-income countries, including in conflict-prone and post-disaster settings. It is an organisation of and for the people of the Global South, pioneering new development and social enterprise approaches to equip communities to achieve prosperity. As well as being the world’s biggest NGO by number of staff and people directly reached, BRAC has regularly been ranked the number one NGO in the world by the Geneva-based NGO Advisor, an independent organisation committed to highlighting innovation, impact and governance in the non-profit sector. BRAC retained the top spot in 2020 among the top 500 NGOs for the fifth consecutive year.

BRAC was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. It started its first programme outside of Bangladesh in Afghanistan in 2002, and has since reached millions of people in 11 countries in Asia and Africa. BRAC has a holistic approach to development that uses a wide array of programmes and social enterprises, including in microfinance, education, health, agriculture, gender and human rights. BRAC believes that every person has inherent potential, and when an enabling environment is created and that potential is unleashed, even the poorest can become agents of positive change in their own lives, for their families and their communities.

About the programme

The Mastercard Foundation Accelerating Impact for Young Women in partnership with BRAC initiative will create positive and measurable impact for 1.2 million adolescent girls and young women and 9.5 million people across seven countries in East and West Africa, including Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda in the next 5 years.

There is mounting urgency to support adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) living in poverty, which has been further amplified by the global pandemic. Through this partnership, scalable economic development approaches will be delivered in communities to foster the agency and voice of AGYW. They will have the opportunity to fulfill their aspirations, achieve sustainable livelihoods, and engage in advocacy issues.

BRAC International will implement an integrated and holistic model to address the various life cycles of a young woman living in poverty, ensuring she is able to transition safely from adolescence to adulthood. She will be equipped with the appropriate skills, tools, and access to finance to effectively exercise her agency and build a fulfilling and productive livelihood.

In preparation for the launch, BRAC International is seeking application from competent, dynamic and self-motivated individuals to fill the following position:

Regional MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning) Manager

Reporting to the Head of Program for the Mastercard Foundation Accelerating Impact for Young Women in partnership with BRAC (AIM) programme, this will be a full time position based in BRAC’s Africa Regional Hub in Nairobi, Kenya. The Regional MEAL Manager plays a key role in establishing and operationalizing a robust and effective M&E system for the programme. The MEAL manager will be providing technical leadership, strategic guidance and hands on training to M&E and relevant program staff members in the countries to ensure timely data collection, aggregation, analysis and reporting that are needed for adaptive project management and data driven decision making. This will entail developing and/or refining tools, systems and processes in all seven BI countries where AIM will be implemented and train country level M&E as well as relevant Program staff members across all 7 countries where the programme will be implemented. The Manager also needs to play a leadership role in generating knowledge, promoting learning and improving 360-degree accountability towards donors, partners and project participants.

Key Responsibilities:

Developing and Managing an Effective MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning) system

• Lead the process of developing a detail and robust M&E plan and measurement framework in line with project ToC/logframe and implementation plan
• Review and refine existing list of indicators and develop new indicators as needed to ensure that project is collecting data that are most relevant, actionable and meaningful to track progress as well as generate knowledge and learning
• Identify/develop the most suitable and standardized data collections tools, methodologies and guidelines in collaboration with M&E and project team members
• Conduct trainings/ capacity building workshop and ongoing coaching for relevant project and M&E staff members to ensure quality and consistency of monitoring across all 7 AIM countries
• Provide technical assistance and strategic guidance to country level monitoring teams to conduct regular (monthly and quarterly) and quality monitoring and reporting as per project plan
• Work closely with Manager digital monitoring and BI HO monitoring team to establish a fully digitalized and real time monitoring system for AIM
• Operationalize digital monitoring system to ensure timely data collection, compilation and reporting on project’s progress/achievements against targets (activities, outputs, outcomes)
• In addition to quantitative monitoring to track progress, set up a quality monitoring system to monitor
• Setting up a digital database/participants’ profile and produce most accurate count/estimation on total project coverage/reach by various categories and sub-categories as per the need of the project and organization.
• Collect, compile, verify and analyse country level narrative monitoring and MIS reports and generate organizational level reports to be used by BI senior management team, communication team and board members
• Review country level monthly and quarterly monitoring reports, give necessary feedback and support them to address/incorporate those
• Lead the process of data collection, data quality assurance, analysis (quantitative and qualitative) using various statistical packages and reporting (monthly, quarterly or annual reports) as per the need of the internal (such as project and BI management team members) and external (donors, partners, govt etc) audiences
• Produce/generate global/central level monitoring reports by collating/compiling reports produced by country monitoring teams
• Produce visual diagrams (infographic, various charts and graphs, etc) to share and disseminate monitoring findings and learning with project implementation and management team members at various levels of the organizations
• Check and verify the facts and figures of donor reports produced by project teams and ensure accuracy and quality before submission
• Contribute to developing new project/program design, planning, and fundraising by sharing knowledge and learning from existing projects/programs

Contribution to Program Design and Implementation

• Contribute to developing M&E plan for the new projects/interventions under AIM project
• Reviewing and adjusting existing M&E plan including outcomes and indicators to ensure that those are SMART and aligned with donor priority.
• Ensure timely and regular sharing of monitoring findings with the program team (managers and supervisors at different levels) to support adaptive management and data driven decision making
• Work with program management team and decision makers to ensure that monitoring findings are taken into consideration for reviewing and adjusting (if necessary) program design and implementation strategies to achieve better outcomes and impact
• Work closely with BI research team to develop evaluation plans, support commissioning/hiring external consultants, reviewing evaluations design including tools and methodologies and reviewing and giving inputs to draft reports before finalization.

Others (Safeguarding):

• Ensure the safety of team members from any harm, abuse, neglect, harassment and exploitation to achieve the programme’s goals on safeguarding implementation. Act as a key source of support, guidance and expertise on safeguarding for establishing a safe working environment.
• Practice, promote and endorse the issues of safeguarding policy among team members and ensure the implementation of safeguarding standards in every course of action.
• Follow the safeguarding reporting procedure in case any reportable incident takes place, encourage others to do so.

Educational Requirements:

Post-graduate/Master’s any of the following- Social Studies, Business Administration, Communications, Public Affairs, Journalism, International Development, or any relevant subject

Required Competencies

• Understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and best practices
• Experiences/understanding of developing MEL system in both humanitarian and development setting.
• Understanding on the basic concept of community development, economic empowerment, gender equity, inclusion and advocacy
• Proficiency in and previous working experience with data management systems
• Substantial knowledge of monitoring and evaluation processes for NGO programs
• Competency in using MS Word, Excel and data analysis software (e.g. SPSS, STATA, NVivo, etc.)
• Fluency in written and spoken English is a must
• Ability to travel frequently in BRAC International countries
• Personal qualities of integrity, credibility, and dedication to the mission of BRAC

Experience Requirements:

• Minimum 5 years of experience in developing and operationalizing monitoring, evaluation and learning system in large scale NGOs, UN organizations, and/or government sectors.
• Experience in leading and conducting data collection and analysis using both quantitative and qualitative tools, methodologies and statistical software
• Experience in large data management (coordinating data entry, ensuring data quality, managing data protection, security and storage)
• Advance level data analysis and report writing for both internal and external audiences/ stakeholders
• Presentation and dissemination of findings using visual dashboards/infographics at relevant forums for decision making and advocacy

Employment type: Full time (Contractual)

Salary: Negotiable

Job Location: Nairobi, Kenya