Regional Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) Advisor – Middle East / Jordan or Lebanon – National Position

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 collaborate 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 implements a variety of programming throughout the Middle East, and it continues to respond to humanitarian, development and peacebuilding needs across Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen by forging meaningful and trusted partnerships and designing impactful programming. The country programs face humanitarian crises and significant development challenges, and operate in fragile and conflict-affected areas, displacement settings, emergency responses, as well as more stable developed settings. Mercy Corps’ focus in the Middle East has been in promoting good governance and conflict resolution, enhancing resilience, supporting market systems development, as well as gender and inclusion, and youth employment. Mercy Corps investment in thought leadership, continual learning, and adaptive programming allows us to make changes that are essential in a fluid context, with significant ambitions to learning and sharing through building an evidence base, investment in program performance and quality, including MEAL and additional specific research, to enhance adaptive and responsive programming in the Middle East.

General Position Summary

Mercy Corps is looking for a highly qualified and dynamic Regional MEL Advisor to join the Middle East Regional Team within the Program Performance and Quality (PaQ) Unit of the region, to work under the leadership of the PAQ advisor, with expertise and extensive work experience in Programme Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL). S/he will support the country teams to implement sound M&E systems, assist with the roll out of existing and new MEL guidance, including TolaData (Mercy Corps’ proprietary indicator management platform), use data for decision making and build skills and capacity of the program teams on essential MEL skills as needed. The Middle East Regional MEL Advisor will also support program teams to design, develop program MEL frameworks, mechanisms, systems and tools, including application of appropriate mobile technologies, such as Ona, ComCare, PowerBi and others. As the regional MEL Advisor s/he will engage and provide technical support to internal and external program evaluations, studies and reviews, working closely with the country, regional and HQ level PAQ Advisors. Building the MEL capacity of country programs is one of the major focus areas of this role. The Middle East Region MEL Advisor will help identify best practices in MEL, link country MEL teams through an effective community of practice and drive learning across the region, leveraging knowledge from the rest of the organization and HQ. The Regional MEL Advisor will need to engage with field leadership to nurture and help develop an effective, impact-driven leadership culture.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Assess and improve MEL and program performance related practices in each country (50%)

• Identify MEL capacity and learning needs through a comprehensive assessment, and use the results of the assessment to develop a comprehensive long-term capacity building and training plan for the region on core MEL competencies, including mobile technologies
• Work with individual country teams, providing technical support and assistance on core MEL tasks through the data lifecycle, including planning, implementation, close out. This may entail remote and in[person support with development and refinement of program logic models, indicators, MEL plans, IPTT, MEL tools and mechanisms, providing oversight for data collection, analysis, data visualization and reporting processes and products, and promoting use of data for decision making.
• Support the roll out of the MEL Policy, and work closely with the country teams so that the requirements of hte MEL standards can be met.
• Conduct Data Quality Assessments as needed to support countries to improve the quality and accuracy of MEL data.
• Coordinate MEL support as needed with HQ teams like Technical Support Unit (TSU), PaQ and Tech for Development (TD).
• Promote use of TolaData by the program teams, encouraging timely reporting of programmatic progress against the set targets. Work closely with the country leadership, as well as the Deputy Regional Director and the PAQ Advisor to elevate challenges and engage support in a timely manner to address identified challenges.
• Organize and manage a regional Community of Practice (CoP) inclusive of best practices in mobile technologies for data management.
• Through the community of practice, organize regional Learning events (virtual and in person), to engage and encourage learning and application of knowledge gained from evidence and analysis to improve development outcomes and ensure accountability for the resources used to achieve them. Promote documentation and dissemination of learning across the countries within the Middle East Region. Support knowledge management efforts within the region but encouraging use of evidence and documentation of adaptive management practices.

Support initiatives that strengthen adaptive management and program learning (30%)

• Develop and package MEL Orientation package on MEL and mobile technologies working closely with the HQ MEL team to be used for onboarding of new staff. Conduct initial orientations and on-boarding of new program staff (esp. M&E, program managers, and country leaders), including MEL Policy, the DIG, various MEL Tools and others.
• Conduct and provide technical inputs and oversight on program reviews, evaluations, studies by reviewing methodologies, tools, and products developed to ensure they are of high quality.
• Support the implementation of organizational learning events, such as annual strategy reporting, including participant count, portfolio reviews and others as they may come.
• Help country teams to use of M&E data in program decision making greetings, through program learning events, program reviews, pause and reflection sessions, and contribute to evidence-based learning at all levels.

Strengthen accuracy and availability of quality data for programmatic MEL (15%)

• Identify opportunities for data flow automation, working closely with the countries and programs both in emergency and development settings.
• Working closely with the HQ MEL team, support the countries to procure and effectively use Mercy Corps recommended mobile technology platforms, including ComCare, PowerBi and others.
• Build staff member capacity and skills in mobile technologies, through provision on remote, in-person and on-the-job training.

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 Participants

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our participants 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 Currently None.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Regional PaQ Advisor

Works Directly With: Regional Team,DRD, HQ and Country Office MEL Teams, Research Team, Crisis Analytics Teams

Knowledgeand Experience

• BA in international development or other relevant social science (MA preferred).
• 3 to 5 years of experience working in international relief and development programs, with at least 2 years focused on providing M&E technical support to field programs, and at least four years working overseas preferred.
• Demonstrated skill with program design, including assessments, proposal development, indicator selection and M&E planning.
• Demonstrated skill and experience with facilitating program design processes, logical frameworks, theories of change, and overall program logic.
• Experience in training and capacity-building (in person and remotely) and fostering a collaborative relationship with field practitioners and management,
• Experience with data analysis and presentation using Excel, Access, and advanced data analysis and visualization packages, as well as mobile data collection platforms. Proven experience in ODK, Ona, ComCare, PowerBi and similar tools. Additional software and technical skills (databases, GIS, and statistical packages) preferred.
• Experience designing practical and effective monitoring systems, including data and database management systems.
• Strong communication skills; able to work remotely with a geographically dispersed team.
• Fluent in English, Arabic language skills strongly preferred.

Success Factors

The regional MEL Advisor will demonstrate a winning record of accomplishment in program Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning, and bring flexibility, creativity, and enthusiasm to every project s/he undertakes. The candidate will have a deep commitment to programmatic excellence and will be leading and driving the Middle East MEL workstream along with championing our agency-wide and regional-level commitment to evidence-based decision-making. They must have change management skills and the ability to multitask, set priorities, pay attention to detail, and work under tight deadlines within complex team environments. This position requires strong interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills, and a level of emotional intelligence proficiency that quickly builds and maintains productive relationships across teams. Being aware and sensitive to international development issues in the Middle East and diverse cultures is critical.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position will be based in Amman or Beirut, with periodic visits in the region up to 30% travel. Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values always and in all in-country venues.