The Regional MEL (Senior) Advisor provides strategic MEL support and guidance to the countries in the region, assures the quality of MEL systems, provides oversight and support to the implementation of MEL standards, and fosters use of data for decision making and evidence generation. Enhancing MEL capacity of the country teams is a major focus for this position, linking country MEL teams through an effective community of practice and driving learning across the region, leveraging knowledge from the rest of the organization.
Essential Responsibilities
STRATEGY AND VISION
Work with the regional team to develop and implement an ambitious and compelling regional MEL Plan, in alignment with P2P framework, with the highest level of quality, reflecting both short term and long-term priorities.
Lead regional analyses and the development and tracking of indicators and other metrics to inform and assess progress against the regional strategy, coordinating closely with global data sources and models to maximize efficiencies.
Support country counterparts in determining the need for, and conducting, analyses as needed to inform country strategy development.
Support country counterparts in determining and developing systems to track indicators and other metrics to assess progress against country strategies.
Support the roll out of the global Mercy Corps MEL Policy in the region by working closely with the country teams to assess their MEL structure and practices and recommend improvements in alignment with Mercy Corps Global MEL standards.
Work closely with global counterparts – and in coordination with counterparts from other regions – as well as regional and country teams, to develop or elaborate regional research priorities, evidence products and program learning plans and agendas.
TEAM MANAGEMENT and GUIDANCE
Supervise regional evidence & learning personnel (where applicable), which may also include firms, consultants, or regional project/ program teams engaged to advance these practice areas. Manage team member performance and monitor team member work plans.
Advise country and program teams regarding the structure and areas of expertise of evidence and learning functions within country portfolios and programs, in line with global recommended evidence and learning staffing and tailored to the needs and dynamics of each program/ portfolio. Support recruitment and onboarding for the new MEL team members.
Support country leadership in adhering to Mercy Corps and donor policies and procedures.
Contribute to efforts to build a culture of adaptive management, and evidence and learning in each country in the region, along with strong MEL capacity and practices.
Work with global counterparts to make training and professional development opportunities available to MEL team members at the country and program levels.
Where surge support is needed for strategically important programs, program design efforts, or portfolios, directly step in to fill these needs or mobilize support from the global E&L team to meet these needs, ensuring that lessons learned from these assignments are used to improve regional support.
MEL PRACTICE, PROJECT, AND SYSTEMS SUPPORT
Implement processes to assess the status of programs and portfolios in the region as compared to MEL requirements, best practices and standards, and work with team members to develop and implement action and improvement plans as a result of these diagnostics.
Oversee the integration of strong MEL principles and resourcing into program design, based on sound logic models and available internal and external evidence and learning. To this end, work closely with the BD teams. Where needed, Lead the MEL sections of large proposals, by writing MEL narrative, MEL plan, indicator performance tracking, and other sections as required
Coordinate closely with global counterparts to field, vet, and address support requests from programs and countries within the region, ensuring that support is provided in a timely, accurate, and customer-oriented manner. To this end, work closely with the country leadership and the regional team to identify and elevate challenges, and engage support in a timely manner to address those.
Ensure that new programs in the region quickly adopt and utilize recommended data, evidence, and program learning systems and tools (for example, MEL plans and data systems).
Participate in the conceptualization and development of standalone evidence projects or programs in the region (for example, regional research projects) with support from the global E&L team.
Oversee or coordinate regional MEL Communities of Practice to share knowledge across the region.
Adaptive management and program learning
Develop regional dashboards on program performance, and make those visible to country and regional leadership, identifying areas where additional support and oversight might be required.
Working closely with the country teams, ensure uptake and use of MEL and mobile technologies, and identify training needs on those.
Encourage documentation and facilitate evidence-based learning across the region on MEL best practices and linking the region to the global learning initiatives.
Organize and manage a regional MEL Community of Practice (CoP) and regional learning events (virtual and in person). Promote documentation and dissemination of learning and best practices sharing across the countries within the region.
Support knowledge management efforts and encourage the effective utilization of evidence and learning for adaptive management practices and designing resource mobilization efforts.
Support country teams as needed in the identification and recruitment of external consultants and/or firms (via the Global Monitoring Evaluation and Research Master Service Agreements or other channels) with relevant experience and expertise in the region. Support technical review and feedback on consultants’ deliverables.
Conduct and provide technical inputs and oversight on program reviews, evaluations, studies to ensure quality products by reviewing methodologies, tools of evaluations and studies’ products.
INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION
Support the presentation of evidence from various sources to contribute to donor and host government-facing representation opportunities, ensuring timely and targeted communication to highlight Mercy Corps’ global and regional impact and learning.
Represent Mercy Corps, and the region’s evidence and learning functions, in internal and external events.
Connect teams to regionally based evidence-related partners.
Develop and maintain strong relationships with the global Evidence & Learning Unit, functioning as an extended member of the Unit.
Participate actively in the evidence-driven commitment workstreams by contributing to the regional, global, and country-level evidence and learning agendas.
Required Knowledge, Skills And Abilities
Demonstrated ability to think strategically, and to solve complex problems.
Strong analytical, organizational, and communication skills.
Proven ability to design and facilitate training, workshops, and learning events.
Required Education And Experience
BA/BS or equivalent in a field related to MEL, economics, statistics, data science, research methods, political science, or a similarly relevant field.
At least 7 years’ field experience in MEL-related roles, including in both humanitarian and development contexts.
At least 5 years’ field experience in management roles.
Experience in writing MEL sections of the proposals including MEL narrative sections, MEL plans, MEL budgeting and staffing
Strong knowledge of and prior experience in participating or leading program evaluations, including designing Scopes of Work, commissioning evaluations with partners and consultants, and conducting evaluations with program teams. Knowledge of program evaluation, design, and methodologies (quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods), and data collection and analysis tools and approaches.
Experience designing practical and effective monitoring systems, including data and database management systems.
Experience in training and capacity-building (in person and remotely) and fostering a collaborative relationship across multidisciplinary field teams and management
Experience with data management, analysis and visualization
Demonstrated proficiency and experience with US, UK, EU, UN and other public and private donors, government grant and financial management requirements.
Demonstrated understanding of the critical humanitarian and development issues in the East and Southern Africa region, and significant experience with the challenges of operating in the region.
Fluency in written and spoken English is required. Fluency in an additional language relevant to the portfolio is considered advantageous.
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