Director of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning at Amref Kenya

Reporting to: Chief Programmes Officer

Department: CPO office

Physical location: Amref Health Africa Headquarter, Lang’ata Road

The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Unit is part of the programme section and provides oversight, systems, support and advice to the organization on all MEL matters in line with the organisation’s vision, mission and strategic priorities and in a manner consistent with its values.

Job Purpose: As a key member of the programme section, the Director of MEL will provide leadership and oversight of the Amref corporate MEL framework for all programmes and offices in line with Amref’s strategy and best practices.

Key Responsibilities

Technical leadership and management:

• Provide oversight and coordination of the MEL function across Amref Health Africa.
• Nurture a culture of learning and evidence-based project and programme design and management.
• Facilitate and promote the establishment of a vibrant Community of Practice in MEL.
• Line-manage and coach the MEL team at Amref HQ.
• In collaboration with Heads of Programmes and/or Country Director s, matrix manage and coach MEL Managers at country level.

MEL strategy:

• Lead the continuous updating and further development of the MEL framework in relation to the Amref Health Africa Corporate Strategy 2018-2022

MEL implementation:

• Coordinate the roll-out and implementation of the MEL framework across the organisation.
• Coordinate the application of corporate performance indicators.
• Lead the continuous development of the corporate indicator bank
• Lead the continuous development of the corporate MEL toolkit,
• Provide oversight over the development and maintenance of the corporate MEL portal on the intranet.
• Provide and present timely, quality reports to the CPO and ExCom on programme and project performance and on programme results generated across the organisation.
• In collaboration with Heads of Programmes and Programme Managers/Directors at country level, test programme models and use the evidence generated to develop capacity statements/track records.
• Coordinate quality assurance of MEL data quality across the organisation and coordinate remedial support where needed.
• Manage (and where necessary commission) corporate level MEL initiatives as and when required (e.g. thematic evaluations, impact studies, strategic reviews, operations research, etc).
• Support grant proposal development by the Business Development and Fundraising teams to ensure that grant proposals have strong MEL frameworks that are able to capture the results generated by grant-funded programmes and projects.

Capacity development:

• Coordinate the support to Country & Field Offices, ICD, Regional Programmes and E/NA Offices to strengthen their MEL function and ensure compliance with the requirements as articulated in the MEL framework.
• Provide overall coordination of the MEL helpdesk.

Systems:

• Coordinate and consolidate the provision of input into the continuous development and roll-out of AIMS from a programme and management perspective, to ensure AIMS continues to be aligned with the MEL framework and meets the business requirements of different business functions across the organisation.

External relations:

• Ensure Amref’s is represented in relevant external MEL networks.
• Monitor current developments in the sector to ensure that Amref’s MEL framework reflects good practice.

Budget responsibility:

• Develop and manage the overall budget of the corporate MEL team.

Skills and Competencies

Essential:

• Strong analytical skills.
• Excellent skills to turn complex data and information into user-friendly reports and presentations for different types of users.
• Ability to listen, lead, influence and build consensus.
• Pragmatic in approach.
• Strong writing skills.
• Strong presentation skills to a range of different audiences (including boards, senior management and MEL practitioners).
• Good skills in analysing complex data-sets using a range of statistical software packages like SPSS and EPI Info.
• Excellent skills in all relevant Microsoft Office packages.
• Fluent in English (spoken and written).

Desirable:

• Experience in data visualisation.
• Experience in the use of GIS in the analysis of complex data.
• Proficiency in French.

Academic Requirements:

• Master’s degree in public health, social science, geography, monitoring and evaluation or similar.
• PhD an added advantage.

Work Experience:

• A minimum of 10 years of experience in MEL of international development, 5 of which in a senior role.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in the development of corporate MEL framework and monitoring and assessing programme performance at corporate level in large, multi-country organisations.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in working with an INGO, preferably at regional or corporate level.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in managing small-medium size teams.
• Experience in operations research.
• Experience in outsourcing evaluation and research initiatives and managing consultants.