MEL Lead, Women's Integrated Sexual Health (WISH) Dividend, Policy & Systems at Palladium International

The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Lead will oversee and drive MEL across P&S, including strengthening MEL strategies, tools, and processes; overseeing progress against the programme’s logframe; supporting Country Leads to collect, quality assure, and report evidence and data; and implement the problem-driven iterative adaptation process, particularly “pause and reflect” learning sessions across countries. The MEL Lead will also serve as the key liaison with the WISH Dividend Evidence and Learning supplier to ensure alignment across the wider programme. The role reports to the Team Leader and provides oversight of any MEL-related consultants or country-level data collection inputs, as required.

Primary Roles and Responsibilities:
Monitoring and Reporting

• Lead implementation and continuous improvement of the programme's MEL strategy, systems, tools, and processes, ensuring they remain fit for purpose and support effective programme management, learning, and reporting.
• Own the programme logframe, including annual review and revision of targets and indicators, proactive tracking of progress throughout the year, and coordination of data collection, verification, and analysis.
• Oversee routine monitoring of TA activities through the P&S TA Tracker, working closely with Country Leads and partners to strengthen data quality, generate programme-level performance insights, and support evidence-based decision-making.
• Develop and maintain a fit-for-purpose results measurement approach for Window 3 technical assistance, including systems and tools to assess the quality, performance, and outcomes of short-term and on-demand support.
• Lead the production of routine quantitative and narrative results reporting, including quarterly, annual, and ad hoc reports for FCDO.
• Build MEL capacity across country teams and partners, providing guidance and support on MEL processes, reporting requirements, data quality standards, and evidence use.
• Work closely with Finance and Operations colleagues to strengthen the programme's approach to value for money reporting and analysis.
• Ensure programme data is collected, analysed, and reported in line with FCDO requirements and programme commitments on gender equality and social inclusion, including appropriate disaggregation by gender, age, disability, and other relevant dimensions.

Evaluation

• Lead the design and delivery of light-touch evaluations and assessments of programme interventions, particularly Small Bets, to generate evidence on effectiveness, scale-up, adapt, or discontinue decisions.
• Synthesise evidence and results from across programme countries to identify cross-cutting findings, emerging trends, and strategic insights.
• Coordinate with the WISH Dividend Evidence & Learning supplier to support programme-wide evaluation and evidence-generation activities.

Learning and Adaptive Management

• Lead learning and adaptation processes across the programme, with a focus on the Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation approach; drive and facilitate routine cross-country Pause and Reflect processes to strengthen TA delivery and learning.
• Translate learning findings into actionable recommendations for the programme, FCDO, and government partners.
• Package and disseminate success stories for internal and external audiences.

Collaboration

• Lead engagement with the WISH Evidence & Learning supplier, ensuring effective coordination across all MEL activities, contributing to programme-wide learning processes, and supporting relevant evaluation, operational research, and case study activities linked to P&S technical assistance.
• Maintain close collaboration with MEL counterparts at ONS and other consortium partners to align approaches, share learning, and ensure coherent reporting and evidence generation across jointly implemented activities.
• Lead the communication, dissemination, and uptake of programme evidence, lessons learned, and good practices, supporting cross-country learning and informing adaptation across the wider WISH Dividend programme.

Other duties relevant to monitoring, evaluation, and learning as required 

Key Experience and Skills

• Advanced professional experience in monitoring, evaluation and learning for complex, multi-country donor-funded programmes, preferably for FCDO and within the domain of TA.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing MEL frameworks, results frameworks, theories of change, logframes, indicators and performance measurement systems for adaptive programmes.
• Strong experience leading routine monitoring, data collection, verification, quality assurance, analysis and reporting across multiple workstreams, partners and country teams.
• Proven ability to oversee or support evaluations, reviews, learning studies and evidence generation using qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches.
• Experience translating MEL data into practical insights, recommendations and learning products that inform adaptive management, programme improvement and strategic decision-making.
• Experience in sexual and reproductive health and rights, health systems strengthening, demographic transition, or another closely related technical area would be highly desirable.
• Strong understanding of donor reporting requirements and performance management approaches, ideally including FCDO standards, annual reviews, value for money reporting and evidence pack preparation.
• Experience supporting the design or use of dashboards, data visualisation tools and management information systems to improve real-time performance tracking and data use.
• Ability to build MEL capacity of staff, partners and consultants through training, mentoring, guidance and the development of practical tools and templates.
• Experience working effectively across consortia, technical partners and externally contracted evaluators, with the ability to coordinate inputs and maintain coherence across programme components.
• Strong knowledge of data protection, ethical data collection, safeguarding considerations and context-sensitive approaches to evidence generation and knowledge sharing.
• Excellent analytical, writing and communication skills, including the ability to synthesise complex information clearly for different audiences through reports, briefs, presentations and learning outputs.
• Strong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work collaboratively with country teams, senior leadership, partners and external stakeholders in a fast-paced, geographically dispersed environment.