Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Officer – Cash Consortium of Sudan (CCS) at Mercy Corps

General Position Summary 

The CCS MEL Officer will support the CCS MEL Manager and the MEL focal points of each of the partner organizations in the routine implementation of the program's MEL plan. 

In coordination with the MEL Technology Coordinator, develop regular tools and procedures to improve data management. They will manage multiple databases and periodic reports, address information requests, support reporting and meet Mercy Corps, CCS and donor standards. Additionally, he/she supports the management and administration of consortium databases, coordination and routine management of deduplication processes with CCS partners and other Cash Working Group (CWG) organizations.

The CCS MEL Officer will support the construction of strategic technical area tools such as data quality protocols, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and information systems guidelines, among others. They provide regular troubleshooting support to partners and report on early warnings related to program goals and compliance with minimum MEL standards.

Essential Job Responsibilities 

STRATEGIC VISION

• Recognize opportunities for innovative actions and create an environment in which alternative points of view are welcome.
• Contribute to the MEL strategy of the CCS, ensuring the quality of the consortium's data and supporting the creation of parameters and guidelines to generate and manage databases with the highest standards. Likewise, support in the quality control of the different databases and reports generated by the consortium partners.
• Coordinate regularly with CCS partners on the management of information systems and the development of regular MEL activities, seeking to identify opportunities for improvement and innovative solutions to the challenges presented by the context.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

• Supervise compliance with the minimum MEL standards required by donors and the Secretariat team.
• Identify gaps in the technical capacities of partner organizations' MEL teams and propose improvement and capacity building plans to the CCS MEL Manager.
• Manage statistics, Excel tables, graphs, simple random sampling calculations, strategy charts and program management tracking dashboards
• Manage data systems in CommCare and CCS databases related to indicator compliance and duplicate management. 
• Lead the de-duplication process ensuring that standards are implemented to avoid duplicate care within CCS, as well as serving as the focal point for the Secretariat team with other CWG organizations. 
• Ensure that information is adequately shared with other organizations operating in the same geographic areas to develop synergies, avoid duplication of beneficiaries and maximize outreach and coverage of the needs of affected populations. 
• Generate and share periodic referral reports for nutrition, health, protection and other services offered by partners in CCS intervention areas. Likewise, regularly follow up on the results of the referral process.
• Support the development and creation of standard operating guidelines and processes to ensure compliance with Mercy Corps and donor standards related to program monitoring and evaluation.
• Document the performance of the monitoring and evaluation processes under their responsibility and submit bi-monthly monitoring and evaluation reports to the Secretariat team.

TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Support the training and capacity building processes of the program team, partner MEL focal points, enumerators and other team members involved in CCS’ implementation.
• Support the CCS MEL Manager with calls and meeting notes with the MEL teams of the consortium partner organizations.
• Regularly support the MEL teams of consortium partner organizations by developing tools and resources to improve performance and achieve objectives
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback formally and informally with regular one-on-one meetings and performance reviews.
• Be proactive, with the ability to work both individually, with minimal supervision, and as part of a diverse team.
• Maintain a mutually respectful work environment where team members strive for improvement and collaboration.

ACCOUNTABILITY TO BENEFICIARIES 

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries 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

None. 

 SECURITY 

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.   
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies. 

ACCOUNTABILITY 

Reports Directly To: CCS MEL Manager.

Works Directly With: CCS MEL Technology Coordinator and CCS partners’ MEL and programmatic national/local teams (including Mercy Corps Sudan MEL team). 

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of our projects. 

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE  

• Professional in economics, statistics, business administration, social sciences or related fields.
• A minimum of three (3) years of work experience, at least one (1) year of specific experience implementing Monitoring and Evaluation systems through qualitative and quantitative methods and basic database management.
• Experience working for emergency, transition and development programs with international cooperation (ECHO, EU INTPA, SDC, USAID/BHA, BPRM, FCDO, GAC, United Nations, among others) is desirable.
• Proficiency with MS Office software (Outlook, Word, Excel -advanced-, PowerPoint)
• Experience in the design of primary data collection tools is mandatory (such as CommCare, Kobo, ONA, ODK etc).
• Experience using tools for the development of interactive dashboards (Power BI, Tableau, Google Data Studio) is desirable.