Regional MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning) Manager at BRAC

Regional MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning) Manager - AD# 45/22

Reporting to the Head of Program for the Mastercard Foundation Accelerating Impact for Young Women in partnership with BRAC (AIM) programme, this will be a full time position based in BRAC’s Africa Regional Hub in Nairobi, Kenya. The Regional MEAL Manager plays a key role in establishing and operationalizing a robust and effective M&E system for the programme. The MEAL manager will be providing technical leadership, strategic guidance and hands on training to M&E and relevant program staff members in the countries to ensure timely data collection, aggregation, analysis and reporting that are needed for adaptive project management and data driven decision making. This will entail developing and/or refining tools, systems and processes in all seven BI countries where AIM will be implemented and train country level M&E as well as relevant Program staff members across all 7 countries where the programme will be implemented. The Manager also needs to play a leadership role in generating knowledge, promoting learning and improving 360-degree accountability towards donors, partners and project participants.

Key Responsibilities:

Developing and Managing an Effective MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning) system

• Lead the process of developing a detail and robust M&E plan and measurement framework in line with project ToC/logframe and implementation plan
• Review and refine existing list of indicators and develop new indicators as needed to ensure that project is collecting data that are most relevant, actionable and meaningful to track progress as well as generate knowledge and learning
• Identify/develop the most suitable and standardized data collections tools, methodologies and guidelines in collaboration with M&E and project team members
• Conduct trainings/ capacity building workshop and ongoing coaching for relevant project and M&E staff members to ensure quality and consistency of monitoring across all 7 AIM countries
• Provide technical assistance and strategic guidance to country level monitoring teams to conduct regular (monthly and quarterly) and quality monitoring and reporting as per project plan
• Work closely with Manager digital monitoring and BI HO monitoring team to establish a fully digitalized and real time monitoring system for AIM
• Operationalize digital monitoring system to ensure timely data collection, compilation and reporting on project’s progress/achievements against targets (activities, outputs, outcomes)
• In addition to quantitative monitoring to track progress, set up a quality monitoring system to monitor
• Setting up a digital database/participants’ profile and produce most accurate count/estimation on total project coverage/reach by various categories and sub-categories as per the need of the project and organization.
• Collect, compile, verify and analyse country level narrative monitoring and MIS reports and generate organizational level reports to be used by BI senior management team, communication team and board members
• Review country level monthly and quarterly monitoring reports, give necessary feedback and support them to address/incorporate those
• Lead the process of data collection, data quality assurance, analysis (quantitative and qualitative) using various statistical packages and reporting (monthly, quarterly or annual reports) as per the need of the internal (such as project and BI management team members) and external (donors, partners, govt etc) audiences
• Produce/generate global/central level monitoring reports by collating/compiling reports produced by country monitoring teams
• Produce visual diagrams (infographic, various charts and graphs, etc) to share and disseminate monitoring findings and learning with project implementation and management team members at various levels of the organizations
• Check and verify the facts and figures of donor reports produced by project teams and ensure accuracy and quality before submission
• Contribute to developing new project/program design, planning, and fundraising by sharing knowledge and learning from existing projects/programs

Contribution to Program Design and Implementation

• Contribute to developing M&E plan for the new projects/interventions under AIM project
• Reviewing and adjusting existing M&E plan including outcomes and indicators to ensure that those are SMART and aligned with donor priority.
• Ensure timely and regular sharing of monitoring findings with the program team (managers and supervisors at different levels) to support adaptive management and data driven decision making
• Work with program management team and decision makers to ensure that monitoring findings are taken into consideration for reviewing and adjusting (if necessary) program design and implementation strategies to achieve better outcomes and impact
• Work closely with BI research team to develop evaluation plans, support commissioning/hiring external consultants, reviewing evaluations design including tools and methodologies and reviewing and giving inputs to draft reports before finalization.

Others (Safeguarding):

• Ensure the safety of team members from any harm, abuse, neglect, harassment and exploitation to achieve the programme’s goals on safeguarding implementation. Act as a key source of support, guidance and expertise on safeguarding for establishing a safe working environment.
• Practice, promote and endorse the issues of safeguarding policy among team members and ensure the implementation of safeguarding standards in every course of action.
• Follow the safeguarding reporting procedure in case any reportable incident takes place, encourage others to do so.

Educational Requirements:

• Post-graduate/Master’s any of the following- Social Studies, Business Administration, Communications, Public Affairs, Journalism, International Development, or any relevant subject

Required Competencies

• Understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and best practices
• Experiences/understanding of developing MEL system in both humanitarian and development setting.
• Understanding on the basic concept of community development, economic empowerment, gender equity, inclusion and advocacy
• Proficiency in and previous working experience with data management systems
• Substantial knowledge of monitoring and evaluation processes for NGO programs
• Competency in using MS Word, Excel and data analysis software (e.g. SPSS, STATA, NVivo, etc.)
• Fluency in written and spoken English is a must
• Ability to travel frequently in BRAC International countries
• Personal qualities of integrity, credibility, and dedication to the mission of BRAC

Experience Requirements:

• Minimum 5 years of experience in developing and operationalizing monitoring, evaluation and learning system in large scale NGOs, UN organizations, and/or government sectors.
• Experience in leading and conducting data collection and analysis using both quantitative and qualitative tools, methodologies and statistical software
• Experience in large data management (coordinating data entry, ensuring data quality, managing data protection, security and storage)
• Advance level data analysis and report writing for both internal and external audiences/ stakeholders
• Presentation and dissemination of findings using visual dashboards/infographics at relevant forums for decision making and advocacy