Emergency Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager – DR Congo

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future.

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since August 2007, with a staff of over 200 people working in North and South Kivu, with the overall country goal to support vulnerable communities through crises, while fostering programs that build resilience and promote long-term change. Mercy Corps’ national office is in Goma with sub-field offices in Mweso (North Kivu) and Bukavu (South Kivu). Mercy Corps’ key programming areas include a combination of longer-term development and immediate humanitarian response programs in order to: 1) Improve water service delivery and ensuring equitable access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services, in urban and rural areas; 2) Improve food security and nutrition; 3) Promote diversified livelihoods, economic recovery and development.

General Position Summary

The Emergency M&E Manager is responsible for providing overall leadership, coordination and technical supervision of the monitoring and evaluation activities for the DRC mission’s emergency response programming.

The M&E Manager will develop the necessary relationships with diverse program stakeholders to develop and roll-out an integrated monitoring and evaluation system for emergency response programming. This role will ensure the quality of the programs monitoring and evaluation tools/systems, information management and analysis, and contribute to reporting. The M&E Manager will oversee and ensure coordination of these technical areas across the M&E staff and program team members and partners. The M&E Manager is responsible for measuring program impact, overseeing program assessments, evaluations and operational research as appropriate.

Essential Job Responsibilities

TECHNICAL OVERSIGHT

Ensure active collaboration with program/technical managers to develop M&E tools and integrate M&E across all program components.
Identify and develop the tools needed to measure program impact on vulnerable populations, especially women and youth.
Lead the recruitment of skilled M&E program staff and organize the program teams to perform M&E activities.
Set direction by prioritizing and organizing actions and resources to achieve objectives.
Ensure effective use of ICT4D in data management systems (using CommCare, KoboCollect, Google Drive, Excel, QGIS, and other tools as appropriate) to promote data-driven decision-making.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

Define program indicators and develop data relevant resources and tools (including M&E plan, technical data collection tools, databases, dashboards and reporting templates), that align with the mission’s overall M&E strategy.
Develop guidance materials that clearly indicate which staff are responsible for which M&E products, orienting program staff to their M&E roles and responsibilities as necessary.
Create a program beneficiary tracking database, allowing for monitoring of all program participants.
Organize M&E technical meetings to ensure regular program planning across consortium partners, review progress, and document lessons/address challenges encountered.
Ensure alignment between program M&E activities and program objectives, contribute to workplan development and setting annual/quarterly targets.
Consolidate quarterly reports for M&E data and contribute to program quarterly/annual reporting.
Coordinate the implementation of M&E activities across program life cycle (baseline, mid-term/final evaluation, assessments and operational research) and phases and ensure minimum standards are adhered to.
Work in close collaboration with program leadership to implement studies or operational research, supervising data collection and analysis and presenting results.
Document processes and achievements to ensure best practices are captured and disseminated. This will include the continual re-evaluation of program activities and information, with resulting activity adjustments in keeping with new insights.
Produce written reports on program activities, capturing the impacts of activities.
Conduct field visits to all project sites where current security conditions permit access (emergency responses are generally conducted in highly volatile areas; therefore, candidates should have realistic expectations about the level of access feasible. This post will realistically spend 5-10% of time in the field at most).

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Facilitate the achievement of performance-based targets and outcomes and lead efforts to design effective, proactive, and iterative M&E systems following the program’s logical framework and results chain measurement.
Oversee the scope of work, deliverables and overall quality of work of any internal or external evaluation or research partners.
Develop project follow-up tools and directly assist Program/Project Managers in tracking the progress of their project indicators and activities.
Oversee the scheduling and production of formal and informal reports on all aspects of the program in a timely and efficient manner.
Document achievements/impact of innovative program components of the program.
Ensure that M&E and all team members together focus on assisting the program to generate practical information that can be used for ongoing program analysis and decision-making while also capturing results at the impact level.
Ensure that all M&E products are archived appropriately and easily accessible to Program focal points.

ANTI-FRAUD SYSTEMS

Set-up Program systems that allow for a better follow-up of all field activities.
Develop new methodologies and ways of operating to reduce/eliminate aid diversion during interventions.
Represent Mercy Corps at inter-NGOs meetings/working groups on the Transparency and Antifraud Task Force.
Build and maintain awareness of the broader context and implications of the various types of risk affecting emergency interventions.
Provide technical support to Program Team to mitigate risks identified per intervention
Contribute to proactive dissemination and use of knowledge gained through audit activities
Escalate issues as appropriate for advanced investigation and analysis by the Internal Control

TEAM MANAGEMENT

Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
Set a team culture valuing learning and adaptive management in support of an ongoing resilience approach in programming
Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews.
Contribute to country team-building efforts, help team members identify problem solving options and ensure the integration of all team members into relevant decision-making processes.
Develop and manage MEL team inclusive of Senior level staff and officers
Manage and help with the recruitment, orientation, professional development and ongoing training of program and M&E staff to ensure they are of the quality and technical capacity necessary to ensure the successful implementation of activities.
Ensure Emergency M&E staff compliance to mission-wide activity reporting requirements
Advance the M&E mission-wide capacity-building strategy

FINANCE & COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

Ensure Emergency M&E activities align with donor and Mercy Corps standard policies and procedures.
In collaboration with the country program’s operations and finance departments, ensure proper financial management, procurement, administration, human resources and logistics for Emergency M&E activities
For Emergency M&E activities, monitor adherence to grant agreement, Mercy Corps’ policies and procedures and relevant external rules and regulations, including those of the government of the DRC.

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.

ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

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

M&E Senior Officers, Emergency Database Officer and M&E Officer.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Emergency Program Director

Works Directly With: MEL Technical Advisor, Internal Control Manager, Deputy Program Director, Emergency Programs Managers, Grants Manager, Consortium Director, Finance Manager, Operations Staff, HQ Regional Program Team, Technical Support Unit and partner organizations

Knowledge and Experience

MA/MS or equivalent in public health, statistics, international development, or a comparable field.
2 – 4 years of relevant M&E experience in a field emergency/humanitarian context.
Technical expertise in managing and developing emergency programs M&E systems.
Successful experience with the use and implementation of mobile data collections tools (such as CommCare and XLSForm authoring).
Excellent quantitative skills, including proficiency in Excel and at least one advanced statistical package (such as Stata, SPSS, SAS, R).
Ability to effectively convey programmatic goals, enlist partnerships, and work with a range of program and external stakeholders.
Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work.
Previous field experience in DRC desirable.
Experience with USAID, ECHO and DFID rules, regulations and requirements desirable.
Experience working on USAID, ECHO and DFID programs desirable.
Ability to take initiative, work independently and cooperatively with team members is required.
Fluent written and oral communication in French and English is required.
Familiarity with Swahili is a plus.

SUCCESS FACTORS:

A successful candidate will have a demonstrated ability to lead a team and communicate effectively with team members and colleagues of varied work styles and cultures, follow procedures, and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving. The candidate will have a proven ability to learn quickly, multi-task, prioritize, take initiative, and be accountable for results, understand the larger picture while remaining focused on the details, problem solving, work within a complex and sensitive setting and to follow laws and security protocols. The most successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations. In DRC, patience, diplomacy, tenacity, compassion, and determination are all success factors.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

This is an unaccompanied post based in Goma, DRC.

Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Given the nature of the context, working hours require flexibility and working through weekends/evenings might be necessary.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

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