Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Director 247 views

Jhpiego seeks a Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Director to provide technical leadership, oversight and strategic direction for monitoring, evaluation and research (MER) activities for an upcoming U.S. government integrated health system technical assistance project. The project aims to improve the capacity of the public health system to sustainably deliver quality reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition services across four provinces of Zambia. The project will operate over a five-year period.

The MER Director will provide technical leadership to develop project framework, plans and indicators to capture performance results and provide effective, accurate and timely monitoring, evaluation and reporting of all project activities. The MER Director will supervise and manage the MER team to design and implement project MER activities, ensuring that lessons learned are integrated into project implementation to continuously improve quality of interventions and outcomes. The Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Director is responsible for documenting and disseminating project successes and challenges to USAID. The MER Director will also be responsible for designing and conducting operations research. The MER Director will liaise with consortium partners and the Ministry of Health to implement monitoring and evaluation activities. The MER Director will work with district health facilities and communities to strengthen the optimal use and reporting of HMIS data.

This position is contingent upon award from USAID. Zambians are strongly encouraged to apply.

Responsibilities:

• · Provide leadership and direction on MER to ensure the project achieves its goals and corresponding objectives and targets
• · Oversee the development and implementation of the Performance Monitoring Plan (PMP) to capture project performance and results, including routine service delivery data reporting, baseline and end line assessments, and all monitoring for process and outcome evaluations
• · Develop and oversee data flow pattern for the project that will ensure timely data collection and reporting
• · Lead results reporting to USAID by providing written documentation on MER activities and indicator results for progress and annual reports, as appropriate
• · Ensure high-quality implementation, consistent with Zambia national monitoring and evaluation guidelines, protocols, information and reporting systems
• · Lead the HMIS Technical Assistance Intermediate Result, supporting the Ministry of Health to strengthen the national HMIS at all levels including community HMIS as well as optimizing use of routine HMIS data for decision-making and program improvement.
• · Lead strategic collaboration activities with key stakeholders to learn from project data and adapt interventions as appropriate
• · Lead efforts to utilize training monitoring systems to track and monitor trainers and participants at training events to facilitate follow-up and recordkeeping
• · Use data to contribute towards strategic decision-making and project planning with project leadership
• · Oversee and/or conduct targeted evaluations and operations research, including design, data collection, management and analysis
• · Ensure quality of data through data verification procedures including routine data quality audits and that these are routinely carried out during the project lifecycle
• · Cultivate strategic M&E relationships and alliances with other USAID or Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency projects and represent MER activities in public and professional circles through meetings, conferences, and presentations
• · Ensure relevant data is entered into JADE, Jhpiego’s organization-wide performance management system designed to capture, analyze, and disseminate project data
• · Promote and support the dissemination of project information among the project team
• · Work with project and financial staff to prepare and track progress of project and activity budgets

· Supervise a team of MER professionals

Coordinate all MER capacity-building activities with project staff, implementing partners and facility staff

· Support the designated Internal Review Board (IRB) focal point in-country including maintaining current certification from 1) CITI human subjects ethics course and 2) CITI Good Clinical Practices (GCP) course

· Ensure protection of participant data and confidentiality during IRB process and implementation of study

Required Qualifications:

• Masters degree in public health, demography, statistics, social sciences or related field or equivalent experience
• · Minimum 10 + years of work experience in monitoring and evaluating large, multi-year international health sector development projects (approximately $5 -10M per year)
• · Proven expertise in quantitative and qualitative methodologies, operations research, health management information systems, reporting, data quality assessments, data analysis and presentation
• · Demonstrated strong management, coordination, teamwork and planning skills with proven ability to function effectively with multiple host-country counterparts in both the public and NGO sectors
• · MER experience in health systems strengthening and reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition services
• · Familiarity with Zambia health management information system and other national MER systems
• Experience and understanding of the USAID’s reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition services framework and reporting system
• · Strong technical skills, including ability to process and analyze data using one or more statistical software packages, including at least one of the following: SPSS, Epi-Info, Stata, MS Access
• · Experience hiring and supervising personnel and ensuring they acquire the necessary training and skills to meet evolving project needs
• · Excellent diplomacy skills and a proven ability to establish and maintain interpersonal and professional relationships with USAID, host-country counterparts and representatives from other key stakeholders such as NGOs, CSOs, and the private sector
• · Demonstrated outstanding leadership, strategic thinking, organizational, team-building, and representational skills
• · Expertise in research to practice-identifying and adapting best practices to specific project contexts
• · Excellent skills in facilitation, team building, and coordination
• · Excellent verbal, written interpersonal and presentation skills in English
• · Ability to coach, mentor and develop technical capacity in regional and national projects and technical staff
• · Proficiency in word processing, Microsoft Office
• · Ability to travel nationally and internationally 30% of time