Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Technical Specialist/Advisor

Accountable to: IIDC Executive Director

Directly Reporting to; Head of Programs

Based in: East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, or Tanzania)

About Impact and Innovations Development Centre

Impact and Innovations Development Centre (IIDC) is a not-for-profit regional Technical Advisory (TA) and Learning partner organization that works with development agencies across Africa in the public and private sectors to promote impactful and innovative programming. IIDC mission is to build development programming capacities of partners to enhance the efficacy of development interventions for sustainable and equitable development outcomes for all. Our Technical Advisory and Learning covers areas of:

• ·        Impactful Program Design- designing programs that addresses negative social norms, systems focused and scalable model
• ·        Measurement and evidence generation- development of systems and tools for tracking evidence of change
• ·        Adaptation and scale up of programs- context specific technical advisory in adapting and scaling evidence-based development models.
• ·        Learning and Knowledge management- Coordinating and facilitating learning collaboratives, knowledge products documentation and communications.
• ·       Safeguarding integration in technical programming- Technical Advisory, capacity building and facilitating safeguarding learning in programming from design to implementation.

IIDC is currently engaged working with several partners in East Africa region including Uganda in a combination or any of the program areas outlined above. Examples of this program include the Scale up of an evidence-based initiative REAL Fathers Program in Uganda working with 4 implementing partners and in collaboration with the University of California San Diego (UCSD), Working with Partners in East Africa to support design of social norms change interventions for preventing violence against children and girls, designing social norms interventions aimed at advancing girls education and skills among others. In all these there is a high demand for MEL expertise to lead and drive monitoring, evaluation and learning work. It is against this background IIDC seeks to recruit highly competent M&E Technical Specialist/Advisor to support the MEL component in the IIDC Programme portfolio.   

About the Position:

The MEL Specialist/Advisor will provide technical services and lead technical processes within and outside IIDC conceptualising, defining, elaboration, development and implementation of  IIDC project MEL components including systems development and results measurement.  Whereas the MEL Specialist will have specific responsibility for supporting the MEL component of the REAL Fathers Scale up Project, he/she will also be required to provide technical support and advisory to other IIDC programme implementing partner agencies in the area of impact measurement and programme learning. The role involves a high level of technical advisory and technical coordination with diversity of experts and other stakeholders including practice researchers, academia, government stakeholders and general practitioners in MEL. The MEL Specialist will also contribute to the programme learning, adaptation, and knowledge-sharing among key stakeholders.

 Primary Duties and Responsibilities
 The key responsibilities of the position include, but are not limited to:

1.       Provide technical inputs on the monitoring framework, tools and indicators to ensure that:

o   All monitoring indicators sufficiently reflect critical program activities; and are able to be measured with the available tools.

o   All monitoring tools are designed to collect the data necessary to assess the monitoring indicators; are as parsimonious as possible; are user-friendly and contain intuitive instructions.

2.      Provide ongoing technical support to partners in the roll out of the various monitoring and evaluation and learning processes including data collection, management and use.

3.      Lead the ongoing updating of the MEL Operations Manual

4.      Lead and oversee the operationalisation of the Monitoring Information System (MIS) and ensure timely extraction, dissemination and use of high-quality evidence to inform and improve programme implementation.

5.      Support the maintenance and updating of data storage and retrieval systems for data associated with the Program MEL Plans and Annual Work Plans.

6.     Support program learning events to ensure continuous improvement and capturing lessons for program adaptation. This may include determining data analysis procedures; conducting data cleaning and analysis; and summarizing findings for use at Data Utilization Workshop with partners and other stakeholders.

7.      Liaise with and support the research partners at the University of California San Diego, other practice-based researchers and other stakeholders including government officials in the efficient execution of the required programme measurement processes.

8.     In addition, the MEL Specialist/Advisor will provide regular technical advisory and accompaniment support to IIDC programme implementing partners in the areas of programme monitoring and impact measurement and documentation including in the following areas;

a)     Development of sound of MEL frameworks, processes and tools for their programmes

b)     Generation of reliable and high-quality programme monitoring and impact measurement evidence (baselines, midlines, endlines, RCTs)

c)      Development and operationalisation of “Fit for Purpose” Monitoring Information Systems (MIS)

d)      Use and application of Programme and other data for programme quality improvement.

 Required Qualifications
The MEL Specialist/Advisor will have the following qualifications and experience:

•          Masters level Qualifications in monitoring and evaluation, Social Research, statistics, or relevant programme measurement qualification.   A PhD with a strong bias in Quantitative and Qualitative impact measurement methodologies will be a highly added advantage.
•             Minimum of 10 years extensive work experience in development and implementation of programme measurement and learning systems, frameworks and tools.
•            Demonstrated experience in development and deployment of diverse, multi-level measurement evaluation designs and methodologies for development programmes
•            Verifiable experience in the design, development and operationalisation of MIS systems  
•            Extensive skills in qualitative, and quantitative monitoring and evaluation data management and interpretation
•            Strong expertise in training and capacity development for both technical and non-technical staff in Monitoring, Evaluation and data use.
•          Thematic programming expertise in the areas of children’s rights and violence against children , gender based violence , male engagement and ECD will be highly added advantages.
•            Excellent writing, reporting and documentation skills for research and evidence products.
•           Ability to work collaboratively with counterparts in a coordinated manner to achieve outstanding results Proactive, agile, collaborative and able to work efficiently while engaging with stakeholders with different global time zones
•               Demonstrated experience working with people of diverse cultures.

How to apply:

To apply, please fill in the form in the link below by including comprehensive details of your key past achievements and responsibilities and qualifications that align with the person specifications requirement for this role; 

Link: https://forms.gle/gKejj1hhoedWc6CG6