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. Mercy Corps has been operating in Ethiopia since 2004, working in rural, peri-urban and urban areas in five regional states - Somali, Oromia, Afar, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples, Amhara - and the capital city of Addis Ababa. We engage in both development and humanitarian work, and seek to integrate approaches, programs and geographies as much as possible.  Our partners include government, academic institutions, development and private sector actors, civil societies and communities. Mercy Corps Ethiopia invites motivated and qualified candidates to apply for the following vacant position.

Position Title:   MEL Specialist

Duty Station:  Dollo

Open Position:  1

GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:

Mercy Corps is a consortium member for a program, Innovative Approaches to Building Resilience for Vulnerable Populations in Ethiopia, funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and led by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Somali Region. Within this consortium, Mercy Corps’ role is in the fourth component which involve strengthening market systems in Somali Region for refugees and host communities in Dollo Ado and Bokolmayo Woredas of Somali region.

Mercy Corps is looking for individuals who will have responsibility to support technical teams in targeting, monitoring of activities, performance checking, and outcome monitoring. 

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

STRATEGY & VISION

• Set-up the MEL system, including all tools and data collection processes for program activities (Excel, Tola, Access, etc.).
• Work closely with the program teams and local partners, to ensure effective monitoring, evaluation and reporting of program activities and results.
• Coordinate reporting with local partners, specifically tracking deadlines, ensuring adherence to monitoring formats and requirements, ensuring reporting quality and accuracy, and periodic report writing, editing, and submission.
• Compile progress against indicators and report back to the team according to the monitoring plan.
• Develop and follow up the implementation of Data Quality Assessment Plan.
• Perform spot checks on the team’s data collected and reports each month.
• Work closely with the program team and partners ensuring we adhere to humanitarian principles, Mercy Corps’ gender policies, Do No Harm principles and beneficiary accountability standards;

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

• Build the capacity of all relevant team members to implement program-monitoring tools, accurately enter program data into relevant databases, and enable them to develop excellent reports and other documents.
• Build the capacity of consortium team and our local partner organizations through ongoing training and support on: monitoring tools, entering program data into databases, the development of reports and other documents.
• Collect, analyze and validate information and data on the performance indicators
• Document lessons learned and success stories on the project.
• Ensure adherence to program management minimum standards in carrying out his/her duties, advising and supporting other staff in the same as required.
• Take on overall responsibility for project reporting including Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, Final and ad-hoc reports of the program.
• Other duties as assigned.

FINANCE & COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

• Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to emergency programming.
• Draft and/or review scope of work to hire and manage any technical consultants, including review for technical efficacy and contract budget.

INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION

• Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, donors, local governments and other stakeholders.
• Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met.

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. 

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in social sciences, statistics, monitoring and evaluation, or related field is required or demonstrated equivalent work experience in the field.
• At least five years work experience in implementing practical monitoring and evaluation, knowledge management or database management in pastoral and agro-pastoral systems of Ethiopia;
• Demonstrated experience in monitoring routine data collection, data analysis and reporting against indicators at all levels.
• Demonstrated experience in quantitative and qualitative survey implementation and support.
• Demonstrated skill in training and M&E capacity development of field staff.
• Proven experience in designing and implementing M&E activities and indicators, as well as analyzing the data collected.
• Demonstrated skills in analyzing data, both qualitative and quantitative.
• Experience in the region is required; previous experience in arid and semi-arid parts of Ethiopia is preferred;

Success Factors

• Fluent in English and Somali languages
• Business minded, entrepreneurial, adaptive, curious, great problem solving skills, unafraid to ask questions, and results motivated.
• He/She will be a tolerant and flexible individual able to work in difficult and stressful environments and follow procedures
• Excellent communication, facilitation and networking skills with a wide range of private, partner and NGO-sector actors

Computer literate especially in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)