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: Durable Solution Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Manager

Location: Addis Ababa

Number of Positions: One

General Position Summary

The Durable Solutions MEL Manager will be overseeing the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning for Mercy Corps Ethiopia’s market-based programming in refugee and host community contexts plus humanitarian responses portfolio on a full-time basis.  The general duties and responsibilities of the Durable Solutions MEL Manager are to provide oversight of monitoring, evaluation and learning activities within the humanitarian and durable solutions portfolio, ensuring the quality of the programs’ MEL activities, information management via the programs reporting system including Tola Data, Concept Note Management System (CNMS), Institutional Performance Tracking System (IPTS) where applicable.

The Durable Solutions MEL Manager’s role is to also oversee and ensure coordination of the various technical areas across the MEL staff of the Programs, and other relevant Program staff and components. The Durable Solutions MEL Manager is responsible for the capacity building and mentoring strategy for program staff on themes related to monitoring, evaluation, accountability, reporting and learning.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Strategy and vision

●       Work closely with the Country MEL Manager, Director of Humanitarian Response and Durable Solutions, and senior program team members to develop a vision and strategy for fostering monitoring, evaluation and learning for market systems development approaches to IDP, refugee and host community contexts, and humanitarian response endeavors.

●       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

●       Set-up the MEL system, including all tools and data collection processes for program activities.

●       In partnership senior program team members, develop detailed program designs based on assessment outcomes.

●       Lead market assessments and analysis, developing the detailed program design including Programs’ MEL Plan, and leading implementation of interventions.

●       Oversee the implementation of the MEL Systems including Tola Data, CNMS and IPTS for humanitarian and durable solutions portfolios.

●       Plan and lead all MEL activities including the baseline, midterm, final evaluations, market assessments and analysis and develop standards for data collection.

●       Supervise all sub-contractors involved in data collection activities including the baseline, midterm and final evaluation teams, and review their standards for data collection.

●       Update MEL and program management systems to reflect program progress and needs; enforce proper usage of these systems by program staff.

●       Collect, analyze and validate information and data on the performance indicators.

●       Present data analysis and periodic reporting in consultation with technical staff.

●       Ensure that lessons learned throughout the program are captured and communicated to internal and external stakeholders through appropriate channels.

●       Liaise with various stakeholders and program-related donors on relevant program MEL concerns.

●       Ensure that program teams are continually gathering and digesting operating environment data and activity reports including Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, Final and ad-hoc reports.

●       Hold frequent activity review sessions to continually re-examine the relevance and impact of their programming.

●       Develop and follow up the implementation of Data Quality Assessment Plan.

●       Develop a Learning Agenda for the Humanitarian and Durable Solutions portfolios, and support successful execution of learning and impact studies.

●       Address any other task assigned by Country MEL manager and the Humanitarian Response and Durable Solutions Director.

Team Management

●       Recruit, manage and support capacity building of MEL team members working on the Durable Solutions and humanitarian response portfolios.

●       Develop the capacity of the team, deepen understanding of their roles, and assist with career development.

●       Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance and reach objectives.

●       Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.

●       Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.

●       Train program team members and partners on their MEL responsibilities.

Influence and compliance management

●       Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to humanitarian and durable solutions programming.

●       Draft and/or review scope of work to hire and manage any technical consultants, including review for technical efficacy and contract budget.

Influence and representation

●       Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, donors, local governments and other stakeholders.

●       Communicate effectively to ensure overall program 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.

Knowledge and Experience

 ·        BA/S or equivalent, preferable in Economics, Statistics, business administration, public administration or international development.  MA/S in similar relevant fields preferred.

·        8 years of professional experience in a relevant field for international development programs; USAID or other donor, or NGO preferred.

·        A minimum of 4 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation management on humanitarian response programming.

·        A minimum of 4 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation management on market systems development programming, including:

o   Undertaking market assessments and writing market assessment reports

o   Participating in the design of MSD programs and supporting proposal development

o   Supporting development of robust results measurement systems, measuring impact on beneficiaries and system change

o   Demonstrating strong theoretical and applied knowledge of the field of expertise.

·        Experience with ArcGIS or other geographic information system preferred but not required.

·        Ability to prepare clear and concise reports.

·        High degree of computer literacy; Excel and Word skills are essential.

·        Ability to manage and meet deadlines.

·        Ability to work independently on multi-task load.

·        Excellent communication and organizational skills.

·        Fluency in written and oral English and Amharic languages. Must be able to read and interpret documents, and communicate with others as necessary to perform job duties effectively.

·        Basic mathematical skills and able to perform job specific mathematics with experience in statistical analysis and statistical software. 

·        Should also have experience in experimental design of evaluations.

 Success Factors

·        Business minded, entrepreneurial, adaptive, curious, great problem solving skills, unafraid to ask questions, and results motivated.

·        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).