Afghanistan: Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator

PROGRAM SUMMARY: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a private, non-political, non-profit, non-religious organization with its global humanitarian relief tasks for more than 80 years since 1933. Today, the IRC continues to bring swift emergency relief and development to the vulnerable and the displaced people in more than 40 countries.

The IRC officially began operations inside Afghanistan through a wide range of humanitarian and development programming to assist people affected by conflict, natural disaster, and poverty, including displaced people and returnees in 1998 and is registered with the Afghan Ministry of Economy. However, the IRC has supported the Afghan people in their fight against displacement and poverty since 1980.

SCOPE OF WORK: IRC has found, as have many other organizations, that data are often collected and compiled primarily to satisfy donor requirements; actually using those data to improve programming and make real-time decisions is much harder and rarer. IRC in Afghanistan is operates and annual portfolio of $14.2 million, through the implementation of over 15 grants in seven states, funded by 12 different donor agencies. In addition, IRC prioritizes partnership with local civil society organizations, and currently manages over 14 sub-grantees. IRC Afghanistan strives to produce quality proposals, reports and evaluations that illustrate measurement of contractual goals and activities, but also includes analysis of context and dynamic needs of beneficiaries at the community-level. Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) today requires a modern grasp of technologies and tools that support the collection, management, presentation and use of this information. And it requires an understanding of the latest development thinking, including adaptive management, systems thinking, complexity, social impact, value for money, etc.

Leading the establishment and effective smooth running of an M&E Unit within the country program, the M&E Coordinator will provide strategic, technical, and managerial leadership for the IRC Afghanistan measurement efforts, including monitoring, evaluation, learning, and - above all - making decisions and taking action based on data. This position requires oversight of M&E activities across country programs - including support to program staff - and coordination with field-based staff to ensure that data is of high quality and used effectively for decision making.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

1 Strategic Leadership for Development of Robust M&E System

• Development and implementation of an M&E strategy for the country program that ensures technically sound and consistent approaches to:

• Indicator development across projects and geographic locations, including incorporation of organizational core indicators

• Routine monitoring of program activities

• Assessments of beneficiary needs

• Evaluations of the effectiveness of program interventions

• Accountability feedback mechanisms to ensure responsiveness to needs and clients

• Data collection, including digital data collection where feasible

• Data storage and secure accessibility of data by project staff and country/regional management

• Work with program teams to identify standard tools and processes to gather, analyze and use data that go beyond descriptive reporting and indicator-centric processes to develop feedback loops and adapt programs in response to changing conditions on the ground;

• Support teams to improve data collection, management, and use to build a culture of adaptive management, high-quality program performance, and learning;

• Use and train on cutting edge practices in design, monitoring, evaluation and learning. Promote use of ICT4M&E in the field, including the use of mobile data collection, GIS-mapping, and online data management platforms. Support use of new technologies for data visualization, presentation, and analysis. Contribute to the understanding and application of new DM&E approaches to emerging themes like resilience, systems thinking, and complex humanitarian crises.

• Engage in other agency level tools and initiatives to ensure regional input and coordinated delivery and messaging and consistent high quality implementation in the region.

1 Technical Quality Oversight of M&E System Implementation

• Work with M&E and project teams to implement the M&E country strategy, with a focus on:

• Coordinated monitoring of project activities, ensuring that activities are carried out or as planned or adjusted/adapted as needed

• Coordinated assessments of beneficiary needs, ensuring that tools and methodologies are appropriate, so that results are actionable and easily communicated

• Coordinated evaluation of projects, ensuring that activities are effectively addressing the beneficiary needs

• Contributing to an organizational culture shift from a focus on data being primarily for donor reporting to using data for decision making and action

• Work with ACME Measurement Action Coordinator to ensure that country teams are using the right tools and have the proper procedures in place to achieve both collection of high quality data and the effective use of those data

• Work with technical and country teams to implement the IRC's program data platform

• Support field teams in analysis of data, including sophisticated statistical analysis, and including creative use of GIS

• Manage external evaluations in partnership with relevant stakeholders, such as donor or project managers, including the development of Terms of Reference, selecting consultants or evaluators, oversight of contract, reviewing outputs, etc.

• Support design and implementation of internal evaluations and project assessments with relevant program staff and technical advisors.

• Update and keep track of a country-wide evaluation plan to ensure projects are prepared for evaluations or internal assessments far in advance, and that each grant is subject to review in a systematic and timely fashion.

1 Capacity building

• Conduct preliminary participatory capacity assessment of current IRC program/field staff to identify specific gaps in M&E technical skills. Based on needs identified by staff in the preliminary capacity assessment, support development of an M&E capacity building plan for 12 - 24 months.
• Support M&E and ICT staff capacity building that guides Afghanistan team toward developing technical skills and promotes a culture of data analysis for decision making and adaptive management;
• Participate in interviewing and orientation of new M&E staff to promote internal data management tools, standards and best practices;
• Support capacity development for IRCs local partner NGOs through technical training, coaching, mentoring.

1 Design and Learning

• Support the DDP and other Coordinators to design evidence-based programming that aligns with the IRC's country strategy and is relevant for the context and responsive to the needs on the ground as identified by the M&E team.

• Lead the proposal development process, ensuring that the theory of change is based on the results of PRA processes, that the log frame is developed with the full participation of the field team, and that multiple technical sector inputs are integrated.

• Support country teams in developing log-frames and theories of change for new project proposals, including consistency with the IRC's library of core outcomes and indicators

• Conduct assessments of beneficiary needs to feed into the design of new project proposals.

• Build a collaborative network of relationships for M&E practitioners and other stakeholders learning networks that promotes shared learning, aligned approaches, and mutual accountability to quality data collection and programming;

• Contribute to the development and implementation of knowledge management to further stimulate use of evidence for learning, strategic adaptive management, and high-impact programming;

• Leadership in supporting Afghanistan program's participation in REL's evidence based program initiatives and serving as the main focal point with HQ and regional M&E and research initiatives to be rolled out in the country programs.

• Support development of tools and systems that ensure recommendations/lessons learned from previous grants flow back into project design of new grants. Support project/program staff to properly document, organize and capture program progress and create a tools and library to increase institutional learning and disseminate lessons learnt.

Key working relationships

The M&E Coordinator reports to the Country Director and has a dotted relationship with the Regional Measurement Action Coordinator for ACME Region. He/she will have close collaboration with all involved staff in activity implementation and M&E: core Sector Coordinators, M&E Focal points, program field staffs and external consultants on baselines, end-lines and other Program evaluators. The Deputy Director M&E technically manages field level M&E officers. The coordinator is an SMT member and work in close collaboration with Sector and Field coordinators and Grant and Finance units.

Position Requirements

• Advanced degree in statistics or the social sciences with emphasis on measurement

• At least two (2) years of professional experience with demonstrated skills in

• Developing and implementing M&E systems (including database design)

• Strategic planning and performance measurement, indicator selection, quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methodologies

• Collecting data

• Remote monitoring

• Data analysis

• Using data for decision-making in multiple technical sectors

• Proven ability to think strategically about data and making decisions on the same

• Experience training and mentoring staff and local partners

• Proven ability to support M&E components in business development

• Excellent teamwork including abilities to coordinate well with diverse individuals and teams and to negotiate effectively with colleagues and stakeholders to achieve results;

• Knowledge of the trends and issues in international aid monitoring, knowledge management and measurement

• At least one years' experience in developing countries and/or conflict-affected contexts

• Strong oral communication and presentation skills

• Fluency in English required

• Experience in Afghanistan or similar settings highly desirable

Please follow this link to apply: http://www.aplitrak.com/?adid=a2F0cmluYW1pbGxlci45NDYzMi4zODMwQGlyYy5hcGxpdHJhay5jb20