MONITORING EVALUATION AND LEARNING MANAGER

Overview
Counterpart International is seeking a MEL Manager to join the Program Quality and Learning (PQL) Team to support our Programs, Communications, and New Business Development (NBD) teams.

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Programs (60%) *The Manager will support Programs in the establishment of data collection tools and methods, learning, knowledge management, and visualization infrastructure.

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Communications (20%) *The Manager will also support data analysis, and apply data visualization tools to demonstrate program impact, learning, and good practices that will enable Counterpart to demonstrate its thought leadership amongst external stakeholders, and communities of practice.

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NBD (20%) *The Manager will support Counterpart proposals, facilitating the design of theories of change, results frameworks and indicator tables, and provide technical inputs including but not limited to Collaboration Learning and Adaptability (CLA) and MEL sections of proposals.

Responsibilities

• Support PQL Director in developing a flexible MEL System across Counterpart’s Governance and Food Security portfolios.
• Establish programmatic quality control by providing technical support in designing and implementing activity Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Plans.
• Supervise MEL staff at HQ and facilitate their support to field teams. This includes overseeing MEL-related technical assistance to projects, including developing Activity MEL plans, reviewing progress / performance reports drafted by project teams, analyzing performance monitoring data and assisting project teams with developing data visualizations, learning briefs and other CLA products to show case Counterpart’s performance and lessons learned.
• Strengthen staff capacity to conduct MEL through development of tools and guidance and conducting periodic training. This includes periodically conducting a review of Counterpart resources and refining MEL guides, templates, and other tools.
• Support Program teams to conduct internal Data Quality Assessments (DQA) and support donor-requested DQAs.
• Support Program colleagues to disseminate programmatic Learning internally (e.g. through brownbags) and externally (e.g. through publishing blogs; podcasts; participating in conferences).
• Lead cultivation of program-level data relevant for Counterpart’s Global Indicators, to contribute to Counterpart’s Learning Agenda, and support alignment between programs’ results frameworks and the organizational Theory of Change.
• Support management information needs, including working with IT to develop or customize data management and reporting systems that HQ and Field Staff can use to enable accurate and real-time reporting, consistent practices and systems for knowledge capture and sharing of impacts and lessons learned.
• Lead the creation and implementation of a MEL Community of Practice (CoP) between field and HQ colleagues.
• Support the New Business Development team by conducting research, drafting indicator tables, contributing to the design of the activity’s theory of change and writing sections of the proposal relates to MEL, CLA, performance management plans, annexes, and other tasks as needed.
• Other duties as assigned by Director of PQL.

Qualifications
Required:

• Degree in International Development, Public Policy, Social Sciences, or Business with emphasis on social research design and analysis, civil society, social media or related fields.
• Expertise and results in capacity development, such as: group training development and delivery or providing on-the-job training or mentorship to staff with varying levels of experience.
• 8-10 years of increasing responsibility and experience in: monitoring, evaluation, and learning, with an eye towards utilization and learning based on theory of change; MEL planning; MEL tool development; data management and data quality assurance across multiple partners and sites; quantitative and qualitative data analysis.
• Experience working at least one of the following areas: civil society strengthening, organizational learning and development, nutrition, food security, education, economic growth, youth development, climate/environment.
• Deep understanding of the USAID project cycle, policies, regulations, monitoring and evaluation methodologies, and reporting requirements.
• Significant knowledge and experience with MEL standards and evaluation methods under USAID and/or USDA evaluation policies (including the U.S. Government’s Foreign Assistance Framework and ADS 201).
• Proven experience and ability to effectively manage staff and support a varied workload, focused on detail-orientation, meeting tight deadlines, and meeting task schedules.
• Exemplary and proactive communication skills (spoken and written, and appropriate across cultural contexts) required.
• Self-starter with strong detail orientation and organizational skills required and comfort working with many staff and colleagues remotely.
• Flexible thinker interested in collaborating with others in a team environment.
• Strong skills required in Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint).
• Experience using software for data analyses, such as data coding and use of pivot tables.
• Remote, or located in the Washington DC/surrounding area.
• English fluency required; foreign language skills in French, Spanish, Russian or Arabic strongly preferred.
• Ability and willingness to travel internationally.
• Commitment to gender integration; including practical use of gender sensitive M&E tools and assessments.
• Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of program theories of change / logical frameworks.

Preferred Competencies:

• Experience with USAID’s Development Information Solution (DIS) and Data Development Library (DDL).
• Comfort and experience utilizing online tools and ICT to collect and analyze data and/or designing data management systems and dashboards or other data visualization tools.
• Experience working in other regions of the world (e.g., Africa, Central America, South East Asia).
• Experience developing analytical tools and data capture for context aware monitoring, and other emerging promising practices of operating in unstable, or rapidly evolving contexts.

Job Type: Full-time