MEL Officer Kampala (Readvertised)

Program Summary

This one year project will address the needs of urban refugees and vulnerable host community members to improve their economic wellbeing and address issues which limit the integration of refugees within host communities. The focus of the project will be on addressing the interrelated gaps that hinder effective service delivery and local integration in the target communities. The overall goal of the program will be to strengthen social cohesion and livelihoods in refugee-hosting divisions in Kampala. This will be achieved through three interrelated outcomes:  

• Refugees and host communities participate collectively toward a shared vision of sustainable peace and common development goals. Activities under this outcome will focus on building linkages between refugee leaders and local authorities, as well as fostering connections between youth, women and men in refugee and host-communities.  
• Financial Inclusion is enhanced for refugees and host communities in the divisions of Kampala. Activities under this outcome will focus on building financial inclusion and building the capacity of micro-entrepreneurs to further develop and increase their income potential - improvements in understanding of legal regulations and taxation laws, access to microfinance, and interventions which enable businesses to address some of the constraints (such as lack of capacity to innovate in their products due to limited time and capital available to invest in experimenting new products or services, lack of ability to aggregate demand with other small businesses) have potential to create important impacts in terms of income for those concerned.
• Micro entrepreneurs are supported to develop their businesses to increase income and improve food security. Activities under this outcome will focus on building technical skills for existing and future entrepreneurs, supporting product innovation in businesses which can build ties between host and refugee communities and social impact in communities, and enabling development of urban farming both to increase access to nutritious food at lower costs and also as an income stream.   

General Position Summary

The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Officer will work with the Mercy Corps Hilton project team as well as our local partner organizations to oversee and ensure the collection of quality M&E data for the project.  The MEL Officer will be responsible for supporting the Senior MEL Officer to oversee the monitoring and data collection of the project, lead regular and annual field based household and group interviews, analyse data to provide insight to the project team, and contribute to report writing. S/he will ensure that performance monitoring and results reporting tools and processes across the entire program are in place, effectively implemented and well synchronized between the Activity sites. The MEL Officer will supervise MEL Assistants and may supervise project enumerators. The MEL officer will be an integral member of the project team learning and reflection processes, leading discussion on beneficiary feedback.

 Essential Job Responsibilities

• Work closely with the project team 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 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 Community accountability and reporting mechanisms for the project and orient project staff as well as local partners on the same.
• Perform spot checks on the team’s data collected and reports each month.
• Actively participate in household identification and verification of households that participate on the project.
• Support the Senior MEL Officer in coordinating the baseline, mid-term evaluation and final evaluation, along with other key research activities.
• 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 team members through ongoing training and support on: monitoring tools, entering program data into databases, the development of reports and other documents.
• 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.
• Disseminate research learnings and recommendations to team members, beneficiaries and other relevant audiences.
• Other duties as assigned.

Finance & Compliance Management

• Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to humanitarian and development programming.

Ethics and Integrity

• All Mercy Corps staff are expected to behave ethically and demonstrate highest integrity in their professional and personal life. Mercy Corps has zero tolerance to any form of fraud, corruption, abuse, harassment or exploitation. Any breach of our policies or misconduct will lead to disciplinary action or may lead to termination.

Security

• Ensure data protection policies are adhered to, establishing security controls for software, hardware and archive beneficiary databases
• 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.

Accountability to Beneficiaries

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
• Sensitise communities on the project’s CARM system and encourage them to share feedback through the promoted channels.

Other:

• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission
• Other duties assigned.

Supervisory Responsibility: MEL Assistant and Data Enumerators.

Accountability: Reports Directly To: Senior MEL Officer

 Works Directly with: Program team including officers and assistants as well as support departments including finance, operations and administration. 

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in statistics, Quantitative economics, Economics, social sciences or related field.
• At least 2 years’ experience in monitoring and evaluation of Humanitarian or development programs or in the fields of research.
• Good understanding and skills at data management.
• Experience authoring xls forms for mobile data collection (This will be tested)
• Experience managing different aspects of assessments as a lead, right from tools design, data collection, processing, analysis and report writing (Writing samples will be requested).
• Strong computer literacy with a full knowledge of MS Office applications and G suite.
• Proficiency in at least one statistical software (Stata, R, SPSS) in handling large data sets (Stata will be preferred)
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members.
• Fluent in both spoken and written English. Fluency in languages used by Refugees in Kampala and local host communities (French, Swahili, Arabic, Kinyarwanda, and Luganda) is preferred.
• Able to ride a motorbike safely, valid license. Preferred but not required.

Required documents for submission:

• A writing sample of a report that you authored
• A sample of an xls form that you authored
• Sample stata code

Success Factors

The successful MEL Officer will combine exceptional management skills and experience in building and maintaining partner relationships. S/he will have an ability to think creatively about operationalizing and improving the M&E system of the project. S/he will have proven experience with cross-cultural team and capacity building, individual staff development and strong mentoring skills. Multi-tasking, prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail as well as strategic vision are essential. The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations. A good sense of humour and the ability to learn from mistakes also goes a long way!

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based at Kampala Office, Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all locations.

Closes: 7th Sept 2021