Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.
Mercy Corps has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since August 2007, with a staff of approximately 450 people working in Eastern DRC. Mercy Corps’ national office is in Goma with sub-field offices in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri. Mercy Corps’ key programming areas include a combination of longer-term development and immediate humanitarian response programs to: 1) Improve water service delivery and ensuring equitable access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services, in urban and rural areas; 2) Improve food security and nutrition; 3) Promote diversified livelihoods, economic recovery and development.
Mercy Corps is currently implementing a Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) in Kabare and Kalehe territories, South Kivu province, funded by the BHA-USAID Office. The BHA-South Kivu Food Security Project (FSP-Enyanya) covers a 7-year period (October 2016- September 2023) and is implemented by a consortium of five NGOs for which Mercy Corps is the prime. The program aims to ensure that households and communities in the targeted areas improve their food and nutrition security and economic well-being. The program works across the three different purposes: Agricultural Livelihoods and Market integration (P1), Maternal and Child Health and nutrition-MCHN and WASH (P2), and effective governance (P3), with a primary focus on women and youth. The program reaches 250,000 participants.
FSP is at an important strategic crossroads with complex reporting requirements, strong, well-established MEL and program teams willing to learn and hone skills, and potential for strategic influence with Mercy Corps and donor stakeholders.
The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Director will support Mercy Corps’ USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)-funded Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) implemented in South Kivu province. The MEL Director will provide high-level technical and strategic leadership, management and capacity building for MEL teams, oversee information management and practice of adaptive management techniques across the program. The role will supervise MEL consortium staff members responsible for the proper collection of qualitative and quantitative data from FSP staff, partners, and community outreach workers. The role will also represent Mercy Corps and FSP with USAID M&E departments in Kinshasa and Washington DC, in coordination with Mercy Corps DRC HQ.
Overall, the MEL Director is responsible for ensuring FSP adheres and exemplifies an evidence-based approach through the design, management, and oversight of highly specialized MEL data flows that report against program indicators across the FSP Consortium. The FSP MEL Director will work closely with FSP team members and consortium partners and will be responsible to share learnings and best practices at the mission and HQ level.
STRATEGY AND PLANNING
Through the lens of a data-driven and evidence-based approach to programming ensure that program managers, and sector experts are using data to make informed programmatic decisions through the following mechanism:
● Provide advisory services to the DCOP-Programs, COP and program managers to ensure that sectoral strategies and work plans are well-aligned with desired program outcomes and prioritize overall program effectiveness.
● Guide program design and operational strategies through the development, evidence-based reflection on, and adaptation of the program Theory of Change (TOC).
LEADERSHIP, REPRESENTATION, AND INFLUENCE
● Capitalize on successes in the FSP MEL system to help advance the development of mission level and global MEL best practices in complex programs in Mercy Corps.
● Liaise with other USAID implementing partners where appropriate to improve collective program performance and quality.
● Identify and seize opportunities to help inform evidence-based donor decision-making about program replications, extensions and approaches to design and implementation.
LEARNING AND ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT
● In respect to FSP’s learning agenda, maintain qualitative and quantitative systems to generate evidence for strategic learning and adaptation in FSP.
● In collaboration with focal points from the global Mercy Corps MEL and Technical Support Unit (TSU) teams, identify and seize opportunities for strategic learning and adaptation through applied research.
● Oversee the production of quality learning products that leverage program data and evidence in line with FSP’s Strategic Learning Plan.
● Facilitate program performance reviews, reflections and Collaborate, Learn, Adapt (CLA) sessions with relevant program stakeholders to adapt intervention approaches and implementation practices to optimize program quality and performance.
MEL MANAGEMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING
● Oversee technical capacity building in high-level monitoring, evaluation, learning and adaptive management of MEL and program staff.
● Build the MEL team’s capacity in complex MEL processes, such as study design, sampling, analysis, data literacy and evidence-informed decision-making.
● Develop and maintain monitoring work plans to ensure that all indicators are measured in an appropriate and timely manner.
● Ensure appropriate talent management and capacity building mechanisms to maintain excellency in the MEL team’s technical performance.
MEL AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
● Develop and maintain required USAID BHA M&E products, including theories of change, the logical framework, indicator performance tracking tables, performance indicator reference sheets, MEL staffing plans, capacity building plans, survey and study scopes of work (SOWs) and others as requested, in compliance with the Mercy Corps MEL Policy and the USAID BHA M&E Policy and Guidance.
● Oversee regular reporting of indicator data into the USAID Development Information Solution (DIS) and end-of-program data archiving in Mercy Corps’ TolaData platform.
● Design, implement and report on annual participant-based surveys (PaBS), including multi-stage cluster sampling, survey implementation, descriptive statistical analyses, and advanced statistical analyses as appropriate.
● Oversee the design and implementation of agile data collection, storage, processing, analysis, visualization, and reporting systems for all FSP indicators. Implement recommendations identified through data quality assessments (DQAs) to ensure the validity, reliability, accuracy, integrity and timeliness of all data. Ensure that Mercy Corps and donor data protection and privacy requirements are met for FSP MEL data.
● Use relevant data science concepts, processes, and tools to streamline information management workflows in a way that enables efficiency, traceability, and ownership by national team members.
● Liaise with the Gender and Youth Advisor to ensure that gender, age, Do No Harm and other relevant considerations are effectively integrated into the design and implementation of MEL workflows.
● Oversee the functioning of the program’s Community Accountability Reporting Mechanisms and collaborate with the Ethics department for grievance closure and documentation.
PEOPLE, SAFEGUARDING AND DIVERSITY
● Support Mercy Corps global and regional initiatives for human resources, including safeguarding and diversity, and talent development.
● Collaborate with the people team to promote staff access to high-quality learning opportunities, with a special emphasis on national team member development.
● 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 applicable policies.
Reports Directly To: FSP Chief of Party
This vacancy is archived.