General Description of the Programme:
GOAL has been working in Syria since 2013, responding to the acute needs of conflict-affected communities. GOAL is working in North West Aleppo both through direct implementation and through partners, delivering food, non-food programming to highly vulnerable populations, and provision of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) through support to Water units, as well as emergency support to recently displaced households.
Job purpose:
The role of the MEL Manager is to lead GOAL’s monitoring, evaluation and Learning activities in the field. The MEL Manager is expected to take an increasing role in MEL design, analysis and reporting, working closely with the MEL Field Coordinator and Project Managers (PMs) in Syria, and the MEL Coordinator and Program Coordinators in Turkey. The MEL Manager will report to the MEL Field Coordinator
Duties, objectives and competencies
Team Management
- Lead and coordinate the activities of a team , including team leaders and team members.
- Ensure that all staff have accurate job descriptions, and that performance reviews are conducted twice a year with staff.,
- Develop work plans on a weekly basis and monitor these in line with overall objectives of the team.
- Prepare an annual leave plan to ensure staff take leave on a regular basis and ensure leave is taken into account when developing work plans
- Provide regular coaching to the team
- Supervise data clerks and survey enumerators at field sites level
- Coordinate with manager/program staff for data collection/M&E activities
MEL concept
- Understand the basic monitoring and evaluation concepts and the purpose of M&E
- Clearly define project cycle and results chain (outputs/ outcomes/ impact/ interventions)
- Possess knowledge of indicators and their measurement in the different sectors of relevance
- Understand the concept of participatory monitoring, evaluation, accountability, learning and needs assessment
Capacity development and training
- Deliver basic training to teams (data collection methods, use of tools, concepts of M&E)
- Assess the knowledge change of participants to trainings
Project Design and planning
- Understand the link between the needs assessment and project design
- Possess knowledge to define and determine outputs/ outcomes/ impact/ interventions and understand the objective hierarchy
- Can develop results framework and logframe, including indicators for simple projects
- Possess knowledge to use tools for tracking project progress and bottlenecks
MEL Design
- Develop data collection tools, and increasingly support in the design of assessments, evaluations, logical frameworks, and sampling methodologies
- Support Project Managers (PMs) to understand the logical frameworks of their projects
- Can effectively use data collection tools to gather qualitative and quantitative data at different levels: facility, community.
- Ensure data entry using an electronic database
- Create a culture in which MEL is a learning and supportive resource for PMs, AMT, and GOAL SYRIA senior management.
- Clearly define the different components of an M&E system
- Can organize and lead data collection activities following the data collection and reporting flow put in place for a project
- Can develop simple data collection tools based on monitoring indicator
- Maintain effective M&E system (ensure data collected translate to M&E Framework/IPTT)
Data Collection
- Train MEL teams and other data collectors on proper interviewing techniques, use of tablets, audio devices, or other monitoring tools
- Ensure that all monitoring tools are loaded onto CommCare, and are field tested for logic, quality, and accuracy of translation
- Work with PMs and MEL Coordinators to ensure that all project activities are monitored effectively
- Manage and deploy MEL teams to efficiently collect data according to agreed sampling methodologies for all project activities
- Knowledge of tactics for assessing the quality of collected data for indicators
- Knowledge of data pitfalls, issues, and strategies for quality data
- Coordinate routine data quality audits conducted in different sites and compile results at the level of a project
- Provide supportive supervision on data quality at facility and community levels
Sampling
- Understand and apply the concept of ‘random sampling’ following instructions/guidelines of a manager
- Understand and can apply the method ‘spin-the-bottle’ used for selection of households in population based surveys.
- Understand the difference between probability and non-probability sampling
- Knowledge of commonly used probability and purposive sampling techniques
- Can develop sampling frame and carry out sampling following instructions (manager, guidelines)
Data Quality Management
- Understand the fundamental concepts of data quality
- Conduct on-site routine data quality audits at health facility and community levels
- Knowledge of tactics for assessing the quality of collected data for indicators
- Knowledge of data pitfalls, issues, and strategies for quality data
- Coordinate routine data quality audits conducted in different sites and compile results at the level of a project
- Provide supportive supervision on data quality at facility and community levels
Qualitative techniques
- Understand the purpose, advantages and disadvantages of qualitative techniques for data collection
- Can conduct qualitative data collection activities
- Clearly define the different methods of data collection in qualitative research:
- Key informant interviews
- In-depth interviews
- Group discussions
- Focus group discussions
Direct observations as an M&E tool
Know how to develop and use key qualitative tools (observation checklists, guide for group discussion and interviews) for monitoring purpose
Quantitative techniques
- Understand the purpose, advantages and disadvantages of quantitative techniques for data collection
- Can perform data entry using a statistical software and under guidance and supervision
- Know the different interview techniques (structured/ semi structured)
- Know how to use structured questionnaires for monitoring purpose
Data Analysis and Reporting
- Prepare daily monitoring reports indicating key results, challenges, successes and progress
- Work with the MEL data reporting and analyst to ensure that locally stored databases are regularly updated and cleaned, including translations of text responses
- Work the MEL data reporting and analyst to ensure the submission of quarterly and final monitoring reports in all sectors
- Understand principles of qualitative and quantitative data analysis
- Perform descriptive univariate and bivariate data analysis using Excel Pivot tables
- Interpret frequency tables, bi-variate cross tables, mean and median
Evaluation design
- Understand the fundamental principles of evaluation (concepts, purposes and types of evaluations, contribution versus attribution, counterfactual)
- Knowledge of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods used in evaluation
Techniques for presenting information
- Possess basic data visualization skills (use of tables, graphs, to represent data and information)
- Clearly communicate findings of monitoring activities and reviews against targets set by the project
- Compile data and indicators at project level for reporting in a clear and concise manner, providing all required information
- Possess skills to use PowerPoint to share results of data analysis and monitoring
Learning and Knowledge management
- Organize the documentation of the project activities, results, and processes
- Organize secondary data (internal and external sources)
- Share monitoring reports with PMs, AMT, other interested staff, and with external stakeholders
- Document lessons learned, challenges, and successes as identified during M&E activities
Reporting
- Review all M&E activities reports and ensure that they are to standard.
- Produce a daily report and weekly summary on the data collected on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
- Create detailed reports about an activity or a case study resulting from the implementation of the GOAL activities or any other reports required of him.
Requirements (essential)
- Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent related experience, in engineering, mathematics, science, or social sciences.
- Experience in MEL with increasing responsibilities
- Knowledge of GOAL’s target areas in Syria.
- Demonstrated leadership and team management experience of leadership
- Demonstrated experience building capacity, training, or teaching others
- Strong skills in data analysis
- Good English language skills (spoken, written and reading)
- Excellent attention to detail
- Hard-working, proactive and able to priorities to manage a demanding workload
- Ability to travel and work in Syria
Requirements (desired):
- Fluent English language skills
- Understanding / experience with digital data gathering technology
- Understanding / experience with data analysis software
- Strong report writing skills
General terms and conditions
Safeguarding
Children and vulnerable adults a must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury and any other harm. One of the ways that GOAL shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.
Accountability within GOAL
Alongside our safeguarding policy, GOAL is an equal opportunities employer and has a set of integrity policies. Any candidate offered a job with GOAL will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:
- Comply with GOAL’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, Code of Conduct, health and safety, data protection and confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behaviour protocols.
- Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.
- Report any concerns about inappropriate behaviour of a GOAL staff or partner.
This Job Description only serves as a guide for the position available. GOAL reserves the right to change this document. Any published closing dates are estimated. Due to the nature of GOAL’s work we aim to fill vacancies as quickly as possible. This means that we will close adverts as soon as we have found the right candidate and this may be before the published closing date. We would therefore advise interested applicants to submit an application as early as possible.
Thank you.