MEL Advisor, USAID Bangladesh Communities for Gender Equality

Position Description

EnCompass LLC seeks Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Advisor candidates for an anticipated five-year United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Communities for Gender Equality (CGE) activity to be based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The USAID/Bangladesh CGE activity will support interventions in an estimated 24 districts that address the full cycle of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention, mitigation, and response. Potential tasks in this activity may include supporting community resilience to prevent GBV, strengthen advocacy to prevent and protect the rights of GBV survivors, improve services for at-risk and GBV victims, and enhance the capacity of responsible government agencies.

The MEL Advisor will be responsible for designing, implementing, and enhancing robust MEL systems. They will ensure high-quality data collection, entry, analysis, and interpretation, contributing to operationalize the results framework for the CGE activity. The MEL Advisor will oversee the monitoring of the project’s progress, ensuring data quality and compliance with MEL standards. Importantly, the MEL Advisor will manage activity learning, performance assessment, and necessary adjustments to project activities, as well as contributing to the design and execution of the Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) strategy.

The position will be full-time and be based in Dhaka with travel throughout the country, subject to project award, funding, and USAID approval. National and international candidates are encouraged to apply.

Position Duties and Responsibilities

Essential functions:

• Develop the overall framework for project monitoring systems, including indicators, targets, tracking and reporting tools, and baseline measurements.
• Develop and oversee the implementation of the Activity Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Plan (AMELP)to systematically document results of Activity technical interventions.
• Ensure alignment of MEL activities with project goals and assist in drafting sections of annual work plans to identify project targets and ensure inclusion of MEL activities.
• Oversee the design and implementation of robust data management systems, ensuring data capture, processing, and quality checks are all compliant with donor regulations.
• Provide cutting-edge expertise in the development and execution of results frameworks and monitoring tools that can measure activity results.
• Supervise and support periodic studies, political economy analysis, risk analysis, human rights landscape analysis and other research
• Contribute content for punctual and accurate submission of project activities and results, including quarterly, semi-annual, and annual reports.
• Ensure utilization of USAID’s MEL and CLA best practices.
• Coordinate and support external evaluations, including baseline, mid-term, final, and any rapid cycle evaluations, ensuring the unbiased assessment of project impacts.
• Supervise timely and accurate quantitative and qualitative data reporting by partners in cooperation with project staff.
• Other duties as assigned

Position Requirements

Qualifications

Academic Qualifications

• Master’s degree and 8 years’ experience; or PhD and 6 years’ experience in statistics, data management, gender studies, political sciences, international development, economic development, or a related field required

Experience and Skills

• Minimum of 6 years of relevant experience in international development roles related to MEL, program coordination, or other supporting positions on large humanitarian or development projects.
• Proven experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods, survey design and implementation, and statistical data analysis.
• Demonstrated MEL experience in the project technical area: gender equality, women’s empowerment, initiatives addressing GBV, and strategies for advancing women’s economic justice.
• Strong experience and knowledge of USAID MEL guidelines, systems, and reporting requirements, including CLA principles, approaches, and their application to project learning and adaptation.
• Strong data visualization and report writing skills and ability to translate technical information for non-technical audiences.
• Experience recruiting, developing, and managing teams working on complex donor-funded activities is strongly preferred
• Demonstrated skills in building and maintaining relationships with project stakeholders, local partners, and local organizations.
• Strong oral and written communication skills; excellent demonstrated intercultural, interpersonal, and negotiation skills.
• Fluency in written and spoken English required, fluency in Bangla is preferred.
• Prior experience working in Bangladesh preferred.
• Ability to travel within Bangladesh as required and as security conditions allow
• Bangladeshi nationals preferred