Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Coordinator – DREAMS

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible.In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future.

Mercy Corps has been present in Ethiopia since 2004 working to drive bold and transformative ideas, working closely with government, the private sector and civil society actors to build a more resilient country, ensuring that programs are responsive to and influenced by participants and stakeholders. With the launch of Mercy Corps Global Strategy, Pathway to Possibility, the country office is poised to operationalize its three-year strategy with a vision to enhance the resilience of climate- and conflict-affected communities through market systems development for improved livelihoods, access to food, and safe and clean water to thrive in the face of crises. In Ethiopia, our strategy focuses in the four outcome areas: 1) Economically marginalized populations have improved and diversified livelihoods, income, and assets; 2) Pastoralists, farmers, and households have access to sustainably produced, safe, nutritious food; 3) Social cohesion and inclusive governance processes are built in crisis-affected communities; and 4) People have equitable, sustained access to clean water and sanitation for domestic and productive use. Currently, we operate in six regional states – Afar, Gambella, Oromia, Somali, Amhara and South Ethiopia. Working with a diverse base of donors that includes United States Agency for International Development (USAID), European Union, GAC, Hilton Foundation, United Nations (UN), JOA, Sweden, EKN, and other foundations, Mercy Corps Ethiopia empowers people to recover from crisis, build better lives and transform their communities for good. 

Position Title: Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Coordinator

Duty Station: Dollo Ado-Somali Region

Open Position:  1

Program / Department Summary

DREAMS is a five-year IKEA Foundation and Hilton Foundation-funded consortium program led by Village Enterprise (VE) and implemented by VE, Mercy Corps, and ID Insight. DREAMS aims to support economic opportunities for refugees and host communities in Dollo Ado, with a focus on women and refugees. It combines two evidence-based models to support the extreme poor to achieve self-reliance in a sustainable manner: Graduation and Market Systems Development (MSD). Through the first, DREAMS will support the extreme poor to ‘graduate’ out of extreme poverty by providing training, mentoring, seed capital grants, and savings groups that enable them to establish businesses. Through the second, DREAMS will facilitate refugees’ access to products and services to grow their businesses in a sustainable and scalable way.

General Position Summary

The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Coordinator is a key position in Mercy Corps and is specifically pivotal to the implementation of the DREAMS MEL approaches, with a specific focus on market systems resilience measurement and learning. The MEL coordinator will work across component teams and with partners to ensure resilience-building efforts and their impact are effectively measured as well as support the resilience learning agenda. In coordination with the Project manager, she/he will be responsible for developing, coordinating, maintaining, and constantly improving the program wide  M&E systems using relevant knowledge and evidence to guide program strategy, support adaptive management and continuous improvement, and advance learning as well as implementing an internal MEL capacity building strategy that trains and mentors staff and promotes a culture of learning

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

STRATEGY & VISION 

• Set-up the MEL system, including all tools and data collection processes for program activities (Excel, Tola, Access, etc.).
• Work closely with the program teams 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 monitoring 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 and follow up the implementation of Data Quality Assessment Plan.
• Perform spot checks on the team’s data collected and reports each month.
• Work closely with the program team and partners ensuring we adhere to humanitarian principles, Mercy Corps’ gender policies, Do No Harm principles and beneficiary accountability standards;

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

• 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 consortium team and our local partner organizations through ongoing training and support on: monitoring tools, entering program data into databases, the development of reports and other documents.
• Collect, analyze and validate information and data on the performance indicators
• 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.
• Take on overall responsibility for project reporting including Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, Final and ad-hoc reports of the program.
• Other duties as assigned.

FINANCE & COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

• Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to emergency programming.
• Draft and/or review scope of work to hire and manage any technical consultants, including review for technical efficacy and contract budget. 

INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION

• Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, donors, local governments and other stakeholders.
• Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met.

Security

• 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 Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Reports Directly To: DREAMS project manager.

Works Directly With all program teams and consortium partners,

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, statistics, monitoring and evaluation, or related field is required or demonstrated equivalent work experience in the field.
• At least three years work experience in implementing practical monitoring and evaluation, knowledge management or database management in pastoral and agro-pastoral systems of Ethiopia;
• Demonstrated experience in monitoring routine data collection, data analysis and reporting against indicators at all levels.
• Demonstrated experience in quantitative and qualitative survey implementation and support.
• Demonstrated skills in analyzing data, both qualitative and quantitative.
• Experience in the region is required; previous experience in arid and semi-arid parts of Ethiopia is preferred;

Success Factors

• Fluent in English and Somali languages
• Business minded, entrepreneurial, adaptive, curious, great problem-solving skills, unafraid to ask questions, and results motivated.
• He/She will be a tolerant and flexible individual able to work in difficult and stressful environments and follow procedures
• Excellent communication, facilitation and networking skills with a wide range of private, partner and NGO-sector actors
• Computer literate especially in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development. 

All qualified individuals are invited to apply for the advertised position. All applications, including a CV, three references, and all applicable official papers, must be sent electronically.

Only candidates that are short-listed will be acknowledged and called for interviews.

“Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer promoting gender, equity and    diversity. Qualified female and young candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. We are committed to empower women and youth.”

DEADLINE FOR ALL APPLICATIONS: 10 November 2023/ 4:00 PM