Senior Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Associate – Uganda

Application Deadline: February 10th, 2024. (Resume and cover letter only) Interviews will be done on a rolling basis.

Job Summary:

Every employee of IRI is responsible for carrying out the Mission of IRI and demonstrating the Core Values in their day-to-day operations. The Core Values, which are IRI’s foundational building blocks include:

Excellence– We believe in quality results delivered by investing in people. Freedom– We believe in exploration and experimentation to be agile and responsive. Respect– We believe in trust, empathy, and empowering people. Teamwork– We believe in diversity, inclusion, and the power of global collaboration. Transparency– We believe in open communication and clear decision-making. Accountability– We believe in personal responsibility as the foundation of success.

The International Republican Institute (IRI) an international non-governmental organization (NGO) registered in Uganda is seeking resumes/CVs for a Senior MEL Associate to support the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) of the Institute’s Uganda programs.

The Senior MEL Associate will support the development and implementation of IRI programs in Uganda, focusing on a political development program that seeks to deepen issue based political parties, political participation and electoral representation of women, youth, and people with disabilities. The Senior MEL Associate will work as part of IRI’s program team and support the Program Team in developing program strategy, drafting program proposals and reports, organizing, and implementing program activities, leading program monitoring and evaluation, and performing program budgets activities. The Senior MEL Associate will report directly to the Resident Program Director (RPD).

Responsibilities

• Lead MEL capacity building initiatives among program staff, and sub-awardees. This may include conducting MEL capacity assessment, designing and facilitating MEL training, coaching and mentoring.
• Lead the data collection, assessment, compilation of documents for program reporting. More specifically, it will be the primary focal point in organizing reflection meetings with both field-based and headquarters-based staff and sub-awardees to accurately capture, analyze, and securely store M&E data. This may include planning for data collection, preparing and piloting data collection tools, collecting data, storing and maintaining data, cleaning and analyzing data and aggregating and reporting including drafting success stories.
• Establish, update and maintain a schedule of MEL activities and MEL-related deadlines and proactively inform other staff of such deadlines.
• Assist IRI staff to meet IRI and donor MEL requirements and tasks related to IRI projects in Uganda. This includes developing, and/or reviewing MEL documents such as MEL plans and indicator matrices, PMPs, standard operating procedures etc.
• Support program financial management such as negotiating and preparing contracts, sub-grants and other financial and project implementation documents; and ensure that the projects remain within budget
• Liase with the program staff to ensure stronger and accurate reporting within IRI and to the respective donors. This will include developing, reviewing activity, and/or progress reports on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual basis and/or as required by IRI or its donors. Assist in reporting on activities, and associated output, outcome, and impact level results; this may include drafting sections of activity, weekly, quarterly or final reports.
• Promote high data quality mechanisms within IRI and among its implementing partners. This may include supporting internal or external donor Data Quality Assessments (DQAs).
• Update and maintain program resource files and contacts for purposes of monitoring and evaluation and internal reporting;
• Support the Program Officer to monitor and evaluate the performance of IRI and its partner organization’s program activities, identifying successes and failures and recommending program adjustments accordingly;
• Assist the Program Officer in managing country projects planning and implementation of program activities in collaboration with other staff;
• Travel from time-to-time, independently and/or as part of a team, to various locations throughout Uganda to support IRI’s programmatic objectives; and
• Perform any other duties as assigned by the Resident Program Director or his/her immediate supervisor that include but not limited to; Research, writing and editing time-sensitive program documents and budgets, funding proposals, and training materials. And provide efficient and timely administrative and accounting matters and written assignments.
• Convene and facilitate reflection and learning activities within IRI-Uganda or its implementing partners as request by the IRI or its donors.

Position Requirements:

• Undergraduate degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Social Sciences, political science, international relations or related field;
• Two to three years professional experience in international development programming in the areas of monitoring and evaluation democratic governance and politics;
• Experience working directly with political parties, civil society organizations/NGOs and/or legislative bodies, and/or marginalized groups preferred;
• Working knowledge of the politics, economics, history, and culture of Uganda
• Strong written and oral communication and presentation skills;
• Demonstrated experience working with USG funded projects and familiarity with USG regulations and processes, especially USAID and U.S Department of State;
• Ability to work independently and as a member of a team to coordinate and lead the efforts of other staff to effectively meet program goals.
• Familiarity with data collection and analysis software, and approaches is desired

Qualifications

Education

Required

Bachelors or better in Political Science or related field.

Experience

Required

2-3 years:

Undergraduate degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Social Sciences, political science, international relations or related field; Two to three years professional experience in international development programming in the areas of monitoring and evaluation democratic governance and politics; Experience working directly with political parties, civil society organizations/NGOs and/or legislative bodies, and/or marginalized groups preferred