Democratic Republic of the Congo: Monitoring and Evaluation Officer

PROGRAM/ DEPARTMENT SUMMARY:

Mercy Corps has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since August 2007, with a staff of around 250 people working in North and South Kivu. Mercy Corps' national office is in Goma with sub-field offices in Katwe, Mweso, Butembo (North Kivu), Bukavu (South Kivu). Current Mercy Corps activities focus on the provision of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in camps of internally displaced people, but also large-scale WASH infrastructure and service delivery development in urban centers. Mercy Corps also has Food Security, Economic Recovery/Development and Governance programs, with an increasing shift towards transitional and integrated development programming. The DRC team has a strong commitment to providing entrepreneurial and innovative solutions to development challenges, and is actively seeking and facilitating market-based solutions.

The Food Security and Inclusive Access to Resources for Conflict-Sensitive Market Development (FARM) program is anticipated to work to improve access to, control over and utilization of land for 25,000 households in North Kivu and improve target market systems through increased cooperation between market actors in selected value chains, contributing to food security. FARM will put emphasis on improving access to land through improved service delivery and dialogue platforms for the benefit of the target population. In parallel, FARM will facilitate linkages between farmers, agri-businesses, private sectors actors, cooperatives and government in order to strengthen and diversify the target market systems. \This program is pending funding**

GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:

The Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Officer is a key position in the FARM program, responsible for supporting the installation of systems for cross-cutting programmatic monitoring, evaluation, and information management. She/he will play a key role in coordinating program quality monitoring and evaluation among Mercy Corps' and its partners. Together with Country DMEL Manager and in coordination with the Program Director, she/he will define how programmatic information will be collected, analyzed and utilized for continuous improvement of ongoing programing, and incorporating information into consistently high quality reports. S/he will be responsible for supporting the rollout – along with the Country DMEL Manager, project staff and technical support staff – of the fully integrated Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) system and strategy for the FARM program. In addition, s/he will be responsible for ensuring that organized and actionable MEL information is provided to program managers and field offices in order to assist them to generate reports that are timely and of a high quality.

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ESSENTIAL JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

MEL Strategy and Information Management

• Lead role in supporting the design, collection and analysis of data during the FARM program inception phase.
• Oversee the set-up and roll-out and any necessary adaptations of the FARM program M&E framework, under the supervision and support from the Country DMEL Manager. M&E Plan includes: regular program monitoring exercises, annual monitoring and reporting on key impact indicators.
• Support the Strategic Objective Managers and Grants Manager in the design and roll-out of FARM's operational and formative research framework.
• Ensure operationalization and monitoring of Mercy Corp's Accountability Mechanism in all program activities.
• Design and roll-out the capture and documentation of best practices and lessons learnt though regularly coordinated moments of self-reflection and adaption with program teams.

M&E System Development and Technical Oversight

• Responsible for running quantitative data collection exercises using ODK Collect or other open source tools.
• Responsible for continuing to explore possibilities for use of alternative qualitative or quantitative data collection software or methodologies and applying them as required.
• Responsible for ensuring that FARM M&E data is stored according to Mercy Corps and donor standards.
• Responsible for ensuring that gender, age, ethnicity and other relevant considerations are effectively integrated at design, implementation, analysis and report writing stages for all M&E products.
• Responsible for ensuring that data collected is sex and age disaggregated in line with Mercy Corps minimum standards.

Teamwork and coordination

• Coordinate, lead, guide and support national M&E Officers and Assistants, both within Mercy Corps and its implementing partners.
• Orient, train, and coach staff.
• Supports performance management activities as needed for planning, monitoring, and annual performance appraisals.

Reporting

• Conduct project site visits to provide hands-on training to field staff on how to capture and organize information for accurate documentation and reporting.
• Coordinate with a variety of teams, to ensure that program teams have the necessary capacity and resources to produce timely and high quality reports that are responsive to donors.
• Team capacity building through information-sharing and mentorship, coaching in report writing, and quality control of final written products.
• Assist the Program Director by monitoring and reporting on potential partners' M&E data and planning.
• Produce all required M&E reports for the FARM program. .

Coordination and Representation

• Manage information sharing and coordination with I4S M&E teams, including site visits and key indicator reporting.

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 Beneficiaries

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

ACCOUNTABILITY:

REPORTS DIRECTLY TO: Country DMEL Manager

WORKS DIRECTLY WITH: Program Director, S01 & S02 Managers, Grants Manager.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

• MA/S or equivalent in social science, management, or equivalent international development preferred;
• 2-3 years' experience in Monitoring & Evaluation functions;
• Previous experience coordinating M&E activities in francophone Africa preferred;
• Demonstrated experience in gender and conflict sensitive programming;
• Experience with GPS and mobile-based M&E systems are required;
• Prior experience in staff development and participatory training;
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members is required;
• Strong knowledge and experience of the context in eastern DRC is an advantage;
• Fluent written and oral communication in both French and English is required;

SUCCESS FACTORS:

A successful candidate will have an ability to work independently, take initiative in tasks and self-learning, and be proactive in communications and development of professional relationships. S/he will be able to live and work closely with a diverse team of individuals in a highly intense and fluid work and security environment with demonstrated sensitivity to the people and issues in the region. S/he will demonstrate exceptional interpersonal, relationship and cross-cultural communication skills especially in high stress environments are essential for success. S/he will be committed to the values and mission of Mercy Corps; have the ability to creatively problem-solve, to juggle multiple priorities under tight deadlines and to calmly and diplomatically deal with unexpected and sudden events impacting program operations with patience, dynamism, tenacity and a good sense of humor.

LIVING CONDITIONS/ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS:

This position is an unaccompanied position, eligible for R&R

Goma is a provincial capital of around 1million inhabitants. Living in Goma is comfortable, although water and electricity can be unstable. Outside Goma, travel can be dangerous and unpredictable due to armed forces and rebel activity.

While conditions in the country are improving, and security is quite stable in Goma, there are still pockets of violence and insecurity. Mercy Corps' sub-offices experience variable levels of insecurity, with the situation closely monitored by UN peacekeepers. Air travel is necessary to get from one end of the country to the other. Mobile phones and cellular service are widely available. Internet is available in all Mercy Corps offices. Travel to field sites will be required where living conditions are clean and secure, but basic. There are a number of health services available with evacuation options for serious illnesses. There's reasonable access to most consumer goods, although they can be expensive.

Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

PI95062300

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