Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Learning (MERL) Officer - Mandera at Pact World

The MERL Officer will oversee and ensure the collection, collation and analysis of data for the proposed European Union Trust Fund, three-year collaboration in Cross-Border Areas of the Horn of Africa Region: the Kenya-Ethiopia-Somalia border to prevent local conflict and mitigate its impact. S/he will be responsible for partners’ data quality management and reporting during the program reporting cycles and within the entire program MERL system. The job holder may also provide field MERL and technical assistance as requested by field teams from time to time in liaison with the Team Leader. This position is based in Mandera and reports to the Team Lead.

Roles and responsibilities:

• Data Management
• With support from the Program Manager and Team Lead, ensure partners’ data quality as guided by the EUTF data quality assurance standards.
• Update MERL databases; using approved supportive program MERL documentation.
• Manage and conduct overall data collection and collation processes relevant to all program indicator data for donor reporting purposes
• Regularly review, revise and update the performance monitoring plan(PMP)
• Performance data analysis
• Track partner activities and update the tracking tool to reflect progress following discussions with respective partner staff and program teams.
• Support MERL and program team to conduct periodic reviews of project work including monitoring and assessing the quality of partner work and Program impact. In coordination with program team analyze program data to identify trends and recommend actions for adaptive management.
• MERL Support to partners
• Support MERL capacity building initiatives for partners in both clusters
• Support the MERL team to conduct quarterly partner data quality assessments
• Ensure standardization of partner MERL tools and methodologies across implementing partners.
• Mentor partner staff in M&E and provide timely feedback to partners to ensure good quality partner reports.
• Support the development of Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (MER) plans for local partners and sub grantees.
• Program learning and documentation
• Provide clean supporting program data for writing of case studies, success stories,
• beneficiary profiles and donor reports.
• Support documentation of key Pact or EUTF meetings/workshops as required.
• Support overall program evaluations at all stages.
• Undertake evaluations of supported projects to facilitate grant close-outs as required.

Qualifications and experience:

• A critical thinker with attention to details mind set, able to streamline large datasets, both quantitative and qualitative from multiple sources ensuring quality in information shared.
• A holder of a university degree in Statistics, Economics, Research Methods, International Development, Development Studies or related field from a recognized university.
• 4 to 6 years of experience in M&E or Research for social programs or development.
• Knowledge and practice in data cycle management and EU quality assurance standards.
• Knowledge and experience on how to synthesize large volumes of quantitative data into simple infographics for donor and external audience consumption.
• A good planner with conceptual skills to think and plan for outcomes/impact.
• Ability to coordinate M&E related information across multiple partners in five countries.
• Knowledge and application of computer and mobile systems or applications for data collection, reporting and storage.
• A team player with interest in numerics or large data sets.
• Good knowledge and application of data entry, analysis and presentation soft wares e.g. CSPro, SPSS, STATA and advanced Excel.