Mercy Corps is launching an innovative new program - Delivering Resilient Enterprises and Market Systems (DREAMS) for refugees and host communities in the Somali region of Ethiopia which provides solutions that will achieve increased household income, savings, assets and improved food security and wellbeing. The DREAMS program aims to improve the well-being of 100,000 women, children, and men over the course of the five years. Working with refugees and host communities in the Somali region of Ethiopia the program will integrate two proven models – poverty graduation and Market Systems Development – layering these approaches in a new way that will ensure that the poorest households are able to improve their income and well-being significantly and maintain  Mercy Corps will lead the Market Systems component of the program and will be responsible for developing market access pathways to ensure those businesses can be successful and supporting the operating environment for businesses and communities to thrive.

General Position Summary

The MEL Advisor will be supporting Delivering Resilient Enterprises and Market Systems (DREAMS) for refugees and host communities in the Somali region of Ethiopia on a full-time basis. The general duties and responsibilities of the MEL advisor are to provide oversight of project-level MEL activities within the Program, ensuring the quality of the project’s MEL activities, information management via the programs reporting system (which may be tied with Mercy Corps’ proprietary Tola systems), and geographic information systems (GIS). The MEL advisor’s role is also to oversee and ensure coordination of the various technical areas across the MEL staff of the Project, and other relevant Project staff and components. The MEL advisor is responsible for the capacity building and mentoring strategy for program staff on themes related to monitoring, evaluation, accountability, reporting and learning.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

STRATEGY & VISION

●        Set-up the MEL system, including all tools and data collection processes for program activities (Excel, Tola, Concept Note management system, Institutional Tracking Systems, 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 BENEFICIARIES

●        Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward 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.

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

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 five 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 skill in training and M&E capacity development of field staff.

●        Proven experience in designing and implementing M&E activities and indicators, as well as analyzing the data collected.

●        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)