Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Manager - MOST Program/YFT Program (Applications will only be accepted if submitted online, through the URL link provided. (Kindly do not send emails to [email protected]))

Mercy Corps has been present in the Middle East since the 1980s and currently works in Yemen, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. Working in Lebanon since 1993, Mercy Corps is committed to generating positive opportunities for women, men, boys and girls from Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian communities, with a strong focus on engaging youth.

Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping build secure, productive and just communities. We do this through:

● Addressing the humanitarian and protection needs resulting from crisis situations for the most vulnerable communities

● Enabling local communities, civil society and government to better prevent and respond to conflict, address needs and deliver sustainable development solutions

● Promoting economic growth and catalysing economic opportunities for vulnerable, under-employed groups in Lebanon

Our programs focus on four sectors:  Economic Opportunities, Governance and Social Stability, Youth and Protection, and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

 The Mercy Corps Lebanon team consists of over 180 staff working across five offices throughout Mount Lebanon, South Lebanon, Tripoli and the Bekaa Valley.

Program / Department Summary:

The MEL Manager will oversee MEL activities on two Canadian funded grants:  the “Market-Based Opportunities and Skills Training for Women and Youth” program (MOST) and the “Youth for Tomorrow” program (Bussma).   

The Youth for Tomorrow program is a three year (December 2016 - December 2019), $10 million CAD program implemented in Saida, Mt. Lebanon, and Tripoli. It is part of a regional initiative by Mercy Corps, funded by the Government of Canada, in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria to build improved, evidence-based provision of psychosocial support and market-driven skills to vulnerable youth in the region. Youth for Tomorrow provides Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese adolescent boys and girls with on-going psychosocial support and market-driven skill-building opportunities while building an enabling environment for young people through community engagement and provision of enhanced adolescent and youth services. The goal of the program is to build resiliency of host communities and young refugee women and men, their families and communities through advancing education, improving livelihoods and contributing to increased social cohesion. The primary objectives of the program are that:

1.    Adolescents and youth have increased skills and opportunities to engage in constructive income-generating activities in their communities

2.    Adolescents and youth have improved psychosocial well-being

3.    Target communities, including both gatekeepers (parents/caregivers, families and local government, and business leaders) and youth themselves, have increased capacity and resources to create an enabling environment for youth

The “Market-Based Opportunities and Skills Training for Women and Youth” is a $10 million CAD integrated four-year (anticipated January 2018 - December 2022) program designed to improve livelihood opportunities for women and youth (aged 15-34) from vulnerable populations. The program will target youth between the ages of 15-24, as well as young adults between the ages of 25-34 from Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian families, with a specific focus on women and girls in the target areas.  The overall objective is that women and youth are empowered and valued for playing an active economic role within their households and communities in Mt. Lebanon, Saida and Nabatiyeh.  The primary objectives of the program are that:

1.    Women and youth are gainfully employed or selfemployed as a result of program interventions;

2.    MSMEs and Startups improve their capacity to develop their businesses and hire women and youth;

3.    Women and youth have a supportive enabling environment for their economic activities

General Position Summary:

The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager is responsible for ensuring quality of MEL on Mercy Corps’ Canadian-funded grants (MOST and Bussma). As applicable, the MEL Manager will lead the design, set-up and implementation of standard M&E processes in close collaboration with the Program Manager and MEL staff to ensure there is intentional planning for review of and reflection on data to drive evidence-based programming. This includes team management and oversight, strategic leadership in technical areas such as defining project logic, indicators, measurement methodologies and analysis. S/He will build internal capacity to constantly improve systems and data quality.

Essential Job Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership

●Provides leadership to ensure that the Program’s logical framework and monitoring plan meet Mercy Corps’ Program Management Minimum Standards and measure program output, outcomes and impact against goals and indicators;

●Supports the Program Managers and Mercy Corps MEL Advisor to design quality information collection strategies that inform a country-wide system and information management platform;

●Designs and promotes strong feedback loops within programs to enable iterative program design, planning, and management to create a comprehensive system;

Team Management

●Encourages development of culture of learning across program  team as well as key program stakeholders through systematic analysis and reflection on data;

●Provides training and mentoring in survey design, methodology, data collection, analysis, etc (Specific tools may include CommCare, ODK Collect, Ona, Tableau and Excel);

●Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance & reach objectives.

●Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.

●Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.

●Hire, orient and lead team members as necessary.

Technical Monitoring and Evaluation

Provides technical guidance and recommendations on data collection, measurement and sampling methodologies to ensure quality data is collected and applied;

●Develops data collection tools and templates, including assessment, monitoring and evaluation tools;

●Ensure clear standard processes for data management and data quality checks;

●Leads design and implementation of program evaluations and research studies;

●Works closely with Program staff to promote course corrections and organizational learning, using examples to build replicable prototypes that can be used by other programs;

Analysis & Reporting

●Reviews internal and external reports;

●Produces analytical summaries: graphs, charts, tables, narratives and appealing visuals, as requested, to fulfill internal and external reporting requirements;

 Liaises across will other Mercy Corps program teams to ensure that the databases complement and align;

Other

●Ensures all activities are gender sensitive and follow Mercy Corps’ Gender Equity Policy;
Apply Do No Harm standards to ensure activities do not have detrimental effects on vulnerable communities;

●Conducts himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission in Lebanon;

●Participates in internal office coordination and planning meetings and workshops;

● Other duties as assigned.

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.

Supervisory Responsibility : MEL Coordinator, MEL Officer(s), MEL Assistant(s)

Accountability: Reports Directly To: MEL Advisor

Works Directly With: Program Manager(s), Technical Advisors, Information Manager, Program Performance and Quality Manager, Information and Accountability Manager

Knowledge and Experience

●Bachelor’s Degree required; advanced degree desired in development studies, research methods, statistics, economics, social sciences, monitoring and evaluation, project management or other relevant field;

●At least 7 years relevant professional experience, including at least three years working in M&E;

●Experience leading MEL activities for multi-year; multi component programs.

●Good understanding of program management life cycle  and documentation and excellent verbal and written communication skills required within the economic development sector

●Strong Research background desired with an ability to design and analyze economic development research through proven methodologies

●Significant experience in training and capacity building of staff and implementing partner agencies.

● Successful experience with use of mobile data collection tools like CommCare, Open Data Kit (ODK) Collect and Ona including XLSForm authoring.

●Excellent data management skills, in particular use of Excel with ability to structure and collate data sets for ease of analysis.

●Experience developing dashboards/ visualizations to support analysis

Success Factors

The post holder will have strong organizational skills and the ability to interact effectively with international and national personnel. S/he will have excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, and a demonstrated ability to multi-task and process information into action. The successful candidate will have proven experience working with a cross-cultural team and possess strong capacity building and mentoring skills that promotes a culture of learning. They will demonstrate a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, and make effective communication a priority in all situations, and maintain a sense of humor.