Program Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Lead 18 views1 application

1. About the Program

The Mastercard Foundation in partnership with Hybrid Designs and its consortium partners- Icog any one can code, R& D Group and Qua Qua Capitals as well as D & T Ethiopia Management Consulting PLC are launching a five- year program entitled ‘Entrepreneurship in the Digital and Gig Economy (EDGE)’ with the aim of unlocking over 300,000 dignified and fulfilling employment opportunities for economically disadvantaged young people across Ethiopia through an innovative digitally enabled and mediated domestic outsourcing market and enabling a thriving offshore outsourcing ecosystem. This program will be scaling five outsourcing platform (digital) enabled products for both the offshore and onshore market that will empower young women and vulnerable groups. The program will also support 1,041 MSEs across Ethiopia to streamline their internal processes and organizational excellence to expand and grow their business, which will contribute to the development of a pipeline of competitive outsourcing enterprises that will serve and take advantage of the outsourcing market, both locally and globally. Through the ecosystem level collaboration with key strategic partners such as the IT park and the Ethiopian Outsourcing Association, the program anticipates contributing to the development of a strong outsourcing ecosystem, which will enable system level changes and position Ethiopia as an attractive outsourcing destination. The program will work to transform the outsourcing ecosystem to better serve the needs of financially disadvantaged young women and men. The program anticipates achieving its goals through its three interconnected program components which include i) Enhancing youth awareness in outsourcing and skill development; ii) Enterprise development and iii) Improving enabling environment through ecosystem Support. Through these interventions, the program will contribute to the achievement of the goals of the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy, Ethiopia’s country roadmap and country success story by the end of the program period and beyond.

1. Job Profile

Job Title: Program Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Lead

Duty station: Addis Ababa with travel to the regions from time to time

Type of employment: Program (2025 – 2029)

Duration: One Year with possible extension up to five years

Reports to: Program Director

Required Number: One

Application Deadline: 30-1-2025

1. Short Description of the Position

The Program Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Lead plays a key role in establishing and operationalizing a robust and effective MEAL system for EDGE program. The MEAL lead will be responsible for and providing technical leadership, strategic guidance and hands on training to MEAL and relevant program staff members to ensure timely data collection, aggregation, analysis and reporting that are needed for adaptive program management and data driven decision making. This will entail developing and/or refining MEAL tools, systems and processes. The lead also needs to play a leadership role in generating knowledge, promoting learning and improving accountability towards the program participants, donors and partners.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the process of developing a detail and robust M&E plan and measurement framework aligned with program goals, ToC/logframe and implementation plan.
• Lead and oversee data collection, storage, analysis, and reporting, ensuring that data is of high quality and audit worthy.
• Oversee the program monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning of performance and results, providing regular program reports to the different stakeholders of the program.
• Responsible for supporting the preparation and review of program reports in collaboration with program staffs.
• Manage program research activities and ensure outcomes and lessons learned are integrated into the program implementation and shared with sub implementing partners as well as relevant stakeholders.
• Review and refine existing list of indicators and develop new indicators as needed to ensure that the program is collecting data that are most relevant, actionable and meaningful to track progress as well as generate knowledge and learning.
• Identify/develop the most suitable and standardized data collections tools, methodologies and guidelines in collaboration with M&E and program team members.
• Conduct trainings/ capacity building workshop and ongoing coaching for relevant program and M&E staff members to ensure quality and consistency of monitoring.
• Operationalize digital monitoring system to ensure timely data collection, compilation and reporting on the program’s implementation progress/achievements against targets (activities, outputs, outcomes).
• Review program progress against key indicators and benchmarks regularly and give necessary feedback and support to address challenges.
• Work closely with the program fund manager MEL team in the process of regular program progress review and monitoring activities
• Lead the process of data collection, data quality assurance, analysis (quantitative and qualitative) using various statistical packages and reporting (monthly, quarterly or annual reports) as per the needs of the internal program management office and Mastercard Foundation.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and learning within the organization and with external partners.
• Produce visual diagrams (infographic, various charts and graphs, etc) to share and disseminate monitoring findings and learning with program implementing partners, stakeholders and management team members.
• Promote a culture of learning and continuous improvement.
• Ensure timely and regular sharing of monitoring reports with the program team to support adaptive management and data driven decision making.
• Work with program management team and decision makers to ensure that monitoring findings are taken into consideration for reviewing and adjusting (if necessary) program design and implementation strategies to achieve better outcomes and impact.
• Oversee the implementations of accountability systems within the project program. And provide recommendations to improve/amend existing accountability systems.
• Closely collaborate with the Program Communications lead to capture impact stories of program participants

1. Competencies

Required Academic Qualifications and Experience

• MSc/MA in Monitoring and Evaluation, Economics, International development, project Management, statistics.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in developing and operationalizing monitoring, evaluation and learning system in large scale NGOs, and/or UN organizations.
• Experience in leading and conducting data collection and analysis using both quantitative and qualitative tools, methodologies and statistical software.
• Experience in big data management (coordinating data entry, ensuring data quality, managing data protection, security and storage).
• Advanced level data analysis and report writing for both internal and external audiences/ stakeholders.
• Presentation and dissemination of findings using visual dashboards/infographics at relevant forums for decision making and improvement of program implementation.

Required Knowledge, Skills and Competencies

• Strong understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and best practices.
• Experiences/understanding of developing MEAL system in development settings.
• Understanding on the basic concept of community development, economic empowerment, youth employment, gender equity, inclusion and advocacy.
• Proficiency in and previous working experience with data management systems.
• Expertise in data collection, analysis and interpretation.
• Substantial knowledge of monitoring and evaluation processes for NGO programs.
• Knowledge of relevant MEAL industry standards and best practices.
• Competency in using MS Word, Excel and data analysis software (e.g. SPSS, STATA, NVivo, R, etc.)
• Excellent communication, facilitation and report writing skills in English.
• Strong people skills (influencing and relationship building) ability to work in inclusive and gender sensitive environment.
• Ability to work effectively in complex environment, building successful work relationships with sub implementing partners and stakeholders.