Under the supervision of the Chief of Party (COP), the MEL Director is responsible for designing the project’s monitoring, evaluation, and learning agenda and creating systems to measure and document program process, output and impact data results by routinely and systematically collecting, analyzing and presenting program data for project staff, partners and donors. The MEL Director is responsible for tracking progress towards goals and fidelity to implementation design as well as recommending appropriate subjects for operations research.

Responsibilities:

• Leads collaborative learning and adaptation activities including enabling reflection on ‘what is working’ and ‘what is not?’ Develops a monitoring processes with quick feedback loops that generate iterative learning to adjust activities in real-time and track progress in achieving objectives.
• Guide team efforts to use activity-generated data, context data, and research to inform evidence-based program design and adaptive management.
• Lead efforts to strengthen a culture of learning at local levels with local stakeholders, including during trainings and other stakeholder engagements.
• Drive the Activity’s overall learning agenda to derive lessons learned and best practices from routine activities, and contribute to quarterly Activity evaluations.
• Support the interpretation and presentation of MEL findings for communication of successes.
• Leads the development of the Activity Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plan (AMELP), with inputs from technical and leadership staff. Updates AMELP throughout the life of the activity to reflect evolving needs and context shifts.
• Develops processes, procedures, and systems for data collection, analysis, and reporting on activity results and indicators.
• Ensures quality, reliability, validity, and formatting of all MEL tools and products are developed under USAID standards.
• Develops a research plan that outlines needed formative research to inform program implementation and design; identify new research needs, and ways to evaluate the pilot new approaches for activities.
• Supervises the collection of all data needed to report on all defined indicators (impact, output, outcome and program management indicators).
• Conducts regular review and adjustment of data collection processes as needed.
• Supervises implementation of data quality assessment (DQAs) as required or specified in the AMELP.
• Serves as the primary point of contact for research and data analysis needs for the project team.
• Synthesizes monitoring and evaluation findings needed for quarterly and annual reports for USAID.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree + Twelve years of relevant experience, or Master’s Degree + Ten years of relevant experience, or PhD+ Eight years of relevant experience

Abt Associates is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer committed to fostering a diverse workforce. Abt Associates provides market-competitive salaries and comprehensive employee benefits. Local candidates strongly encouraged to apply.

Disclaimer: Abt Associates will never ask candidates for money in exchange for an offer of employment.