TITLE: Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Specialist, Community Partnerships for Respectful Care (CPRC) Project

DEPARTMENT: International Partnerships & Programs

REPORTS TO: Tanzania Project Director, Community Partnerships for Respectful Care (CPRC) Project

ASSIGNMENT TYPE:  Full-time

LOCATION:  Mwanza, Tanzania

LENGTH: 24-months with the possibility to extend based on performance and budget

ABOUT AMERICARES: 

Americares is a health-focused relief and development organization that saves lives and improves health for people affected by poverty or disaster. Each year, Americares reaches more than 90 countries, including the United States, with life-changing health programs, medicine, and medical supplies. Americares is the world’s leading nonprofit provider of donated medicine and medical supplies. For more information, visit americares.org.

About Community Partnerships for Respectful Care (CPRC) Project:
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under the New Partnerships Initiative (NPI) has awarded CPRC to the Americares Foundation Inc.. NPI is shifting the focus of USAID’s traditional partners to mentoring, capacity-building, and technical oversight, by using umbrella mechanisms and sub-awards strategically to enable new and underutilized local partners to lead development in their own communities and advance the Journey to Self-Reliance. USAID seeks to expand its network of partnerships with local organizations because they can mobilize quickly and take advantage of long-standing grassroots relationships to bring needed interventions directly to people at risk.
The Americares Community Partnerships for Respectful Care (CPRC) project is a five-year, $25 million effort under NPI to reduce mortality and morbidity among mothers and their children through improved community-based health care. Americares will work with Christian Connections for International Health (CCIH) and its local affiliates in the United Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of Liberia to leverage local and locally established organizations’ expertise and reach by building their institutional capacity. This new partnership will work closely with Tanzanian and Liberian communities and faith-based networks to improve access to, and demand for, high-quality, community-based health care for mothers, newborns, and children; voluntary family planning; nutrition; and respectful maternity care.

POSITION SUMMARY:
The Tanzania MEL Specialist will oversee all aspects of the CPRC monitoring, evaluation, and learning in Tanzania. Under the supervision of the Tanzania Project Director, the MEL Specialist will coordinate with HQ-based M&E and Project Teams, the Tanzania CPRC project three Technical Leads for Community Engagement & SBCC, MNH, and FP. In addition, the Specialist will work closely with and build capacities to partner M&E teams and activities, particularly during data collection and analysis. The Tanzania CPRC MEL Specialist will ensure the application of best practices for data collection, analysis, reporting, learning within the project team and with a larger audience, including donors and MOH stakeholders. The position will require an emphasis on working closely with the HQ M&E Director or his designee and on creating externally relevant results and progress reports.

Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. 

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Monitoring Activities:
-Lead the MEL unit in supporting the CPRC project in tracking and measuring achievement and progress toward activity goals and results
-Ensuring that CSOs, and other partners collect quality data that meets the USAID data requirements, including the different levels of disaggregation (sex, age, and geographic disaggregation)
-Lead capacity building of technical, CSO staff and partners on MEL
-Lead monitoring of program quality using quality benchmarks and ensure that findings from Key Program Indicators (KPIs) are shared with relevant stakeholders and explicitly fed back into program decision making
-Ensure data management information systems are in place and accessible to everyone at anytime
-Lead data entry and data analysis with partners
-Lead in data quality assessment for CPRC partners and CSOs by regularly verifying and validating data reported monthly, quarterly, and annually to ensure completeness, accuracy, and validity
-Contribute toward continuous review of approaches used to implement activities and advise CPRC Technical Leads for Community Engagement & SBCC, MNH, and FP, and Project Director
-Providing technical assistance in the development, selection, and application of MEL processes and tools.

Evaluation Activities:
-Lead CPRC Tanzania during baseline and end line activities, with the support of the Project Director
-Lead in-country assessments and annual project evaluation to track achievements and changes toward reaching the CPRC project overall goal in Tanzania
-Under the guidance of the COP, Technical Director, Tanzania Project Director, and HQ M&E Director perform additional or complementary analysis of data collected, including baseline and end-line data collected
-Lead the development of terms of reference and methodology design for in-country program monitoring level reviews and evaluations to ensure that processes will generate relevant learning on respectful care
-Support internal and external Activity evaluations as necessary.

Learning:
-Maintained detailed knowledge and lessons learned, best practices, and issues
-Continuously support the program team and the sub-grantee in improving approaches, and processes
-Inform and work with the Country Director in reviewing and, where appropriate developing and testing complementary tools to ensure high-quality implementation, risk management, stakeholder analysis, root cause analysis, project status report, quality management, minimum program standard, and implementation checklist
-Contribute to developing presentations, abstracts, articles and publications through data analysis, tabulation, visualization, and supporting data interpretation

Reports and Updates:
-Contribute to the development and implementation of learning efforts and documentation and sharing of findings and best practices
-Submit monthly reports and weekly updates to the Tanzania CPRC Project Director that monitor implementation and achievements
-Support the Project Director to prepare quarterly and annual reports for submission to USAID

Coordination:
-Maintain contact with partners and stakeholders to ensure timely and regular flow of information and data
-Develop and roll-out capacity building and refresher training efforts to ensure full participation of sub-grantee and MOH stakeholder in all MEL efforts, with highly effective and application process
-Develop on an annual-basis MEL work plan adapted from the project global M&E plan
-Take full responsibility for the in-country MEL dashboard that present an overview of accomplishment, MEL needs, budget, and planning review
-Lead the Tanzania MEL component during the regular project review

CORE AMERICARES RESPONSIBILITIES:
-Foster Americares values of responsiveness, results orientation, collaboration, efficiency, and integrity
-Coach, support, and develop staff to increase individual and team effectiveness
-Develop and manage the implementation of plans to increase team operating performance, including SOPs and other efficiency initiatives

MINIMUM Qualifications:
-Master’s degree in Health Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Health, Social Science, Epidemiology, Statistics, or related disciplines is required
-Experience of working in RMNCAH, Family Planning, Nutrition, and community development projects is highly desirable, especially the ones involving capacity building for Sub-granted Local NGOs/CSOs in Tanzania context
-Minimum of 5 years of work experience in monitoring and evaluating international health sector development projects, with a strong preference for candidates’ previous experience working with the public health sector in building and strengthening data collection and reporting systems
-Demonstrated experience of working with USAID large-scale programs, including knowledge of USAID’s reporting requirements
-Familiar with Tanzania health management information systems, including data quality assessments and manipulation of DHIS2, experience in presenting RMNCAH, FP, and Nutrition, data to MOH, PO-RALG, and other IPs is a credit
-Experience in setting up M&E systems, design, and implementation
-Strong technical and analytical skills, including ability to analyze qualitative and quantitative data using one or more statistical software packages, such as SPSS, Stata, SAS, Nvivo, Atlas.ti
-Good knowledge in conducting qualitative and quantitative research studies and excellent in analytical and report writings skills
-Proven experience and knowledge in the documentation of program outcomes and impact
-Experience working with and being accountable to multiple stakeholders and multilayers settings, a huge plus
-Excellent interpersonal skills and strong communications skills; ability to develop partnerships across sectors and cultures
-Ability to coach, mentor, and build MEL technical capacity to fellow staff
-Strong organizational skills, capacity to think strategically, and attention to detail
-Excellent English-language writing skills and demonstrated experience meeting USAID and other donors reporting requirements
-Proficiency in Office 365 including Word, Excel, Teams, PowerPoint, and SharePoint
-Willingness and ability to travel as needed
-Unrestricted authorization to work in Tanzania