Job Information
Save The Children Senior MERL Advisor, USAID/Côte d'Ivoire Strengthening Primary and Community Health Care Activity in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Description
Summary
Save the Children is seeking a Senior Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) for the anticipated five-year USAID/Côte d’Ivoire Strengthening Primary and Community Health Care Activity. This activity will strengthen primary and community health in collaboration with the Government of Côte d’Ivoire.
The Senior MERL Advisor will develop, implement, and continuously improve MERL systems for all project activities. They will incorporate best practices to ensure information collected is accurate, timely, and of high quality. The Senior MERL Advisor, in collaboration with the project team and Save the Children MERL staff, will use these findings to continuously improve the program during implementation in order to inform decision making and achieve activity objectives. These findings will also be disseminated appropriately in high-quality reports. They will also be actively involved in promoting learning through documentation of lessons learned and developing approaches for community analysis. The position will be based in Abidjan for the five-year period of performance.
This position is contingent upon donor approval and funding.
What You'll Be Doing (Essential Duties)
Provide leadership, training, and mentoring to develop and implement MERL activities to assess and improve program impact and develop systems for capturing and documenting data and relevant information on project activities, beneficiaries, outputs, outcomes, and impact.
Support MOH staff in project districts to strengthen the government health management information system (HMIS) including improving completeness, timeliness, quality and use of data for decision making, and any rollout of government endorsed digital applications.
Provide technical oversight and coordination of all project research activities, including designing research protocols, data collection and analysis tools, and study reports and effectively roll out MEAL collection and reporting systems to all staff and partners through training, site visits, manuals, and other technical support as needed.
Ensure programming alignment to targets and indicators contained in project proposal and use Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) methodologies and data for decision making to improve program effectiveness.
Support all project reviews and evaluation activities, including coordinating mid-term and final evaluations, and supporting donor and external reviews.
Provide on-going support to maintain MEL systems; identify skill gaps and build capacity among project team members, partners and stakeholders.
Integrate digital health technology applications into the program.
Prepare high quality, accurate and timely reports for Save the Children, project partners, and the donor as required.
Ensure compliance with USAID and Save the Children guidelines for MERL deliverables (accountability, quality benchmark, IPTT in PRIME, etc.).
Required Qualifications
Master’s degree in a social science statistics, mathematics, or related field is required.
Experience working on both qualitative and quantitative research projects, including experience with tool creation, institutional review board (IRB) approvals, and data collection and analysis.
Experience managing databases and conducting quantitative data analysis.
Minimum of seven years of experience leading MERL on USAID and other donor-funded projects related to global health, especially maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health; family planning; and malaria.
Demonstrated experience managing, coaching, and strengthening the capacity of a team of MERL staff for USAID and other donor-funded projects
Strong analytical skills and an understanding of monitoring, evaluation and assessment tools to promote evidence-based learning.
Ability to analyze complex data and summarize it for a range of audiences.
Sound strategic thinking and planning skills, including ability to think creatively, innovate, and set manageable work plans and priorities and evaluate progress.
Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and French.
Familiarity with national HMIS system and DHIS2 platform.
Knowledge of the political, social, and cultural context of Côte d’Ivoire.
About Save the Children
Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.
Our work for children and their families requires that we commit—at every opportunity—to work together to identify and dismantle persistent systemic and structural racism, inequality, and any other forms of discrimination in this country and beyond. As an anti-racist organization, Save the Children will not tolerate discrimination in any form—in our employment practices, amongst our staff, in our leadership or toward the people we serve. We stand in solidarity with all people to fight for equal rights, justice, inclusion, and belonging.
Save the Children is committed to conducting its programs and operations in a manner that is safe for the children it serves and helping protect the children with whom we are in contact. All Save the Children representatives are explicitly prohibited from engaging in any activity that may result in any kind of child abuse.
Save the Children is committed to minimizing safety and security risks for our valued employees, ensuring all are given training, support and information to reduce their risk exposure while maximizing the impact of our programs for children and families. Our shared duty, both agency and individual, is to seek and maintain safe working conditions for all.
Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)