Monitoring & Evaluation Senior Officer

Program Background

The Government of Lebanon, with support from the international community, has launched the Reaching All Children with Education (RACE) initiative. First launched in 2013, RACE seeks to improve access to formal education for 460,000 Syrian refugee children and underprivileged Lebanese children in the country. Efforts under this new phase of RACE 2 are expected to minimize the short and medium-term costs of displacement for refugee families, while strengthening the long-term capacity of the Lebanese education system to prepare children for life and work once regional stability returns. MEHE, with the support of CERD, is responsible for implementing the S2R2 program.

The Program Development Objective is to promote equitable access, enhance quality of learning, and strengthen the systems in Lebanon’s education sector in response to the protracted refugee crisis. The key results are as follows:

• Increase in the proportion of school-aged Lebanese and non-Lebanese children (3–18) enrolled in formal education;
• Increase in the proportion of students passing their grades, and transitioning to the next; and
• Improvement in MEHE’s capacity to review, evaluate, and update Program implementation.

Main Tasks and Responsibilities

Under the S2R2 Program, the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD) is looking for a Monitoring and Evaluation Expert. Below are the main tasks and responsibilities:

1. Use agreed S2R2 program results framework, and S2R2 annual work plans as the basis to develop a detailed M&E plan for the program, which could be expanded to the system.
2. Provide regular updates of this M&E plan to ensure relevance and applicability. At a minimum, this will require a full revision annually when new work plans are produced, and at the mid-year review point.
3. Ensure efficient timing and coordination in the planning and design of the different M&E tools be used throughout the Program lifetime.
4. Work closely with all implementing units within CERD and support monitoring key performance indicators for S2R2 and propose additional indicators as needed.
5. Collaborate –when requested and upon need– with the Program’s M&E within the RACE PMU at MEHE.
6. Support the preparation of M&E presentations and reports on a quarterly basis and highlight successes and roadblocks, as well as implementation progress and challenges toward achievement of results. The reports, presentations and implementation progress and challenges will be led by CERD while ongoing discussions are taking place within CERD and with concerned external entities –when applicable- prior to their presentation to CERD’s S2R2 steering committee. However, for the first 12-18 months, the Consultant will take the lead on this task.
7. Support CERD in ensuring accuracy, timeliness and credibility of the reported data on progress and indicators.
8. Support the establishment of clear processes and tools for M&E, and ensure their implementation, alongside CERD’s Quality Assurance Unit and all concerned entities
9. Support the development of reports on the S2R2 results framework indicators and the disbursement linked indicators (DLIs). The reports will also include progress of activities, outputs, results, and impact as per the annual work program (AWP) gathered from implementing entities. However, for the first 12-18 months, the Consultant will take the lead on this task.
10. In coordination with the financial management teams, the M&E Senior Officer will ensure the inclusion in the reports of information related to budget execution in relation to the annual work plan.
11. The M&E Senior Officer will support the preparation and administration of surveys and other instruments as needed in order to report on the indicators of the results framework.
12. Work closely with the concerned personnel to ensure clarity on the reporting requirements of the progress reports to be issued twice per year, and on the reporting on the DLIs/DLRs.
13. Support CERD in coordinating with relevant departments on M&E issues to ensure due diligence and efficiency.
14. Evaluate on quarterly basis and upon the request of CERD’s Senior Program Advisor, the Program activities outcomes and their impact on the general Program performance, and provide Program evaluation documentation, for coordination meetings.
15. Develop the TORs of the M&E Junior Officers and plan and line manage the work of the M&E junior officers who will be responsible for supporting the implementation of the M&E plan and the related data collection and verification.
16. Advise concerned departments in their M&E planning; provide them with timely notification of probable failures and deviations in timelines; Propose to CERD’s Senior Program Advisor, in coordination with the concerned entities, remedial plans for potentials delays in execution
17. Establish the Data Quality Assurance Protocols agreements with the concerned entities to facilitate timely data collection and validation of reporting on the DLIs/DLRs. Work with CERD President’s office and CERD’s Educational Research Bureau (ERB) to ensure the availability of relevant data in CERD’s information management system.
18. Support the establishment of a coordination mechanism to be used for managing the information available from the different data sources to facilitate the reporting on the results framework including disaggregation by gender.
19. Propose and establish a protocol for filing and storing data and reports in hard copy and electronically.
20. Draft a M&E formal protocol for the above process, for agreement by CERD’s S2R2 Steering Committee and communication to all concerned parties. The protocol will: (i) assign responsibility for data collection and reporting; (ii) specify the methodology and timelines to be used; (iii) establish the right of the S2R2 M&E team and the IVA to access the primary data-when needed.
21. Support CERD in making available all relevant documents for internal purposes as well as for the IVA, including but not limited to the final versions of the bi-annual reports.
22. Build the capacity of CERD’s staff, namely the Quality Assurance Unit and support in institutionalizing the best practices in this Unit and in establishing the proper dashboards allowing the monitoring of progress and evaluation of performance, deliverables and impact.
23. Ensure final reports are finalized and disseminated to the targeted entities – as coordinated with CERD’s S2R2 steering committee.
24. Any other task relevant to the position and approved by the CERD’s S2R2 Steering Committee.