Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

About Chemonics

Chemonics International is an international development company based in Washington, D.C. Our mission is to promote meaningful change around the world to help people live healthier, more productive, and more independent lives. Since 1975, we have worked in 150 countries around the world, and we are currently implementing 118 projects in 84 countries. Our main partner is the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and we also work with foreign donors such as the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Global Fund. We have more than 4,000 staff in our project offices around the world, and more than 500 staff based in our headquarters in Washington, D.C.

1.  Project Background

USAID’s Community Support Program (CSP) in Lebanon is an $80 million program designed to provide a broad range of support to underserved and vulnerable communities. CSP seeks to improve the delivery of essential services and enhance economic opportunities in order to improve lives and reduce tensions that contribute to conflict and violence, primarily in Lebanon’s North, South, and Beqaa Valley regions. CSP uses a fast, flexible, and participatory approach to address needs in Lebanon’s most underserved and vulnerable communities in response to evolving political, security, economic, and environmental conditions. To achieve its objectives, CSP is partnering with municipalities, regional water establishments (RWEs), civil society organizations (CSOs), educational and training institutions, and the private sector to implement activities organized around four components: community support projects, technical assistance and capacity building, workforce development, and wastewater management.

2.  Summary of Position

The Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) is a member of CSP’s senior management team, responsible for leading and directing the program’s rigorous monitoring and evaluation (M&E) requirements to measure progress toward intermediary results, key result areas, and the overall program objective. The MEL Director will develop, update, and maintain CSP’s MEL plan at the overall program level, as well as for each component (known as task orders). In addition to traditional M&E, the MEL director will also ensure that lessons learned are integrated into the design and implementation of new interventions for continual improvement to maximize and amplify program impact. Reporting directly to the Chief of Party (COP), the MEL Director will oversee a team of MEL managers, officers, and specialists assigned to each CSP task order to ensure objective and independent monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of all CSP activities and interventions.

3.  Specific Duties and Responsibilities

• Leads the design and implementation of program-level MEL plan, including the approach for collecting, evaluating, and validating data to measure overall progress toward program results and objectives. The MEL plan will be developed in coordination with USAID, its support services contractor Social Impact, task order directors, and component technical advisors to ensure that it meets the needs of CSP for analysis, reporting, and learning.
• Refines performance indicators and establishes baselines and targets for output, outcome, and impact level monitoring, as well as benchmarks for performance over the life of CSP.
• Liaises with components’ technical advisors to design data collection tools for baseline assessments. 
• Leads information management and directs the process of identifying, analyzing, and synthesizing lessons learned.
• Works closely with the Chief of Party, Task Order Directors, and component technical advisors to develop mechanisms for collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) in activity implementation to actively incorporate lessons and modify approaches in implementation as needed.
• Uses the DevResults-enabled CSP platform and other information management tools to report on progress against performance indicators.

• Creates, organizes, and submits (to the Chief of Party and Task Order Directors) contractually required M&E reports.
• Stays current with USAID’s evaluation policy, continually adapting to meet changing reporting requirements.
• Organizes information sharing on results, findings, approaches, best practices, and lessons learned with CSP staff.

• Supervises and manages the performance of the MEL Managers under each task order.
• Builds capacity of staff in data collection and data quality assurance methods.
• Performs any other tasks assigned by the Chief of Party consistent with the overall nature of the position. 

4.  Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree (Master’s preferred) in a related field from an accredited university
• Minimum of 10 years’ experience in monitoring and evaluation of donor-funded programs in Lebanon and/or the wider region
• Demonstrated experience collaborating with technical teams to extract lessons learned from ongoing and completed activities and make adaptations for improved performance and impact
• Previous experience managing teams required
• Experience with USAID-funded programs strongly preferred
• Familiarity with Lebanon’s municipalities, local communities, and community-based organizations strongly preferred
• Exposure to one or more of CSP’s technical focus areas preferred: local economic development/livelihoods, community stabilization, service delivery, capacity building, workforce development, or wastewater management
• Ability to work independently, as well as within a large, fast-paced team with proved interpersonal skills
• Excellent written and spoken English and Arabic required

5.  Place of Assignment

The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Director will be based in the project’s main office in Beirut and will be expected to travel as needed to CSP’s target regions.

6.  Reporting

The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Director will report directly to the Chief of Party, or equivalent.

Chemonics is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants who can legally work in Lebanon will be considered for employment based on their qualifications without discrimination.