MERL Technical Specialist (kindly do not send to lb-recruitment@mercycorps.org)

PROGRAM/DEPARTMENT SUMMARY:

Working in Lebanon since 1993, Mercy Corps is committed to generating positive opportunities for women, men, boys and girls from Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian communities, with a strong focus on engaging youth.

Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping build secure, productive and just communities. We do this through:

• Addressing the humanitarian and protection needs resulting from crisis situations for the most vulnerable communities
• Enabling local communities, civil society and government to better prevent and respond to conflict, address needs and deliver sustainable development solutions
• Promoting economic growth and catalysing economic opportunities for vulnerable, under-employed groups in Lebanon

The Mercy Corps Lebanon team consists of over 180 staff working across six offices throughout Mount Lebanon, South Lebanon, Tripoli and the Bekaa Valley.

The Performance and Quality (PaQ) unit collaborates with program teams, supporting departments and partners to use evidence to design and deliver relevant and impactful programs that improve the lives of beneficiaries. The PaQ unit supports team development and assists teams to stay accountable to the principles of good program management, as well as to our end beneficiaries and other stakeholders.  The PaQ unit consists of the Director of Programs, the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) Advisor, the MERL technical specialist, the reporting coordinator, and the communications coordinator.    

[Describe overview of job missioGENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:

To provide day-to-day support to the Lebanon team with primary focus on building team capacity to implement standard MEL and information management (IM) processes across the country programs portfolio. The position holder will be a dynamic individual that works closely with MEL and program staff to ensure the development and maintenance of high quality MEL processes, from data collection, management and analysis. The MERL technical specialist will also encourage a culture of inquiry and learning across teams by supporting critical thinking, facilitating regular data reviews and participating in team learning events. The role has responsibility to support efforts that ensure quality of program data, from coaching team members on good practices to performing regular visits to observe program and MEL activities, as well as leading spot checks on evidence documentation. The position will also manage the community accountability and response mechanism.  In addition, the MERL technical specialist will support the development of research planning and implementation as this area grows within Mercy Corps Lebanon.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

CAPACITY BUILDING AND MENTORSHIP

• Develops program staff and partner capacity building strategy that promotes a culture of learning through systematic analysis and reflection
• Provides one-on-one mentoring as well as broader trainings in areas such as survey design, methodology, data collection, data management and analysis and other skills as required for assessing the impact of programs
• Supports activation and sharing of resources within the Lebanon MEL Community of Practice
• Contributes to the knowledge management repository with best practices in MEL and ICT and ensures accessibility to all staff and partners

MONITORING, EVALUATION AND LEARNING

• Provides guidance and recommendations on data collection, measurement and sampling methodologies to ensure quality data is collected and applied
• Supports teams to develop a tool matrix, and to map data flow in order to inform the development of a functional information management system
• Develops data collection tools and templates, including assessments, baselines, monitoring forms, and final evaluations
• Leads design and implementation of program evaluations
• Facilitates and/ or supports programmatic data reviews and data quality checks
• Performs regular spot check visits to program and MERL activities to assess quality and support team in identifying where improvements are possible
• Promotes iterative analysis and organizational learning, using examples to build replicable prototypes that can be used by other programs
• Manages maintenance of pool of enumerators that can be engaged as needed across programs

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

• Lead on routine checks of program evidence and documentation
• Work with the Reporting Coordinator and MERL Advisor to coordinate data quality spot checks for indicator evidence
• Work with the Reporting Coordinator to ensure all programs are updating TOLA and linking evidence to their indicators (on a quarterly basis at a minimum)
• Work with the Reporting Coordinator, MERL Advisor and MEL COP to assess what additional functionalities to adopt as TOLA is updated globally
• Coordinate with Reporting Coordinator to ensure all programs are reporting against ActivityInfo indicators: ensure each program has identified the ActivityInfo indicators they will report on during program initiation, send out reminder emails, and check whether we have uploaded for all relevant sectors on a monthly basis
• Alongside the reporting coordinator, support program MEL staff on data visualisation with Tableau (including basic mapping)
• Alongside the reporting coordinator, provide technical support to MEL staff using CommCare and/or Ona

COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSE MECHANISM

• Management and ongoing improvements of the 3assama3 community accountability and response mechanism
• Work closely with program staff and the communication coordinator to develop rollout plans for their program and ensure that the 3assama3 leaflets and brochures are visible across their program areas, and where relevant, provide orientations on 3assama3 to partner organizations
• Maintain the 3assama3 complaints and referrals database, and use latest updates in technology to make it efficient in tracking cases.
• Ensure referrals are happening between programs at MC and towards other agencies as required

RESEARCH

• Work closely with Program Managers and Finance to ensure that MEL skills are incorporated and budgeted into all new programs
• Contributes to the knowledge management repository with best practices in MEL and ICT and ensure that it is accessible to all staff and partners

Other

• Ensure all activities are gender sensitive and follow Mercy Corps’ Gender Equity Policy
• Apply Do No Harm standards to ensure activities do not have detrimental effects on vulnerable communities
• Participate in internal office coordination and planning meetings and workshops
• Support the Program Performance and Quality Unit with other tasks as assigned

Organizational Learning 

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically
  to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY: None

REPORTS DIRECTLY TO: Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning Advisor

WORKS DIRECTLY WITH: MEL Managers, Coordinators and Officers, Program Managers, Reporting Coordinator

Knowledge and Experience

• Degree in development studies, research methods, statistics, economics, social sciences, monitoring and evaluation, project management or other relevant field required
• Five years relevant professional experience, including at least three years working in M&E
• Knowledge of major aspects of program management life cycle
• Successful experience with the adoption of mobile data collections tools, CommCare and Ona preferred
• Experience with creation of data management systems, from collection to analysis
• Significant experience in training and capacity building of staff and implementing partner agencies
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills required

Success Factors

The post holder will have strong organizational skills and the ability to interact effectively with international and national personnel. S/he will have excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, and a demonstrated ability to multi-task and process information into action. The successful candidate will have proven experience working with a cross-cultural team and possess strong capacity building and mentoring skills that promotes a culture of learning. They will demonstrate a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, and make effective communication a priority in all situations.