Senior Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisor

Program Summary

Pakistan Reading Project (PRP), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), supports seven provincial and regional departments of education to improve reading skills for at least 1.3 million grades one and two children. Lead by International Rescue Committee (IRC), with Partners (Institute of Rural Management, Creative Associates International, World Learning), using a collaborative approach with three components for implementation, including: improving classroom learning environment, improving policies and systems, and providing community based support, over five years.

Job Review and Summary

The Senior Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Advisor provides leadership and guidance related to Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning for the Pakistan Reading Project. S/he ensures the effective development, implementation, management of the MEL Plan and framework.

The Senior MEL Advisor reports to the Chief of Party and will have overall responsibility for providing quantitative and qualitative monitoring across PRP programming highlighting and analyzing key outputs, outcomes, and impact of PRP activities. Specific responsibilities include:

Major Responsibilities

·         Serve as the main point of contact with implementers, beneficiaries, and stakeholders in matters concerning MEL

·         Lead PRP Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning activities including: planning and implementation, data collection, preparing data for monthly, quarterly and annual reports and assessing progress towards project objectives

·         Lead the effort in institutional learning by building on and developing systematic monitoring and evaluation practices to ensure quality of management and operations of PRP programs

·         Manage and refine cutting edge quantitative data collection systems that facilitate project reporting

·         Strengthen and manage internal systems for effective and efficient program and project monitoring and reporting, both internal and for the donor and Partners

·         Support regional MEL Teams to develop and refine designs for tracking progress, compiling and storing data,  developing reports with appropriate formats, graphs, and tables against indicators

·         Lead revisions and development of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Performance Plan (MELP/Performance Management Plan (PMP) according to modifications from USAID

·         Monitor technical trends and issues and recommend project responses as needed

·         Share project MEL learning with the project team and its stakeholders

·         Support Communications  and Outreach Department with ideas and materials to promote PRP assessments and M & E functions

·         Travel to field assignments to ensure compliance for cohort close-out, for Passive start-up, for cohort start-up, M & E system development, Supplementary Materials Field-test, supervising evaluation and operations research, assessments, data analysis and other activities as planned

·         Participate actively in USAID  Implementing Partners M & E Working Group and professional associations to expand PRPs knowledge

·         Other duties as assigned

 Job Requirements

 Education

·         A Master’s degree in international development, program evaluation, or related area

Experience

·         10-12 years’ of post Master’s relevant experience at the national or international level managing the implementation of monitoring and evaluation, assessing and learning activities. Experience should reflect a competency in a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods. Experience in a variety of elements for evaluation including Process Evaluation and Impact Evaluation

·         Experience of managing and delivering training and capacity building of staff with differing skills and abilities

·         Experience in the usage of computers and data analysis packages (for example:  SPSS), experience in handling of web-based management systems

Key Skills & Competencies

·         Strong written and oral presentation skills in English and Urdu, strong organizational and interpersonal skills. Experience in After Action Reviews (AAR)

·         Strong understanding and use of statistics for M & E procedures and instruments

·         Demonstrated knowledge of USAID reporting standards and M & E tools such as Performance Management Plans, Results Framework, and Data Quality Assessment.

·         A team player that will support and strengthen team performance and reporting