Position Description
Location Monrovia Liberia (with Occasional Travel)
Position Status Full-time and Regular
Salary Level 4
Safeguarding Risk Level 3
Current Team Member N/A

About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future.

Program / Department Summary
The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Coordinator sits within the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team, which forms a critical component of the broader agency Strategy, and Learning Initiative that seeks to drive greater evidence-based decision-making for greater program impact and accountability. The MEL team works directly with agency leadership – in the country and at headquarters – to strengthen MEL, Reporting, and Community Accountability and Reporting Mechanisms (CARM), by positioning it as a strategic functional area that is a critical mechanism for learning and is a part of good business practice for the agency. The team represents Mercy Corps externally to ensure our experience helps shape the relief and development field and to ensure that Mercy Corps keeps abreast of developments in donor and peer agency approaches.

General Position Summary
The Monitoring and Learning Coordinator is responsible for documenting and communicating results and learning about Mercy Corps’ programs to a range of stakeholders including donors, government agencies, internal staff and participants. The M&E Coordinator works closely with our partners, to raise awareness about our work and engage audiences with stories and information of interest.
This position sits within an expanding department and has room for growth into areas including grants management, new business development and portfolio expansion.

Essential Job Responsibilities
M&E SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
●Support all country programmes’ independent M&E efforts to ensure high-quality M&E at the program level as well as build a nationwide system that captures and presents results at a national level.
●Design and maintain M&E system with utility and program quality in mind, providing managers and their teams real-time information that can steer program implementation as well as inform donors and strategic program direction and that helps strategize future program interventions.
●Work with senior management to address shortfalls in M&E that affect program implementation and conduct internal DQAs.
Lead efforts to establish an M&E unit that will facilitate M&E for all programs and collaborate closely with Program Managers in developing and establishing the M&E system, one that serves the needs of the overall of the country portfolio and its field offices including tracking key indicators in the country strategy.

PROGRAMS MONITORING, EVALUATION AND LEARNING SUPPORT
●Lead and support the development and adoption of a program-level database and Mobile Data Collection (MDC) systems for regular monitoring across programs. This will include supporting the adoption and rollout of Tola (Mercy Corps’ central platform for program and data management); Supporting the programs to ensure they use digital data collection tools. This will include adoption of CommCare as the beneficiary tracking platform for programs that utilize the approach.
●Provide technical oversight to program teams in the program-level MEL duties including overseeing the design of tools, and ensuring that data collection tools are of consistent quality across programs.
●Support field teams to integrate digital data collection, and to effectively use databases and data visualization software to generate informative information on program performance.
●Contribute to program-level M&E planning and system development at program start-up.
●Facilitate indicator planning and development of M&E systems and work with the program team to define program indicators and targets, based on internal and donor guidance of standard required and applicable indicators both at the design stage and startup phases of the programs.
●Support the development of periodic performance reports and guide the regular sharing of the outputs and outcomes of MEL findings with project staff, implementing partners, and stakeholders to inform future programmatic decisions.
●Support programs in the design of detailed MEL plans, including the design of data collection tools and methodologies, MEL workflow, data flow, data integrity, data quality assurance, database design and protocols, secondary research to inform baseline assessments and measurement frameworks, and ensuring alignment with Mercy Corps and Industry standards.
●Champion the inclusion of qualitative data collection and analysis for both direct and supplemental measurements of project performance. Train teams in appropriate methods for focus group discussion and key informant interviews and lead field-based qualitative data collection as needed.

CAPACITY BUILDING AND M&E ASSESSMENTS
●In coordination with MEL teams, drive the capacity building of program staff on design and M&E concepts through training and new hire orientation, including designing and delivering formal pieces of training. In consultation with the MEL Manager, design comprehensive orientation for all new staff.
●Support the training of other program staff on all aspects of MEL necessary for ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the program MEL system.
●Provide training, mentorship and trouble-shooting to program MEL staff and program staff on data collection, data use, data storage and data management.
●Participate in interviewing and orientation of new MEL staff to promote internal data management tools, standards and best practices.
●Ensure implementation of Mercy Corps’ internal guidelines on Program Management and MEL as provided by the Program Performance and Quality (PAQ) team.
●Start up a MEL Community of Practice for Liberia MEL staff and endeavor to ensure that there are annual MEL review meetings for team members Assist in designing programs that incorporate Mercy Corps’ standards on design, monitoring, and evaluation.
●Coordinate and play a role in assessments as requested. Provide input as to M&E systems and through the MEL Unit, act as a link to HQ M&E technical staff.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT & LEARNING

●Support program teams to ensure strong MEL performance across all programs, including tailored support to programs for quality assurance, accountability, documentation and learning.
●Contribute to the development and implementation of strong knowledge management practices to encourage the use of evidence for learning, strategic adaptive management, and high-impact programming.
●Connect best practices and learning within the programs and liaise with Country, other HQ and Regional MEL advisors in this initiative.
●Collaborate with program-specific MEL focal points to ensure that lessons learned are captured during program implementation, and feed this information into thought leadership and research opportunities and into ongoing program management and program design.

OTHERS
●Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission.
●Other duties 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 Program Participants
●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.
●Team members are expected to conduct themselves professionally and respect local laws, customs, and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.
●Share your feedback with us for free: Call our hotline at 4040 (Orange only) 2525 (LoneStar Cell MTN only) or email us at lr-carm@mercycorps.org

Supervisory Responsibility:
MEL Officers
Accountability
Reports Directly To: PROSPECTS IV PROGRAM LEAD
Works Directly With: Director of Programs, All MEL Officers, and All Program Staff
Knowledge and Experience
●Minimum of 5 years of experience in international relief and development programs, with 3+ years in field postings, and 3+ years working for an international agency on monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
●Bachelor’s degree in social science, international development, or relevant field (with coursework in M&E, research and evaluation methodologies, statistical analysis or organizational development) or similar field of study.
●Strong technical expertise including passion for handling large amounts of data and transforming it into compelling visualizations that facilitate analysis and decision-making. Demonstrated understanding of intermediate statistics and the ability to summarize, generalize, and make predictions from large data sets.
●Substantial background in project management, including experience leading program design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. Field experience in developing practical, useful, timely monitoring systems, both at the program- and country levels that promote the use of data for adaptive management and learning.
●Experience with a range of both private and institutional donors such as EC, USAID, and DFID and familiarity with their measurement, reporting, and evaluation requirements.
●Comfort working with qualitative and quantitative methodologies for data collection and analysis.
●Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills and experience with statistical/graphical software or spatial software.
●Proven experience with current technologies, such as web-based data management and analysis tools, digital data collection, mapping, Google applications, data visualization, interactive dashboards, etc.
●Experience in building iterative learning systems or feedback loops and approaches in human-centered design are strongly valued.
●Significant experience in facilitating learning and capacity building across teams.
●Strong group process design and facilitation skills, including developing and leading workshops.
●Demonstrated ability to manage and communicate effectively with team members of varied work styles;
●Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem-solving.
●Excellent oral and written communication skills in English are required.

Success Factors
This role requires a dynamic individual, able to work with program staff and leadership to build capacity and consensus around data collection, management, use, and research. S/he can travel on short notice and adapt quickly to new environments and is eager to learn and share new and innovative techniques, tools and technologies to meet changing needs and requirements.
The Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Coordinator should be able to problem-solve, identify issues and solutions quickly in many different environments and contexts, and can communicate effectively and persuasively while building strong working relationships. S/he should be highly analytical with a willingness to acquire expertise in different communication, learning and development approaches is a good fit.
Strict adherence to Mercy Corps security policies and procedures is mandatory, as is respect for local cultural norms and traditions and the ability to live in various cultural environments. The capacity to spark innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to programming and to inspire groups to collaborate closely to implement high-quality programs is preferable, as is a desire and ability to learn and grow, both personally and professionally. The ability to apply a strong combination of team spirit, program development, and implementation skills in a fast-changing environment and the willingness to engage in regular travel to program sites in the field, including insecure environments is crucial.

Equal Employment Opportunity
Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have a sustained global impact. We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination based on race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.
Safeguarding & Ethics Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants, or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary-General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. By applying for this role an applicant confirms that they have not previously violated an employer’s sexual misconduct, sexual exploitation and abuse, child safeguarding, or trafficking policy. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves professionally, respect local laws and customs, and adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.
As an applicant, if you witness or experience any form of sexual misconduct during the recruitment process, please report this to Mercy Corps Integrity Hotline integrityhotline@mercycorps.org