Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Manager at Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH)

Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH) is a leading Non-Governmental and Not-for-Profit Organization established in 1989 by two eminent and reputable Nigerians who are the most prominent advocates of Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) and Family Planning (FP) programming in Nigeria. ARFH, a Nigerian fully indigenous, Non- Governmental, and Not-for-Profit organization had implemented projects across the 36+1 states of Nigeria on cross cutting programs including Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health plus Nutrition Investment Case (RMNCAH+N), Family Planning (FP), Global fund grants on HIV, TB and Malaria as Prime & Sub recipient, USAID grants on Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) among others.

ARFH since inception consistently contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of rural poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged populations. ARFH has been at the fore-front of Health & community system strengthening, Human resource for health development in Nigeria, supporting the Government of Nigeria to advocate and domesticate health policies into implementation e.g. its task-shifting and task sharing policy through capacity building for all cadres of health care providers including Physicians, Nurse midwives, and CHEWs.

ARFH has its headquarter in Ibadan and operational offices in Abuja, Lagos, and collaborate with State Ministry of Health across the 36 states plus FCT. Our mission is to initiate, promote and implement in partnership with other organizations, developmental, HIV & AIDS, TB, SRH, and family planning program and interventions for young people and adults through capacity building, technical assistance, operations research, and evaluation to improve the quality of life in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Manager

Location: Abuja (FCT)
Employment Type: Full-time

Job Description

• The MEL Manager will form an integral part of the Project Team, driving the design and implementation of the Project’s MEL strategy across the portfolio of activities.
• The MEL Manager will work alongside other colleagues, donor clients, consortium subcontractors, and implementing partners to design and facilitate MEL processes and activities and contribute to MEL data verification, analysis, and reporting.
• S/he will be directly responsible for overseeing the implementation of the grant MEL Plan and Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan, ensuring they capture requisite data to measure indicators for the Project and will ensure that all project performance monitoring activities and systems, including necessary data management and visualization software and data collection instruments are collecting, storing, managing, analyzing, and reporting M&E data on output, outcome, and impact indicators.
• The MEL Manager will work collaboratively with ARFH Communications Unit for Activity reporting and support Engagement teams with managing MEL activities for approved buy-ins.

Specific Job Responsibilities
The MEL Manager, under the supervision of the Chief Executive Officer, will be responsible for:

• The design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation activities for the Project.
• The incumbent will provide leadership to the MEL officers as well as overall guidance on program/project monitoring and evaluation with compliance to Donor and Nigeria Government reporting requirements.
• Take a lead role in performing data analysis, interpretation and preparing abstract for presentations and conferences and other use of data.
• Design baseline and end-line surveys, including developing TORs, identifying consultants, training data collection teams, coordinating data entry and analysis, and writing reports
• Provide support to CBOs including interacting with state Adhoc Staff, implementing agencies and local research groups on needs and ensuring that locally employed Monitoring and Evaluation staff, consultants and ARFH partners understand and can support these requirements.
• Work with CBOs to develop their project monitoring and evaluation plans and support the correct implementation and use of routine data collection tools.
• Ensure that data is used to highlight important programmatic gaps and coordinate with program management and others in addressing these gaps.
• Conduct routine monitoring visits to project sites, including the conduct of data verification and validation and data quality assessments (DQAs) using standard checklists.
• Support in the preparation of quarterly reports and provide supportive supervision.
• Ensure that the quality of program/project Monitoring and Enhanced Evaluation in the sites is of international standard and quality by supporting the development and implementation of appropriate mechanisms to ensure quality.
• Build capacity of M&E officers, the CBOs in project monitoring and the state Adhoc staff, and use program/project monitoring data to modify existing programs and design new programs.
• Actively seek and broker collaborative opportunities by communicating regularly with in-country partners to develop new research ideas, utilize research results, and scale-up promising programs.
• Provide technical assistance to stakeholders in the design of projects, protocols, manuals and data collection forms.
• Provide technical support in evaluation and operational research (including sampling strategies, analysis and presentation of data) to the Donor/Prime and donor agencies
• Remain informed of current issues regarding Monitoring and Evaluation of programs in the Family Planning, and Reproductive Health fields by review of current literature; is alert to any implication of such research for project and program activities.

Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Statistics, Social Sciences or a related discipline that demonstrates complementarity to the scope of requirements and 7 years of relevant work experience.
• At least 5 years of proven experience managing MEL or research on the donor or other donor-funded projects;
• Working knowledge of donor MEL guidance and policy.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate with multiple stakeholders for data collection, data verification, reporting and dissemination.
• Demonstrated experience in data analysis and data visualization.
• Excellent writing, communications and data management skills and attention to detail.
• Demonstrated MEL experience in the areas of family planning and reproductive health
• Experience building capacity of staff and partner organizations in MEL.
• High proficiency in the use of M&E software and the MS Office Suite (PowerPoint, Excel, Word, etc.).

Application Closing Date
30th November, 2022.