Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist at Plan International

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian non-profit organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood, and enable children to prepare for - and respond to - crises and adversity. We believe in the power and potential of every child, but know this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination.

We are recruiting suitable canddiates to fill the position below:

Job Title: Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist

Location: Nigeria (UK preferred but other locations with time zones which suit a global reach will be considered)
Employment Type: Permanent or maximum fixed term contract as per employing office’s standard terms and conditions
Functional Area: Monitoring Evaluation Research and Learning (MERL), Global Hub
Reports to: Global Head of Monitoring and Evaluation
Travel Required: 0%-10%
Effective Date: August 2023
Grade: 4

Role Purpose

• Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child.
• But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination.
• And its girls who are most affected. Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.
• We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for - and respond to - crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.
• We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 75 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

The Purpose of this position, is to:

• Lead further efforts to strengthen M&E processes and evidence generation in Plan’s policy and influencing work (including campaigns work), at the global, regional and country level
• Support the implementation and use of Plan International’s global monitoring and evaluation system (PMERL) to ensure that we are able, as an organisation, to capture, store, analyse and report on our progress and results in a consistent and coherent way,
• Contribute to enhance awareness and M&E capacity in Plan International’s offices so that teams across the organisation implement the above frameworks, system and approach successfully, in particular with a focus on strengthening the M&E of influencing work
• Lead the development and use of global evidence products to strengthen programme and project design, advance the organisation’s accountability to all stakeholders, demonstrate the impact of our work and ensure learning for improved programming and influencing. 
• Support the provision of M&E technical inputs to the further development and implementation of Plan International’s global results and indicators for each of the six Areas of Global Distinctiveness (AOGDs), including the review and revision of existing frameworks, development and testing of methods/tools, with a particular focus on strengthening approaches and measurements of influencing work.

Dimensions of the Role

• This position sits in the Global MERL team, which is a part of the Global Strategy and Engagement department at Plan International’s Global Hub.
• The MERL team focuses on generating and using high quality evidence, provides thought leadership and technical support for M&E of policy and influencing work and to global technical networks in gender and the Areas of Global Distinctiveness (Plan International’s six priority programme and influencing areas).
• We are a globally dispersed team which strives to work in an inclusive and integrated way, committed to feminist leadership principles.
• The M&E Specialist reports to the Head of M&E and will work in a team of other M&E Specialists, M&E System Specialists and Researchers. The role has no direct line management responsibility but the M&E Specialist is expected to support and guide junior M&E staff as they develop within the organisation.

Accountabilities
Outlined below are the key responsibilities for this position:

Continuous M&E improvement in our Country Offices:

• Enhance M&E processes and capacity of different teams across the organisation with a particular focus on Plan International’s policy and influencing work (including campaigns work).
• Provide technical inputs to support countries to implement Plan International’s global frameworks, system and approach and fully implement the global MERL Standards
• Provide high quality guidelines, tools and upskilling as prioritised and requested by Country Offices/National Organisations, including on strengthening influencing and M&E in the organisation. Coordinate translations of material and follow up on overall application.
• Support the implementation and use of Plan’s global monitoring and evaluation system (PMERL) across the organisation

Strengthen Plan International’s global reporting and analysis:

• Contribute to the production and socialisation of high-quality analysis and reports, including Plan International’s global reports, with a particular focus on Plan International’s policy and influencing work.
• Undertake quality assurance of data in the M&E System
• Provide technical leadership to potential meta-evaluations/sector evaluations

Provide high quality technical expertise:

• Provide technical inputs to Global Hub M&E needs e.g. global campaign, global advocacy strategy.
• Provide technical inputs to the design & implementation of global programme models (M&E components)
• Provide technical support to Plan International’s Technical Networks, including the development and testing of methods and tools for new global M&E Frameworks.
• Provide quality technical support and advice to Plan International offices and staff as and when requested.

Drive continuous learning:

• Promote and facilitate active M&E networks across the organisation
• Update and maintain communication and learning platforms for M&E– e.g. Planet pages (Intranet), Workplace.
• Develop, promote and embed learning processes and practices across offices
• Contribute to drafting learning papers that capture lessons from Plan International’s work in order to inform the ongoing development of M&E in Plan International offices
• Input into the development of Plan International case studies, to showcase insights and instances of success and failures in order to ensure ongoing learning
• Co-ordinate the Global M&E Group so that staff are connected with one another to continuously improve its M&E practice and build a reputation for quality work
• Participate in initiatives, technical networks and communities of practice that aim to share lessons, good practices on M&E and learning.
• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young Peopleand Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility.
• This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

Key Relationships

• Other members of the Global Hub MERL team
• Regional M&E Specialists
• AOGD Hubs, including the Hub/Practice Leads to drive forward the further development and implementation of Plan International’s global results and indicators
• GH PMERL Team, GH L&D Teams and wider YODA teams
• Colleagues from the Global Campaign and those working on global advocacy initiatives
• Colleagues from the Gender Transformative Policy and Practice Department as well as the Delivery, Performance and Accountability Department to support them and keep them appraised on Plan’s M&E approach, standards, tools and system in the application of the Programme and Influence Quality Policy and Procedures and in the use of the PMERL system.
• Colleagues from offices from around the Plan federation in the implementation of Plan’s M&E frameworks, system and approach
• Other organisations and forums externally, for coordination, collaboration, learning.

Technical Expertise, Skills and Knowledge
Essential:

Knowledge:

• Expert knowledge on monitoring and evaluation of development work, across a wide range of technical areas. 
• Strong understanding of rights-based development programming, particularly in relation the major technical areas of Plan’s work.
• Significant experience and a strong understanding of processes, approaches, tools and methodologies that facilitate M&E, and organizational learning, that is up to date with best practices in the sector.
• Strong understanding of the realities of NGO programme management and limitations that impact programme monitoring, evaluation and learning.
• Understanding of different approaches to assessing and reporting NGO programming results, across a wide variety of contexts.
• A theoretical and practical understanding of gender attitudes and power dynamics, including why they exist and how they change, and how these attitudes and dynamics shape MERL approaches and methodologies.

Skills:

• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Able to develop appropriate guidelines, tools and templates for improved M&E and implement them at scale.
• Able to develop global guidance that is simple and practical for field colleagues to understand and use
• Able to analyse large amounts of data and generate powerful reports and information from them.
• Communicating complex technical MERL concepts and terminology in simple language to non-experts. Writing in plain English.
• Strong collaboration skills, able to build cooperation and negotiate compromises.
• Strong attention to detail
• Proven experience of using online technology for communication and learning
• Fluent in English.

Behaviours:

• Listens to and consults with others with genuine curiosity and interest to learn
• Co-creates with diverse staff across the organisation
• Demonstrates genuine curiosity and enthusiasm to find win-win solutions when facing challenges and ambiguity.
• Facilitates joint understanding and the development of good practices
• Inspire trust and support from others.
• Promotes innovation and learning.
• Takes responsibility for achieving significant results.
• Able to build rapport with wide range of groups.
• Demonstrably committed to Plan’s goals and values.
• Committed to child safeguarding.

Desirable:

• Capacity in French and/or Spanish will be an advantage.
• Experience strengthening M&E of influencing work
• Experience with outcome mapping and outcome harvesting

Plan International’s Values in Practice
We are open and accountable:

• Promotes a culture of openness and transparency, including with sponsors and donors.
• Holds self and others accountable to achieve the highest standards of integrity.
• Consistent and fair in the treatment of people.
• Open about mistakes and keen to learn from them.
• Accountable for ensuring we are a safe organisation for all children, girls & young people

We strive for lasting impact:

• Articulates a clear purpose for staff and sets high expectations.
• Creates a climate of continuous improvement, open to challenge and new ideas.
• Focuses resources to drive change and maximise long-term impact, responsive to changed priorities or crises.
• Evidence-based and evaluates effectiveness.

We work well together:

• Seeks constructive outcomes, listens to others, willing to compromise when appropriate.
• Builds constructive relationships across Plan International to support our shared goals.
• Develops trusting and ‘win-win’ relationships with funders, partners and communities.
• Engages and works well with others outside the organization to build a better world for girls and all children.

We are inclusive and empowering:

• We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential
• We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge equality in our programs and our workplace
• We support children, girls and young people to increase their confidence and to change their own lives.

Physical Environment:

• Typical office environment

Level of contact with children:

• Low contact: No contact or very low frequency of interaction

Salary

• We will be happy to disclose the salary and applicable benefits to applicants as part of this process, however, please kindly note that this will vary according to the location of the appointed candidate and therefore, it is not possible to include full details here.
• If you were based in the UK the salary would be circa £45,000 

Application Closing Date
6th July, 2023 at midnight UK time 

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Click here to apply online (Ms Word)

Note

• Only CVs and cover letters in English will be accepted.
• This role will ideally be based in the UK, employed from the Global Hub for Plan International which is based in Woking, Surrey (remote and hybrid working is possible for this role) however other locations where Plan International has an office* that can employ on behalf of the Global Hub and you have the pre-existing right to work and live may be considered.
• Plan International will never send unsolicited emails requesting payment from candidates.