Global MEL Advisor at at Christian Aid (CA)

Christian Aid (CA) is a UK-based international NGO partnering with others to end poverty in Africa. At the heart of this vision is the transformation of the lives of people who live in poverty, empowering them to have a brighter future. Christian Aid works in more than 30 countries and has been operating in Nigeria since 2003. The Nigeria Country programme focuses on Community Health and HIV, Accountable Governance including humanitarian response and Gender.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Global MEL Advisor

Location: Flexible Location (This role is open to the nationals of the Country where the role is based)
Type of Contract: Fixed Term
Department: International
Contracted Hours: 35
Contract length: 2 years
Reports to: Human Resource Officer
Expected travel per annum: Up to 20 days

About the Role

• Sitting within the Global MEL Team, this role is an exciting opportunity to be part of the Programme Quality and Operations Division within Christian Aid's International Department.
• The role is key to enabling the quality delivery of programmes across our development, humanitarian and advocacy portfolio, so that we maximise our impact for poor and marginalised women and men. The role will help us ensure that all projects and programmes have adequate capacity and resources to monitor, evaluation and learn from their programming, including at partner level.
• The role also provides MEL capacity to specific institutionally funded projects and programmes in line with agreed budget allocation, as well as support the monitoring and reporting of our humanitarian appeals.
• Key areas of work will include supporting country programmes in designing and implementing appropriate monitoring, evaluation and learning systems for their projects, providing training on MEL to CA staff and partners, supporting the development of strong proposals for new projects, and contributing to programme and organisational reporting processes. The role also ensures responsible data management, with a focus on moving towards a decolonial understanding of how we collect, analyse and use data, and there will also be opportunities to explore and develop innovative MEL approaches and methodologies.
• The role holder will also represent CA externally, in particular to evidence our impact and to share learning from our work.

Role Purpose

• This role is key to ensuring that Christian Aid (CA) development, humanitarian and advocacy programmes are delivered in line with our 10 CA Quality Standards, in order to maximise our impact for poor and marginalised women and men.
• The role will ensure that all projects and programmes have adequate capacity and resources to monitor, evaluate and learn from their programming, including at partner level.
• The role provides MEL capacity to specific institutionally funded projects and programmes in line with agreed budget allocation: it is expected that the role will focus approx.60% of their time on development projects, 20% of their time on humanitarian projects, and 20% of their time on global MEL processes, in particular capacity development.
• In particular, the role holder will support country programmes in designing and implementing appropriate Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) systems for each project, managing data management and reporting, with a focus on contributing additional capacity to restricted funded projects as budgeted for.
• As a member of the Global MEL Team, and working collaboratively with country programme teams, the role will develop organisational MEL policies, guidance and tools, provide training on MEL to CA staff and partners, and contribute to organisational reporting processes. The role holder will also represent CA externally, in particular to evidence our impact and to share learning from our work.

Key Outcomes

• MEL approaches and systems for humanitarian, development and advocacy programmes, funded from both restricted and unrestricted sources, are robust, appropriate to donor requirements and programme context and capacity, fully aligned with CA's corporate strategy and programme management approach
• Country teams delivering development and humanitarian projects are coordinated and supported to plan and implement MEL, so that high quality data can be collected, analysed and used for accountability (to communities, to donors and to CA management) and learning
• All projects implemented across CA (humanitarian, development and advocacy) are increasingly meeting CA’s Quality Standards, particularly on MEL practice, and learning from the assessment of progress is feeding into programme improvement.
• All CA project proposals and bids are based on a sound theory of change/logframe with appropriate indicators, and outline a strong MEL offering which reflects CA's quality management approach and guidance
• Country staff and partners have access to and are benefiting from PCM training, in particular on MEL practice
• Country staff and partners are providing quality information on effectiveness and impact of their programmes, which can be used for accountability (to communities, to donors and to CA management) and learning
• CA is evidencing its impact effectively to different stakeholders, using individual project and programme data for organisational reporting, as well as for strategic meta-studies/multi-country analysis and reporting, thematic deep dives etc.
• Internal and external evaluations for development and humanitarian programmes are supported and managed effectively and contribute to organisational learning
• Humanitarian programme learning is documented and disseminated internally and externally, and informs ongoing and future programme implementation
• Global MEL policies, procedures and guidance are informed by learning from MEL practice in development, humanitarian and advocacy programmes, and is continually improved
• Collaboration between the Global MEL Team and the Research, Evidence and Learning (REL)
• Team on organisational learning is strengthening CA’s programme response in line with the Global Strategy
• Christian Aid is represented in various external MEL related networks and fora, with a view to raising the profile of Christian Aid’s work, and sharing learning from our MEL approaches in the wider sector.

Role Context

• Strengthening our measurement and evidencing in order to improve impact on poverty is a key priority for Christian Aid.
• This role helps the organisation deliver on this priority by supporting efforts across the organisation to gather evidence of our work and use it for decision-making, learning, and being accountable to our supporters, donors and communities we work with.
• The role sits within the Global MEL Team in the Programme Quality and Operations Division in Christian Aid. The role complements the work of the other Global MEL Team members, as they
• together ensure that Christian Aid is able to meet the MEL needs of its programmes. The role will surge into institutionally funded programmes as required and in line with agreed budgeting, and in these roles will be matrix managed by country management.
• The role will collaborate directly with programme delivery and MEL staff in country teams, providing support as needed, and where required, taking on a coordination role on MEL, in particular where programmes or projects include multiple countries.
• This will include but not be limited to working on project design, baselines, continuous monitoring, mid-term reviews, final evaluations, review, reporting and learning. It will include investigating and testing new methodologies and processes where appropriate, while taking a decolonised and participatory approach. The role provides input into new proposals around MEL, as well as designing new MEL frameworks for new projects, collaborating with Programme Funding as well as fundraising teams in Fundraising and Supporter Engagement (FSE).
• The post-holder also makes a broader contribution to the Programme Quality and Operations
• Division (PQOD) by collaborating with the PQ Advisor and International Programme Officers (IPOs) on assessing progress towards our Quality Standards, and collaborating with the Accountability
• Advisor on using and learning from COMPASS. The role will also increase the division’s capacity for training staff and partners in Project Cycle Management issues, including contributing to the development of the Programme Management Induction development and roll-out. The post-holder will also share responsibility for coordinating the MEL CoP with team colleagues with the requirement to take matrix management responsibility as and when needs arise.
• In addition, the role will support organisational reporting and evidencing for impact, in collaboration with advisors in Programme Policy, Research and Learning (PPRL), and in particular the Research,
• Evidence and Learning (REL) team, as well as in FSE.

Person Specification
Applied skills/knowledge and expertise:
Essential:

• Relevant undergraduate or postgraduate qualification or other evidence of highly developed analytical ability
• Experience of field based M&E practice in a development and/or humanitarian context
• Strong understanding of project cycle management for humanitarian and development projects
• Strong understanding of the theories of change, logframes and results frameworks, and using indicators to collect data on results
• Strong understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies
• Ability to communicate effectively in English and French
• Familiarity with current thinking / debates on programme quality / results, value for money, evaluation and impact assessment in international development.
• Familiarity with a wide range of M&E methods and tools, including digital methods and techniques of data gathering, management and presentation
• Proven experience of developing MEL plans and frameworks and tools with partners
• Proven experience in capacity development and training, including development of training materials
• Understanding of gender sensitive and inclusive programming, and the implications for M&E.
• Excellent report writing skills
• Excellent communication skills, including using digital data visualisation tools, videos, presentation applications etc.

Desirable:

• Ability to communicate effectively in Spanish
• Familiarity with sector wide quality frameworks, in particular the Core Humanitarian Standard
• Experience in training field based M&E staff, including enumerators and data entry staff
• Experience of commissioning and managing consultants
• Experience of participatory approaches to monitoring and evaluation, and understanding of beneficiary accountability/feedback mechanism

Salary
Salary is dependent on country location.

Application Closing Date
1st February 2023

Interview Date
8th February 2023

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

Click here for more information (PDF)

Note

• This role requires applicants to have the right to work in the country where this position is based.
• At Christian Aid we strive to be an inclusive and diverse employer and recognise the value that this brings in helping to build strong, creative and high performing teams.
• We are actively encouraging racialised minorities, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, returning parents or carers who are re-entering work after a career break, people with caring responsibilities, people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, women, and older workers to apply. This is because these groups are under-represented within our teams, especially at senior level, and we recognise and value the contributions members of these groups make to strong, creative and high performing teams. 
• We have a strong Christian ethos and we encourage applications from all faiths and none (with the exception of Director positions where there is a genuine occupational requirement to be a practicing Christian - Exempted under the Equality Act 2010).
• All successful candidates will require a DBS/police check appropriate to the role and location and a Counter Terrorism Sanction check as part of your clearance for commencing your role with us. We also participate in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme.  In line with this Scheme, we will request information as part of the referencing process from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.
• Christian Aid is committed to providing a safe and trusted environment for every person connected to the work we do; and to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour including sexual harassment and exploitation, abuse, and financial misconduct.
• Any candidate offered a job with Christian Aid is expected to share and demonstrate our values and adhere to Christian Aid’s Safeguarding policy and sign Christian Aid’s Code of Conduct.