Monitoring & Evaluation Manager

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The IRC has long-term programs based in Baghdad and Erbil, as well as emergency response programs supporting Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons.

The IRC originally entered Iraq in the 1990s and had extensive operations throughout the country from 2003 through 2005. Deteriorating security due to civil war forced IRC to leave in 2005. The IRC restarted programs in Iraq in November 2007 to assist thousands of internally displaced persons in northern, central and southern regions. The IRC subsequently scaled up to serve the influx of Syrian refugees fleeing into Iraq in 2012. In 2014, IRC instituted an emergency response to assist persons displaced from Anbar province and has initiated additional emergency response activities for persons displaced by the violent conflict that started in June. The IRC is one of the largest humanitarian agencies operating in Iraq with a current annual budget of $50million (funded by twelve different donors supporting 24 project grants) and approximately 500 staff. IRC’s program sectors in Iraq include: Protection / Access to Justice, Education, Water and Sanitation, WPE/GBV, Camp Management, NFI Distribution and Health.

SCOPE OF WORK:
The purpose of this position is to manage, strengthen, and provide strategic direction to the Child and Youth Protection and Development (CYPD) M&E systems in Iraq, and to build capacity of M&E staff and partner organizations. The M&E Manager will be responsible for supervising M&E activities, and assessments required for proposal development. The M&E Manager will work closely with IRC program team to develop high quality monitoring systems and tools which address indicators set out in project proposals. He/she will ensure that learning from projects is systematically captured and used throughout the country program. He/she will also take learning needs into account, and develop and conduct capacity building for program staff, with support of the CYPD Coordinator and the M&E Regional Coordinator.

The M&E Manager is expected to have a high level of self-initiative and use critical thinking skills to identify and fill gaps. The M&E Manager will work closely with CYPD Coordinator and Regional M&E Coordinator to ensure the CYPD program complies with the regional and global M&E systems and standards. The ability to effectively manage a small team, work sensitively and positively with the programming team, and promote a learning environment is essential to the success of the post.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• M&E Strategy and Design
  • Ensure that the Iraq’s CYPD M&E systems are in compliance with IRC regional and country level objectives, standards and strategic initiatives
  • Provide strategic direction for CYPD M&E and the roll-out of new initiatives
  • Support M&E and program staff in the design and implementation of assessments, stakeholder analysis and other pre-program data collection and analysis
  • Provide strategic feedback, analysis and interpretation throughout proposal development process
  • Develop and review Logframes, Frameworks, M&E Plans and Analysis Plans
  • Support programming staff to incorporate participatory methods into community level M&E systems and tools
  • Collect and analyze lessons learned and best practices from previous programs and ensure that these are incorporated into the design of new projects
  • Leverage lessons learned, best practices, program data, and other information to generate donor reports and updates, proposal annexes, success stories, and other high-quality documentation
• M&E Implementation
  • Lead and ensure the quality of project monitoring initiatives including tool design, data collection and analysis
  • Lead emergency real-time evaluations, internal evaluations, needs assessments, baselines, impact studies, case studies, and other evaluation efforts
  • Contribute to donor proposals and reports, through quality analysis and interpretation of data
  • Support the M&E team in preparing and reviewing M&E calendars
  • Develop and maintain a resource library of M&E tools and plans needed for good program quality and donor reporting
  • Ensure that beneficiary feedback is adequately captured, analyzed, and utilized by the program team
  • Lead the design and implementation of end-of-project impact evaluations
• Capacity-Strengthening
  • Provide mentoring/accompaniment to IRC M&E and program staff to increase capacity and to achieve annual performance and development plans
  • Remain updated with developments among the IRC M&E community and worldwide M&E trends and resources
  • Conduct field monitoring visits events frequently with project teams
  • Provide feedback to senior project and M&E staff to improve the overall M&E system and ensure quality implementation of M&E activities
• Information and Communications Technology for M&E
  • Support M&E and program teams in effectively sharing M&E resources for knowledge management and communication
  • Work with M&E and IT staff to ensure a management information system exists for the entry, storage, and analysis of all data that uses technology to meet minimum requirements, for example in beneficiary counting and aggregation/disaggregation
  • Support programming teams to develop strong project tracking, record keeping and filing methodologies for all activities
  • Document best practices and lessons learned in the use of new and existing technology
• Human Resources Management and Development
  • Supervise the M&E Specialist and ensure implementation of good quality programming
  • Discuss job expectations, set objectives and provide appropriate and timely feedback regarding performance, including timely implementation of the annual staff performance management system
  • Clearly define the training needs of direct report and ensure they are able to access training and professional development resources appropriate to their skill gaps/needs
  • Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable staff to successfully perform in their positions including staff development plans
  • Provide leadership support for the successful implementation of and adherence to the IRC Global HR Operating Policies and Procedures
  • Lead with commitment, integrity and accountability to the “IRC Way” – Global Standards for Professional Conduct

Professional Standards
The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct.  These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability.  In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor of Arts or Science in Economics, Development Studies, Statistics, Geography or related field. Master’s degree and post-graduate M&E courses are preferred
• Minimum 2 years of relevant experience in the M&E field, preferably related to education or child protection
• Excellent written and verbal English skills – in the ability to write high quality proposals and reports in English is required
• Strong understanding of the principles, methods, theory, and terminology of M&E
• Strong analytical skills
• Excellent database development, data management and analytical skills with experience using at least 3 software applications such as Excel, Access, SPSS, STATA and SQL
• Demonstrated experience and a high level of comfort developing qualitative and quantitative data collection tools
• Demonstrated experience and capacity in conducting field-level data collection and data entry
• Familiarity or comfort with technology-enabled M&E
• Excellent planning and organization skills and experience with information management systems
• Experience managing staff and team building, to supervise a staff of up to two M&E Specialists

OTHER:

• Excellent inter-personal skills; demonstrating diplomacy and tact
• Values learning and takes a strong interest in new developments in the field of M&E
• Proactive and self-motivated approach to work, with an enthusiasm for learning
• Willingness to spend 40%-50% of time in the field

Note: List of responsibilities, professional and personal skills are considered indicative and not exhaustive; actual duties may differ or change depending on office and agency priorities at the time.

Security Situation / Housing:
This position is based in Erbil. The majority security concerns are the presence of armed men across the spectrum of regular armed forces, volunteer militias and armed opposition groups. Staff in Iraq must comply with all IRC security policies and procedures applicable to international staff. Shared housing in a guest house will be provided. The position is unaccompanied.