Regional Measurement Action Coordinator

Background/IRC Summary:  

The International Rescue Committee 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 in 22 U.S. cities, the IRC restores safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

Job Overview/Summary:

The IRC has found, as have many other organizations, that data are often collected and compiled primarily to satisfy donor requirements; actually using those data to improve programming and make real-time decisions is much harder and rarer.  “Monitoring and evaluation” has become synonymous with data collection and reporting; by calling this position “measurement action” rather than “M&E”, the IRC is explicitly emphasizing that data are to be used, not archived, and that we need to look beyond routine monitoring to assessing the broader effects and impacts of our programming.

The Regional Measurement Action Coordinator will provide strategic, technical, and managerial leadership for the IRC’s regional measurement efforts.  Those efforts including monitoring, evaluation, learning, and – above all – making decisions and taking action based on data.  This senior position requires coordinating measurement activities across countries – including providing support to in-country M&E staff – and working with country teams to ensure that data are of high quality and used effectively for decision making.  The Coordinator will report to the Deputy Regional Director of Programs – with a dotted line to the STA for Organizational Measurement, to ensure consistency across the agency – and work in partnership with country directors, deputy directors of programs, and the staff responsible in each country for M&E.

Major Responsibilities:

• Development, implementation, and updating of an measurement action strategy for the region that ensures technically sound and consistent approaches to:
• Indicator development across projects and countries, including incorporation of organizational core indicators
• Routine monitoring of program activities
• Assessments of beneficiary needs
• Evaluations of the effectiveness of program interventions
• Data collection, including digital data collection where feasible
• Data storage and secure accessibility of data by project staff and country/regional management
• Work with country teams to implement the measurement action strategy, with a focus on:
• Coordinated monitoring of project activities, ensuring that activities are carried out or as planned or adjusted/adapted as needed
• Coordinated assessments of beneficiary needs, ensuring that tools and methodologies are appropriate, so that results are actionable and easily communicated
• Coordinated evaluation of projects, ensuring that activities are effectively addressing the beneficiary needs
• Contributing to an organizational culture shift from a focus on data being primarily for donor reporting to using data for decision making and action
• Support country teams in developing logframes for new project proposals, including consistency with the IRC’s library of core outcomes and indicators
• Work with Monitoring for Action (MfA) team to ensure that country teams are using the right tools and have the proper procedures in place to achieve both collection of high quality data and the effective use of those data
• Work with technical and country teams to implement the IRC’s program data platform
• Lead development of a program dashboard to provide monthly summaries of key program indicators and assessment results for decision making by country and regional management
• Support country teams in analysis of data, including going beyond simple Excel charts to more sophisticated statistical analysis, and including creative use of GIS
• Support country-level knowledge management efforts and develop and implement regional systems that facilitate the sharing of information across countries in the region and with other IRC regions, specifically focused on use of data and analysis for decision making.
• Support country teams in recruitment of M&E staff, including orienting new staff.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to:  Deputy Regional Director for Programs

Position directly supervises:  N/A

Indirect Reporting: Senior Technical Advisor for Organizational Measurement
Other Internal and/or external contacts: Country directors, deputy directors of programs, and staff responsible in each country for M&E, as well as the other regional measurement action coordinators

Job Requirements:

Essential qualifications, skills and experience

• Advanced degree in statistics or the social sciences with emphasis on measurement
• Six to ten years of professional experience with demonstrated skills in
• Developing and implementing M&E systems (including database design)
• Collecting data (with preference for digital methods)
• Remote monitoring
• GIS
• Data analysis
• Using data for decision-making in multiple technical sectors
• Proven ability to think strategically about data
• Experience training and mentoring staff
• Knowledge of the trends and issues in international aid monitoring, knowledge management and measurement
• At least four years’ experience in developing countries and/or conflict-affected contexts
• Strong oral communication and presentation skills
• Fluency in English required

The chosen candidate will be a proven team player with the ability to work with multi-cultural teams and under tight deadlines.

Working Environment:  Standard office environment