Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Senior Manager, Integrated Health Systems Strengthening (I-HSS) Project

Job Description

Amref Health Africa was founded in 1957 and has since grown to become the largest African-based international health development organization, currently implementing more than 150 programs which directly reach more than 20 million people across 35 countries in Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, Amref has fully-fledged offices in Ethiopia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal, South Sudan, and Zambia; eleven advocacy and fundraising offices in Europe and North America; and a staff complement of over 1,500.

The Ethiopia Country office is registered in 2002 and operational for more than two decades. Currently, we are operational in all regions of Ethiopia with more than 300 staffs and wide portfolio of PHC, RMNCAYH-N, Youth Development, WASH and DPC including NTDs.

Our vision is to bring about ‘Lasting health change in Africa’, by supporting Ethiopia’s vision of healthy, productive and prosperous society.  We believe that the power to transform Africa's health lies within its communities, and therefore strive to ensure that health systems are not only functional but that communities are empowered to hold these systems accountable for the delivery of quality and affordable health care.

ABOUT INTEGRATED HEALTH SYSTEMS STRENGTHENING (HSS) PROJECT

Integrated Health System Strengthening Project is a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) investment currently being co-designed with Amref Health Africa and MOH to support the design and implementation of a platform mechanism/s for health systems strengthening for primary health care (PHC) in Ethiopia. The focus of this investment is primarily at the subnational level (regional and district) with links to national efforts. The design will focus on integration of key HSS pillars – e.g., Human Resources for Health (HRH), Health Care Financing (HCF), Data, and Leadership and Governance – to support PHC administrators and managers toward optimizing health systems for improved service delivery. 

JOB PURPOSE

Amref is seeking a competent Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Senior Manager to lead the monitoring and learning efforts of the HSS investment described above. The MEL senior manager will serve as the primary strategic information leaders of the HSS investment briefly indicated above. The senior manager is expected to guide other HSS activities to be intentional in addressing learning agendas and do adjustments by presenting them thoroughly synthesized and timely information of progress. S/he is expected to co-design MEL framework with sub national entities including technical assistance packages for data quality and use locally.  The successful candidate will be part of the MEL Team of Amref Country office to join hands in the efforts of Amref to be evidence driven organization.  

S/he will assist the HSS Director by serving as the primary strategic information source in providing high-quality technical support to Integrated HSS project teams and his/her engagement with national and regional public health and other sector leaders. S/he will be working closely with the M&E team of BMGF funded Improving PHC Service Delivery Project implemented by Amref and JSI and other Amref projects to inform Amref’s leadership with triangulated and coordinated data synthesis. S/he is expected to represent the Project and Amref in national and Regional Health Information (HIS) working Groups and other partnership platforms serving as HIS expert and disseminate promising results of integrated HSS project.

The role requires frequent travel to regions and woredas to actively engage the PHC and other sector leaders, Technical working groups, frontline HCWs and communities to ensure the project’s support on Data quality, triangulation and use in a manner that are usable by local leaders and Performance Monitoring Teams. Hence, the position holder is expected to have an in-depth understanding of the HIS in the country specially at sub-national level and the implication of data in investing Health System building blocks in a balanced manner through optimal integration. 

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Serve as core member of the Integrated HSS project leadership team responsible for providing MEL strategic and technical leadership to the Project
• Provide technical leadership and support to the Project and partner staff in fostering a culture of learning across the Project, engaging relevant actors in learning and adaptation
• Supervise, mentor, and build capacity of the Project M&E staff
• Develop the overall Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plan (MEL Plan) and annual implementation plans for the Project’s M&E systems, in collaboration with senior Project staff and BMGF
• Oversee the Project’s CLA process in collaboration with the Senior HSS Program Manager, Local Organization Capacity Advisor and HSS Program Director to ensure that the Project’s CLA approach is applied and the Project learnings inform implementation
• Monitor the Project’s MEL Plan to systematically document Project performance for HSS technical Team and the HSS Project leadership team
• Ensure timely and accurate submission of the Project reports to donor and relevant Government counterparts, including progress against targets set in the grant agreement, annual work plan, quarterly, and annual reports
• Coordinate data collection at the Project sites to monitor program development and ensure timely compilation and reporting of data
• Communicate information obtained through M&E interventions to the Project staff, consortium members, donor, Government Counterparts and various external stakeholders,
• Capture and document lessons learned; Lead series of finding dissemination events to share with stakeholders
• Support the HSS Program Director in coordinating the mid-term and final Project evaluations
• Build MEL capacity of the staff
• Conduct field visits to monitor the quality and completeness of data
• Regularly review data collection processes, perform data quality assessments, and make adjustment as needed.
• Carry out other duties as assigned by Amref’s management.

Job Requirement

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

The successful candidate will have a strong background in Monitoring, evaluation and learning mainly in the health sector; as well as demonstrable experience in the delivery of technical assistance on Health system investments by engaging government counterparts at regional, zonal and woreda level with linkage to the national entities. S/he should also be highly motivated, a creative problem solver; have strong analytical, communication, process facilitation, and collaboration skills.

Education and Professional Qualifications

• An advanced degree in public health, international development, or a similar field.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Minimum of 8 years of relevant experience leading and designing and implementing M&E and learning systems on complex initiatives from the Project initiation to closeout;
• Experience in relevant technical areas, such as survey and research tool design, data collection, statistical analysis, qualitative research, and dissemination of results;
• Knowledge of the major evaluation methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, mixed method, and impact) and data collection and analysis methodologies;
• Demonstrated commitment to creating a learning environment in projects including experience managing and providing ongoing training to M&E field officers;
• Familiarity with policies, rules, regulations and reporting requirements of varies donors including BMGF;
• Excellent communications skills
• Demonstrated experience working Ethiopia.

Knowledge, Skills and Competencies

• Demonstrated MEL expertise
• Technically sound in strategic information  
• Ability to build and work with networks
• Well organized, results focused, creative, innovative and flexible