Plan International
JOB OPPORTUNITY
Monitoring, Evaluation & Research Coordinator
Number of Vacant Position: 1
Functional Area: MERL
Reports to: Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Manager (Country Office) Regional Manager (Regional Office – East)
Location: Regional Office- East
Travel required: Plan International Nepal working districts
Grade: C2
Type: Fixed-Term Employment of 2 years from date of employment based in Regional Office-East
ABOUT PLAN INTERNATIONAL
Plan International is a development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We strive for a just world, working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners in over 75 countries. Our programs are underpinned by a core of defined values, including transparency and accountability, team collaboration, inclusion and integration, as well as the overall ambition to empower girls and young women as legacy.
Plan International has been working in Nepal since 1978 and developed a strong reputation as a respected development and humanitarian actor helping marginalised children, their families and communities to access their rights to health, education, economic security and protection. Through the support of local partners, Plan International works in 24 districts in Nepal.
Plan International Nepal has a vision for 2030 as “an inclusive, just and safe society where all girls and young women enjoy their rights and live in freedom”. This is coupled with the ambition of taking action so that 100 million girls learn, lead, decide and thrive as “Girls and young women in all of their diversity reach their full potential as equal and active citizens” by 2023. The country strategy is put into action through the implementation of three interrelated program areas defined as follows:
LEARN: the “Education and Skills and Opportunities for Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship (SOYEE)” program aims to assist vulnerable and excluded girls and young women in adapting and thriving in a changing climate;
LEAD AND DECIDE: the “Youth as Active Drivers of Change and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR)” program aims to empower girls and young women in leading change, having control over their bodies and making informed decisions; and
THRIVE: the “Early Childhood Development (ECD), Child Protection and Child Poverty” program enhances vulnerable and excluded children, especially girls, to be valued and cared for without discrimination, fear and any forms of violence.
Plan international Nepal seeks candidates who practice feminist leadership, promote diversity, actively seek innovative solutions for problems, courageously and respectfully share their opinions and ideas, break down barriers and engender cross-department collaboration, practice active listening, maintain confidentiality, build trust and are passionate about children’s rights and equality for girls.
ROLE PURPOSE
The Monitoring, Evaluation and Research (MER) Coordinator is responsible for the technical leadership of collection, review, reporting and learning in the context of project implementation at the regional and country levels.
S/he oversees and ensures that accurate and timely field based information is shared to support Area Managers and Programme Coordinators so as to achieve effective project implementation and management.
S/he provides the necessary support to partner organisations so as to improve project monitoring and evaluation system. S/He will also implement Plan International Nepal’s Accountability Mechanism.
Monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) are all vital to the ambition of our Global Strategy to support 100 million girls to be able to learn, lead, decide and thrive. MERL underpins Plan International’s delivery of effective and accountable gender-transformative programmes and influencing. It is a critical part of our commitments under the Programme and Influence Quality Policy (PIQP) and the Programme and Influence Approach (PIA).
Description
DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE
Internal and External interfaces
ACCOUNTABILITIES
Ensure Effective Project Monitoring
- Support Partners in implementing periodic/routine monitoring data collection templates and processes.
Ensure that:
- periodic/routine monitoring data from partner organisations are collected, reviewed, consolidated, and shared with the Country Office MER specialist and PU/FO program team;
- Case stories are collected from each project on a quarterly basis, including quality photographs.
- Perform regular field (project site) visits and interact with project stakeholders of the relevant program team so as to assess progress of project;
- Responsible for analysing, consolidating and sharing collected programme information (demographic, geographical, natural resources, government services/facilities, institutions (groups, CBOs and NGOs) and Plan support project information at provincial and municipality level) with programme staff;
- Responsible for developing the Field Office level periodic MER report to be shared within organisations and external stakeholders; and
- Develop guidance and organize lessons learnt and knowledge sharing workshops for effective project performance improvement on a regular basis.
Stengthen capacity of partner’s organisations in monitoring and evaluation
- Support partner’s staff in establishing effective project monitoring system through coaching, mentorship, on the job training, site visits and other technical supports; and
- Perform partners’ capacity assessment re their MERL project management and develop a capacity development plan to address identified gap if any.
Implement Plan’s accountability mechanisms
Ensure that:
- community stakeholders (with a particular focus on deprived communities) participate in project cycle;
- All project stakeholders are advised of the project scope prior to its commencement and in the event of any scope variations;
- All project stakeholders are provided with all relevant details (toll-free number, SMS, email address and contact person) for any feedback/grievances on staff behaviour and quality of project activities;
- Feedback received from projects stakeholders and community people are processed as per Plan International Nepal’s feedback mechanism.
- Organise and facilitate a bi-annual review of the projects implementation with government agencies, partner organisations, and community people and ensure that all agreed actions are documented and followed up;
- Ensure that partner organisations are provided with adequate support to perform regular social audit at project/community level;
- Provide support to the MER Specialists for sharing findings, learning and recommendations from research and evaluation with community and partners as appropriate;
- Analysis and provide feedback on Project progress data to project advisory committee at provincial and/or municipality level;
- Ensure that joint monitoring visits with government [representatives] are organised not less than twice a year; and
- Ensure that relevant Plan and partner staff are well trained in relation to accountability mechanisms.
Support in evaluation and research activities
- Provide technical support to CO initiated baseline studies, research and evaluation if required;
- Provide support to study teams coordinating field data collection;
- Provide support to the Programme team to implement management responses to recommendations of evaluation and research; and
- Ensure that good practises are documented and disseminated.
Maintain MERL and Programme/Project Module of ERP systems in field office
- Organise and ensure that new staff are trained in MERL and Programme/Project module of ERP;
- Ensure timely recording of any update of programme/project data in the system;
- Provide support and training to Program Coordinators to ensure a consistent quality level across the project documents and to use gender marker and safeguarding review checklist.
- Programme information (demographic, geographical, natural resources, government services/facilities, institutions (groups, CBOs and NGOs) and Plan support project information at provincial and municipality level maintained, shared with programme staff
- Field Office level periodic MER report for sharing within organisations and external stakeholders prepared;
- Monthly analysis and feedback of output and activities as well as highlights achieved;
- Timely completion of PCR is ensured; and
- Record information in relation to visit reports and outcome of review/reflections meetings in the system.
Contribute in emergency responses in assigned location as per organisational need.
- Role of MER in Emergency performed as per MER in Emergency process and procedure during emergency.
TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge and Experience
- Master Degree with 1-2 years of experience or a Bachelors Degree in Rural Development, Social work, Sociology, Public Health or other social sciences with 2-3 years of experience in the relevant sector;
- Clear understanding of the development sector, its operating and regulatory environment (in Nepal);
- Clear understanding of the socio/political economic and cultural issues of Nepal, specifically post located districts of the country;
- Clear in-depth technical and practical knowledge and understanding of the relevant job domain;
- Proficient in use of analytical system (database system, spreadsheet and/or statistical software);
- Knowledge of use of mobile/digital data collection tools;
- Experienced in applying recognised standards of data quality assurance;
- Analyse, synthesise and draw out conclusions and learning from monitoring data and processes;
- Experienced in implementing result/M&E framework;
- Knowledge on project cycle management; and
- Good understanding of the development and NGO sector in Nepal (INGO work experience preferred).
Skills
- Analytical, strategic thinking and negotiating skills.
- Ability to build effective relations for influencing and team work.
- Excellent organisation and prioritising skills
- Ability to write clearly and concisely in English and Nepali
- Innovative and creative thinking with problem solving
- Managing work relationships (internal/external), coordination and networking.
- Proven IT skills: Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint etc.
- Report writing and documentation.
- Ability to prioritise and multitask work when dealing with competing deadlines, sometimes with limited resources.
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
- The position is based in Regional Field Office -East
LEVEL OF CONTACT WITH CHILDREN
- High contract: Job requires interaction with children while collecting data for monitoring, evaluation, research and feedback purpose
Say Yes ! To Keeping Children and Young people safe and Protected
Application Deadline: Friday 27th January 2023.
Source: Kantipur Dainik, 14 January, 2023
