Regional Coordinator, Monitoring and Evaluation
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 life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 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.
The Syria crisis is often described as the worst humanitarian catastrophe since the end of the Cold War. Inside Syria, 6.5 people are internally displaced and 9.3 million are in need of humanitarian assistance. Today’s 2.4 million refugees are expected to increase to 4.1 million by the end of 2014. This is no short-term humanitarian episode. The devastating human consequences to huge numbers of people will endure for decades. The destruction of relatio nships, communities, livelihoods, homes and infrastructure will take years to repair.
The IRC is offering a robust humanitarian response to the Syria crisis. With an annual budget in excess of $100 million and a rapidly expanding portfolio, supported by nearly 1000 staff, IRC is undertaking programs in Syria and the neighboring countries of Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan in the fields of health, child protection, education, women’s protection and empowerment, NFI and food distribution, cash assistance, water and sanitation, and livelihood programming.
Summary of position
The Regional Coordinator M&E will provide strategic, technical and managerial leadership for the IRC’s monitoring and evaluation efforts. IRC’s Syria crisis response demands M&E standards, systems and practices that will increase its capacity to produce, measure and demonstrate improvements in program performance and results, internal management, a nd data-based decision making.
IRC undertakes its programs directly or in partnership with other organizations, and is committed to building capacity in these partner organizations as needed. The Regional Coordinator, M&E will assist country programs in increasing the capabilities of partner organizations’ staff to implement M&E systems, tool and practices consistently to improve program quality and impact.
The Coordinator provides technical input and review for M&E components of project proposals.
This position is a member of the regional management team and has a substantial level of autonomy in execution of responsibilities. Reporting to the Deputy Regional Director, the Regional Coordinator, M&E does not make strategic decisions; rather, through his/her efforts decisions made by others are informed by evidence and best practices.
Primary Responsibilities
* Lead development and implem entation of a regional M&E strategy that ensures technically sound and consistent approaches to:
- Indicator development across programs and countries
- On-going routine monitoring of program activities, including within Syria where direct access by IRC staff is limited
- Assessments of beneficiary needs
- Evaluations of program performance, effectiveness and impact
- Data collection, including digital data collection where feasible
- Data storage and its secure accessibility by project staff and country/regional management
* Develop and/or participate in development of guidance and frameworks for regional procedures, policies and processes that will institutionalize and support high-quality monitoring, evaluation, analysis and reporting of performance, results and impact.
* In collaboration with technical advisors, support deployment and use of M&E guidance and tools for primary programming sectors in the region.
* Design, coordinate and/or deliver cohesive custom-tailored training and capacity building activities for country offices and partner organizations that transfers and enhances capacity to implement the M&E strategy, with a focus on:
- Monitoring of project activities, ensuring that activities are carried out as planned or adapted to changed circumstances
- Assessments of beneficiary needs with tools and methodologies that are appropriate, so that results are actionable and easily communicated
- Evaluation of projects, ensuring that activities are effectively and responsively addressing beneficiary needs
* Collaborate with technical teams and country offices to implement the IRC program data platform.
* Provide hands-on technical assistance to country offices by contributing to or reviewing project proposals, as well as leading or supporting project assessments, mid-term, final or impact project evaluat ions.
* Support and mentor country program staff in assessing and building partner organizations’ capacity to use M&E systems to improve program quality; collaborate with country program staff to identify and develop action plans to strengthen local partner capacity based on the assessment results.
* Establish and maintain mechanisms for capturing, analyzing, reporting, sharing and applying M&E findings, information, lessons learned, and best practices among regional and country office staff.
* Contribute actively to an M&E learning community within IRC, support efforts to enhance agency M&E systems and standards across the organization, and coordinate with colleagues in HQ and other regions in developing best practices and sharing lessons learned.
* Represent the technical content of M&E systems externally to donors and other organizations; support country office and regional staff in their dialogue with key donors.
Qualifications
Professional Qualifications:
- Experienced professional with a minimum of 8 years working at a senior level of M&E design and implementation. Experience required in contemporary qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method evaluations involving USAID, DFID, other major international donor programs.
- Thorough familiarity with principles and current approaches to M&E using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
- Demonstrated significant experience in monitoring and evaluation for large and complex programs, providing specific, sound, and rigorous M&E technical assistance.
- Extensive experience in developing baseline research, logic models, data collection and analysis, mid-term evaluation, and outcome evaluation, and in coaching program staff in the cost effective use of these M&E tools.
- Understanding of donor expectations and trends for M&E.
- Demonstrated ability to transfer knowledge to diverse audiences through training, mentoring, and other formal and non-formal methods.
- High level of English-language proficiency (speaking, reading, writing); Arabic proficiency strongly preferred.
- Adept at illustrating and communicating the important narratives embedded in textual and quantitative data.
- Proficient in relevant qualitative and quantitative software and tools for evaluation.
Education:
- Graduate degree in operations research, quantitative analysis, public policy, economics, or other social science fields, with advanced training in rigorous empirical research and evaluation methodologies.
Personal Competencies:
- Skilled in influencing and obtaining cooperation of individuals not under supervisory control; able to work as member of multinational team and manage long-distance relationships to achieve results.
- Position requires flexibility and the capacity to deal with ambiguity, changes and “patches” until region-wide M&E systems and standards are in place.
- Ability to engage and motivate staff and partners in a challenging new area.
- Demonstrated strengths in relationship management with a strong client service focus; able to work with diverse groups of people in multi-cultural, team-oriented environment in a politically and culturally sensitive manner.
- Self-motivated and able to work without close supervision.
- Able to prioritize work, multi-task and meet deadlines
- Excellent organization and planning skills.
- Willingness and ability to travel approximately 40% of time.
- Prior experience in the regional context preferred.
The Syria crisis is often described as the worst humanitarian catastrophe since the end of the Cold War. Inside Syria, 6.5 people are internally displaced and 9.3 million are in need of humanitarian assistance. Today’s 2.4 million refugees are expected to increase to 4.1 million by the end of 2014. This is no short-term humanitarian episode. The devastating human consequences to huge numbers of people will endure for decades. The destruction of relatio nships, communities, livelihoods, homes and infrastructure will take years to repair.
The IRC is offering a robust humanitarian response to the Syria crisis. With an annual budget in excess of $100 million and a rapidly expanding portfolio, supported by nearly 1000 staff, IRC is undertaking programs in Syria and the neighboring countries of Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan in the fields of health, child protection, education, women’s protection and empowerment, NFI and food distribution, cash assistance, water and sanitation, and livelihood programming.
Summary of position
The Regional Coordinator M&E will provide strategic, technical and managerial leadership for the IRC’s monitoring and evaluation efforts. IRC’s Syria crisis response demands M&E standards, systems and practices that will increase its capacity to produce, measure and demonstrate improvements in program performance and results, internal management, a nd data-based decision making.
IRC undertakes its programs directly or in partnership with other organizations, and is committed to building capacity in these partner organizations as needed. The Regional Coordinator, M&E will assist country programs in increasing the capabilities of partner organizations’ staff to implement M&E systems, tool and practices consistently to improve program quality and impact.
The Coordinator provides technical input and review for M&E components of project proposals.
This position is a member of the regional management team and has a substantial level of autonomy in execution of responsibilities. Reporting to the Deputy Regional Director, the Regional Coordinator, M&E does not make strategic decisions; rather, through his/her efforts decisions made by others are informed by evidence and best practices.
Primary Responsibilities
* Lead development and implem entation of a regional M&E strategy that ensures technically sound and consistent approaches to:
- Indicator development across programs and countries
- On-going routine monitoring of program activities, including within Syria where direct access by IRC staff is limited
- Assessments of beneficiary needs
- Evaluations of program performance, effectiveness and impact
- Data collection, including digital data collection where feasible
- Data storage and its secure accessibility by project staff and country/regional management
* Develop and/or participate in development of guidance and frameworks for regional procedures, policies and processes that will institutionalize and support high-quality monitoring, evaluation, analysis and reporting of performance, results and impact.
* In collaboration with technical advisors, support deployment and use of M&E guidance and tools for primary programming sectors in the region.
* Design, coordinate and/or deliver cohesive custom-tailored training and capacity building activities for country offices and partner organizations that transfers and enhances capacity to implement the M&E strategy, with a focus on:
- Monitoring of project activities, ensuring that activities are carried out as planned or adapted to changed circumstances
- Assessments of beneficiary needs with tools and methodologies that are appropriate, so that results are actionable and easily communicated
- Evaluation of projects, ensuring that activities are effectively and responsively addressing beneficiary needs
* Collaborate with technical teams and country offices to implement the IRC program data platform.
* Provide hands-on technical assistance to country offices by contributing to or reviewing project proposals, as well as leading or supporting project assessments, mid-term, final or impact project evaluat ions.
* Support and mentor country program staff in assessing and building partner organizations’ capacity to use M&E systems to improve program quality; collaborate with country program staff to identify and develop action plans to strengthen local partner capacity based on the assessment results.
* Establish and maintain mechanisms for capturing, analyzing, reporting, sharing and applying M&E findings, information, lessons learned, and best practices among regional and country office staff.
* Contribute actively to an M&E learning community within IRC, support efforts to enhance agency M&E systems and standards across the organization, and coordinate with colleagues in HQ and other regions in developing best practices and sharing lessons learned.
* Represent the technical content of M&E systems externally to donors and other organizations; support country office and regional staff in their dialogue with key donors.
Qualifications
Professional Qualifications:
- Experienced professional with a minimum of 8 years working at a senior level of M&E design and implementation. Experience required in contemporary qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method evaluations involving USAID, DFID, other major international donor programs.
- Thorough familiarity with principles and current approaches to M&E using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
- Demonstrated significant experience in monitoring and evaluation for large and complex programs, providing specific, sound, and rigorous M&E technical assistance.
- Extensive experience in developing baseline research, logic models, data collection and analysis, mid-term evaluation, and outcome evaluation, and in coaching program staff in the cost effective use of these M&E tools.
- Understanding of donor expectations and trends for M&E.
- Demonstrated ability to transfer knowledge to diverse audiences through training, mentoring, and other formal and non-formal methods.
- High level of English-language proficiency (speaking, reading, writing); Arabic proficiency strongly preferred.
- Adept at illustrating and communicating the important narratives embedded in textual and quantitative data.
- Proficient in relevant qualitative and quantitative software and tools for evaluation.
Education:
- Graduate degree in operations research, quantitative analysis, public policy, economics, or other social science fields, with advanced training in rigorous empirical research and evaluation methodologies.
Personal Competencies:
- Skilled in influencing and obtaining cooperation of individuals not under supervisory control; able to work as member of multinational team and manage long-distance relationships to achieve results.
- Position requires flexibility and the capacity to deal with ambiguity, changes and “patches” until region-wide M&E systems and standards are in place.
- Ability to engage and motivate staff and partners in a challenging new area.
- Demonstrated strengths in relationship management with a strong client service focus; able to work with diverse groups of people in multi-cultural, team-oriented environment in a politically and culturally sensitive manner.
- Self-motivated and able to work without close supervision.
- Able to prioritize work, multi-task and meet deadlines
- Excellent organization and planning skills.
- Willingness and ability to travel approximately 40% of time.
- Prior experience in the regional context preferred.
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