Programme Performance and Learning Coordinator at Action Aid

Context:

ActionAid Ireland’s strategy 2022-2027 sets out the organisation’s vision for a just and caring world where women’s human rights are respected through addressing the structural causes of Gender Based Violence (GBV), promoting women’s leadership in humanitarian contexts and amplifying feminist alternatives on economic and climate justice. ActionAid Ireland’s strategy also makes clear commitments to anti-racism, shifting power and decolonisation, embedding learning and evaluation and safeguarding. The programme’s team is essential to delivering this strategy. It is comprised of the Head of Programmes, GBV Programme Coordinator (to be recruited), a Programme and Policy Officer and a consultant, all working closely with Women’s Rights Officers and Country Directors in partner countries. The team’s portfolio includes programming primarily in the Global South with some work in Ireland.

Currently, AAIreland’s largest programme is the Women’s Rights Programme III (WRP III) 2023-2027, funded by Irish Aid, and implemented across three countries Kenya, Nepal and Ethiopia. This programme aims to achieve equal opportunities for women in safe communities. It builds on the success of WRP II and focuses on three key outcomes across the three countries a) reduction in GBV for women and girls and 2) greater economic justice for women in marginalised communities and 3) greater resilience of women and youth to adapt to climate change impacts and advocate for climate justice. Country teams from ActionAid manage the day-to-day implementation of the programme while AAIreland manages the relationship with Irish Aid, provides technical support to the country teams and implements a Global Citizenship Education (GCE) programme in Ireland to raise awareness and engage the public in women’s rights in the global south. Within the scope of this programme, the Programme Performance and Learning (PPL) Coordinator is responsible for the design and development of a MEL system that is adaptive and tailored to the programme across Ethiopia, Kenya and Nepal. The PPL Coordinator is also responsible for Irish Aid’s reporting requirements. The Coordinator will work closely with monitoring, evaluation and learning staff in Ethiopia, Kenya and Nepal and take the lead in ensuring programme quality across all activities. The PPL coordinator will be responsible for managing and developing tools and methodologies, in line with approaches that prevent, mitigate and respond to GBV, Human Rights Based Approach and Behaviour Change approach. They will support systematic evidence-based monitoring and learning across the three countries, strengthening the capacity of programme staff and partners, and ensuring reporting requirements are met at country level. They will also play a lead role in coordinating Irish Aid’s Results Framework and drafting Irish Aid’s narrative report, ensuring alignment between the two. In addition, the PPL Coordinator will support the Communications and Campaigns Manager in monitoring and evaluating impact in the GCE programme.

Key Accountabilities and Deliverables

Programmatic support

Monitoring, Evidence and Learning:

•  Outline AA Ireland’s position on adaptive management and how it relates to results-based management both in theory and practice.
•  Implement a MEL system that is adaptive and tailored to the programme, including mid-term evaluation and final evaluation.
•  Ensure MEL practices are rooted in participatory and feminist approaches.
•  Be the central point of contact on MEL processes and quality programming.
•  Facilitate effective coordination and collaboration between country teams.
•  Ensure country teams have input in and ownership of new tools and methodologies.
•  Ensure that relevant crosscutting issues as established by the Federation are integrated in the MEL system and monitored throughout the programme period.

Documentation and reporting

•  Maintain and manage a documentation repository of all MEL related materials
•  Systematically capture targeting criteria for identifying hard-to-reach women and girls and promote disaggregated data by both age and sex as well other intersectionality factors across the programme.
•  Support programme teams to monitor and measure progress and learning against indicators in their results framework
•  Support country teams to meet all reporting requirements for the donor.
•  Provide analysis and constructive feedback to country teams on their reports.
•  Lead on the consolidation of monitoring data across the programme to ensure reporting against indicators set out in the programme results framework.
•  Facilitate high quality narrative country report submissions within agreed timelines, in close collaboration with AAIreland Head of Programmes and country teams
•  Support the development and finalisation of the annual report for the donor, in collaboration with AAIreland Head of Programmes and the wider programmes team.

Learning

•  Promote a culture of reflection and learning (both formal and informal) throughout programme implementation.
•  Work in coordination with AA Ireland programmes team and country teams to develop a learning agenda for WRP III and establish a community of practice to ensure regularcross-country sharing.
•  Support the programme team and country teams to commission, conduct and manage research that contributes to the implementation of the WRP III

Organisational support  

• Support the Head of Programmes in the development of a new Programme Strategy and ensure a clear monitoring system to guide implementation
•  Document and share learning outcomes that emerge across the programme portfolio.
•  Contribute to and support the production of external publications, especially case studies, success stories, lessons learned that support evidence-based policy analysis and recommendations.
•  Represent Action Aid Ireland at external conferences and events.
•  Stay up to date on emerging debates and thinking on MEL, especially adaptive approaches.
•  Develop and maintain excellent working relationships with key stakeholders across the Federation
•  Participate in and facilitate MEL training as required.
•  Ensure all MEL and research activities are conducted in line with agreed ethical principles, and consistently promote women’s rights and downwards accountability to beneficiaries
•  Be willing to carry out any other duties that are within the scope of MEL for AA Ireland

Values  

• To espouse Action Aid’s social justice and equality values
•  To practice and promote Feminist Leadership Principles

Key Relationships

Internal

• Participate and actively contribute to the MEL community network (EAGLES)

External

• Participate in the Dochas Results Working Group
• Engage with networks and groups advancing participatory approaches, adaptive programming and other relevant practices.

Experience, Knowledge, and Expertise
Essential Desirable

•  Educated to Masters degree level in the fields of Gender, Social Science, Development Studies, Human Rights, Governance or other relevant humanities.
•  At least 5 years’ experience in a similar role in Africa or Asia working with women’s rights, gender equality and or GBV MEL.
•  Substantial experience of providing leadership, support and guidance on participatory monitoring, evaluation and learning across development programmes/projects – particularly in multi-country settings.
•  Strong technical skills in MEL and coordination skills and ability to motivate teams.
•  Strong communication and negotiation skills, with excellent written and spoken English.
•  Knowledge and experience of adaptive approaches and thinking and working politically.
•  Ability to travel regularly to and within programme countries, including Ireland.
•  Applied knowledge of the programme cycle including context analysis and problem analysis, design, planning and management, and monitoring and evaluation.
•  Strong training and facilitation skills and ability to identify capacity building needs.
•  Strong networking/relationship-building skills to work well with and influence diverse stakeholders in a multi-cultural environment
•  Strong ability to work in a very participative manner with programme participants and facilitate their inputs into programme design and monitoring.
•  A post graduate qualification in a related field
•  Dedicated experience working on research in a related field.
•  Experience working on feminist approaches, human rights, access to justice, climate justice or economic justice.
•  Experience in working effectively with civil society in Africa and Asia.
•  A working knowledge of a language relevant to ActionAid Ireland’s programme countries.
•  Excellent skills in information/data analysis, including consolidation and analysis of data across countries; excellent skills in report writing.
•  Excellent problem-solving skills, resourcefulness to understand and synthesise diverging points of view and resolve conflicts without escalation.
•  Energetic, enthusiastic, and interested in learning within a political, changing and diverse work environment.
•  Excellent communication skills (verbal and written) in English to work well in a cross-regional and multi-cultural context.

About you

You are an experienced programme advisor that understands programme cycle management and is committed to innovative and effective ways to deliver high quality programmes. You are committed to gender transformative programming to achieve sustainable change in women’s lives. You value evidence-based data collection and learning as an integral element of programme implementation. You are deeply committed to women’s rights and the inclusion and active participation of women in identifying and communicating change. You build strong working relationships, have a collaborative spirit of working and value people of diverse backgrounds and cultures.