Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator at Plan International

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Monitoring and Evaluation Co-ordinator will oversee Plan Kenya monitoring and evaluation activities across country wide assignments to drive Business Development, Data Quality Assurance and specific data requirements for projects/programmes including tracking, documentation and reporting on outcomes and impact of our activities. The Monitoring and Evaluation Co-ordinator will share their learning across the organisation and help facilitate and share learning in other departments and hubs. Expected to champion country-wide integration of practices that support knowledge capture and transfer, collaboration, learning and knowledge sharing, and adaptive management so that the knowledge and experience acquired from projects are shared and applied more intentionally and strategically by staff, partners, and other relevant stakeholders.

ACCOUNTABILITIES AND MAIN WORK ACTIVITIES

The Monitoring and Evaluation Co- Ordinator will have the following duties and responsibilities:

 Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (30%):

• Take a lead role in the development and execution of a functional M&E framework on the projects based on tracking of outcomes and impacts
• Ensure the activity monitoring logs are well kept in a quick and easy to access and retrieve
• Design and implementation of the programme monitoring and evaluation framework and information system to track delivery against targets, outcomes and impacts
• Analysis of data collected for assessment of progress and areas of improvement and overall data management
• Advances organisation research agenda and works with project teams and M&E Manager to identify and roll out research initiatives and evaluate activities, using appropriate ethical principles and methods.
• Promoting learning and knowledge sharing of best practices and lessons learned.
• Support in developing monitoring tools to track program performance in line with the Theory of Change and the M&E Plan.
• Develop monitoring and evaluation frameworks such as log frame, M&E Plan, results indicators and indicator tracking table for the project for quality tracking of achievement of results.
• Monitor and evaluate overall progress on achievement and sustainability of results.
• Manage and conduct quantitative and qualitative monitoring, evaluations and studies among program beneficiaries and other stakeholders.
• Identify areas of technical support to project partners and Organize refresher trainings on M&E for partners as required.
• Participate and contribute to the CO research initiatives.
• Conduct capacity assessment on existing monitoring and evaluation system and work with the teams to develop technical skills /competencies in using the systems to track results. 
• Ensure that MERL initiatives adhere to ethical standards set out in Plan Ethical guidelines and Ethical clearance committees in Kenya and the National Commission for Science, technology and Innovation (Nacosti).

Reporting and Quality Assurance – 20%

• Ensure that all completed MERL reports meet the highest quality and are duly signed off before they are shared.
• Tracks implementation of indicators and sets of measures of sustainability and success to generate reliable evidence and propose recommendations for improvement.
• Uses on-going project monitoring and assessment reports, working closely with project teams to improve the quality of implementation and adapt project design.
• Provides inputs, information and statistics for quarterly, annual and other reports to Project Management.
• Support in application of strategies to the Project Management for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the project by identifying ad dealing with bottlenecks.
• Employs data quality management standards though use of appropriate data collection tools, data management and analysis methods.
• Ensures adherence to M&E standards, Research and evaluation standards and all M&E cooperate standards at the Program Unit. 
• Establishes and manages a performance monitoring and evaluation framework with specific goals, outcomes, inputs, outputs, processes, indicators, data needs and sources as well as reporting templates and frequency, for effective monitoring, reporting and updating of the progress of programmes and projects. 
• In liaison with project teams, coordinate periodic reporting, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annual progress on all project activities to the M&E Manager/Project Manager.

Documentation, Data management, Learning and Knowledge management (20%) 

• Establishes an inquisitive learning culture within PIK through leading the capacity building efforts in M&E
• Supports project teams to develop case studies, change/impact stories to inform projects achievements 
• Provide advice to the partners and project team on improving project performance using M&E findings.
• Develops an internal mechanism while liaising with the knowledge management specialist of sharing of documents across the hub and the country programs 
• Leads and conducts analysis of quantitative data as well as qualitative data on all program inputs, outputs and outcomes to inform project designs
• Dissemination of Monitoring Reports for internal and external audiences
• Supports the MERL Manager to respond to Senior Management or donor data queries in an -accurate and timely manner.
• Creates, establishes and maintains programme level monitoring tools and databases that are mainstreamed to existing systems and aligned with programme design 
• Develops and maintains an updated database of all completed interventions and periodically carry out meta-analysis of the information.
• Ensures all the data is disaggregated by sex, age and disability and that all the studies are gender responsive.
• Responsible for supporting from a gender perspective, data collection, analysis and utilization across all programs at the hub level, based on the agreed tools developed and approved by MERL Manager.
• Ensures that project and program teams utilise the country-based data collection tools and observe data quality controls.
• Facilitates and supports the documentation of best practices and lessons learned from project outputs for audiences within and outside Plan International.
• Leads the program teams in developing case studies, change stories annually for publication in a professional journal.
• Identifies and documents interventions and initiatives, and knowledge management products that can be replicated or scaled up.

Business Development and Fund raising (20%)

• Continuously monitor and analyse the implementation environment in Kenya, donor trends and advise on potential areas for fund raising.
• Work with the technical team in program development and innovation.
• Document/package needs assessment data, projects results, evaluations and lessons learned for each Country Strategy Thematic pillar – to demonstrate value add and inform program design.  
• Support in proposal development.
• Collect data to continually inform increasing humanitarian needs in the Country program.

 Safeguarding Children and Young People (Safeguarding) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) 5%

• Understands and puts into practice the responsibilities under Safeguarding and GEI policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), ensuring that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.
• Leads the orientation of programme staff to ensure that they are properly inducted on and understands their role in upholding Plan International’s safeguarding and GEI policies;
• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in project design, during implementation and as principles applied in day-to-day work of Programme team; 
• Ensures that Plan Kenya contributes to Plan International’s global efforts to ensure safeguarding and GEI, including making sure that relevant reporting and data are submitted.  

Other duties (5%)

• Take charge of other responsibilities as may be assigned by the supervisor 

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

Qualifications/ experience essential:

• Minimum of a University Degree in Social Science, Economics, statistics, development studies or any other related field from a recognized university. 
• At least 4 years of demonstrated successful coordination of M&E functions and experience 
• Grounded understanding of qualitative and quantitative methodologies in research and evaluation.
• Experience with evaluations/research logistics, administration and/or project or research management. 
• Demonstrated understanding of knowledge management principles and capacity to deliver knowledge management and/or organizational learning activities
• Experience with database design and management including advanced use of Excel and data analysis and entry packages including at minimum SPSS, Stata, R, Epi info, Atlas-Ti, CSpro and the use of KOBO Collect platforms for data collection.
• Excellent written and spoken English, including the ability to write clear and engaging reports.
• Strong demonstrable levels of knowledge of and experience with gender sensitive research design, performance monitoring, impact evaluation, and / or social and environmental research methodologies 

Qualifications/ experience desirable: 

• Evidence of experience in development of longitudinal real time data bases including online application for management of data 
• Experience in advising / coaching individuals, teams and / or organisations in M&E system design, research methodologies, research design
• Previous experience with mobile data collection (KOBO, ODK, CsPro) and GIS mapping an asset.
• Experience in the application of MERL systems and frameworks including theory of change and logical frameworks 
• Background in monitoring and evaluation of development programs, application of statistical methods, impact evaluations and field research experience is preferred; Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with institutional, government, and private sector partners and stakeholders

Languages required

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English. Knowledge of Kiswahili, desirable