Principal Consultant - MEL

Social network you want to login/join with:

Supporting clients in fragile and conflict-affected states to deliver stability, peace, security, and justice. Contribute to the success of CA by delivering profitable business results and building CA’s reputation as ‘go to’ provider for humanitarian and stabilisation solutions.

Main Job Purpose

Reporting to the Director of CRRU, the Principal Consultant, MEL will be housed within our Crisis Response and Recovery Unit but will work collaboratively across all technical teams within the Sustainability and Impact Cluster. The Principal Consultant MEL will lead on monitoring and evaluation, ensuring that learning and adaptability are at the core of our project design and implementation. The ideal candidate will bring a robust methodology to advise our MEL activities, drive innovation in how we measure impact, and foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement. They will be adept at managing multiple priorities, and have the ability to work independently.

Main Responsibilities of Role

Quality assurance and support for MEL on Projects (approx. 60%)

1. Working across a strategic selection of projects with a significant MEL component, provide oversight and quality assurance to project teams, stepping in with hand-on support when needed.
2. Lead or support project MEL staff to design and implement MEL plans that align with project goals and objectives, ensuring timely and effective monitoring and evaluation of project activities.
3. Lead or support project MEL staff to utilise innovative and efficient methodologies for data collection, analysis, and reporting to ensure projects adapt based on findings and evidence.
4. Lead or support project MEL staff to communicate results and learnings to project teams and stakeholders, facilitating data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
5. Support the identification of additional internal and external expertise to support MEL on projects where needed.

Support Business Winning (approx. 30%)

1. Contribute to proposal development on our key strategic bids by designing MEL frameworks that strengthen our bids, demonstrating our commitment to accountability and impact measurement.
2. Engage with donors and partners to understand their MEL requirements and ensure our approaches align with their expectations and standards.
3. Collaborate with BD colleagues to strengthen the documentation of evidence and insights from past and ongoing projects to showcase our achievements and capabilities in achieving desired outcomes.
4. Support the identification of additional internal and external expertise to support MEL on bids where needed.

Organisational Capacity Building (approx. 10%)

1. Stay abreast of latest trends, tools, and best practices in MEL to continuously improve our methodologies and approaches.
2. Offer targeted MEL capacity-building sessions for project teams, utilising online platforms and resources to maximise reach and efficiency. Focus on building a basic understanding of MEL principles, data collection, and analysis techniques.
3. Together with Practice Leads, foster a culture of learning and accountability across the organisation, ensuring that all team members understand the value and importance of MEL in achieving our mission.
4. Serve as the go-to expert for MEL, providing guidance and support to project teams and ensuring that MEL is seamlessly integrated into all aspects of our work.

About you

1. Master’s Degree and/or Professional Qualification (or equivalent) in a relevant discipline such as social science or equivalent work experience, data analysis desirable.
2. Ideally 10+ years of professional experience in monitoring, evaluation, and learning, preferably in the humanitarian or development sector.
3. Demonstrated success in designing and implementing MEL plans for complex projects.
4. Substantial experience working on donor-funded projects and programmes in low- and middle-income countries, including working with governments.
5. Experience of MEL for complex, adaptive programmes with a focus on the use of evidence to inform programming.
6. Strong conceptual knowledge about theories of change, results frameworks, indicator development and reporting, data quality assurance, mobile data collection, and identifying lessons learned.
7. Experience in developing and operationalising a comprehensive MEL plan and developing and operationalising routine monitoring system designed to track both output and outcome indicators.
8. Strong quantitative background and expertise – study design, tool design, data management, analysis, and presentation of findings.
9. Strong qualitative background and experience in qualitative and participatory approaches to MEL, qualitative data collection (focus group discussions & interviews), data analysis and presentation.
10. Experience in capacity building, training and mentoring, including facilitating and managing MEL workshops and participatory events.
11. Experience in gender, equity and social inclusion in relation to MEL is desirable.
12. Experience in working within at least one of the core practice areas of Crown Agents; crisis response and recovery or the health sector.

#J-18808-Ljbffr