Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Director – CDC Strengthening Public Health Systems (Sierra Leone)

About Corus: Corus International is the parent of a family of world-class organizations working to deliver the holistic, lasting solutions needed to end extreme poverty once and for all. We are a global leader in international development, with 150 years of combined experience across our brands. Our nonprofit and for-profit subsidiaries include IMA World Health, Lutheran World Relief, CGA Technologies, Ground Up Investing, and Farmers Market Brands. Our more than 800 employees around the globe are experts in their fields and dedicated to helping the world's most vulnerable people break the cycle of poverty and lead healthy lives. Further details about the organization can be found at: https://corusinternational.org

Today, IMA offers extensive expertise in managing and implementing highly successful and complex donor-funded programs in global health security, nutrition, maternal and child health, health systems strengthening (HSS), malaria, HIV/AIDS, and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). IMA has managed an average of $100 million annually over the last four fiscal years, through grants and contracts from the United States Government, FCDO, World Bank, the Global Fund, UNDP, and private donors.

About The Job:

IMA World Health is seeking a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Director to lead an anticipated 5-year $41.5 million CDC-funded Strengthening Public Health Systems in Sierra Leone. The program's goal is to build and sustain a more resilient public health system in Sierra Leone in an effort to identify, respond and mitigate health threats. The program will build and improve country capacity and leadership in the prevention, early detection, and response to infectious disease threats, with, a special emphasis on core capabilities in data and surveillance, diagnostics, public health workforce and institutions, and prevention and response. The outcomes include preventing emerging threats, strengthening health security and transferring assistance activities to the government and the National Public Health Agency.

In coordination with the Program Director and under the supervision of Corus International's Director of Technical Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning Services, the Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Director will lead overall management and technical oversight of the MEL efforts for the project. S/he shall develop MEL systems that include appropriate indicators, baseline data, targets, and a plan to evaluate performance and produce timely, accurate and complete reporting. The MEL Director is responsible for project monitoring, conducting data analysis and interpretation of project data, and documenting and disseminating lessons learned and best practices. This position reports directly to the Program Director.

The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Director will be based in Freetown. Actual hiring is contingent upon successful agreement award and CDC approval.

Duties:

• Coordinate with the Program Director and partners in management of the MEL components, ensuring strategic planning of activities is informed by project and relevant government data sets.
• Lead the design and implementation of all monitoring, evaluation, and learning activities, including the development of the project's performance monitoring plan; development and monitoring of project indicators; implementation of project evaluation; quality assurance and auditing of data.

• Conducts analyses and contributes to the preparation of mandatory and ad hoc project reports (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, end-of-project) by capturing performance results and ensuring that lessons learned are integrated into project implementation to continuously improve the quality of interventions and results.

• Design and implement mechanisms for continuous collaboration, learning, and adapting for project staff, partners, donors, host country government counterparts, and other stakeholders.
• Oversee a team of monitoring, evaluation, and learning staff for the project and ensure clear roles and responsibilities and lines of communication are maintained amongst the team members.
• Ensure that lessons learned are integrated into project implementation to continuously improve quality of interventions and outcomes.
• Lead the design and implementation of operations research.
• Responsible for documenting and disseminating project successes and challenges to CDC.

• Ensure that data integrity and security standards and procedures are in place and comply with national monitoring and evaluation guidelines, protocols, information systems, and reporting requirements.

Requirements:

• An advanced degree in research methods, statistics, biostatistics, quantitative/qualitative data analysis, public health, social/behavioral sciences, or other relevant medical or health discipline.
• Minimum of 7 years of experience leading MEL efforts on CDC or other international donor-funded health projects, with substantial experience collecting, managing, analyzing and reporting on data expected.
• Extensive training on infectious disease prevention and mitigation is an asset.
• Demonstrated experience managing M&E systems, consistent with CDC protocols for data collection and reporting.
• Experience in managing DHIS2 and other databases, proficiency in IT tools and MS Office Suite.
• Proven capabilities in data and surveillance, diagnostics and/or public health workforce.
• Experience leading performance management and data utilization for quality improvement approaches across partners and technical focus areas to yield successful collaboration and integration.
• Strong quantitative, qualitative, and analytical skills, and ability to present technical information clearly and effectively to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Familiarity with USG administrative, management and reporting procedures and systems.
• Excellent communication skills, including written and oral presentation; proven ability to develop and communicate a common vision among various partners.
• In-depth knowledge of the political, social, and economic context and experience working in Sierra Leone are required.
• Experience collaborating closely with national governments.
• Ability to travel to project sites.