The following job description is for a post to be proposed in a current proposal. This post will only be filled if this proposal is successful.
Position: Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (Proposal)
Location: Washington DC (most likely)
Project Duration: The duration of this Project will be five years.
Project Summary: The Project Objective is to support the introduction, scale-up and further development of high impact maternal and child (MCH) interventions, including the program approaches to effectively deliver those interventions, to achieve measurable reductions in under-five and maternal mortality and morbidity. In the context of its objective, the Maternal Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP) will merge the functions of the following USAID/GH programs, ACCESS, BASICS III, Immunization BASICS, POPPHI and CSTS+, upon their completion, to improve programmatic and administrative efficiency and effectiveness and to respond to evolving global MCH needs.
MCH sub-elements under the Foreign Assistance framework identify proven, high-impact interventions that can, if implemented strategically and effectively at scale in high mortality burden countries, measurably reduce maternal, perinatal, and neonatal and child mortality and morbidity. Interventions supported under MCHIP will respond to all these MCH sub-elements, focusing on the following: (1) Birth Preparedness and Maternity Services; (2) Treatment of obstetric complications and disabilities; (3) Newborn care and treatment; (4) Immunization; (5) Maternal and young child nutrition, including micronutrients; (6) Treatment of child illness; (7) Household level water, sanitation, hygiene and environment; (8) Governance/Finance; (9) Anti-microbial resistance; (10) Building host-country information capacity, and (11) Program design and learning.
MCHIP will promote the further development of high impact MCH interventions by testing new approaches and tools for more effective implementation and adaptation in the field and conduct appropriate analyses to document the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of strategies to deliver proven interventions.
MCHIP will also include program approaches that link MCH interventions with other important USG health programming, including HIV/AIDS (through connecting maternal health interventions with PMTCT and care/treatment of HIV-positive women, and child health interventions with identification, follow-up, care, and treatment of HIV-exposed and infected children); malaria (especially outreach activities, malaria in pregnancy, and treatment of sick children); and family planning (especially birth spacing). MCHIP is, therefore, partially supportive of sub-elements of the HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Family Planning and Reproductive Health elements of the Foreign Assistance hierarchy. In addition MCHIP will serve as one vehicle to better link MCH with other health-relevant interventions such as Title II food programs or improvements in water supply and sanitation infrastructure.
Position Summary: The M&E Specialist has overall responsibility for providing coordination and leadership for monitoring and evaluation of the five-year award. This person will carry out both formative (pre-intervention) and summative research (post-intervention). While post-Project research will sum up the Project’s accomplishments in an accurate, objective way, the research carried out during the Project is meant to contribute to Project success. M&E is an essential management tool, allowing Project leaders to assess progress against benchmarks and make changes that improve outcomes and move toward success. This pending Project is designed to achieve definite objectives, and M&E will be essential to reaching those objectives by monitoring progress at regular intervals. As such the M&E Specialist is a part of the Project management team.
Essential Job Functions: Plan and oversee M&E activities in three major phases, ensuring effective use of epidemiological and programmatic data in decision-making:
I. Setting up the system. Develop the overall framework for project M&E in accordance to the project document M&E plan. ? Conduct readiness assessment regarding M&E. What are the incentives at the system level, which are the beneficiaries, what is the existing capacity? ? Identify the core information needs of central project management, coalition partners, funding agencies and the cooperating institutions. ? Identify the requirements for collecting baseline data, prepare terms-of-reference for and arrange the conduct of a baseline survey, as required. ? Clarify M&E responsibilities of different project personnel. ? Contribute to the development of the annual work plan, ensuring alignment with project strategy, agreement on annual targets and inclusion of M&E activities in the work plan. ? Clarify processes for monitoring and evaluation on sub-grantees. ? Prepare detailed M&E budget ? Prepare calendar of M&E activities ? Identify other M&E staff that the project needs to contract. Guide recruitment. II. Implementation of M&E Oversee and execute M&E activities included in the Annual Work Plan, with particular focus on results and impacts as well as in lesson learning. ? Based on the annual work plan and in particular the program budgets, design the framework for the physical and process monitoring of project activities ? Promote a results-based approach to monitoring and evaluation, emphasizing results and impacts. ? Assist in the development of project reports. Guide staff and executing partners in preparing their progress reports in accordance with approved reporting formats and ensure their timely submission. This includes quarterly progress reports, annual project report, inception report, and ad-hoc technical reports. ? Prepare consolidated progress reports for project management including identification of problems, causes of potential bottlenecks in project implementation, and providing specific recommendations. ? Check that monitoring data are discussed in the appropriate forum and in a timely fashion in terms of implications for future action. If necessary, create such discussion forums to fill any gaps. ? Undertake regular visits to the field to support implementation of M&E and to identify where adaptations might be needed. ? Foster participatory planning and monitoring by training and involving primary stakeholder groups in the M&E of activities. ? Facilitate, act as resource person, and join if required any external supervision and evaluation missions. ? Monitor the follow up of evaluation recommendations ? Identify the need and draw up the ToRs for specific project studies. Recruit, guide and supervise consultants or organizations that are contracted to implement special surveys and studies required for evaluating project effects and impacts. ? Organize (and provide) refresher training in M&E for project and implementing partner staff, local organizations and primary stakeholders with view of developing local M&E capacity. III. Lessons learned Design and implement a system to identify, analyze, document and disseminate lessons learned. ? Consolidate a culture of lessons learning involving all project staff and allocate specific responsibilities. ? Ensure that ToR for consultants recruited by the project also incorporate mechanisms to capture and share lessons learned through their inputs to the project, and to ensure that the results are reflected in the reporting system described above. ? Document, package and disseminate lessons not less frequently than once every 12 months. ? Facilitate exchange of experiences by supporting and coordinating participation in any existing network projects sharing common characteristics. These networks would largely function on the basis of an electronic platform but could also entail other methods and tools such as workshops, teleconferences, etc. ? Identify and participate in additional networks, for example scientific or policy-based networks that may also yield lessons that can benefit project implementation. —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—- The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills, efforts, or working conditions associated with a job.
Education: Advanced advanced degree in public health, health sciences, or the social sciences.
Experience: Three (3) years + field based work experience, conducting M&E on large, multi-regional public-health programs and working with management to integrate research findings into project direction. Experience with MCH, HIV/AIDS, and/or malaria programs will be particularly valuable.
Skills: The M&E Specialist will have demonstrated skills in gathering reliable data from populations in developing countries and in presenting data to decision-makers as a part of a management process. To accomplish this, the M&E specialist should have at least several years of proven experience with: ? The logical framework approach and other strategic planning approaches; ? M&E methods and approaches (including quantitative, qualitative and participatory); ? Planning, design and implementation of M&E systems, tools, and guides; ? Training in M&E development and implementation and/or facilitating learning-oriented analysis sessions of M&E data with multiple stakeholders; ? Data and information analysis; ? Report writing; ? A solid understanding of environmental management , with a focus on participatory processes, joint management, and gender issues; ? Familiarity with and a supportive attitude towards processes of strengthening local organisations and building local capacities for self-management; ? Willingness to undertake regular field visits and interact with different stakeholders, especially primary stakeholders; ? Computer skills; ? Leadership qualities, personnel and team management (including mediation and conflict resolution); ? Language skills as required. Specific Knowledge Requirements: Research skills – surveys, focus groups, knowledge, practice and coverage studies – data analysis, and how to make effective presentations. Knowledge of EPIINFO, LQAS, 30-cluster sampling survey methodology, SPSS, and other statistical tools preferred.
Special Requirements: This job will require a criminal background check.
Working Environment/Conditions: Standard office environment. Frequent international travel required; must be willing to travel and work for periods of time to field project sites, including rural sites with few amenities.
Interested candidates should submit a resume and cover letter, referencing the job title in the subject, to . Deadline for applications is April 21st, 2008. We thank all respondents, but only those selected for an interview will be contacted. AA/EOE/M/F/D/V
