There is no shortage of work opportunities in monitoring, evaluation, and learning, aka MEL, on Devex’s job board, with several new opportunities featured weekly. Yet, despite this ongoing demand, the field reports a shortage of skilled professionals to meet the need.
So, what does the role involve, and what are the skills needed? “Essentially, I collect data and tell meaningful stories from that data,” Josephine Zingani, a Malawi-based MEL officer and programs focal point at FRIDA, the Young feminist Fund, told Devex.
MEL involves designing and implementing frameworks to measure the impact and progress of programs while also ensuring the process in which data is being collected and measured is equitable, participatory, and aligns with the overall organizational framework and strategy, Zingani noted. "Always remember that while it’s a data collection process for you, it’s someone’s lived experience.”