MEL Officer
Job Description and Person Specification
Location: Mbeya, South-West Tanzania
Reporting to: Executive Director of CST
Must be available in Dar es Salam w/c January 16th for project planning and meeting UK partners
Child Support Tanzania (CST) is a Tanzanian NGO based in Mbeya in the South-West of the country. CST is the only recognised inclusive early childhood education centre catering to the early learning needs of disabled children within the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, an area comprising nearly a quarter of Tanzania. For the past 10 years it has become essential to the community, widely known and with strong relationships with local government. In the absence of quality state education for disabled children, CST has been providing a vital service to children and families, whilst also aiming to bring about wider scale change through advocacy and training of primary schools for an even greater impact longer term.
CST, along with our UK based partner organisation AbleChildAfrica, will be implementing a new four year project with funding from Comic Relief UK through the ‘All in All Learning’ call 2016. We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated MEL Officer to lead on the monitoring, evaluation and learning of an innovative Inclusive Education project in Mbeya, South-West Tanzania. The project aims to bring Inclusive Education to some of the most marginalised children in the area using a participatory Child to Child approach. This approach puts children at the heart of all activities, including the identification and engagement with out of school disabled children in their communities, and believes children can be powerful advocates to improve understanding of disability in their schools and communities. Specifically, this project seeks to increase inclusion of disabled children in Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centres and support the successful transition of disabled children into mainstream primary education. The project also involves working alongside families, teachers and communities to lobby local and national government and advocate for inclusive education to be a priority issue and the Child to Child approach to be mainstreamed across national primary education services in Tanzania.
This is a four year scale-up project working with schools and communities in Mbeya, South-West Tanzania. You will be responsible for all project MEL alongside the support of a Project Coordinator. You will report to the Executive Director of CST, as well as maintaining a close working relationship with AbleChildAfrica in the UK.
Job Purpose
1) The effective management and measurement of ongoing project activities and outcomes for a four year project
2) Oversee high quality data collection with stakeholders at local, regional and international levels
3) Work with the Project Coordinator and CST Executive Director to evaluate and design project targets and outcomes
4) Complete high quality annual data and narrative reports to be submitted quarterly
Duties and responsibilities a) Develop an overall MEL plan and manage day to day operations of the MEL system, including support of project officers in continued implementation of MEL tools and instruments. b) Implement the monitoring and evaluation system and tools for the ongoing review of Child Support Tanzania Comic Relief project using approved indicators and targets, to measure progress and make recommendations for improvement. c) Establish a reliable and consistent set of outcome Indicators for all program activities d) Build the capacity of the staff team and Directors and members of Child Support Tanzania to actively participate in MEL. e) Ensure that the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and guidelines regarding MEL are developed and updated where necessary. f) Ensure regular data collection, conduct analysis of data and prepare reports in collaboration with the rest of the staff team.
g) Support the implementation of baseline and other surveys, such as project reviews, and mid-term and end-of-project reviews. h) Ensure compliance with the requirements of the reporting systems for preparing project reports as per the donor and partner formats/requirements. i) Prepare for presentation and distribution to stakeholders: data, lessons learnt best practices, and the statistical, qualitative, and anecdotal evidence. j) Write a variety of documents and analytical reports, e.g. data summaries, workshop reports, etc. k) Develop and ensure that the MEL databases are updated routinely. l) Contribute to strategic planning and regular liaison with CST staff members and partners. m) Synthesize and analyze data for summary and thematic reports on MEL findings
Start date: 1st February 2017.
Essential
Desirable University degree preferably in social sciences, international relations and/or development or other relevant discipline
Master’s degree in Education, Early Childhood Development, Social Sciences, Development Studies or Business Administration. At least 2 years’ relevant working experience in field of humanitarian/development MEL implementation
5 or more years managing MEL for projects for international NGOs, which are funded by large institutional donors and with experience cutting across 3 or more projects. Experience of managing MEL for a large institutional grant funded project, including experience of working outcome indicators and qualitative and quantitative data collection tools.
Experience of working in an organisation focusing on disability and /or development issues.
Experience designing MEL tools and instruments for education, disability and/or child-led programmes.
Understanding of the regional and cultural context of rural regions in Tanzania Exposure to a wide range of information management systems related to humanitarian and development activities.
Personal lived experience of disability or marginalisation. Fluency in Excel and advanced use of Word and PowerPoint and experience in use of large databases for data analysis and reporting
Experience parenting, or professionally working with children with disabilities.
Willingness to live in and travel in Mbeya, Tanzania for the duration of the project (4 years); flexibility with travel schedule and willingness to economize budget with travel arrangements.
Expertise in child protection and the additional risks faced by girls and by children with disabilities Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills in Swahili and English.
Knowledge of and experience with inclusive education
Understanding and commitment to the rights of children with disabilities
Experience working on a UK Donor funded project previously e.g. Comic Relief
Willingness to travel regionally and nationally on a regular basis
Experience in training and capacity building in MEL mechanisms at various project levels
4 year contract commitment.
Ability to make quick and smart judgments in recommending alternative solutions within changed ground scenarios
Excellent attention to detail; proven ability to multi-task and juggle the timely implementation of a heavy workload with multiple work streams.
Good understanding of donors’ requirements (incl. Comic Relief)
Application Deadline: 27th December 2016. Interviews held: 4th/5th January.
TO APPLY: 2 Page Cover Letter and 2 Page CV. Anything Above these page limits will not be considered.
Please write to:
The Executive Director,
Child SupportTanzania,
P. O. Box 1420,
Mbeya, Tanzania
Email: nmsuya@gmail.com
The closing date is: 10 am (Eastern Africa time) Tuesday 27th December 2016. So as to minimize administrative costs, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
CST strives to be an equal opportunities employer. CST is committed to equality of opportunity and to non-discrimination for all job applicants and employees, and we seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce regardless of gender, race, religious beliefs, nationality, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability. v
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