CARE seeks a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Lead for the anticipated USAID-funded Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) in Somalia to improve and sustain the food and nutrition security of vulnerable populations. This Activity will work at the individual, household, community, and institutional levels to address the underlying causes of food insecurity and malnutrition and strengthen transformative opportunities. The Activity is intended to strengthen resilience in populations vulnerable to acute, chronic hunger, and malnutrition; recurrent shocks, stresses, and crises; and to reduce the need for ongoing or future emergency food assistance.

The MEL Lead will design, direct and maintain project MEL systems. They will design the MEL framework, manage information flows, and report to the Chief of Party (COP). The Lead will supervise MEL reporting functions to systematically generate, share, synthesize and apply data for learning and adaptive management.

This position is pending donor approval and funding.

Location: Mogadishu, Somalia. This is an unaccompanied post location. Somali candidates are encouraged to apply.

Specific duties and responsibilities:

· Develop overall framework for project MEL systems including requirements, reporting, baseline, and evaluation surveys.

· Develop and monitor the project monitoring plan to systematically document project performance for technical leads and leadership team.

· Ensure alignment of M&E and Learning activities with program goals and annual work plans, contributing to the development of both.

· Conduct field visits for data validation, to monitor the quality and completeness of data sets.

· Coordinate data collection at project sites in order to monitor program quality, engage in adaptive decision-making, and support course corrections where required.

· Capture and document lessons learned to champion scale-up and disseminate best practices.

· Ensure timely and accurate submission of project reports to donors, including progress against targets set in the award agreement and annual work plan, and quarterly and annual reports.

· Provide technical leadership and support to project and partner staff in planning and implementing MEL systems and activities, data-based program decision-making, and results reporting.

· Conduct assessments, mid-term, final project evaluations to identify gaps, trends and areas for improvement and develop recommendations for learning and knowledge sharing.

· Design and implement community Feedback Complaints, Response and Mechanisms (FCRM)

· Develop and lead knowledge management systems to capture, document and share lessons learned best practices through various forms including facilitating communities of practice and social networking, to enhance organizational learning.

· Build and maintain strong partnerships and productive working relationships with internal teams, collaborative learning lead, partner organization and external stakeholders to promote collaboration and knowledge exchange.

· Represent the organization in relevant networks, conferences, and events to stay informed about industry trends and best practices.

Qualifications:

· University degree required. Masters degree in economics, statistics, demography, or related field required.

· 8+ years of senior-level experience in project monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning in a developing country setting.

· Previous experience managing M&E on USG-funded programs of a similar size and scope.

· Knowledge of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for M&E and data visualization skills.

· Leadership experience in organizational and peer-to-peer learning, capacity strengthening, and collaborative learning and adaptation. Familiarity with Participatory Learning and Action and other qualitative and quantitative research approaches.

· Familiarity with USAID Collaborating Learning and Adapting (CLA) approaches, policies and guidelines.

· Excellent presentation skills. Ability to translate complex ideas into easily accessible and understandable concepts and/or messages for diverse, non-technical audiences.

· Experience leading Developmental Evaluation (DE) approaches.

· Demonstrated commitment to principles of Gender Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, as evidenced in previous management positions and programming.

· Demonstrated commitment to Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Harassment (PSEAH).

· Track record of a strong commitment to sharing knowledge, documenting experiences, supporting creative initiatives, and sharing credit

· Fluency in English required; Somali language skills strongly preferred.