Monitoring and Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Senior Advisor
US-VA-Arlington
US-MA-Medford
Full time
*This position is eligible to be fully internationally remote*
This position provides technical support in Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning (MEL), and Health Management Information System (HMIS) within the Global Health Systems Innovation (GHSI)/ Strategic Information (SI) Unit, in the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) practice area and in collaboration with the Knowledge Management (KM) and Data and Digital Health (DDH) practice areas.
The MEL Senior Advisor leads activities in MEL conducted by SI across the MSH portfolio especially in francophone countries. S/he uses a client-centered approach, serving MSH Projects so they design and implement state-of-the-art MEL systems and activities, use information for decision-making, improving performance, and maximizing and measuring health impact. The MEL Senior Advisor participates in the strengthening of local (national) MEL and HMIS systems in close collaboration with KM and DDH. The MEL Senior Advisor provides direct support and strategically guide selected field projects in MEL throughout the project life cycle, including developing and implementing MEL plans, ensuring data quality, ensuring data use, actively monitoring work plan implementation activities, strengthening the capacity of teams, supporting reporting process and development of other technical products, etc.
The MEL Senior Advisor participate in developing the culture of data use for decision making within the organization and support the development of standards and guidance.
The MEL Senior Advisor develops capacity of MSH staff in designing, conceptualizing, and conducting implementation and/or operational research (IR/OR) in technical areas of priority and relevance to MSH projects and performs quantitative and qualitative analyses using a variety of statistical methodologies.
The MEL Senior Advisor works with technical teams and researchers to ensure adherence to MSH’s policy for protection of human subjects participating in applied research conducted by MSH. The MEL Senior Advisor develops and implements effective dissemination approaches for applied research findings for strengthening their use in project implementation, performance improvement, and evidence-based policy development and implementation.
The position reports to the MEL Practice area lead.
EDUCATION
Required: Master’s Degree in Public Health, Sciences, economics or Statistics.
Preferred: PhD in a similar field, and/or major in Health Information Systems.
EXPERIENCE
Required: At least 8 years of related experience.
Preferred: At least 2 years living and working in an LMIC
KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
Required:
- Fluency in French and English (written and oral) required.
- Sound understanding of the status of MEL systems and practices in low and mid-income countries (LMICs), and knowledge on how HIS links with M&E.
- Demonstrated capacity to develop, manage, and enhance MEL systems and activities in LMICs throughout the project life cycle, with proven experience to assess and propose development plans and deliver direct
- technical assistance to strengthen MEL teams and systems in LMICs.
- Experience with global level health projects in MEL and in knowledge management and working as part of an integrated support team.
- Experience with developing MEL sections of proposals and technical products.
- Expertise in Implementation/Operational Research in LMIC (design, IRB approval, data collection, analysis, budgeting, reporting writing, abstracts, papers, etc.)
- Understanding of DHIS 2, use and functionality.
- Expertise in data management systems such as Excel and MS Access.
- Proven expertise in statistical package softwares for quantitative data analysis (SPSS, STATA, R, etc.), and in qualitative data analysis (NVivo, ATLAS. ti, etc.)
- Experience living or working in developing countries to understand program context, field realities, and technical needs.
- Excellent writing, analytical, organizational and communications skills, including organizing, scanning, summarizing and presenting information.
- Demonstrated time management skills.
- Enjoys learning; a team player and a self-starter who can use her/his own initiative to identify useful work.
Preferred:
- Demonstrated knowledge of pharmaceutical related MEL and information systems in LMICs and how to enhance those is an asset.
- Demonstrated knowledge of DHIS2, functionality, configuration, and technical programming.
COMPETENCIES
- Demonstrated ability to lead innovative francophone portfolio in MEL and learning and in HMIS, to learn and follow the latest lessons learned concerning MEL and HMIS in LMICs.
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with professional colleagues from multiple units and within various socio-cultural contexts.
- Demonstrated ability to build capacity of teams in LMICs and at the home office.
- Demonstrated flexibility and openness in responding to changing work priorities and environment, and working under tight deadlines.
- Demonstrated competence to assess priorities and solve problems using innovative, evidence-based solutions.
- Highly detail-oriented, meticulous, and consistent in the execution of his/her work.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities and projects at a time.
- Demonstrated ability to proactively identify areas that need support and constructively come up with solutions to address these.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS
Keyboard use, pulling drawers, lifting papers <10 lbs.
Travel requirements: up to 35%.