MEL Manager – CDC Health System Strengthening Activity (Global)

About Corus: Corus International is the parent of a family of world-class organizations working to deliver the holistic, lasting solutions needed to end extreme poverty once and for all. We are a global leader in international development, with 150 years of combined experience across our brands. Our nonprofit and for-profit subsidiaries include IMA World Health, Lutheran World Relief, CGA Technologies, Ground Up Investing, and Farmers Market Brands. Our more than 800 employees around the globe are experts in their fields and dedicated to helping the world's most vulnerable people break the cycle of poverty and lead healthy lives. Further details about the organization can be found at: https://corusinternational.org

Today, IMA offers extensive expertise in managing and implementing highly successful and complex donor-funded programs in global health security, nutrition, maternal and child health, health systems strengthening (HSS), malaria, HIV/AIDS, and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). IMA has managed an average of $100 million annually over the last four fiscal years, through grants and contracts from the United States Government, FCDO, World Bank, the Global Fund, UNDP, and private donors.

About the job:

IMA World Health, a member of Corus International, is seeking a Monitoring and Evaluation, Manager (M&E) to lead M&E efforts for an anticipated five-year, CDC-funded project titled Continuing to Enhance Global Health Security: Sustain Efforts and Strategies to Protect and Improve Public Health Globally.

The program's goal is to build upon activities funded by CDC to support Global Health Security (GHS) through implementation of programs and activities that focus on protecting and improving health globally through partnerships with Ministries of Health and other governmental institutions. This NOFO will build on lessons learned from the global COVID outbreak and other significant public health events. After ten years of implementing and strengthening global health security systems, the U.S. Government (USG) will continue to advance strategies to prevent, detect, and respond to public health threats. The activity's main outcomes are to: 1) Improve prevention of avoidable epidemics including naturally occurring outbreaks and intentional or accidental releases of dangerous pathogens; 2) Improve ability to rapidly detect threats early, including detecting characterizing, and reporting emerging biological threats; 3) Responding rapidly and effectively to public health threats of international concern.

In coordination with the MERL Director and under the supervision of the Program Director, the M&E Manager will:

• Oversee the design and implementation of the project's monitoring and evaluation plan and evaluation and performance monitoring plan (EPMP), including establishing performance targets and an approach for measuring progress towards key results;
• Oversee 1) primary evaluation and performance monitoring data collection (qualitative and quantitative), 2) data quality assessment and data validation technical assistance using health management information systems (HMIS) such as DHIS2, and 3) data analysis and interpretation of both secondary and primary data;
• Lead the analysis and interpretation of project data to ensure data can be used to inform key decisions in a timely manner;  Document and disseminate lessons learned, best practices, and other project deliverables;  
• Provide technical assistance to implementing partners and national and sub-national stakeholders including health agency counterparts in evaluation design, data quality, data utilization, and other M&E-related issues.
• Actively participate in project coordination mechanisms

The M&E Managerwill report to Corus HQ and may be remote, depending on circumstances.

Key Responsibilities:

• Oversees and implements all daily monitoring and evaluation activities for the project.
• Designs and implements quantitative and qualitative data collection methods and tools to measure progress across project activities, as well as a robust and context-appropriate system for data collection, quality assurance, analysis, and reporting of activity outputs/results and program quality.
• Organizes and trains project staff on monitoring and evaluation systems and tools to strengthen their monitoring and evaluation capacities.
• Ensures the collection, entry, verification, analysis, and reporting of data on actual achievements against set objectives, highlighting emerging trends and providing clear reports on findings and conclusions.
• Ensures data quality through regular data quality audits/ assessments, to verify and validate the accuracy and reliability of data to inform decision-making.
• Works closely with project management and local stakeholders to develop and implement a robust learning program that promotes continuous learning, collaboration, and adaptation to advance the project's learning agenda.
• Supports the recruitment of consultants and temporary field staff for monitoring and evaluation activities (as needed).
• Oversee data collection and analysis to ensure analysis by all potential risk factors is available, conducted, and utilized to guide programming.
• Ensures that data integrity, security and ethical standards and procedures are in place and comply with national guidelines, information systems and reporting requirements for primary data collection/ research activities involving human subjects, and for monitoring and evaluation activities.
• Conducts analyses and contributes to the preparation of mandatory and ad hoc project reports (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, end-of-project) by capturing performance results and ensuring that lessons learned are integrated into project implementation to continuously improve the quality of interventions and results.
• Monitors the implementation of the learning program to identify best practices and lessons learned, as well as adaptive management and knowledge.
• Provides training, mentoring, and coaching on data use to project staff, consultants, and other local stakeholders (as needed).
• Uses the IMA World Health DHIS2 platform to ensure regular data flow and use by providing information on performance and areas of activity, thereby contributing to strategic decision-making and project planning with project management.
• Participates in relevant technical working groups and monitoring, evaluation, and learning coordination mechanisms, and collaborates with the CDC, relevant stakeholders, and project staff on project-related M&E, as appropriate.
• Contributes to the development and sharing of information and knowledge products with all relevant stakeholders in a timely manner.
• Organizes quarterly coordination and data review meetings with the various project stakeholders to ensure clarity and harmonization of activity progress and data provided.

Qualifications:

• A Master's degree in biostatistics, public health epidemiology, statistics, demography, or a closely related field. Extensive training in the field of health, epidemiology, multi-sectoral health-related risk analysis, and/or is an asset. Previous experience working on a CDC-funded project is highly desirable.
• Minimum 7 - 10 years of experience with project MERL, with an emphasis on global health and epidemiology.
• Significant experience (5 years or more) with the DHIS2 platform is highly desirable.
• Experience in managing DHIS2 and other databases, proficiency in IT tools and MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• In-depth understanding of and expertise with CDC's integrated health services, disease surveillance activities, and performance monitoring, logical frameworks, and reporting plan indicators is desirable.
• Proven experience in data analysis using quantitative and qualitative software.
• Experience working with CDC-funded projects in monitoring and evaluation is desirable.
• Strong quantitative, qualitative, and analytical skills, and ability to present technical information clearly and effectively to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Excellent communication skills, including written and oral presentation; proven ability to develop and communicate a common vision among various partners.
• English fluency with professional proficiency in writing required.
• Working fluency or better in other language an asset, especially French, also potentially Spanish, Arabic, etc.
• Experience working fragile contexts preferred.
• Ability to travel to project sites as needed.