Senior MERLA Advisor, Africa

Ipas

9d•Remote

About The Position

The Senior MERLA Advisor, Africa acts as a steward of Ipas’s global monitoring, evaluation, research, learning, and adapting (MERLA) framework for Ipas’s global strategic plan. This role works closely with Ipas network nodes across Africa to provide context-specific technical support, facilitate collaboration between nodes, and support MERLA skill strengthening initiatives. Specifically, this role primarily supports Ipas’s African country nodes to onboard and mentor new MERLA hires, provide responsive and proactive technical assistance support to MERLA staff, lead/support adaptation to local contexts of global tools, guidance, and processes, and play a key role in ensuring that global monitoring and evaluation is driven by and aligns with country needs and developments in the field. This role also leads and/or supports across country and regional research to address evidence gaps in the field of abortion and SRHR, and may represent Ipas in regional meetings, conferences, working groups, etc.

Requirements

Minimum Masters’ degree in social science or public health discipline, or equivalent professional experience
8+ years’ work experience in global reproductive health programs, especially experience in MERLA
Experience in MERLA for global health programs, especially SRHR; including experience training others in MERLA related skills and processes
Experience managing research and/or evaluation teams
Experience using mobile data collection apps using ODK programming, CommCare, or similar programs
Demonstrated ability to use data for decision-making and quality improvement
Experience with word-processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software
Experience with use of databases
Experience with communicating data to various audiences and use of data visualization software (Power BI, Tableau, Excel, or others)
Fluency in English, excellent written and verbal English, ability to effectively use language translation tools when needed
Experience working in multiple African countries
Willingness to travel internationally, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, up to 40% time

Nice To Haves

Proficiency in French and/or Portuguese, in addition to English
Experience using statistical analysis computer packages (Stata, SPSS, SAS, R, or others) for inferential statistics
Experience with qualitative data analysis and software (Dedoose, NVivo, Atlas.ti, or others)
Research and/or evaluation budgeting experience
Supportive of a woman's right to choose and to have access to safe abortion services.
Committed to uphold the highest ethical standards in MERLA practices
Well-organized with the ability to track multiple projects and deadlines
Ability to work successfully in a cross-cultural, team-based, global environment
Understanding of and commitment to gender equity and social inclusion in a local and international context.

Responsibilities

Conduct capacity strengthening activities (in-person or virtual sessions) on key MERLA tools or software with staff from African nodes, as needed/requested. Key MERLA tools or software include, but are not limited to: use of global databases, mobile data collection platforms, quantitative and qualitative analysis software, data visualization platforms, and other analytic tools to enable use of evidence to monitor and improve programs and projects.
Support nodes to follow Network Quality Standards and M&E Standard Operating Procedures.
Support the use of learning tools throughout the project cycle, including theory of change, logic models, log frames, evaluations, and after-action reviews.
Provide monitoring and evaluation backstopping for new country offices, offices with limited research and MERLA staff, and offices with staffing transitions, as needed.
Act as liaison across nodes to develop and ensure global MERLA standard operating procedures, the Ipas M&E Guide, and global MERLA tools and processes are driven by best practices and country learning and priorities.
Serve as MERLA lead or support to global, regional and country-level fundraising initiatives and proposal development in the form of evidence-based project design, technical writing, peer review, and co-creation of conceptual frameworks.
Co-develop (or provide technical support to the development of) monitoring, evaluation and learning plans during project set-up for new projects with project team members by providing technical assistance on indicators, data management processes, data collection tool design/adaptation, and best practices.
Co-design and build user-driven tools and dashboards that support nodes to interpret and use results from monitoring, evaluation, and research for continuous quality improvement, learning and internal and external dissemination to stakeholders.
Perform quantitative and qualitative analyses of monitoring, evaluation, and research data, for organizational and program decision-making, upon request AND/OR work with TEX colleagues to meet these needs.
Lead or support organizational and donor reporting on programmatic data and conduct in-depth analysis and evidence synthesis in support of the strategic plan and donor requests.
Lead and/or support research project development as primary or co-investigator, including preparing concept notes, study protocols, data collection tools, consent forms, proposals for funding, and managing the ethical approvals process.
Hire, train, and monitor/supervise research teams, including data collectors and field supervisors, sometimes in multiple countries.
Support nodes to prepare and execute dissemination plans to ensure research results are actionable and impactful, including representing Ipas at conferences, hosting internal and external webinars, developing factsheets/research briefs, and managing the submission process for peer-reviewed publications.
Stay informed of developments in the global field of MERLA to bring best practices to the work of Ipas.