PROGRAM SUMMARY
GUARD America (Global Urgent Activation for Response to Infectious Diseases) is an International Medical Corps-led consortium funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy (GHSD) to support rapid outbreak activation and response, early detection and containment, operational coordination, and stronger national and subnational outbreak-response systems. GUARD is currently supporting the BVD response in DRC, while retaining a broader platform and consortium structure that may support additional country responses as activated.
International Medical Corps is implementing a large and evolving Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with additional regional and multi-country programming. The response spans multiple projects and funding streams and includes case management through Ebola Treatment Centers and transit/triage structures; surveillance, alert management and community-based surveillance; infection prevention and control (IPC) and WASH; risk communication and community engagement (RCCE); mental health and psychosocial support; and continuity of essential health services. The scale and complexity of the response requires a coordinated M/E approach that harmonizes indicators, tools, data systems and reporting across projects while meeting government, donor and internal requirements.
The Senior Specialist, Monitoring and Evaluation (M/E) - GUARD will provide senior technical M/E leadership and oversight for International Medical Corps' global project team for GUARD. The role will augment, not replace, the existing country M/E team and leadership. The role will also provide targeted M/E support to the GUARD consortium, including management of the results framework and indicator tracking, donor reporting, consolidation of partner results, and coordination with consortium partners on M/E standards and requirements. As GUARD's response remit evolves, the position is expected to transition to a broader multi-country or global GUARD M/E role.
JOB SUMMARY: The role of the Senior Specialist is to support better performance and greater accountability by implementing evidence-based project management at the field level, to guide and improve performance. The Senior Specialist will lead the design of methodologies and tools to ensure the availability of clear and accurate information at the project level. The Senior Specialist also plays a vital role in data management, surveys and quality by designing an M/E system that adheres to the International Medical Corps (IMC) M/E Global Guidelines, the M/E Minimum Standards for Quality, and the guiding M/E policies and procedures, among others. The Senior Specialist, M/E will provide technical support to the project and build capacity in the country mission through strengthening learning and knowledge sharing across the IMC and with the wider humanitarian community.
For this assignment, the Senior Specialist will provide senior technical M/E leadership and oversight for IMC's highly infectious disease responses led by GUARD, providing technical direction to the country M/E team to ensure coherent monitoring, data quality, analysis and reporting across multiple projects and funding streams, while also supporting GUARD consortium-level performance monitoring, reporting and partner M/E coordination.
REPORTING AND WORKING RELATIONSHIPS
• The country-based M/E lead will have a dotted-line reporting relationship to the Senior Specialist, Monitoring and Evaluation, for technical direction and oversight, while keeping their solid-line reporting relationship to country leadership.
• Sets the technical scope, standards, methods, tools and quality expectations for M/E across the Ebola response and GUARD-supported activities. Provides technical guidance, review and capacity building to the country M/E lead and team.
• Country leadership keeps line management of the country M/E team, including day-to-day work assignments, deadlines, performance management, and hiring and separation decisions. The Senior Specialist gives technical input to these processes as appropriate.
• Where GUARD operates in countries with an existing IMC mission, the same model applies. Country M/E leads reports to the Senior Specialist on a dotted line for technical matters, and country leadership keeps solid-line management and operational accountability.
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function with or without reasonable accommodation.
MAIN TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
IMC's policies, guidelines, and procedures
• Mainstream the Global M/E Guidelines across all related M/E activities at the field level and ensure the guidance notes for monitoring and evaluation are functional at the field level.
• Apply and adapt existing Global M/E Guidelines, tools, and templates at the relevant stages of the project cycle.
• Actively promote the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) standards within IMC and amongst its beneficiaries.
• Contribute to the creation of a positive image and overall credibility of the organization, notably through the application of the Code of Conduct, ethics, values, and standpoint with regards to internal and external actors.
Ebola Response and GUARD M/E Leadership
• Provide senior technical leadership and oversight of M/E for IMC's Ebola response in DRC across multiple projects and funding streams, providing technical direction to the country M/E lead and team to ensure that project-specific requirements are met within a harmonized response-level M/E approach.
• Maintain and strengthen the consolidated Ebola response M/E framework, including harmonization of indicators, definitions, data collection tools, reporting flows and performance tracking across projects and implementation areas.
• Lead routine review of response performance, data quality and indicator achievement, working with program, technical and field teams to identify discrepancies, implementation gaps and required corrective actions and to strengthen the use of data for operational decision-making.
• Coordinate donor and internal M/E deliverables for the Ebola portfolio, including M/E plans, indicator tracking tables, performance reports, data calls and other quantitative reporting requirements, ensuring consistency of results across submissions.
• For GUARD, maintain and update the project results framework/log frame and indicator tracking systems; coordinate consolidation and quality assurance of results reported by IMC and consortium partners; and contribute M/E evidence and analysis to GUARD donor reporting, reviews and planning.
• Provide M/E guidance and capacity strengthening to GUARD consortium partners as required, including clarification of indicator definitions, reporting requirements, data-quality expectations and supporting documentation.
• Ensure that GUARD country-response monitoring is integrated with existing Ebola response systems to the extent feasible, avoiding unnecessary duplication of indicators, tools, databases and reporting processes.
• Coordinate closely with the Information Management/Data Manager, epidemiology staff, country M/E staff, technical leads and relevant HQ technical teams to establish clear responsibilities for data collection, management, analysis and reporting.
• Support adaptation of M/E systems for additional GUARD-supported country responses if activated and be prepared to assume a broader multi-country/global GUARD M/E remit as the program evolves.
Project design and planning
• Lead or support the development and updating of project and response-level results frameworks, theories of change, log frames, M/E plans and indicator tracking tables, including harmonization of indicators across Ebola response projects and GUARD.
• Identify the budget/resources needed for M/E activities of the project.
• Support project planning processes related to M/E aspects (M/E work plan and budget). M/E system
• In coordination with the implementation Team and M/E field Focal Points, establish a reliable participatory M/E framework according to donors' requirements for the project to ensure quality.
• Follow full M/E procedures and operating plans within the project and develop harmonized data collection tools involving the different stakeholders (project team, partners).
• Establish M/E system in line with donors and project requirements and ensure donors' requirements are followed through the project management life cycle.
• Develop and maintain data gathering strategies and clear data and reporting flows across projects, implementation sites and, for GUARD, consortium partners.
• Oversee the collection and timely reporting of data and statistics from the service delivery points.
• Consolidate and reconcile results across technical sectors, projects, geographic areas and relevant implementing partners, ensuring consistency between project-level and response-level reporting.
• Implement DHIS2 where appropriate and applicable, control and manage DHIS2 data entry and management.
• Collaborate with the M/E and DHIS2 teams at HQ to develop and maintain the data management system, including updating, troubleshooting and promptly addressing all problems as they arise
• Lead the implementation of Satellite-based Tracking and Remote Monitoring (STARM) system
• Conduct regular site visits or when required to monitor service provision and ensure data quality.
• Support project team to organize regular review and planning meetings to assess project progress.
• Set project monitoring system for the project (monitoring plan, monitoring tools and strategies) and disseminate all monitoring tools within project.
Data quality management
• Collaborate with technical staff on data quality maintenance and routine monitoring of project.
• Assess the quality of data collected for the indicators and ensure that data pitfalls and issues are mitigated.
• Coordinate routine data quality audits conducted in different sites, compile results at the level of a project, and develop action plans to implement corrective measures.
• Manage tools and methods for assessing data quality and security.
• Ensure ethical practices are followed in the collection and management of all data; informed consent practices are used in all interviews, and privacy risks are mitigated in the storage and transfer of data.
• Identify and locate back-up documentation for reporting against indicators.
• Maintain data at the mission level according to IMC's data protection protocols.
• Work closely with Information Management and epidemiology colleagues to establish interoperable reporting flows and clearly delineated responsibilities for epidemiological/surveillance data, routine program monitoring data, case-management data and donor performance reporting, minimizing parallel data systems and duplicate data collection.
Sampling techniques
• Use proper sampling (probability and non-probability) techniques considering desired power, type of survey or evaluation (e.g., single point or multiple points; baseline vs endline), the objective of the survey or evaluation (e.g., testing for change or getting the point prevalence), and budget limitations.
• Review the sampling approach proposed by an expert/consultant (if applicable).
• Develop the sampling frame and calculate the sample size for surveys, including implementation of donors’ recommendations for the surveys. Qualitative and quantitative techniques:
• Develop and use different qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection, including structured/ semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews, in-depth interviews, group discussions, focus group discussions, and direct observations as an M/E tool.
• Conduct training on quantitative and qualitative techniques for data collection for M/E, project, and interviewers.
• Keeping the social dynamics in mind, manage errors/bias, and strategize to minimize them and to ensure the data collected is representative of populations without power (avoiding over-dependence on community leaders, local authorities, and/or government authorities as primary sources for defining communities' needs and preferences).
• Coordinate the logistics of data collection, data management, and ensure adequate resources are available.
• Develop questionnaires for monitoring purposes and apply the different interview techniques (structured/semi-structured).
• Develop database structures to store and manipulate quantitative data.
• Implement appropriate and recommended survey guidelines
• Conduct regular site visits or when required to monitor and assist partners in the data collection process to ensure data quality.
Mobile and manual data collection
• Determine the appropriate data collection tool based on the purpose, advantages, and disadvantages of mobile data collection techniques.
• Design simple and complex questionnaires using XLS or form builder (Kobo form builder, Ona form builder, etc.)
• Support in installing and configuring mobile data collection tools (ODK collect, Kobo collect, CommCare, etc.) on smartphones or tablets and managing data on mobile servers
• Increase the capacity of other staff in developing XLS forms and setting up mobile data collection.
Data analysis, including use of statistical software
• Apply standard methodologies for the analysis of data to allow for comparison and aggregation across time and different areas.
• Support M/E and the implementation team on conducting statistical analysis, including descriptive (univariate and bivariate data analysis) and inferential analysis using statistical software.
• Perform qualitative textual analysis and develop topical outlines (coding).
• Triangulate findings from several qualitative and quantitative sources.
• Interpret statistical data for use in decision-making and synthesize quantitative and qualitative information for write-up/reports and decision making.
• Support development and maintenance of response dashboards, analytical products and routine performance summaries that integrate programmatic and epidemiological information where appropriate for operational decision-making.
Evaluation design
• Support in developing Terms of Reference (TOR) for internal and external baseline surveys, mid-term evaluations, final evaluations, and frame the different types of study questions such as barrier analysis, market analysis, and Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Surveys (KAP).
• Identify the needed resources for evaluation, such as information, expertise, personnel, instruments, and budget.
• Manage the administrative and logistic process of evaluations involving external evaluators.
• Support in training and supervising data gathering of internal performance evaluation and design and synthesize the findings from participative evaluation techniques (actively involving affected communities in the evaluation exercises).
• Support operational and implementation research and other studies using appropriate epidemiological, quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods approaches, in coordination with HQ research, epidemiology and relevant technical teams.
Presenting information
• Write full narrative reports (internal reviews, progress reports, survey reports) and executive summaries.
• Present information and tell the story of the project to multiple audiences and decisionmakers based on the findings from the analysis and monitoring.
• Verify reports' accuracy and presentation of information, including the use of appropriate graphs and tables.
• Disseminate qualitative and quantitative results using the established dashboard or system as per agreed frequency.
• Report and share evaluation findings with stakeholders.
• Generate past performance sheet with updated trend analysis of the key project indicators
Capacity development and training
• Provide coaching/mentoring of staff and on-the-job training to improve the skills of the staff in M/E.
• Provide training and on-the-job learning to project staff and volunteers based on required skills for M/E activities
• Support project staff with additional training and mentoring on routine monitoring procedures and surveillance techniques.
Knowledge management learning:
• Support in developing Knowledge Management and Learning (KML) mechanisms and processes for the project while ensuring these mechanisms are in line with IMC's guidelines.
• Establish basic learning systems and framework that incorporate project studies' findings, lessons learned, achievements and gaps, and develop all the tools required to support learning practices.
• Facilitate review and lessons learned exercises, including data collected through assessments, surveys and other participative forms of community engagement and feedback collection.
• Collect and document project Most Significant Change Stories (MSCSs) from direct beneficiaries. Community-based feedback and response mechanism:
• Lead the implementation of methodologies to consult communities on their preferences based on the operational context.
• Contribute to planned and ongoing operational research, implementation research, learning and other evidence-generation initiatives related to Ebola and broader outbreak preparedness and response, in coordination with technical, epidemiology, research and program teams. This may include contributing to study design and protocols, development of data collection approaches and tools, data quality and analysis, interpretation of findings, documentation of lessons learned, and translation of evidence into program adaptation and learning.
• Support systematic documentation and synthesis of evidence across GUARD activations and the wider Ebola response, including after-action reviews, implementation learning, operational lessons and cross-country learning, and support dissemination and uptake of findings as appropriate.
Cross-cutting themes
• Support project staff to mainstream critical concepts around sex, age, disability protection, and conflict sensitivity by supporting dedicated sex, protection, and conflict sensitivity analyses as may be required by project.
• Integrating the collection of information related to demographic vulnerabilities and contextual risks (sex, age, disability, environment, etc.) into all M/E exercises to provide an evidence base.
• Following up with implementation teams to utilize findings and strengthen activities in line with sex, protection, and conflict-sensitive approaches.
• Coordinate M/E with consortium and implementing partners, including agreement on indicator definitions, reporting timelines, supporting documentation, data-quality expectations and consolidation of partner results; lead relevant M/E coordination meetings and represent IMC as required.
Perform other duties as assigned. The duties and responsibilities listed in this document are representative of the nature and level of work assigned and not necessarily comprehensive.
