Education Development Center (EDC) is a global nonprofit that advances lasting solutions to improve education, promote health, and expand economic opportunity. Since 1958, we have been a leader in designing, implementing, and evaluating powerful and innovative programs in more than 80 countries around the world.

EDC promotes equity and access to high quality education and health services and products that contribute to thriving communities where people from diverse backgrounds learn, live, and work together. We support an inclusive workplace culture that embraces many perspectives and broadens our understanding of the communities we serve, enhancing and enriching our work.

EDC is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

The purpose of the USAID/Ghana Accelerating Social and Behavior Change (ASBC) activity is to increase and sustain the adoption of priority health behaviors and practices for improved health outcomes, emphasizing family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH); malaria prevention and treatment; maternal, newborn, and child health; household level water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices; maternal and child nutrition, and public health emergencies such as COVID-19.

Position Description

The Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) Manager is responsible for overall leadership, coordination, and technical supervision of monitoring, evaluation and learning for the activity, including design and management of the project's and M&E Plan and system to agreed quality and standards, liaising with project partners at all levels, USAID, and EDC Home Office M&E Advisors.  This person will oversee rigorous data collection, data quality, data management, analysis, and evidence generation. The MERL Manager is expected to inform program adaptation under the CLA approach and may take on additional coordination roles.

The MERL Manager will work closely with other technical and M&E team members to ensure that data collection and data storage meets data quality standards, liaising with the EDC Home Office M&E Advisor on all data quality, analysis, and reporting issues, as needed. The MERL Manager will support coordination and collaboration among project implementing partners and project stakeholders for informed decisions.

The MERL Manager will also work closely with the technical team and project partners to support project research and learning activities related to social and behavior change communications (SBCC) activities, including formative research, human-centered design, and other forms of behavioral research throughout the project life cycle.

The MERL Manager will report to the Chief of Party.

Essential functions include (but are not limited to):

Job Responsibilities

• Take the lead in organizing and conducting all monitoring and evaluation activities, as well as learning activities to ensure compliance to common or core standards. Ensure that internal reflection and discussion of findings with field staff, technical specialists, and management happens on a regular basis, at a minimum quarterly;
• Work with US-based M&E team to continue to develop and implement the Activity’s Strategic M&E Framework, M&E Plan, and capacity development approach;
• Oversee the development of all monitoring forms for data collection, as well as written procedures for data collection and entry, with appropriate input from other departments;
• Supervise the data storage process to ensure that appropriate support documentation is on file and easily located to back up project indicator data;
• Manage the M&E team, including coordinating roles, responsibilities, and performance. Liaise with technical leadership staff to oversee and support M&E activities at state levels;
• Identify M&E-related technical needs at central and field levels that lead to the development and refinement of the M&E system to respond to evolving program designs and implementation strategies;
• Conceptualize operations research and other learning activities of the project in collaboration with home office staff, COP, DCOP, Technical Director and Director of Finance and Operations;
• Manage technical orientation and training activities to achieve M&E objectives and plans, including in data collection, data processing, data analysis and other areas;
• Support outreach and communications by providing summary data and interpretation for inclusion in publications and reports, tailoring for consumption by different audiences;
• Coordinate and facilitate regular M&E discussions for or among USAID, stakeholders, partners, EDC teams and others to share findings and learning from monitoring and evaluation data and/or analyses;
• Oversee the aggregation and compilation of M&E data (quantitative and qualitative) for monthly, quarterly and annual reports. Oversee and ensure timely completion of all USAID data reporting; 
• Understand the terms of the USAID award, specifically expected project results and products, and ensure compliance with requirements;
• Participate in relevant technical or senior leadership meetings and take part in the decision-making process as needed;
• Ensure collaborative relationship between the Director/specialist's team and other departments, ensuring each one understands and is supportive of the requirements of the other, and the timely resolution of issues and concerns;
• Proactively anticipate any potential or actual problems or risks, discuss with management, and submit appropriate recommendations to eliminate or minimize the threats or risks;
• Provide timely data reports for inclusion in quarterly and annual reports, as well for other deliverables and deadlines as needed, such as meetings, events and presentations;
• Supervise staff effectively; monitor and evaluate performance, and submit performance reports for supervisees, in a timely manner; and provide timely interventions to improve performance if needed;
• Provide support to other special initiatives as may be needed;
• Demonstrate a high level of professionalism when dealing with sensitive and confidential documents and issues, and with co-workers and EDC partners;
• Other duties, as assigned.

Please Note: This position is not eligible for relocation or posting allowances and the salary will be paid in Ghanaian cedi.

The candidate for the position of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning Manager shall have at a minimum the following qualifications:

Education:

Master’s degree in a relevant discipline.

Skills and Experience:

• Seven years of professional experience in developing countries, in SBC research, monitoring and evaluation of large-scale SBC and development programs implementation.
• Experience in managing rigorous M&E system is required;
• Knowledge of SBC data collection protocols to ensure accurate data collection and verification is essential;
• Ability to identify and analyze data trends on behavior change and communicate this information to allow for changes in program implementation;
• Strong verbal and written communication skills to manage project communications and disseminate project information is required;
• Strong understanding of SBC indicators at individual, family/household, service provider and government service authority levels;
• Experience with Ghana’s SBC landscape is an asset;
• Solid foundation in a broad range of behavior change knowledge/information management is essential.

Language:

Fluency in English is required.

EDC is committed to enhancing the diversity of its workforce and ensuring an equitable and highly inclusive work environment. EDC is a smoke-free workplace, and offers a supportive work environment, competitive salary, and excellent benefits. Women, minorities, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.