MEL Officer at Living Goods, Kampala, Uganda

Job Description

Oversee monitoring and evaluation activities for the community-strengthening component of the Uganda Urban Health Activity, collaborating closely with Living Goods project staff and consortium partners across Kampala, Wakiso, and Mukono districts. This role involves leading the design of a comprehensive monitoring framework, developing and updating monitoring tools and databases, conducting regular monitoring visits, data analysis, and report generation. The role holder will also promote the use of community health data at both district and health facility levels to support informed decision-making.

Key Responsibilities:

1. M&E Tools & Databases:

• Contribute to updating the project’s monitoring and evaluation framework, ensuring that key community health indicators are clearly defined with specific targets and verification methods.
• Develop or review data collection tools to support project monitoring and evaluation, leading field data collection, data entry, cleaning, and analysis.
• Participate in the development and maintenance of databases to capture relevant data, facilitating project learning and reporting.

2. Monitoring and reporting:

• Conduct data analysis by compiling data from various sources to report on project outcomes and outputs, generating insights for project improvement. This role will involve extracting data from national community health information systems and analyzing relevant indicators.
• Support the preparation of monthly, quarterly, and annual project reports for both internal and external stakeholders, as requested by the project manager and consortium lead.
• Document lessons learned to guide project implementation and facilitate knowledge sharing within the broader community health ecosystem.

3. Quality assurance:

• Conduct data quality verification audits on project data, including data from community health information systems to ensure accuracy, consistency, and completeness.
• Train project staff on data quality assurance and control methods to address and mitigate data quality issues. The aim is to build team capacity in maintaining high-quality data standards and in understanding the impact of accurate data on project outcomes.
• Ensure adherence to Program Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) by conducting compliance analyses and analyzing routine program data. Through field observation visits and structured assessments, this role will monitor staff compliance with SOPs, identifying areas for improvement.

4. Partnerships & collaborations:

• Work as a team with the consortium partners and the Living Goods project team to deliver assigned tasks as agreed on by the consortium.
• Participate in the partner and district or health facility engagement meetings to continue championing the use of data and sharing project progress on the community strengthening component.
• Working with district and health facility teams to ensure adequate adoption of digital tools by the CHWs and their supervisors to enhance quality reporting.

5. Training:

• Collaborate with consortium partners and the Living Goods project team to complete assigned tasks as agreed upon by the Senior Projects Manager.
• Participate in partner, district, and health facility engagement meetings to promote data utilization and share progress on the community-strengthening component.
• Work with district and health facility teams to support CHWs and their supervisors in the adoption of digital tools, enhancing quality reporting.

Required Qualifications:
Education & Experience:

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Economics, Monitoring and Evaluation, Public health, and related fields with 5-7 years of working experience.
• Previous experience working with USAID-funded projects.

Technical skills:

• The ideal candidate should possess advanced data analysis skills using various software, mainly Excel, STATA, or SPSS.
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
• Ability to write progress reports to internal and external audiences. Should be able to produce analytics and compelling visuals.
• Should be experienced in extraction and analysis of data from the national HMIS systems (DHIS2, etc.).
• Knowledge of Uganda’s health system with a focus on the community health system.
• Knowledge of the digital landscape for community health programs like community health information systems is an added advantage.
• Experience conducting data quality assurance for community health programs with an emphasis on community health information systems.

Competencies:

• Highly articulate with attention to detail.
• Able to engage with a range of stakeholders confidently.
• Strong project management skills (i.e. planning, execution, monitoring, and documentation).
• Computer skills (Microsoft, outlook, internet usage, etc.).
• Effective communication skills and great teamwork.