Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation (MR&E) Specialist | Peace Corps Uganda | Closing Wednesday August 14, 2018

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT No. 2018 – 006

Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation (MR&E) Specialist

Announcement date: Wednesday August 1, 2018

Closing date: Wednesday August 14, 2018

About Peace Corps in Uganda

Peace Corps is an international autonomous agency of the US Government with operations in over 60 countries. It operates in Uganda by the invitation of the Government of Uganda. Peace Corps Uganda has memoranda of understanding with government ministries that outline broad areas of agreement and cooperation regarding the development work of Peace Corps Volunteers in Uganda. Volunteers are assigned to government and non-government agencies and organizations, community based organizations, universities, colleges and schools who partner to enable Volunteers to provide capacity building in Primary Literacy Education, Community Health, and Agribusiness. The Peace Corps program also aims to build cross-cultural understanding between Americans and Ugandans.

Supervisor	Director of Programming and Training (DPT)
SOW Reviewed & Revised	July, 2018
Office Location	The Peace Corps Office (Kololo, Kampala)
Travel Requirements	Land travel is required wherever Trainees and Volunteers receive training or serve as Volunteers which currently is in all regions of Uganda except the Karamoja region. Certain sectors or initiatives may start in few select areas and expand or shift over time to new areas as determined by senior staff. Expect an average of 10% – 20% of time spent on travel. Some Africa and US international travel may occur for trainings.
Type of Employment	This is a personal services contract position. 40hrs/week.
Length of Employment	As stated in the contract, initially one year renewable contract that includes a 6 months’ probation period. Dates are stated in the contract details.
Special note	The services to be performed will be subject to the ultimate responsibility and authority of the Country Director (CD) who is responsible for all Peace Corps activities in Uganda.

Monitoring, Evaluation & Reporting (MRE)

The Peace Corps recognizes project Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation (MRE) as critical areas to strengthen and expand its effort to better account and communicate to the different key stakeholders the value of Volunteers’ work in the communities where they serve. Peace Corps key partners such as PEPFAR, USAID and the Government of Uganda have called for increased interagency MRE collaboration, more rigorous and improved quality assurances including internal controls in MRE tools and techniques. Peace Corps staff members at both HQs and post have expressed a desire to use data and tools to strengthen project management as well as enhance organizational learning. MRE can assist both Volunteers and post staff to measure and understand their value on their project’s technical areas, support staff in providing Volunteers with timely and quality feedback on their work and as well provide regular and adhoc reports on Volunteers’ activities to relevant stakeholders as part of mutual accountability and transparency as per the agreements and MOU in place.

The Peace Corps recently made important strides to strengthen MRE, including the release of five MRE sessions in its Core Training Package. Peace Corps also in its efforts to standardize assessment of Trainees globally on the attainment of Terminal Learning Objectives (TLOs), introduced Trainee Learning Portfolio (TLP) including Global Learning Standards (GLS) Tools. It’s mandatory that all Trainees are trained on at least four of the five Global Core MRE sessions and each Trainee is subjected to the GLS as per the guidelines in place. In addition, Peace Corps HQs of recent released PACA 2.0 guidance that will require Volunteer use various tools to plan for, implement, monitor and evaluate their work.

Approximate Levels of effort by type of duties:

Monitoring, Reviewing, Evaluation and Reporting (50% of time)
Volunteer and staff MRE Training, Coaching and Mentorship (15%)
MRE partnerships & collaboration (15%)
MRE Technical Support to Volunteer Grant Projects (10%)
General Management and Administration (5%)
Other (5%)

Overall Responsibilities of this Position

This position is aimed at strengthening and establishing monitoring systems, coordinating data flows, enhancing staff capacity in MRE, leading PCT and PCV trainings, coaching and mentorship in MRE, and providing leadership and coordination for timely and reliable data analysis. The position holder will lead and coordinate the compilation of ALL post program and training reports to Peace Corps Uganda, Headquarters and key partners such as USAID according to Peace Corps guidance and the requirements of US government funded partnerships as well as reporting requirements by other partners such as Uganda Government as may be given from time to time. This position will help with the coordination of MRE partnerships and collaboration at various levels: global within Peace Corps M&E Community of practice, and national level, with emphasis on interagency M&E space. In addition, the position will render technical MRE guidance and support to Volunteer grant projects and also lead training on PACA.

Responsibilities:

Responsible for post mandatory partner reporting requirements and ensures compliance per MOUs and partnership guidelines.
Establishes and / or develops an integrated monitoring system according to Peace Corps guidance and tools that utilizes Volunteers’ reporting from the field, stakeholder feedback and staff reviews for Peace Corps’ projects.
Collaborates with Program Managers, Training Manager, Specialists and Volunteers to ensure appropriate tools are developed, pre-tested and rolled out for each programming sector and training activities.
Coordinates with staff to compile reports for PC/Uganda; USAID/Uganda (FTFMS), USAID (PRS) and PC/HQ (Data Call, TSRs, Partnership Reports, PSRs (according to guidance that will be issued from time to time) and PC Uganda post reports: Annual Reports, Training Reports, and Survey Reports to demonstrate the use and outcomes of PC/Uganda’s programming and training activities.
Provides MRE training, coaching and mentorship to Peace Corps staff, Trainees, Volunteers and their counterparts.
Collaborates with Training Manager to render hands on training in participatory methodologies (PACA) to staff, Trainees and Volunteers as per Peace Corps guidance.
As part of interagency MRE space, participates in and effectively represents Peace Corps in various activities to ensure its visibility and reputation.
Prepares and delivers analysis of various project activities and outcomes to stakeholders including the Project Advisory Committees (PACs) for each of the three sectors.
Designs and conducts MRE surveys among staff and Volunteers including taking lead to coordinate and work with Peace Corps staff design and implement various strategies to ensure a representative number of Volunteers respond to AVS each year.
Conducts multi-level analyses and delivers survey findings including best practices lessons learned and challenges to Peace Corps staff, Trainees, Volunteers and any other relevant stakeholders as will be required from time to time.

Duties and Responsibilities

A: Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation (MRE) (50% of time)

Manages and coordinates and collects program data and information from PCVs through VRFs; ensures programming staff clean VRF data using simple and appropriate techniques and render quality and timely VRF feedback to Volunteers as per post’s VRF feedback policy, conducts evaluative and reflective activities regarding the various projects and related Peace Corps activities, and compiles and disseminates to relevant stakeholders including staff reports on projects at post. The duties include:

MRE Tools

Develops and updates post’s MRE Plan using PC HQ Tool and as per the guidance that will be provided from time to time.
Ensures post VRF feedback policy is in place, up to date and works with DPT to ensure staff comply.
Establishes and manages MRE Master Tracker and associated documents as well as tools and share appropriate sections with Peace Corps staff, Trainees and Volunteers.

MRE capacity building

Ensures the capacity for programming staff is built in cleaning VRF data through training, couching and mentorship.
Learns how to use all relevant reporting tools and operations, coaches and mentors other staff and Volunteers on them, particularly the Volunteer Reporting Tool and Forms (VRT/F) and USAID PRS & FTFMS. Identifies, enrolls and optimally utilizes relevant M&E communities of practice, training opportunities and staff exchange avenues to further improve on M&E knowledge and skills and pass on such to staff, PCTs/PCVs.
Works with the Training Manager to train, couch and mentor Language and Cross-Cultural Facilities (LCFs) on Round Table assessment process and tools.

Monitoring

Rolls out new Peace Corps Headquarter Programming, Training, and Evaluation (PTE) realignment initiative and PACA to all post projects and ensures compliance.
Participates in monitoring and evaluation meetings and activities and creates draft documents for the Integrated Planning and Budget (IPBS) including working with DPT to monitor and track IPBS outcomes.
Promotes to PCVs and their counterparts to monitor and complete reporting documentation to Peace Corps on their activities.
Monitors VRF staff feedback process and support programming staff clean VRF data including conducting level three data quality checks.
Works with other program staff to conduct site visits to Volunteer sites (both current and former) in order to track development stories and the continuity of work during and after the Volunteers’ service.
Ensures each of the projects has an M&E Plan as per the guidance from Peace Corps Headquarters and US funding agencies.
Develops tools to track training hours for all major training events to ensure compliance with and accurate reporting to Peace Corps HQs.

Reporting

Develops, manages and maintains post M&E filing system across sectors and projects and ensures regular updates are made from time to time.
Ensures VRT is updated with Post Defined Questions, VRF guidance, reporting periods from trimester to trimester and project frameworks as appropriate.
Ensures all PCVs are assigned the right projects and receive their VRFs as per the post’s VRF policy.
Liaises with DPT and programming staff to develop, implement and monitor strategies to ensure Volunteers receive timely and quality feedback on VRFs.
Provides timely, technical, relevant and supportive feedback on VRFs to the PCVs with technical difficulties and where need be support Champions upload VRFs into the VRT database.
Ensures that PCVs report as per the set deadlines including maintaining a submission tracker by project, sends out reminders as appropriate and imports VRFs into VRT.
Provides relevant project data and information including development/success stories, VRT Summary Reports e.g. Post Defined Questions, Volunteer Summary of Service etc to staff as will be required from time to time.
Ensures all M&E documents and records are secure, stored and disposed as per Peace Corps’ policies on M&E records and documents.
Leads and coordinates post reporting process by lliaising with the programming and training teams and DPT to compile ALL the required reports: training debrief-reports, Post Data Calls, Training Data Calls [formerly Training Status Reports], Partnership Reports, Project Status Reports [PSRs], Annual Reports, USAID Reports (FTFMS & PRS) and as well as any adhoc reports).
Assists managers, coordinators and other staff with their need for data items relevant for periodic and annual reports to comply with special funding needs and Peace Corps headquarters reporting requirements.
Works closely with the DPT to assure strategic operational coordination with the entire Programming and Training Team. Support Project heads prepare presentations to stakeholders such as members of PAC and actively participate in all sector PAC meetings.
Liaises with Grants Coordinator to review and encourage prompt and accurate reporting by PCVs for their SPA, VAST and PCPP grants.

B: Volunteer and staff MRE Training, Coaching and Mentorship (15%)

Plans and conducts training activities to ensure that Trainees are given a good start and Volunteers are prepared to be valuable members of their Ugandan communities. The duties include:

Constitutes and works with and through a team of Volunteer MRE Champions to promote MRE culture at post among PCVTs/PCVs.
Provides and ensures training feedback summarized, availed to relevant staff and referenced to inform Training Design and Evaluation (TDE) process to further improve subsequent trainings.
Works with the Training and S&S Managers to design, conduct and analyze training needs assessment and S&S Terminal Learning Objectives surveys respectively.
Customizes Peace Corps MRE Global Core sessions to post
Provides technical training in line with the development of MRE competencies by PCTs and PCVs.
Serves as the lead MRE technical specialist to collaboratively work with the Training Manager and her/his team to evaluate training, develop and share training de-brief reports.
Work with the Training Manager to customize Global Learning Standards (GLS) to post and rollout the same as per Peace Corps Headquarter guidance.
Monitor post Volunteer LPI compliance as per Peace Corps Headquarter requirements.
Coordinates collection of materials for training, and identifies MRE guest speakers.

C: MRE Partnerships & Collaboration (20%)

Manages and coordinates M&E post partnerships, collaboration and networking to ensure post’s visibility and good will especially at the national interagency space and Peace Corps Africa Region. The duties include:

Reads and understands M&E requirements in all post PAPAs and MOUs and designs strategies to ensure compliance.
Reviews guidance that will be provided by interagency Mission platform from time to time and ensures compliance on the part Peace Corps Uganda.
Participates in interagency PEPFAR MRE collaboration as needed. Liaises closely with the PEPFAR Coordinator to ensure reporting on HIV indicators.
Works with other M&E staff at the interagency space to design and review OVC M&E Tools and render technical input/feedback.
Ensures accurate and timely correspondence with teams at the interagency M&E space including following up with areas specific to Peace Corps with the relevant staff.
Participates in M&E meetings and events with Uganda Government and local Government Officials to enhance the visibility of Peace Corps program and project results including disseminating reports.

D: MRE Technical Support to Volunteer Grant Projects (5%)

Reviews M&E component of PCV grant proposals and ensures it meets the minimum requirements as per the grant guidelines that will be issued from time to time.
Supports Grants Coordinator prepare Project Design & Management (PDM session plan and training materials.
Co-facilitates Project Design & Management (PDM) session for PCVs and Counterparts with Grants Coordinator at IST for each of the three sectors.
Conducts site follow up visits for selected grants, documents and shares stories including best practices and lessons learned to enhance organizational learning.
Liaises with Grants Coordinator to guide, support and encourage PCVs ensure prompt and accurate reporting for their SPA, VAST and PCPP grants.
Works with the Grants Coordinator to identify stories from grants projects conducted by PCVs and together with the Programing and Partnership Coordinator develop the stories and share.

E: General Management and Administration (5% of time)

Provides input and works on tasks effecting overall post management and the success of the Peace Corps program in country as a whole. The duties include:

Assists the CD in establishing an overall vision and mission for the country program. Provides input into the creation of the Post’s strategic and operational plans.
Works with other staff members to create uniform and complementary programming, training, and administrative systems.
Assists in promoting cross sectoral Agency Level Learning basing on project data and information, development/success stories, best practices and challenges to inform post’s program strategy.
Performs long-range planning and management of new substantive agency programs where precedents are scarce or nonexistent.
Contributes to PCV welcome books, trainee handbooks, PCV handbooks, and other post documentation dealing with the recruitment, selection, placement, training, and support of PCVs.

F: Other (5% of time)

Periodically serves as post Duty Officer responsible for weekend and after-hour emergencies.
Contributes articles on MRE to Staff Notes and the Volunteer newsletter.
Perform other duties as assigned by the CD or the DPT to assist Peace Corps successfully carry out its mission in Uganda.

Serves as sub-cashier or Occasional Money Handler

The PSC may be required to courier cash and/or purchase orders to various vendors who furnish supplies and /or services to PST/IST training site, or other locations as directed by the Contracting Officer. The PSC may also be required to courier cash to PC trainees or volunteers. The PSC will not function as a procurement or disbursing official but will only be acting as an intermediary between the Contracting or Disbursing Officer and the recipient. In the case of dealing with vendors, the PSC will not exercise any procurement discretion concerning the supplies or services to be purchased or the cost limits of these purchases; these will be determined by the Contracting Officer.

Addresses Volunteer safety and security by adhering to Peace Corps site development policies and procedures. Identifies and immediately communicates Volunteer safety and security concerns and issues to the Safety and Security Manager (SSM) and the Country Director (CD). Assists Program Managers/APCDs to ensure that prospective sites meet established programmatic and safety/security criteria (e.g., safe housing, a clearly defined assignment with an organization that shows real interest in working with a Volunteer, etc.). Reviews and references site history files when evaluating potential sites, and incorporates appropriate safety and security-related information into site history files. Monitors Volunteer compliance with Peace Corps policies, especially related to safety and security. Participates in the design and implementation of the Emergency Action Plan (EAP). Acts as duty officer, as needed. Knowledgeable and supportive of Peace Corps safety and security policies and procedures, including the timely reporting of suspicious incidents, persons or articles.

The Contractor is subject to worldwide availability and may be requested by the Peace Corps to be reassigned or transferred permanently to another Peace Corps Post/Headquarters or perform temporary duties (TDY) as required and to travel to other assignments within Peace Corps’ as assigned. Any such reassignment or transfer shall be subject to agreement of the Contractor. The Statement of Work as defined will remain the same; however the duties may be subject to change as determined by the Contracting Officer.

To the extent Contractor is allowed to operate a US government owned, leased, or rented vehicle (GOV) to perform their job duties, the Contractor must operate that vehicle safely at all times and only operate it for official business purposes as defined in 31 USC 1334.

Contractor is encouraged to refrain from texting or from engaging in any behavior that distracts attention from driving safely at any time. Except in an emergency situation, Contractor shall not text message (i) when driving a GOV; (ii) when driving a privately-owned vehicle (POV) while on official government business; or (iii) while using electronic equipment supplied by the government while driving any vehicle (even during off-duty hours)

By U.S. Mission Uganda | 31 July, 2018 | Topics: Exclude, Job Opportunities