MERL Manager: Support Office - Marie Stopes Ghana

Marie Stopes International Ghana (MSIG), a branch of MSI Reproductive Choices global partnership is the leading Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights organisation in Ghana providing high quality, safe services, and advocacy to create an enabling environment, so every client has access to safe services when and where they are needed.

MSIG has a vacancy for a passion-driven, well-organised, client-oriented and energetic individual with the below relevant qualification/s and experience. MSIG’s goal is to meet the needs of the underserved and improve access to the use of Family Planning (FP) and other Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) services. At MSI Reproductive Choices we are unapologetically pro-choice. We believe that every woman has the right to make choices about her own body and her own future.

Job Description

Length of contract: Variable (Renewable)

The MERL Manager is responsible for managing the overall Monitoring, Evaluation and Research strategy and implementation of related activities within MSG as well as partner agencies where necessary. The post-holder is responsible for ensuring that high-quality, accurate and timely information is available for internal and external reporting purposes and will communicate closely with all stakeholders involved in the design, implementation and coordination of projects.

The MERL Manager will also play a lead role in the continuing development and implementation of MSG’s performance framework and tools. He/she will also serve as the key link person for MSG and the Global Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Team and actively support MSG’s Regional Managers to ensure a high degree of regional capacity to collect, collate and analyse projects performance data.

Key Responsibilities:

Team Leadership and Capacity Building

• Manage and provide leadership to the Monitoring, Evaluation Research and Learning (MERL) team 
• Oversee the preparation and management of the work plan and budget for the MERL team. 
• Ensure the MERL team is compliant with all internal MSG policies (e.g., finance, procurement, human resource management, etc 
• Provide necessary training, coaching and mentorship for the MERL team. 
• Work with project leads and Regional Managers to identify and address M&E training needs of team members 
• Ensure that team members across the programme have adequate knowledge and skills to deliver in line with M&E KPIs

Strategic Development and Stakeholder Engagement 

• Proactively identify knowledge gaps within the organisation and design strategic research and/or analysis of secondary data to address them 
• Further, strengthen the integration of research and M&E into all departments of the organisation 
• Support MSG to develop a culture of evidence-based decision-making across the programme 
• Strengthen relations with key stakeholders and partners including Government, R3M and other researchers

Technical Leadership and Quality Assurance

• Maintain an accurate MIS database for management decision-making and donor reporting 
• Ensure MSG’s M&E systems are aligned to MSI standardised frameworks and indicators 
• Undertake and ensure high technical quality research that fulfils both local and MSI ethical standards 
• Undertake the preparation and dissemination of high-quality reports (monthly, quarterly and annual) for internal use and donor reporting 
• Prepare terms of reference and manage the work of external consultants 
• Provide input in support of grant proposals

Champion learning and knowledge sharing in the organisation

• Document best practices and lessons learned for dissemination internally and across the MSI partnership 
• Actively support close-out project evaluations and champion dissemination of lessons learned from project implementation 
• Undertake the publication and presentation of MSG research findings and articles in peer-reviewed journals and conferences

Required Skills or Experience

• Master’s Degree in Statistics, Population Studies, Mathematics, Economics, Demography, Public health, Agricultural Economics or Social Sciences required 
• Other relevant professional qualifications desired

Skills and Experience

• At least six (6) years of post-graduate relevant work experience with a minimum of three (3) years managerial experience 
• Experienced in managing a team 
• Proven ability to undertake training and capacity building 
• Demonstrated experience in designing, implementing (including supervising field work), analysing and writing-up high-quality research 
• Research, project management and INGO experience 
• Experience in delivering high-quality training and mentoring others in M&E 
• Demonstrated experience of actively collaborating with both internal and external stakeholders 
• IT literate – competence with MS Office, SPSS and EpiData 
• Strong quantitative and qualitative analytical skills 
• Strong attention to detail 
• Excellent written, presentation and verbal communication skills 
• Experience in working in health and sexual and reproductive health is desired

Attitude and Motivation

• Pro-family planning and pro-choice
• Sympathetic to women and men seeking family planning and reproductive health services
• Be able to work on own initiative and motivate others to achieve results
• Customer-focused with good interpersonal skills to engage with people at all levels –government, donor and community
• Passionate about fieldwork and able to travel
• Able to inspire and excite others about turning data into information
• Team player
• Hard-working and results-focused
• Problem-solving, ‘can do’ approach to challenges