Senior Monitoring Systems Specialist, World Bank/Eastern Caribbean MEL Capacity Development and Technical Advisory Services to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)

Social Impact is a global development management consulting firm. We provide monitoring, evaluation, strategic planning, and capacity building services to advance development effectiveness. We work across all development sectors including democracy and governance, health and education, the environment, and economic growth. Since 1997 we have worked in over 100 countries for clients such as US government agencies, bilateral donors, multilateral development banks, foundations, and nonprofits.

Objective:
SI has a contract with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and the World Bank to provide research and technical assistance to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), focusing on four-member states, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The team who will carry out this contract will gather, analyze, and share available research and data with OECS and GPE officials, and based on the analysis, will subsequently develop and design MEL strategies to support the national Education Sector Plans (ESPs).

Position Description:
SI is seeking a consultant to serve as a Senior Monitoring Systems Specialist who will be responsible for overseeing and managing the enhancement of existing and development of new performance monitoring systems for OECS and implementing partners. The Specialist will be tasked with ensuring the monitoring team is able to deliver performance monitoring strategies and processes that help local ministries and OECS improve programming funded by WB and the GPE in a timely and coherent fashion. The Specialist will achieve this goal by providing senior level leadership, mentoring, and technical guidance to the monitoring team.

Responsibilities:

• Design and oversee monitoring and reporting tasks throughout the life of the activity.
• Provide leadership and guidance on OECS’s monitoring efforts around their education sector strategy.
• Work with OECS and other stakeholders (i.e., WB, GPE, local ministries, etc) to strengthen monitoring functions and capacity, such as the creation of performance indicators, development of activity and project M&E plans, setting of targets, responsible collection of program data, assessment of data quality, and analyses of data and their education management information system (EMIS).
• Lead the enhancement of the performance reporting system requirements for OECS, local ministries, WB, GPE, and implementing partners.
• Ensure that the team offers OECS and local ministries technical assistance that is of quality, coherent, useful and timely.
• Facilitate ongoing technical discussions fostering team-wide learning and collaboration to achieve more sustainable results.
• Provide ongoing quality control and mentorship, strategic guidance, and management support to monitoring team members.
• Ensure effective task management in line with SI’s quality standards; assume responsibility for overall quality control of tasks conducted by monitoring team members.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in a relevant field OR Bachelor’s degree and commiserate years of experience required.
• Relevant experience working with projects in the Eastern Caribbean required.
• Progressively more responsible experience in the design and management of indicators, M&E plans, performance targets, data quality assessments, data collection, and analysis.
• Experience developing and/or updating monitoring and evaluation plans and creating and managing performance indicator tracking systems/databases.
• Demonstrated ability to design monitoring systems that result in data use and adaptive management.
• Technical knowledge and experience in the design and implementation of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plans (MEL Plans) and ensuring the quality of data.
• Excellent client and relationship management skills, including the proven ability to establish and maintain professional relationships with relevant stakeholders; design and implement required tasks; resolve conflict; and collaborate effectively across individuals with divergent perspectives; and
• Experience hiring, supervising, and mentoring personnel and ensuring they acquire the necessary training and skills to meet evolving project needs.
• Ability to conceptualize and communicate monitoring activities and write reports clearly and concisely.
• Experience in leading monitoring teams that have developed M&E processes, policies, and systems preferred.
• Previous experience supporting World Bank or GPE funded projects in a similar capacity preferred.
• Relevant experience working projects in Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and or Saint Vincent and the Grenadines preferred.
• Experience working with M&E projects focused on education in an international development context is an asset.