Website Care India

POSITION/DESIGNATION

MEL and Reporting Officer

GRADE/LEVEL

Grade F

PROJECT/UNIT

Indian Partnership for Early Learning

PROJECT DURATION

5 years

POSITION DURATION

Till August 2026

REPORTS TO

State Project Lead

LOCATION

Patna/Lucknow/Ranchi

TRAVEL

30% (including travel at the districts and to Delhi)

ABOUT US

As a part of the CARE International Confederation, CARE is working in 100 countries towards creating a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security.

CARE India Solutions for Sustainable Development (CISSD) is a not-for-profit organization working in India for over 68 years, focusing on alleviating poverty and social injustice, through well-planned and comprehensive projects in health, education, livelihoods as well as disaster preparedness and response.

The overall goal is the empowerment of women and girls from poor and marginalized communities leading to improvement in their lives and livelihoods, so that they live in dignity and their households have secure and resilient lives.

CISSD aims to accomplish this goal by working with 50 million people to help them have quality health, education, livelihoods and overcome the effects of disasters.

During FY 2018-19, CISSD directly reached out to 37.2 million people through 43 projects across 14 states, covering more than 80+ districts.

PROJECT DETAILS

India Partnership for Early Learning (IPEL) is a USAID funded project that aims to ensure all children (girls and boys) from Early childhood education to early grades (grades 1&2) are positively impacted in four Indian states (Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, South Delhi Municipal Schools). The ultimately goal of the project is to ensure that all children (age 3-6) attending AWCs/Balvatika/preschools attain school readiness by age 6; and children (age 6-8) attending early grades (1-2) acquire reading fluency and comprehension, number recognition, two-digit addition and subtraction, express emotions safely, and express understanding of emotions of others verbally or through pictures by end of grade 2 in four intervention states. The project approach will influence practices of both government run and private schools in intervention states to ensure every child of the state is positively impacted.

The project is designed to work very closely with national and state education/WCD department and their institutions to work, influence and advocate on the agenda of Early Childhood Education focusing on Foundational Learning and Numeracy (FLN). IPEL project adopts a system strengthening approach using technical support model to work with state and national government. For this, IPEL project will set up a central and state level Project Management Unit, having experts on foundational learning, to engage, influence, and technically guide department of education and its key institutions for effective delivery of foundational learning and numeracy program in the state. The key technical area includes- Effective FLN content and materials for teachers and children, Robust and quality capacity building approach and review system, FLN vision, budget and financing, Quality educational monitoring and learners’ assessment tracking system and Empowered community engagement in each of the state. It will work towards addressing issues and challenges faced by marginalized children and girls in the states to ensure every child in the state attend the school and acquire learning.

The project will also ensure state government develop robust system and mechanisms to positively support schools, teachers and children over next 5 years in intervention states. Since The IPEL project objectives and goals are aligned with national mission- NIPUN BHARAT, it will also contribute to larger goal of National Education Policy and state priorities.

The project has formed a consortium of 4 organizations led by CARE to work with state government. This consortium will work closely with department of education/its institutions to ensure quality and effective delivery of Foundational Learning (FL) for both public and private schools.

JOB SUMMARY

Within the direct and indirect scope of the IPEL project, the MEL and Reporting Officer will be hands-on and responsible for the state-level successful design, implementation, analysis and dissemination of various MEL Processes and Planning to meet the requirements of all internal and external relevant stakeholders.

S/he will also be required to be an integral part of the state level collation/management and analysis of data gathered through all primary and secondary sources & MEL processes (existing and newly developed) and consequently synthesize and develop reporting and dissemination products under the guidance of the MEL & KML Specialists

MEL and Reporting Officer will play critical role in developing the concept notes, tools, digital interface, sampling plan, field implementation plan, data analysis, report preparation and scientific dissemination of the MEAL processes assigned to him/her.

The MEL and Reporting Officer will need to supervise team members at district and block level to ensure efficiency and quality of data collection and analysis by the MEAL unit of the state

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

MEL and Reporting Officer will undertake the following roles and responsibilities of conducting the MEL processes, specifically represented by but not limited to the details below, under the direction and guidance of the MEL & KML Specialist and MEAL Technical Advisory Group:

Provide technical expertise:

To participate in the design, analysis and reporting of findings of the MEL processes/pilots assigned
To be accountable for success of the state-specific MEL activities of IPEL, specifically, in terms of efficiency, quality and timeliness of the processes
Understand and explain the study design for different assessments (quantitative and qualitative) to all state-specific stakeholders
Concurrent liaising with all partners and government level functionaries to ensure the incorporation of the inputs and consequent course-corrections are made in all MEL and reporting processes in the state.
Participating in the development and executing the sampling frame/tools/instruments relevant for indicators of interest
Conducting pre-testing and cognitive testing of tools/instruments developed for assessing various MEL processes
Data processing (supervising the preparation of data entry software, entry of data through data entry operators at the state-level data entry center, back-check of data entry and cleaning of entered data)
Preparation of the drafts of the analytical reports of each component of the projects assigned, sharing and finalizing them based on inputs from all internal and external stakeholders
Interpret and communicate to the stakeholders at the state regarding findings with relevance to the study objectives and programmatic goals

Operational Management and Capacity Building:

To conduct training of all the data collectors (project and government level) and data quality assurance supervisors (project and government level) and any others involved in data collection on each relevant component of the MEL – on methodology, tools and data collection protocols through on-the-job training, classroom trainings and hand-holding relevant for assessments
To ensure completion of agreed task of data collection within timeline.
Ensuring data collection adheres to ethical guidelines, political requirements and organizational values.

Other Responsibilities

Understanding and collating the learnings from different sites and regions and develop a common information sharing module and disseminate the same to program team in the state
To support generation of adequate and timely data for submission to donor and Government as and when required
Presentation of results at various forums

Travel within or beyond the program areas for 30% of the time.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

State and Central level Program teams of all partners and stakeholders, Government counterparts, MEAL team members of the partners, external stakeholders, and Technical Advisory Group

QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE

Essential:

Masters in a relevant discipline (Education/MEAL/Research/ Implementation/Development/Management/ Social/Data/ population science) with at least 1 years’ experience in Management/Operational/ Translational/Analytical/Implementational research
Demonstrable Proficiency in data analytics and interpretation
Demonstrated numerical and data visualization skills

Preferable:

Experience with educational/system strengthening research and data-driven policy making
Demonstrated expertise in research or program planning and implementation
Exposure about the Government systems and their style of working

SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

Communication skills:

Able to articulate and communicate well to all stakeholders (both verbally and in writing) in a manner that meets the audience-specific needs

Language skills:

Able to read, write and speak impactfully in local language at an expert level

Research skills:

Able to conduct primary and secondary research for identifying the newest trends and incorporate them in program / process approach
Demonstrated experience of managing surveys/data collection initiatives

Team Management & Collaboration / People skills:

High social intelligence: able to engage and influence teams, create relationships of trust with stakeholders
Adept at co-creation: naturally collaborative and solutions focused
Conflict resolution: comfortable with negotiating and resolving conflict; seeking clarity and testing assumptions
Able to reflect, be empathetic, and a good listener

Strategic Thinking and Analysis:

Big picture / critical thinker (able to think clearly and rationally and select the best method as appropriate) / connector (able to spot gaps, establish needs and opportunities) analytically to influence decision making

Change Management:

Resilient: able to deal well with ambiguity, uncertainty, and change
Flexible: able to adapt well to identify, manage and shift competing priorities
Versatile: able to juggle different and conflicting priorities

Operational excellence (Project / Program / Process management):

Able to successfully manage project/process deliverables in stipulated time and budget
Able to incorporate feedback and continually work on project / process improvement

To apply for this job please visit careindiacareers.peoplestrong.com.