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Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Officer, Innovation
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Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Officer, Innovation
Location: London, UK (applications from Kenya and/or Nigeria may also be considered)
Practice: Scaling Innovation
Contracted Hours: 1.0 FTE (full-time)
Position Contact: Alethea Osborne, Senior Program Manager (aosborne@r4d.org)
Opportunity
R4D seeks a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Officer within our Scaling Innovation practice to take ownership over critical elements of our work, managing MEL systems for innovation programmes. This individual must have experience establishing and managing MEL systems for complex programmes, including MEL for networks, along with portfolio-level MEL. Ideally, the individual will also have Grants Management experience. This individual must be comfortable managing diverse perspectives and facilitating relationships with multiple partners including consortium partners, bilateral institutions, multilateral institutions, government stakeholders, and local implementing partners. Experience working in the fields of technology innovation, scaling innovation and/or innovation ecosystems strengthening is required.
The Scaling Innovation practice operates a matrixed resourcing structure, with team members feeding into different programmes and projects in line with their expertise and programme resourcing needs. An integral member of the Innovation Team, the MEL Officer will therefore be responsible for leading MEL activities across several projects within the Innovation portfolio. This role will primarily support across the following three programmes:
- The Tech Community of Expertise (TCOE) Helpdesk (circa 50%), which provides rapid, demand-led technical assistance to FCDO Posts across areas such as artificial intelligence, digital public infrastructure, cyber resilience, digital transformation, and responsible technology governance. The MEL Officer will be responsible for tracking the quality and impact of Helpdesk responses.
- The Frontier Technologies Hub (circa 25%) - a consortium of partners that works with the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to explore the use of frontier technology by working with partners all over the world to test and scale tech with the potential for positive social impact. The MEL Officer will support with processes to ensure impact tracking, sensemaking, and storytelling from across the FT Hub.
- IDIA (circa 25%) - an ecosystem of investors, entrepreneurs, government leaders, academic experts and partner networks working together to create a better world through innovation. The MEL Officer will be integral to capturing the value and impact of IDIA for it’s differing communities.
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This role will preferably be based in London, UK, however applications from Kenya or Nigeria will also be considered. The role will report to a Senior Program Officer. This role is a hybrid position, with a mix of remote work and in-office days and some international travel may also be required.
Responsibilities
- Participates fully as a member of R4D by contributing, assisting, and participating in projects, activities, and initiatives as requested by management
- Lead and manage monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) components of Innovation team projects.
- Lead the development of programme theories of change, learning agendas, and MEL frameworks through engagement with diverse stakeholders, particularly focused on MEL for knowledge management and partnerships.
- Diagnose limitations of existing MEL systems, and identify opportunities for better integration of equity and inclusion principles within MEL systems.
- Support programme teams to continuously learn and iterate on the basis of findings from ongoing MEL activities – including through facilitating review sessions and retrospectives with team leads and donor partners.
- Manage and undertake research initiatives – including both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis - aimed at surfacing learning and insights from across innovation portfolios, and supporting uptake of learning and evidence by different innovation actors.
- Establish learning networks for surfacing and sharing insights and learning about innovation – including peer to peer learning networks amongst innovation practitioners.
- Communicate learning and insights in a digestible way to key stakeholders including programme teams, government stakeholders, and funders to promote evidence-informed decision-making
- Deliver high quality presentations, annual reports and other written products internally and externally to a variety of stakeholders, including non-technical audiences, identifying their specific needs and gaps to inform outputs
- Collaborate across multi-disciplinary and multicultural teams, establishing trusted and positive working relationships, including with high-level stakeholders
- Identify and contribute to opportunities to share R4D and program learnings, including social media posts and conferences
- Identify business development opportunities and contribute technical expertise to proposals
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Qualifications and experience
Essential
- MA + 5 years of relevant professional experience
- Strong academic and professional record in international development, public administration, public policy, or related discipline
- Experience implementing MEL systems for complex programmes, such as partnership or knowledge management programmes
- Experience integrating equity and inclusion considerations into MEL systems
- Experience on technology and innovation projects or programmes
- Strong understanding of innovation methods, gained through working on innovation projects or programmes that have adopted agile project management methodologies
- Knowledge of and experience with both quantitative and qualitative research methods
- Enthusiastic about joining a diverse and inclusive work environment
- Flexibility and willingness to work on projects across any of R4D’s disciplines (health, education, nutrition)
- Strong commitment to excellence and attention to detail
- Strong writer and oral communicator in English, with a proven track record of preparing presentations and reports as well as an ability to describe technical problems and solutions to a non-technical audience
- Ability to set priorities and handle multiple competing time and resource demands
- Knowledge of software like SPSS, STATA, Atlas TI, QDA Miner, Nvivo
- Prior experience with international government and foundation donors, such as FCDO
- Willingness to travel
Desirable
- Strong understanding of the innovation lifecycle, and of best practices for monitoring and measuring the progress and impact of innovations
- Experience working with multi-donor networks
- Understanding and experience working on projects that have adopted a user- or human-centered design approach
- Awareness of emerging trends in digital, technology and AI, and their potential for impact for social good
- Fluency in another language
With many of the initiatives within our portfolio at an exciting stage of their development / implementation, we are eager to find someone who is able to start as soon as possible. As a result we will be interviewing candidates on a rolling basis as we receive strong applications
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