Senior Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) Advisor – Lebanese National Candidates Only

Background

FHI 360 seeks a SENIOR MEL ADVISOR to support an anticipated five-year USAID civil society strengthening program in Lebanon (2021-26). Building on civil society assistance accomplishments, the project aims to support a broad swath of civil society organizations (CSOs) to further rights-based advocacy and public policy reforms, implementation, and enforcement; improve technical and administrative capacities of CSOs; and provide tools and resources that strengthen collective action to impact public policy, behavior change and improved service provision at the national and local levels. Consultancy is contingent upon project award and funding.

Upon approval, the program will begin with an initial refinement phase to deepen the understanding – through desk review and consultations with a broad and representative group of stakeholders working at the national and local levels – of experiences, lessons learned, recommendations, and ideas to incorporate into the program’s final design, as well as to substantiate the proposed project roadmap, technical approaches and components including a collaboration workshop with USAID and a selected group of civil society experts and key stakeholders. The overall learning will contribute to the finalization of the project workplan and learning agenda.  The goals of the refinement phase are to:

• build understanding around the operating context faced by Lebanese civil society and community actors;
• explore models for and lessons from civic action initiatives as experienced by diverse segments of the population including women, youth and persons with disabilities;
• assess the viability of continuing investments in established advocacy interventions;
• identify opportunities to support civil society efforts to advance free and fair elections;
• understand capacity development priorities to strengthen relief and faith-based organization service delivery given the compounded crises; and
• understand linkages and collaboration opportunities within the civil society support landscape.

Scope of Work

The Senior MEL Advisor will design, initiate, and oversee the project’s overall approach and activities for monitoring, evaluation, and learning through a collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) lens and provide long-term technical assistance to the project, including training and mentoring to partners and staff. She/he will lead the program team through a co-creation and program design process during the Refinement phase of the program. She/he will then develop and manage the MEL plan, learning agenda, and design and implementation of the MEL system. She/he will also lead a team on the gathering, analysis, and reporting of data and the integration of feedback and adjustments into project planning and implementation. A total of 120 days has been allocated for this consultancy during the first year of the program, with intensive support during the first six months. It is anticipated that the role will transition into part-time oversight and coaching role throughout the life of the program (35 days per year).  

The Senior MEL Advisor will report to the Chief of Party (COP) and mentor the field MEL team. Responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Co-lead the program team through co-creation and design processes during the inception phase of the program.   Participate in Refinement team meetings, contribute to refinement research design and activity work plan; undertake KIIs and facilitate FGDs; Serve as a facilitator of co-creation events and workshops upon request; and Contribute to the development of overall refinement report.
• Lead MEL/CLA through program start-up, including refinement, co-creation, program description, MEL workshop, and work planning.  
• Design and develop the monitoring, evaluating, learning, and research plan for the project, including selecting and defining indicators, setting targets for all indicators, planning data collection activities, and analyzing data to measure the results of the project and achievement of strategic objectives of USAID/Lebanon.  
• Develop and support the design and implementation of continuous and / or end-of-project evaluations, surveys and other components of the monitoring and evaluation system.  
• Oversee the project’s CLA approach and activities in collaboration with the MEL staff, the Associate Director, Programs, and the Chief of Party.   
• Lead senior management and project staff to ensure that project learnings are applied, and project activities are adapted, as needed, for innovative and effective programming.   
• Develop monitoring activities that capture necessary data to report on program results.   
• Develop high-quality quantitative and qualitative methods and participatory methodologies to control the quality of the program in terms of performance and results; design appropriate feedback mechanisms to assess whether the approaches implemented by the project are effective.  
• Support ongoing supervision and technical assistance to partners, as needed, in the implementation of the monitoring and evaluation system, ensuring that the data and analyzes are of high quality.  
• Train MEL team members on how to collaborate with government stakeholders and local partners and build their capacity to carry out monitoring and evaluation activities.  
• Support the communication of information obtained through MEL activities to project and FHI 360 staff, as well as USAID and partners.   
• Supervise regular data collection process reviews, data quality assessments, and adaptive management activities.   
• Support production of high quality and timely MEL reports for the project, FHI 360, and USAID, including documentation of successes, data analysis for indicator aggregation and reporting, summary of qualitative results, etc.  
• Develop annual performance plans and annual MEL plans in conjunction with FHI 360’s MEL team based in Washington, DC.   
• Participate in senior management team meetings as requested.   

Deliverables (in English)

• Specific contributions to the overall Refinement strategy and specific refinement activities, i.e. drafting/reviewing inception reports, key questions, research methodologies; training staff, consultants and data collectors; conducting data analysis and drafting/editing/finalizing reports; facilitating consultations, workshops, and events; presenting findings; etc.  
• Monthly reports outlining tasks undertaken and plans for the next month 
• MEL Research Plan, AMELP, and other deliverables defined by HQ MEL Specialist 
• Other tasks as agreed with FHI 360 

Location of Work / Travel

Depending on the public health situation in Lebanon at that time, FHI 360 will determine whether meetings will be conducted in-person or virtually, but FHI 360 anticipates that the assignment requires a mix of both in-person and virtual events. FHI 360 will ensure that all health and safety measures are taken in the case of in-person meetings, in line with its own and Lebanon’s regulations.  Ultimately it is anticipated that programmatic activities will take place across Lebanon and when appropriate, the team may travel within the country as required.

Timetable and Address for Submission

Applicants must submit their applications to [email protected] by 4:00pm Beirut Time on May 7, 2021. Required documentation is listed below and applicants must include the name of the consultancy in the subject line of their email.  Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. 

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in international development, statistics, public policy, political science, grassroots organizing, demographics, or related field required.   
• At least 12 years of experience related to monitoring, evaluating, learning, and reporting on international development programs, including demonstrated experience in developing and implementing MEL plans and/or researching protocol 
• At least 5 years working on MEL with USAID programs in Lebanon and/or the MENA region required, with experience on civil society support programs preferred.  
• Knowledge of research, evaluation and learning methods, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, and impact data collection and analysis with first-hand knowledge of USAID rules, regulations, policies, and procedures. 
• Experience with indicator selection, target setting, reporting, database management, and developing MEL and performance monitoring plans.   
• Ability to set up a solid monitoring system to assess the fidelity of the implementation and the effectiveness of the program, and use this data for adaptive project management.  
• Familiarity with innovative MEL methods that can be effective in remote areas with little resources.   
• Understanding of gender equality and social inclusion considerations for the Lebanese context preferred.   
• Experience delivering training and mentoring on MEL to beneficiaries and field staff.   
• Experience designing and implementing surveys and other data collection tools.   
• Experience working on programs focused on civil society, human rights and/or governance required.   
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in Arabic and English and strong bilingual facilitation skills required
• Relevant regional MENA and international experience will be an added advantage

Evaluation Criteria: Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the following criteria of 100 points total:

• Proven track record in delivering tasks similar to this scope of work - 40 points
• Comprehensive understanding of civil society in Lebanon - 25 points
• Constructive recommendations on advancing MEL/CLA within the program - 25 points
• Compliance with this RFP - 10 points

Required Documentation: Proposals must be in English and include the following components:

• CV

• Past Performance Summary that includes:  list of similar work conducted within the past three years along with two examples of related work (URL or e-copies are accepted) and list of three professional references (name, position, organization, email, telephone and affiliation/specific assignment implemented by the applicant. 

• Cover letter (maximum two-A4 pages, 12-point font) that includes your proposed daily rate in USD and answers the following questions

• What are some of the challenges facing Lebanese civil society organizations in their efforts to advocate for change and how can CLA methodologies address this?  
• What are some of the challenges you have seen CSOs face when implementing monitoring and evaluation and how have you supported them to mitigate these?
• Having delivered similar MEL/CLA assignments, what lessons learned do you recommend FHI 360 consider replicating and/or adapting given the current context in Lebanon?  
• Given the continued health risks, FHI 360 anticipates the majority of refinement activities will take place virtually.  What experience have you had in adapting to this new reality of remote work and what approaches or methodologies do you recommend FHI 360 utilize to ensure meaningful engagement in meeting the goals of the refinement and co-creation phase?

FHI 360 Disclaimers

• • FHI 360 may perform a background check on any selected Consultant candidates
  • FHI 360 may cancel the solicitation and not award
  • FHI 360 may reject any or all responses received
  • Issuance of the solicitation does not constitute an award commitment by FHI 360
  • FHI 360 reserves the right to disqualify any offer based on failure of the offeror to follow solicitation instructions
  • FHI 360 will not compensate any offeror for responding to solicitation
  • FHI 360 reserves the right to issue award based on initial evaluation of offers without further discussion
  • FHI 360 may choose to award only part of the activities in the solicitation, or issue multiple awards based on the solicitation activities
  • FHI 360 reserves the right to waive minor proposal deficiencies that can be corrected prior to award determination to promote competition
  • FHI 360’s supplier terms and conditions can be found here while our consultant terms and conditions can be found here