M & E and Impact Officer

RECRUITMENT PACK

What you need to know

The post is M&E and Impact officerand you’ll be in the Programmedepartment.

The M&E and Impact officer is a key member of the new Evidence and Learning Team, working with programme officers across Programmes Department to ensure projects are designed and implemented taking account of best practice in monitoring, evaluation, and value for money. You will provide regular reports to senior management in relation to the achievement of our key performance indicators. You will work closely with the programme quality and learning officer to raise the quality of programming in Plan UK, drawing on experience and evidence from our existing projects, and also from best practice learned from other organisations. You will also lead on coordinating and reporting on Plan UK’s flagship “Building Skills for Life” portfolio of programmes, which focuses on empowering adolescent girls through education, sexual and reproductive health and rights, economic security and protection from violence.

It’s a permanent contract, and it’s a full timepost at 34.5 hours a week[ – we finish at 4.30pm on a Friday].

We are based in Old Street, London. (Finsgate, 5-7 Cranwood Street to be precise)

What we’re looking for

We are looking for someone with substantial M&E experience in the field of international development, with some of this having been gained overseas. The ideal candidate will have a relevant academic or professional qualification, have experience developing tools and methodologies appropriate for the context of our work, work well both in and across teams, and be capable of developing networks to gather and share information.

Please note: to apply for a position with Plan UK, you must be eligible to live and work in the United Kingdom(in accordance with the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006). Most importantly, we follow stringent child protection policies and procedures when dealing with applications.

What we offer you

The usual recruitment rate for this post (Grade 3) is £35,224 with future pay progression within the pay band from £35,224 to £37,078.

We have a generous annual leave entitlement which starts at 25 days (plus public holidays) for new starters.It goes up to 30 once you’ve been with us for 6 years.

We match contributions up to 6% on thepension scheme (which you can join once you’ve been with us for 3 months)

Weaim to be a family-friendly employer, withenhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay, as well as child care vouchers and a flexible working policy.

Even morebenefits include season ticket loans, study loans, a healthcare plan,cycle scheme and career break policy.

We would like all applications by Friday 4th April.

*Please note that all sections with a Blue Header must be completed. Areas in bold should not be deleted.

Job PLAN UK JOB PROFILE
Job Title / M&E and Impact Assessment Officer
Department / Programme Directorate
Unit (if appropriate) / Quality Assurance, Impact and Learning
Reporting to / Evidence and LearningManager
Responsible for / Volunteers/Interns as appropriate
Overview of Department
Plan UK’s strategy up to 2020 focuses our child-centred community development approach on child protection, education, economic security, and sexual and reproductive health. In pursuit of these aims we will deepen our disaster risk management capacity; build our ability to bid for large grants; refresh our sponsorship and diversify individual giving; and build further support for our work in the UK.
The Programme Directorate supports these aims by ensuring that Plan UK has the coherent, relevant and innovative programme needed to realise Plan’s mission, and more generally to help promote awareness of Plan’s work. It works with Plan’s country offices to design high quality project proposals (either for development work, or in response to humanitarian emergencies), and by raising the funds needed to implement them. It then manages these grants, ensuring that project monitoring and evaluation is carried out effectively, and that reports are submitted to donors in accordance with the increasingly exacting standards they set. More widely, the Programme Directorate supports Plan’s global programme by working across the organisation to share lessons learned, support the development of policy and advocacy positions, contribute towards publications, and by presenting Plan’s programme work to a range of audiences.
The new Quality Assurance, Impact and Learning (QAIL) unit has a key role to play in delivering these objectives by providing technical support and thought leadership across all departments in Plan UK, and increasingly by contributing to Plan’s global technical capacity. In doing so it ensures that quality and programme effectiveness, as well as value for money, is placed at the forefront of all our work. A primary aim is to make sure that Plan has a coherent, relevant and innovative programme from which we can all learn, share, and thereby promote change.
To help achieve this, we are setting up a new team to strengthen our learning and impact assessment work with a view to capturing more robust evidence of our effectiveness, using this to improve our accountability to both beneficiaries and donors, and so enhance Plan’s reputation as a credible development partner. The M&E and Impact Assessment Officer will be a key member of this team, helping to establish a customer-oriented service which will provide professional advice and support across the organisation. They will work closely with the Evidence and Learning Manager, and the Programme Quality and Learning Officer in pursuit of these objectives.
Importantly they will lead on coordination of the “Building Skills for Life” (BS4L) portfolio of programmes, which focuses on empowering adolescent girlsthrough education, sexual and reproductive health and rights, economic security and protectionfrom violence. The programme is a flagship programme for PlanUK, with significant investment of technical support, learning and resources to ensure its effectiveness, and its successful delivery is a key objective of Plan UK’s new Programme Strategy.
Job Purpose
To improve Plan UK’s development effectiveness by providing technical support in programme monitoring, evaluation and impact across the organisation. The post-holder will lead on the coordination and reporting of results under Plan’s flagship Building Skills for Life (BS4L) programme.
Some overseas travel will need to be undertaken
Key Duties / Key Activities
Strengthening Monitoring and Evaluation /
  • Support the implementation and ongoing development of best-practice in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and impact assessment across Plan UK.
  • Build the capacity of staff in the UK and Country Offices in the use of latest M&E tools and methodologies, including in relation to value for money.
  • Support colleagues in UKNO and CO to develop logical frameworks, indicators, baseline studies, theories of change, terms of reference for evaluations, and impact assessments, in accordance to donors’ requirements and monitor their implementation.
  • Where necessary, provide hands-on technical support for project and programme monitoring, evaluation in priority countries.
  • Provide support for the M&E systems and key other processes (baseline, annual reporting, mid-term and final evaluations etc.) for the Plan’s priority projects.
  • Work closely with the Programme Quality and Learning officer to ensure that the results of monitoring and evaluation, and impact assessments, are gathered and distributed, and used to improve the quality of future programmes.
  • Develop Beneficiary Feedback methods and institutionalise them.
  • Review proposed M&E designs for key priority projects and contribute to their sign off in proposals

Reporting and Communicating results /
  • Review and advise on strengthening the reporting of results to children and communities with whom Plan UK works;
  • Working with the EL Manager, provide periodic updates on impact and effectiveness for the Senior Management Team and Board of Trustees, including in relation to Key Performance Indicators;
  • Support the development of tools for high-level aggregation and reporting of outcomes to demonstrate programme, policy - and organisation-wide effectiveness and impact;
  • Develop and implement strategies for disseminating lessons from M&E to internal and external stakeholders;
  • Ensure that M&E documents and other impact assessments are available in an easily understood, jargon-free, form, to facilitate widespread lesson learning;
  • Pro-actively engage with Advocacy and Communications staff on the best ways to get messaging across to Plan UK’s audience, and advise on the appropriate use and interpretation of evaluation results;
  • Be an internal champion for the communication and celebration of successful project outcomes within the organisation.
  • Engage with external learning and good practice networks to share Plan UK’s learning and maintain good knowledge of developments in the sector.

Provide cross-departmental
coordination for the
development and
maintenance of the
Building Skills for Life (BS4L) portfolio. /
  • Coordinate information gathering across the portfolio of BS4L projects on outputs,
outcomes and impact for internalmanagement reporting and increased accountability to beneficiaries and donors.
  • Collate management information on the scale, content and progress in
delivery of the Building Skills for Life project portfolio for reporting
against Business Plan Key Performance Indicators.
  • Coordinate periodic updating of information of Country Office capacity
in relation to Building Skills for Life to Plan UK
  • Maintain current information on alignment between Country Strategic Plans and Building Skills for Life thematic areas
  • Communicate with Plan country and regional offices to raise and maintain awareness of the programme
  • Issue periodic calls for concept notes from Country Offices in relation
to Building Skills for Life and work with relevant thematic advisors to
provide initial reviews of concept notes
  • Liaise with fundraising teams to help match funding opportunities with
country office interests and capacities, seeking to achieve good
coverage of projects across Plan UK “core countries.”
  • Ensure effective information-sharing across Plan UK units and
departments on Building Skills for Life
• Organise electronic shared folders relevant to the Building Skills for Life programme and design systems and processes for storing thematic learning resources#
  • Create and maintain a database of Building Skills for Life projects

General /
  • A naturally enquiring mind, committed to finding out why things happened as they did, and using this to making programmes better in the future.
  • To be open to (and encourage) change, demonstrating a flexible and adaptable approach.
  • To work collaboratively with other departments, and be a supportive and effective team member.
  • To ensure that all activities undertaken on behalf of Plan UK, externally or internally, are executed in accordance with the overall aims of the organisation and in line with Plan’s policies and procedures.
  • To participate in training and other activities as requested by the organisation.

Stakeholder and Customer Service /
  • To provide quality customer service to all our respective audiences and comply with Plan UK’s quality management protocols.

Awareness and Representation /
  • To undertake all representation activities with professionalism that enhances Plan’s awareness and reputation.

Key Deliverables / Please Indicate A R or N/A
  • Programme M&E and impact assessment processes and systems are effective.
  • Beneficiary Feedback methods in place and used.
  • Validate Key Performance Indicator (KPI) evaluation methodologies, adapting where necessary to ensure data is correct and properly captured.
  • Ensuring Plan UK complies with its International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) commitments in terms of reporting on programmes and impact
  • Effective knowledge management and business intelligence to facilitatethe development of the Building Skills for Life portfolio
  • Timely and accurate reporting of performance under the Building Skills for Life programme, including delivery of the BS4L Annual Report.
The development and testing of M&E related toolkits, evaluation summaries and synthesis papers

Decision MakingCriteria: A = Accountable, R = Responsible

Level of Child Protection Responsibility / Medium– Post has responsibility for ensuring Child Protection procedures or policies are adhered to.
Level of Budgetary Responsibility / Limited - Post has delegated or functional responsibility of budgetary control
Key Working Contacts / Programme Quality and Learning Officer, Programme Officers, Thematic Advisors and Managers, Major Partners Unit, Programme Partnership and Development Unit, ACC, Country Office programme and M&E staff, and Plan International HQ Programme Effectiveness Team

This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Your job description may be subject to change.

Date Created / 21/03/2104

*Please note that all sections with a Blue Header must be completed. Areas in bold should not be deleted.

Plan UK Person Specification
Job Title /

M&Eand Impact Assessment Officer

Department / Programmes Directorate
Unit (if appropriate) / Quality Assurance, Impact and Learning
PERSONAL COMPETENCIES
Competency Title / The successful candidate will be able to….
Communicating with all stakeholders /
  • Prepare and structure communications well.
  • Network with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
  • Show confidence in presenting Plan programmes and policies, adapting their style to meet the needs of different audiences.
  • Demonstrate good listening skills.
  • Motivate and influence others.

Working effectively and efficiently /
  • Work accurately and efficiently to deadlines, managing a wide and varied workload using strong organisational skills.
  • Work enthusiastically as part of a team, and form effective and constructive working relationships across the whole organisation and wider network within sector.
  • Create an environment where employees, stakeholders and partners work to improve the way things are done.
  • Take a proactive and flexible approach to maintaining and developing own knowledge and skill base.
  • Share information on the best use of resources and propose ways for improvement.

Demonstrating Plan values /
  • Drive continuous improvement both in themselves and in others.
  • Show commitment to achieving high quality outcomes.
  • Monitor progress, evaluate, and revise deadlines as necessary.
  • Influenceand manage changes that may be difficult, but which improve Plan UK as an organisation.
  • Contribute to the development and maintenance of high standards of service to others.
  • Use resources in a cost effective manner.

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
The successful candidate will have experience of ….
Developing and implementing monitoring and evaluation frameworks and systems
Developing and participating in monitoring processes, gained (at least in part) in a developing country setting
Collating and analysing monitoring and evaluation data from multiple sources to prepare succinct reports tailored for the needs of diverse audiences.
Writing reports and other materials tailored for the needs of diverse audiences.
Developing and participating in project and/or programme planning processes gained at least in part in a developing country setting
Developing and participating in evaluation and learning processes gained at least in part in a developing country setting.
Co-ordinating complex administrative and logistic arrangements.
Administering the inputs of external contractors / consultants.
SPECIFIC SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
The successful candidate will have the ability to…. / The successful candidate will have knowledge of….
Degree in statistics (or similar relevant subject), with experience in using quantitative method. /
  • Current theoretical debates in the M&E of international development assistance.

Experience in applying a range of qualitative and quantitative M&E approaches, methods and tools, (particularly participatory methodologies), preferably in a developing country setting /
  • How to work with cross cultural sensitivity.

The ability to work to a high level of accuracy with a keen eye for detail, and produce clear and concise reports. /
  • A range of planning approaches and methodologies (e.g. logical framework approach, theory of change, participatory approaches, such as Outcome Mapping)

Manage multiple and competing priorities effectively. /
  • Rights Based Approaches gained at least in part from the completion of relevant qualifications and/or training

Demonstrate an awareness of child protection issues /
  • Child Rights

Date Created / 21/03/2014