Job Description

About the Opportunity 

The Senior MERL Advisor will play a critical role in designing, managing, and reporting on Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) activities for the IW program. This individual will lead technical work in key areas such as Workplace Gender Equality, Policy and Reform, and Gender Lens Investing, while collaborating closely with teams and partners to track progress and ensure meaningful insights through data collection and analysis.

Reporting to the MERL Director, the Senior MERL Adviser will be responsible for the following: 

• Support the Program in implementing, monitoring and reporting against program activities, tracking results and lead outcome evaluation activities for one (or more) workstream; 
• Design and implement quantitative and qualitative data collection (surveys, interviews, focus groups, case studies), analysis, research and reporting for review of workstream progress against the Theory of Change; 
• Work with IW workstream team(s) and counterparts within partner organisations (where appropriate) to:
  • gather, interpret and analyse primary quantitative data collected through their operations
  • provide advice on their development and implementation of program tracking, monitoring and evaluation systems
  • provide MERL capacity building support to workstream partners as requested by workstream teams, including support for workstream learning activities; 
• Support the MERL Director to recruit and manage short term advisers carrying out MERL activities, research or analysis
• Liaise and meet regularly with IW workstream team members and relevant IW partners to ensure the MERL team is up to date on program activities and challenges.
• Provide written and verbal reporting of MERL findings to key IW staff and stakeholders, including through powerpoint presentations and infographics.
• Together with the Workstream Director, lead workstream learning agendas, including through internal consultations and learning events, partner engagement, analysis of available evidence, and dissemination of learning products for internal and external audiences.
• Support periodic review and update of the IW Theory of Change and MERL system.

Track progress against workplans ensuring efficient, effective and timely delivery, and report these to the Director, identifying any potential risks and areas requiring further support. Oversee and support the inputs and tasks of MERL Analysts related to the relevant workstream(s).

Employment type and location: Project-based role based in Canberra, Australia. Other locations in Australia will be considered.
Duration: Up to 30 June 2027; anticipated to commence in December 2024.

Qualifications

About You 

We are seeking a skilled MERL professional with a strong background in quantitative and qualitative data analysis, research, and reporting. The ideal candidate will have experience in gender equality programming, along with the ability to communicate findings clearly to diverse stakeholders. A flexible, collaborative individual, they will be passionate about driving learning and improvement in program outcomes.

Key Selection Criteria 

For your application to be considered by the Panel, interested applicants must submit a response to each of the following Key Selection Criteria (KSC):

KSC 1: Tertiary qualifications (or equivalent experience) in social sciences, preferably with a focus on quantitative and qualitative MEL, data collection/research and analysis of data. Experience with gender equality programming highly regarded.

KSC 2: Ability to present findings clearly and concisely (in writing and verbally) and to target communication to meet the needs of different stakeholder groups and end-users of information.

KSC 3: Experience engaging with senior counterparts and stakeholders to coordinate and execute evaluation activities, disseminate findings and build knowledge capacity.

KSC 4: Highly competent in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, with competency in other software such as PowerBI, SPSS and Strata also desirable.

KSC 5: Flexible and a team player, experienced in working effectively with a range of stakeholders. Experience with private sector stakeholders highly desirable.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single requirement for a position. At Abt Global we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you are excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every role requirement, we encourage you to apply in any case. You may be just the right candidate for this or for other roles.

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Job Description

About the Opportunity

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the MERL Director will be the principal liaison point between DFAT, IW and program partners on MERL activities and is responsible for:

• Setting the strategic direction for IW’s MERL System, including demonstrated leadership on system coherence, relevance, alignment and evaluation.
• Implementing the activities which comprise the IW MERL System (either directly, through the MERL team or via management of technical advisory inputs);
• Ensuring the System is efficiently meeting the program’s information needs; and

The purpose of the IW MERL system is fourfold:

• To build the evidence base in the development of Southeast Asia-specific business cases for WGE and WEE, and thereby support advocacy for shifting practices and attitudes and investments related to WGE and WEE.
• To enable accountability to the Australian public and DFAT, specifically reporting on how the funding was used and what it achieved.
• To support IW management and partners to track progress against the mutually reinforcing outcomes, learn how/why change is occurring and inform decision-making for continuous improvement.
• To ensure the learning from an innovative aid investment serve to inform future DFAT investments and contribute to wider development learning. This relates specifically to better understanding how to work effectively with and through the private sector as well as effective strategies to influence policy and social norms in the digital age.

Specific duties of the MERL Director include:

• Provide leadership and quality assurance of all aspects of MERL System design and delivery, including ensuring they are underpinned by robust conceptual frameworks for gender equality and women’s economic empowerment;
• Proactively ensure the MERL system’s key questions, performance indicators, and focus of data collection aligns with the (evolving) information needs of the Program;
• Work with DFAT in relation to MERL and to ensure that the MERL System provides data that is relevant to DFAT’s reporting requirements;
• Provide strategic leadership to program staff and partners to develop and agree data collection, reporting and dissemination approaches that are technically robust, fit-for-purpose and efficient;
• Work collaboratively with partners and ensure the MERL team supports capacity building with the IW implementation team and partners;
• Guide, coordinate and provide technical leadership on all MERL frameworks, designs, methods and outputs;
• Provide strategic leadership and implementation oversight to IW research partnerships, the research agenda and knowledge management, the program learning cycle, and contribute to program communications;
• Oversee reporting and dissemination of MERL results (in collaboration with other parts of IW) including supporting the development and delivery of the agreed Annual Work Plans;
• Initiate continual innovation and improvement in the use, analysis and reporting of program data and insights;
• Provide strong leadership of the MERL team to deliver all MERL Reports to a high standard, in line with the MERL Framework, and work collaboratively with the rest of the IW Team to provide high quality inputs to other IW reports;
• Ensure effective planning and budget management. Demonstrate effective people management and team capacity development.
• Plan for adaptive learning and capacity building with the IW implementation team and partners and report against progress.
• Oversee an annual update of the MERL System to ensure it is still relevant to the Program’s information needs, and is meeting these needs efficiently;
• Ensure IW meets all MERL objectives as agreed in Annual Plans and other key documents.
   

Employment type and location:  Project based role based in Canberra, Australia or Manila, Philippines.  Other remote work locations in Australia and Southeast Asia will be considered.

Duration:   Up to 30 June 2027; anticipated to commence in November 2024

Qualifications

About You

The candidate we seek has excellent interpersonal skills, demonstrated experience to effectively work with remotely-based MERL team members, and excellent oral and written communication skills in English.

In addition, we seek an individual who meets the Key Selection Criteria given below.

Key Selection Criteria

For your application to be considered by the Panel, interested applicants must submit a response to each of the following Key Selection Criteria (KSC):

KSC 1: Master’s degree or Post-graduate studies in social sciences, preferably with a focus on M&E, data collection/research and analysis of data;

KSC 2: Minimum of 10 years’ experience as an M&E professional, preferably working for M&E programs funded by DFAT;

KSC 3: Strong leadership skills, experience in effective staff supervision, and the capacity to contribute to building a team focused on high quality deliverables and outcomes;

KSC 4: Experience engaging with senior internal and external counterparts and private sector stakeholders to coordinate and execute evaluation activities, disseminate findings and build knowledge capacity;

KSC 5: Management and supervision of qualitative research studies and demonstrated experience of quantitative and qualitative evaluation methodologies for demonstrating impact, effectiveness and efficiency; and

KSC 6: A track record in analysis and reporting to generate measurable impacts and in-depth understanding of how and why changes are occurring.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single requirement for a position. At Abt Associates we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you are excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every role requirement, we encourage you to apply in any case. You may be just the right candidate for this or for other roles.

See more jobs at Investing in Women

Apply for this job