India: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Consultant – Child Protection and Anti-Trafficking Program - India

Part-time position – average 20 hours/week

Location: This consultancy will be based in India, with a preference for Mumbai or Kolkata with some domestic travel.

Reports to: Regional Director for Asia

BACKGROUND

Global Fund for Children partners to build a world where all children and youth are safe, strong, and valued. We pursue this mission by investing in innovative, locally led organizations, helping them deepen their impact and build their capacity for social change. To further advance and protect the rights of children and youth, GFC supports its partners to engage in grassroots advocacy initiatives to effect policy and social norm change from the local level. Since our founding nearly 25 years ago, GFC has invested nearly $40 million in over 600 grassroots organization around the world. Our work advances the rights of children and youth across four focus areas: education; gender equity; youth empowerment; and freedom from violence and exploitation.

GFC’s growing presence in India, and our commitment to ourselves and our partners to strengthen the capacity of grassroots organizations in programmatic outcomes and organizational development, has allowed us to create a unique role to strengthen grantee partner knowledge, capacity in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning as it pertains to child protection and anti-trafficking in India.

OVERVIEW

We are seeking a Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation Consultant with a training and capacity development mindset to work with our cohort of anti-trafficking grantee partners, to strengthen their MEL systems while also identifying areas of learning and feedback to incorporate in to their work. The MEL Consultant will work closely with the Country Representative in India and report to the Regional Program Director for Asia in Washington, D.C. The Consultant will be a champion of GFC’s mission, embracing our Core Values of Courage, Passion, Partnership, Learning, Inclusion and Excellence.

DELIVERABLES:

Internal role

• Lead the design, implementation and continuous development of the Child Protection and Anti-trafficking program’s monitoring, evaluation and learning system and necessary tools to be used to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness, quality and performance of activities:
  • Revise and propose any necessary improvement to the results framework
  • Build and implement MEL Plan
  • Use existing GFC data collection tools and develop necessary data collection tools, indicator tracking mechanism and databases
• Ensure that monitoring data is regularly analyzed and communicated to inform ongoing learning and key programmatic decisions.
• Oversee data quality assurance processes throughout monitoring and evaluation activities to ensure the program meets rigorous evidence standards at every stage (i.e. data capture, analysis, reporting).
• Coordinate quarterly and annual reports to reflect program implementation progress and impact
• Support the Regional Director in decision-making and donor reporting by providing timely and relevant information based on M&E data
• Collaborate with Regional Director to synthesize, analyze, and share practices and ideas from grassroots partners’ work with development team and externally;
• Collaborate with GFC Capacity Development Advisor and Grantmaking team to identify and adapt approaches, tools, and resources to better equip grantee partners to demonstrate program outcomes and impact;
• Coordinate efforts with GFC MEL Unit to ensure consistency across global and regional approaches, tools and resources;
• Keep abreast of developments in the field to ensure GFC partners employ the best evaluation and organizational learning strategies;
• Lead, with support from the regional team, in designing and implementing MEL component for partner convenings. Support internal MEL capacity building for the India office
• Support other related MEL needs of the India office, as needed.

External role

• Interface with core group of 5 anti-trafficking partners in India, leading the development of MEL plans based on program objectives and committed indicators
• Assess existing systems and propose necessary solutions at partner level to track the indicators and analyze changes in the indicators over the 5 year period of the partnership
• Use existing GFC data collection tools and define additional data collection tools needed by grassroots for effective collection of data
• Work with partner to strengthen monitoring, evaluation, feedback, and learning practices through training, workshops, webinars, etc.;
• Create the data infrastructure at partner level required for ongoing monitoring, evaluation, feedback, and learning to strengthen strategy and implementation.
• Be a focal point of contact for partners on MEL activities and updates.

Desired Qualifications, Experience and Skills:

• Bachelor degree, Master’s degree preferred, from a recognized institution in relevant academic fields such as social science, economics, statistics, international affairs or development;
• Mid-level MEL professional with a contextual understanding and experience of implementing M&E solutions around anti-trafficking in India
• Five or more years of experience in supporting evaluation and learning in an international cooperation and/or human rights context, within multi-year development programs, with strong preference for child and youth development/rights experience;
• Experience working with a diverse range of organizations with varying levels of MEL practices (nascent to advanced)
• Advanced skills in monitoring, evaluation, feedback, and learning methods; including significant knowledge of international best practices and experience with MEL frameworks, feedback, and learning processes;
• Direct experience building simple MEL systems;
• Familiarity with no or low cost software applications to support data management, analysis, and visualization;
• Demonstrated knowledge of and experience in monitoring and evaluating within a philanthropic context is desirable;
• Exceptional quantitative and qualitative data processing and analysis skills. Strong knowledge of MEL quantitative and qualitative methodologies, ideally with children and youth in vulnerable situations.
• Experience ensuring data quality and protection;
• Empathy and appreciation for the context and constraints of grassroots organizations
• Experience in knowledge management and data analysis with a solid grasp of qualitative methodology is important;
• Excellent writing, communication, and presentation skills;
• Familiarity with the link between project design, proposal writing, project implementation and evaluation and learning is helpful;
• Ability to strategically assess key technical issues across the organization’s core thematic areas—education, gender equity, freedom from violence and exploitation, and youth empowerment;
• High emotional intelligence and the ability to work collaboratively with humility across multiple cultural contexts;
• Working proficiency in English and Hindi is required, regional languages preferred

This consultancy is term-limited, based on a projected four-year time-frame for an anti-trafficking project in India. Compensation for this role is capped at USD 860/month based on technical skills and prior work experience.

GFC is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all. Check us out at www.globalfundforchildren.org.

To apply: Please send a cover letter and a resume or curriculum vitae to careers@globalfundforchildren.org with “MEL India Consultant” in the subject line. Please indicate your desired compensation in the cover letter.