A literature review conducted by the Horizon of Excellence in 2020 indicated that MEL personnel should have the following skills to successfully discharge their responsibilities:
“Think strategically, learn for adaptive management, coordinate inclusively, communicate effectively, and build capacities as an ICT user and social researcher with a specialized and updated knowledge”.
As illustration, let’s consider extracts of the M&E vacancy announcements to get an overall picture of the M&E profile.
“The MEL Director will be responsible for establishing and implementing an effective system to monitor progress, measure outcomes and impacts and report on project performance and successes. The Director will also design, operationalize, and lead the implementation of the project’s Collaborating Learning and Adapting framework. S/he will be expected to develop and lead knowledge management and facilitate organizational learning” (Creative Associates International Inc., 2020).
“Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Manager will lead on ensuring the quality and accountability of our work, bringing immediate and lasting changes in the lives of children. The MEAL Manager will bring significant experience and fresh ideas to lead on MEAL system implementation, review and evaluations, MEAL budgeting, recruitment, as well as support to proposal writing and log frame development. The post holder will ensure that all Save the Children International and Partner projects are supported to ensure quality, effectiveness and appropriateness of their programs. It will be important for the post-holder to capture lessons learned and communicate this information in various capacities to improve on-going and future programming. S/he will guide Save the Children International and Partner teams to maintain an effective monitoring system across all sectors, including the use of beneficiary feedback data, to assure the quality of interventions. The MEAL Manager will lead on building capacity of staff and partners on MEAL but particularly on accountability and participation, with a specific focus on children. Ultimately, s/he will ensure that the program has evidence-based knowledge to inform the direction of the program from assessment and regular program monitoring documents. Special attention should be paid to the positive and negative impact that interventions have in communities, marginalized and disabled persons. This analysis will need to be made available to all SCI staff and external stakeholders where appropriate” (Save the Children, 2017).
“Educate! is seeking an enthusiastic and self-driven Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Coordinator to support Educate!’s M&E Team in the process of scaling the M&E System. Educate! is operating in 250 schools in Uganda and continues to scale up its operations to the North of Uganda. Educate! is working towards a scalable and efficient M&E System, allowing for a high and frequent data turnout and a strong impact orientation of the M&E system. As part of the M&E Team, the M&E Coordinator is in charge of ensuring a higher impact orientation of the M&E System through promoting more rigorous evaluation designs. This position offers the chance to lead and contribute to the design of an impact-oriented M&E System in the context of a fast-growing youth development organization” (Educate!, unknown).
Skill 1: Think Strategically, Be Results Oriented
M&E function exists to support the management in achieving program goals. With a strategic vision, M&E expert should feel the responsibility to achieve the development objectives.
“Develop and update the Project Management Plan (PMP), including review of its results framework, potential indicators, relevant and applicable baseline data collection strategies and methodologies, and the financial and human resources needed to successfully implement the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) strategy (Creative Associates International, 2020)”
“Support and coordinate the development (or revision) of a programme Theory of Change (ToC) by program’s Technical Leads and ensure that grantees’ Theories of Change align with or feed into program’s programme Theory of Change (DAI, 2018)”.
“The MERL Director provides strategic guidance, vision, and management for successful monitoring and evaluation of the program. This individual also supervises MERL staff and ensures the strategic and functional integration of all MERL activities as well as active collaboration with sub-awardees and USAID. The Director oversees all MEL activities, provides technical direction and support, and ensures the accurate reporting of results for program activities (At the heart of Pact, 2020)”.
Skills 2: Learn for Adaptive Management
In the lens of supporting the management to achieve strategic mission, M&E expert should develop skills of learning by doing. This would help the management maintain flexibility in their decisions, knowing that uncertainties exist and so provide the latitude to adjust direction to improve progress towards desired outcomes. Under such conditions, the expert should ensure that programs are coordinated with others, grounded in a strong evidence base, and iteratively adapted to remain relevant throughout the implementation.
“Review and adapt (if need be) current Monitoring Approach, and subsequently support any program staff to plan and carrying out monitoring of grantees (DAI, 2018)”
“Lead on all learning and adaptation activities, including acting as the focal point for any program adaptation advisors or learning specialists, and facilitating Critical Reflection events (DAI, 2018)”;
“Organize and implement learning events and processes, including ‘pause and reflect’ events and resulting adaptive management analysis, decision-making, program/ approach adjustments (Creative Associates International Inc., 2020)”
“Contribute to the creation of a culture of openness, trust, and continuous improvement within the program team and with the program, implementing partners, other donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions (Creative Associates International Inc., 2020)”
“Ensure consultative processes with communities, local government, civil society, other donor-funded projects, local researchers and academics (Creative Associates International Inc., 2020)”.
Skill 3: Coordinate Inclusively
M&E person is not the only one holding M&E functions but this is also the responsibility of different stakeholders including management, donor, beneficiaries, government, etc. In this respect, this person should develop coordination skills that would help him/her have inclusive collaboration, stakeholder engagement, teamwork, building effective relationships. In fact, the coordination is the force that binds all the other functions of management, a process by which the manager achieves harmonious group effort and unity of action in the pursuit of a common purpose. As opposed to the management which is about controlling, giving directions or be in charge of something, coordination is about synchronizing all elements of the system.
“Lead the team to develop and implement the project Performance Monitoring Plan (PMP) in coordination with the Chief of Party, the local M&E team, local stakeholders, to capture project performance and results, including routine service delivery data reporting, baseline and end-line assessments, and all monitoring for process and outcome evaluations (EngenderHealth, 2020)”.
“The M&E coordinator will ensure that suitable monitoring and evaluation systems are in place, implemented as intended, and reporting in a comprehensive and timely manner to facilitate technical coordinators and managers deliver programs that achieve the desired outcomes/impacts (IRC, 2020)”.
Skill 4: Communicate Effectively:
Being interacting with different people, she/he should develop communication and knowledge sharing skills. MEL function is only useful if the position holder can effectively communicate the results to stakeholders. Digging into many MEL job descriptions, report writing is seen as a common task. Reports may be for internal purposes or to share with donors, partners, beneficiaries or other stakeholders. They not only need to be well written and easy to digest but they should also clearly communicate the findings and recommendations for specific audience in an accessible way. Being a strong writer and communicator are the required skills. In addition, the knowledge of more than one official language would be an important asset.
“Excellent diplomacy skills and a proven ability to establish and maintain interpersonal and professional relationships with USAID, host-country counterparts and representatives from other key stakeholders such as NGOs, CSOs, and the private sector (Jhpiego, 2020)”
“Ensure regular communication of M&E activities to all key stakeholders and contribute to the quarterly, annual report and project reporting to USAID (Creative Associates International, 2020)”
Skill 5: Use Information and Communication Technology
There is need for social media analytical tools, mapping and data visualization software, mobile data collection systems and many more. Understanding the tools and best practices available for gathering information, applying it to actual challenges, and assessing the results are necessary for program success.
“Be responsible for maintaining an effective Knowledge Management System (KMS) and strategy, which includes: Management Information System (MIS), all results framework-related data, a library and analysis of successes and failures, lessons learnt, human interest stories, and any other products that will inform decision-making for performance management, adaptation and wider learning (DAI, 2018)”
“Lead development of innovative ways of improving data collection and data entry at all levels (e.g., application of mobile phone technology (EngenderHealth, 2020)”
Familiarity with at least one, but ideally several data software programs, is critical to an MEL expert. In addition to STATA and Nvivo, Excel and Power BI or Tableaus are also very important, but different sectors favor specific software (Smith, 2018). For surveying, SurveyCTO or Kobo Toolbox are recommended. Atlas or Dedoose can also be good substitutes of Nvivo for qualitative analysis.
Skill 6: Develop Social Research Skills
Social Research is a method used by social scientists and researchers to learn about people and societies so that they can design products/services that cater to various needs of the people (Research Gate, 2013). This requires the following skills: integrity, curiosity, commitment, originality, and passion to think beyond the debates and think about other way of explaining the issue under investigation. The expert should hold ethical attitudes, persistence, interpersonal abilities and solid research training. She/he has to be updated about all events that surround him to make a solid hypothesis and variable selection as well as a precise explanation of results when running a model.
“Oversee and/or conduct targeted evaluations and operations research, including design, data collection, management and analysis in-line with international standards and organization’s Standard Operating Procedures (EngenderHealth, 2020)”.
“Excellent analytical skills coupled with proven ability in using visuals like graphs, charges, maps and GIS” (EngenderHealth, 2020)”.
Skill 7: Keep up-to-date with the Sector
The global development sector is constantly evolving and MEL is not an exception. with new approaches and software changing how work is done, there is therefore a need to keep updated through courses and constant studying.
Building your expertise beyond the degree is important. Networks of people and organizations can also create opportunities to continue building one’s knowledge in the M&E field. There are also forums such as the Rwanda Monitoring and Evaluation Organization (RMEO), which foster dialogue among the field’s professionals. These forums, in addition to training and refresher courses, are a good way to increase the knowledge and understanding of trends in the sector (Warren, 2017).
Skill 8: Have a specialization
An important skill to being an effective MEL expert is the ability to see both the forest and the trees (Warren, 2017). Therefore, developing a specialization in a specific area of focus will allow the expert to more deeply understand the technical details of programs in addition to the big picture. Many positions seek professionals with both MEL skills as well as technical expertise in an area like nutrition, economics, reproductive health, governance or education. If you are considering pursuing a graduate degree to further your MEL career, you may consider a specific technical degree like environmental management, education, agricultural science or health to help round out your expertise. If you are not in a place to go back to school, try to gain this experience by selecting positions focused on the same sector. Over time, you will pick up a lot of the technical expertise.
“Bachelor’s degree in quantitative discipline (preferably in Social Science, Economics, or Statistics). At least 2 years of professional experience in the field of Monitoring and Evaluation (Educate!, unknown)”
“Minimum seven years of work experience in monitoring and evaluating large, multi-year international health sector development projects, with strong preference for candidates with deep understanding of adolescent sexual and reproductive health/family planning (EngenderHealth, 2020)”
“Bachelor’s degree or higher in international development, social science, monitoring and evaluation, economics, public policy, or related field is required (Creative Associates International, 2020)”
“Advanced postgraduate degree in public health, demography, epidemiology, biostatistics, social science or any related field. PhD candidates preferred (EngenderHealth, 2020)”
Skill 9: Develop Capacity building skills
As is the case with so many positions in global development, the ability to teach and train others is essential. Because MEL is woven into development programming at all steps, professionals are often asked to step in and train program staff how to effectively gather data and monitor results. MEL experts with experience in capacity building are in high demand for both full time staff as well as consultant positions.
“Work closely with technical staff and institutional partners to explain M&E processes and understand how these processes relate to the project’s technical work, and to promote M&E-related training as needed (Creative Associates International, 2020)”
“Lead efforts to utilize training monitoring systems to track and monitor trainers and participants at training events to facilitate follow-up and recordkeeping (Jhpiego, 2020)”
“Experience hiring and supervising personnel and ensuring they acquire the necessary training and skills to meet evolving project needs (Jhpiego, 2020)”