Job Brief

Senior Project and M&E Manager, ImpactHDSS Ethiopia

Vital Strategies, headquartered in New York City, is an international public health organization. Our programs strengthen public health systems and address the world’s leading causes of illness, injury and death. We work in more than 70 countries, supporting data-driven decision-making in government, advancing evidence-based public health policies, and mounting strategic communication campaigns. Vital Strategies’ priorities are driven by the greatest potential to improve and save lives. They include non-communicable disease prevention, tobacco control, road safety, food policy, environmental health, civil registration and vital statistics, and overdose prevention. Our programs are concentrated in low- and middle-income countries and cities in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific. Please visit our website at www.vitalstrategies.org to find out more about our work.

About ImpactHDSS Ethiopia:

Vital Strategies, in partnership with the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Public Health Institute’s National Data Management Center (EPHI/NDMC), Health and Demographic Surveillance System Sites (HDSSs), and other key stakeholders and collaborators has recently launched ImpactHDSS, Ethiopia through a three-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The purpose of this project is to leverage the health and vital events data produced by Ethiopia’s current set of 13 HDSSs for public health use. These sites provide continuous, routine, and timely follow-up of pregnancies, live births, deaths, and causes of death. They also produce routinely updated direct measures of surveillance area resident populations, which provide the denominators for the calculation of rates.

While the long-term goal remains one of strengthening Ethiopia’s national Civil Registration and Vital Statistics system to provide these data, the government of Ethiopia has elected to supplement registration data in the meantime. One approach, to be taken under this grant, is to leverage government and other partner investments in the 13, university-sponsored HDSS sites and to explore how these can supplement and be supplemented by other mortality measurement or registration activities in the country to produce a representative picture of population health and disease burdens causing premature death.

Specifically, ImpactHDSS, Ethiopia will provide technical assistance and mentorship support to strengthen the standardization, quality, timeliness, and completeness of data collected; to undertake pooled analyses and produce the indicators, statistics, or data required to meet documented use cases in health policy and planning. Additional emphasis will be placed on linking the HDSS systems to the civil registration system and integrating HDSS data with those from other health information system platforms (e.g., DHIS2).

Ultimately, improved data, including mortality and cause of death estimates, fertility estimates, as well as health service utilization information, will be provided to government decision-makers in a timely manner, synchronized with decision-making processes. Vital Strategies experts will be embedded within Government of Ethiopia institutions, as well as in a small project management and support team in the Vital Strategies Ethiopia office.

Job Purpose:

The Senior Project and M&E Manager, ImpactHDSS, Ethiopia will serve as the main project manager, with added primary responsibility for tracking progress against results frameworks and workplan commitments. Based in the Vital Strategies Ethiopia Country Office, the role will collaborate closely with all stakeholders and leadership to ensure that gender-aware M&E processes are integrated effectively into project cycles and organizational strategies.

This is a full-time position that will be based out of the Vital Strategies Office located in Ethiopia. We offer highly competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits. The salary range for this position is $42,000 USD to $45,000 USD. Interested candidates should note that the salary for this position is temporarily pegged to the USD due to the depreciation of the Ethiopian Birr. This arrangement will be reviewed at the end of March 2025.

Duties & Responsibilities:

Project Management - 

· Track and contribute to implementation schedules for project completion and support the project team to reach project milestones and deliverables;

· Review regular progress reports and track progress from in-country implementing partners and generate summaries and recommendations for the Director;

· Ensure up-to-date workplan budgets; support the project team with work planning, budgeting, and actuals/variance reporting;

· Work with finance staff to maintain full situational awareness of project implementation and financial status of the project; raise issues to the Project Director;

· Provide other program and implementation support to the Director, including but not limited to, scheduling meetings, and participating in regular implementation calls;

Progress Monitoring - 

· Implement the project’s Global Reporting and Information Tracking (GRIT) system to track progress for overall monitoring and evaluation and donor reporting;

· Responsible for the complete annual reporting process, including monthly, quarterly, or annual reporting as may be required by the donor, Vital Strategies, or the Project Steering Committee;

· Monitor project activities and assess the progress towards achievement of results at the outcome (strategy) and output (activity) levels;

· Collaborate with the Grants Manager to develop and implement a system to track the progress of country spending against budget.

· Lead responsibility for updating online progress tracking tools such as the Vital Strategies ‘GRIT’ tool, Smartsheet, Microsoft Excel, or others as appropriate;

· Provide ongoing feedback and recommendations on ways to refine and improve project

Monitoring - 

· Guide project staff and partners in project analysis and preparing progress reports accordingly;

· Collaborate with staff and implementing partners for qualitative monitoring to provide relevant information for ongoing evaluation of project activities and impact areas;

· Identify key performance questions and parameters for monitoring project performance and comparing it to targets in alignment with the project performance framework. Design the format for such performance reports;

Training - 

· Contribute to the development of a plan for M&E skill-building and implement training initiatives and refresher courses as needed;

· Other duties as assigned by the Director.

Qualifications:

Education and Degree - 

· Undergraduate degree in public health, or another relevant field required

· Additional training or certificate in project management desired

Skills and Abilities - 

· Skill in preparing clear, concise, and insightful reports that communicate findings, recommendations, and progress toward goals to stakeholders;

· Competence in managing projects related to monitoring and evaluation, including planning, implementation, and coordination of M&E activities;

· Ability to work flexibly with colleagues across time zones;

· Ability to build strong, ongoing, impactful relationships at all organizational levels and across a diverse range of cultural, generational, ethnic, racial, educational, and social backgrounds;

· Demonstrated commitment to valuing diversity and contributing to an inclusive working and learning environment.

Experience:

Required - 

· Minimum 8 years of relevant experience in project management or M&E role in global health or development;

· Robust experience in planning, collecting, analyzing, and reporting information for assessing progress and ensuring program and data quality

Preferred - 

· Experience with health systems strengthening or health information systems strengthening;

· Experience in civil registration and vital statistics strengthening in low- and middle-income countries plus;

Working Conditions and Physical Requirements:

· Travel may be required in Ethiopia to attend in-person meetings.

How to Apply:

Vital Strategies has engaged Ethiojobs, part of the Africa Job Network portfolio with a trusted legacy in meeting a diverse range of human capital needs, to lead this search. If you are interested in applying or learning more about the position, please follow this link:  

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