Company Profile

LINC is a small business, headquartered in Washington DC, dedicated to strengthening local actors and systems. At LINC, we believe that a practical approach to engaging committed, capable local actors, increases international development effectiveness and sustainability. Awarded USAID’s “Small Business of the Year” distinction in 2017, we are a team of reflective practitioners, passionate and energetic in our work, and committed to locally led development. We partner with major universities, foundations, local NGOs, consulting firms, and international cooperation agencies, like USAID. Our country experience spans Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. For more information on LINC, please visit www.linclocal.org.

Job Description

Description of Services
LINC is implementing the USAID-funded Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Platform activity in Ghana. This Activity will provide USAID/Ghana with expert monitoring, evaluation, and learning services for USAID/Ghana, offering high quality, demand-driven monitoring and evaluation technical assistance and analytical services to USAID/Ghana staff, implementing partners, and local country stakeholders that advance U.S. foreign policy goals and USAID’s strategic objectives in Ghana.

Position Description
Nutrition and MCH MEL Specialist The Nutrition Monitoring, Evaluation, & Learning (MEL) Specialist will be responsible for facilitating and providing nutrition, maternal and child health (MCH), and MEL technical assistance to USAID/Ghana Mission. Technical assistance may be provided either individually or as part of a team, managing and/or undertaking new monitoring, evaluation, or operations research efforts for USAID/Ghana. This includes coordinating across various Health, Population, and Nutrition Office (HPNO), Program Office, and the Economic Growth Office as relevant, to stay current with MEL best practices related to multi-sectoral nutrition. The Specialist will support monitoring and evaluation activities to enable USAID Agreement Officer Representatives (AOR) and Contracting Officer Representatives (CORs), implementing partners, and local country stakeholders, such as the Ghana Health Service, that advance

U.S. foreign policy goals and USAID’s strategic objectives in Ghana, to identify problems and their causes and solutions to improve overall program performance.

The Specialist will be a member of the USAID/Ghana MEL Platform specialists’ team in Accra, Ghana. S/he will be expected to collaborate closely with the Ghana Health Service’s Family Health Division (Nutrition and Maternal, Child and Newborn health) , and MEL teams. The Specialist will ensure timely reporting of nutrition and MCH-related indicators, coordinate MEL and nutrition and MCH technical inputs from other team members and USAID counterparts and ensure the timely and quality completion of deliverables. The nutrition and MCH MEL Specialist will report to the MEL Platform activity Deputy Chief of Party.

RESPONSIBILITIES
The Technical Specialist will:

• Support USAID/Ghana’s Nutrition team to establish a nutrition performance management plan, including performance-monitoring criteria and ensuring continuous monitoring of nutrition activities’ progress, aligned to standard USG reporting processes.
• Provide technical assistance to the USAID/Ghana HPNO’s Family Health team, with a focus on maternal and child health indicators.
• Support USAID/Ghana Nutrition and Family Health teams to obtain, analyze, and interpret relevant indicators from the Ghana Health Service routine data collection system, the District Health Management Information System (DHIMS2)
• Organize and coordinate data collection and analysis for USAID standard and custom indicators and interpreting and reporting on nutrition activity results to key stakeholders, including USAID/Ghana HPNO’s quarterly data reviews.
• Work closely with the USAID Nutrition Team to develop analysis plans, analyze data sets (in SPSS, Stata or other similar package) and prepare tables and data visuals for internal use and communication of nutrition achievements.
• Help manage a monitoring and reporting system, which will include managing data in excel, downloading and archiving nutrition and MCH data sets.
• Work closely with the Nutrition Team to design and conduct evaluations.
• Write or contribute to programmatic and technical reports, such as quarterly reports and technical and policy briefs as needed, ensuring a high-quality standard across all USAID Nutrition Team’s external products.
• Plan and participate in the provision of M&E technical support to USAID/Ghana’s Nutrition Team staff, in-country teams, USAID Missions, and USAID Washington, as requested.
• Coordinate with USAID relevant existing nutrition and M CH activities to ensure nutrition and MCH data is reliable. This includes the Ghana Health Service Government to Government activity.
• Track nutrition and MCH data in other buy in activities/Mechanisms for reporting.
• Participate in USAID/Ghana’s Nutrition meetings, seminars, debriefings and other technical meetings.
• Work closely with USAID Nutrition and Family Health Team activity leads and implementing partners to conduct literature reviews, devise relevant research strategies, and ensure timely dissemination of review and research findings.
• Perform other duties as assigned. 

Required Skills or Experience

QUALIFICATIONS

• Education: Master’s degree in nutrition, public health, social and behavior change communication, and/or relevant agricultural or social sciences, or a related field.
• Experience: 3 years of relevant, post-masters-degree experience, particularly in monitoring, evaluation or research related Nutrition, Maternal and Child Health
• Excellent written and oral communications and negotiating skills; proficiency in English.
• Ability and willingness to travel internationally (less than 15%)

COMPETENCIES

• Experience with the design, development, and implementation of quantitative and qualitative research
• Experience managing spreadsheets in Excel or similar software
• Experience analyzing quantitative and qualitative data sets, using commercially available data analysis software (Stata, SPSS, or similar and NVivo, ATLAS.ti, or similar)
• Strong administrative and organizational skills, and demonstrated ability to assess priorities and manage multiple, complex, time-sensitive tasks simultaneously, and meet deadlines with attention to detail and quality
• Strong interpersonal skills and social-emotional intelligence; experience working effectively in teams and cross-cultural settings
• Impeccable time management, delegation, and prioritization skills
• Comfortable working in a matrixed, integrated work environment
• Strong drive and initiative to take on and complete tasks proactively
• Professional experience interacting with community-based organizations, NGOs, host country governments, or other relevant stakeholders. Experience working closely with the Ghana Health Service M&E and nutrition and MCH teams is a plus.