Senior Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) Officer

About the role

WUSC, a Canadian global development organization, is hiring a Senior Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) Officer for the second phase of the Displaced and Refugee Youth Enabling Environment Mechanism (DREEM), a five-year initiative (2026-2031) aimed at improving access to education and dignified work for refugee, displaced and host community youth across Africa. The position is based in Africa, with preference for Nairobi, Abidjan, Accra, Kigali or Addis Ababa, reports to the Senior Regional Manager, MERL, and is a one-year fixed-term contract (renewable).

Key responsibilities

• Support the implementation and continuous improvement of the project's MERL framework, performance measurement framework, indicators, data collection tools and reporting procedures.
• Coordinate MERL activities across the Technical Assistance Mechanism, Higher Education Inclusion and RLO Opportunity Fund workstreams, and give technical guidance to MERL Officers and programme teams.
• Coordinate routine data collection, quality assurance, analysis and reporting; support the Mastercard Foundation Shared Measures framework and accurate tracking of programme indicators.
• Analyze monitoring data to identify trends and performance gaps, and contribute to donor reports, internal updates and dashboards.
• Coach MERL Officers and partners, train them on results-based management and indicator tracking, and help partners build feasible monitoring systems.
• Support research, evaluation and learning activities, including baseline studies, evaluations, research protocols and learning briefs.
• Integrate MERL into programme planning and management, and ensure gender equality, disability inclusion and safeguarding in all monitoring and data work.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in International Development, Economics, Statistics, Social Sciences, Public Policy or a related field; a postgraduate qualification in MERL or related fields is a strong asset.
• At least seven years of progressively responsible experience in MERL within international development or humanitarian programmes.
• Experience coordinating MERL systems for complex, multi-partner programmes, preferably across several countries, and supporting implementing partners with training and capacity building.
• Experience with quantitative and qualitative data analysis, donor reporting and research or evaluation support.
• Fluent English; professional French is a strong asset.

Required skills

• Proficiency in Excel and digital data collection platforms such as KoboToolbox, ODK or SurveyCTO.
• Familiarity with data visualization and analysis tools such as Power BI, R, Stata or SPSS.
• Knowledge of results-based management, Theory of Change, contribution analysis or Outcome Harvesting is an advantage.

The role involves periodic travel to project countries and requires strong analytical writing and cross-cultural communication skills.