Technical Specialist at Abt Associates

Abt Associates - The International Health Division is committed to the improvement of health and healthcare delivery around the world.  Serving both the public and private sectors, our efforts include health policy research and evaluation, health promotion and disease prevention, health finance, and health systems management.  Our impact is felt in policies that ensure healthcare access for women, children, and individuals with special needs, in strengthening health infrastructures, and HIV/AIDS solutions. We are recruiting to fill the position below:     Job Title: Technical Specialist 11 / Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Director - SHOPS Plus Location: Nigeria Job Description

• Abt Associates seeks a health professional with strong monitoring and evaluation skills to serve as Senior Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Director in Nigeria under SHOPS Plus. SHOPS Plus is USAID’s flagship initiative in private sector health.
• The M&E Director will support implementation of both the TB and FP programs.  The TB program will be implemented in Lagos and Kano states and focus on increasing availability of TB services in the private sector, improve flow of suspected TB patients into detection and treatment centers, improve the quality of private sector TB services, and strengthen health systems to foster and sustain Public Private Mix models for TB care.
• The project seeks to harness the full potential of the private sector and catalyze public-private engagement to improve health outcomes in family planning and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and other health areas. In Nigeria, SHOPS Plus has several areas of focus, including tuberculosis and family planning.
• The FP program will be implemented in FCT and Plateau State and will support capacity-building of public and private providers to scale up family planning, especially long acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs).

• With support from home office experts, develop the TB and FP projects’ monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) plans, which includes the following components:
• Lead the implementation of the TB and FP program MEL plans, by overseeing the following:
• Collection of all data needed to report on all defined indicators (impact, output, outcome and program management indicators);
• Regular review and adjustment of data collection processes as needed;
• Development of processes, procedures and systems for data collection, analysis, reporting on project results;
• Development of a learning agenda which guides project team efforts to use monitoring data and research findings to inform evidence-based program design and implementation;
• Development of a research plan that outlines needed formative research to inform program implementation and design.
• Implementation of data quality assessment (DQAs) as required or specified in the MEL plan;
• Facilitation of staff participation in review of the project learning agendas on a quarterly basis;
• Accurate and timely data entry into the SHOPS Plus M&E data management system, Newdea.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for research and data analysis needs for the FP and TB project teams, by leading the following tasks:
• Synthesize findings and implications from relevant grey and published literature; analyze publically available data to inform program implementation;
• Synthesize research, monitoring and evaluation findings needed for quarterly and annual SHOPS Plus reports to USAID;
• Develop SOWs and contribute to the procurement process for hiring data collection consultants and/or research firms needed to carry out M&E tasks or research studies;
• Identify new research needs and/or pilot new approaches (in consultation with home office and TB and FP project experts);
• Use appropriate sampling and methodological techniques to design research studies and analyze M&E data;
• Provide day-to-day supervision of the M&E Assistant and any research firms or data collection consultants hired to assist with M&E tasks.

• Masters degree in Public Health, Demography, Statistics, Economics, or a related field
• At least 8 years of professional experience
• Experience in conducting qualitative and quantitative research, with demonstrated experience managing data collection teams
• Demonstrated experience in the development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems for project learning and results reporting
• Experience conducting monitoring, evaluation and research tasks for TB and/or FP-related activities
• Excellent organizational and planning skills, with demonstrated attention to detail
• Direct experience supporting M&E for USAID or other donor-funded health projects preferred

• (8+) years of experience and a master degree OR the equivalent combination of education and experience.