Monitoring Assistant STTA – SoCha LLC Empowering Social Change

Job Description

Background:
USAID/Zambia has a diverse portfolio with programs in the following areas: Health (HIV/AIDS, Maternal and Child Health, Family Planning and Reproductive Health, Water Supply and Sanitation, Nutrition, Malaria, Tuberculosis); Education (basic education and early child development); Economic growth (Agriculture policy support, private sector, economic opportunity, energy, environment, global climate change, wildlife conservation, energy); and Democracy and Governance (rule of law and human rights, good governance, political environment and consensus building, civil society).

The USAID/Zambia Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Platform (Z-MELP) is an implementing mechanism which gives the Mission access to technical and advisory services to design and carry out specialized multiple third-party MEL tasks including practices, processes, and requirements that support Program Cycle implementation.

Position background:
Z-MELP provides monitoring, evaluation, and learning support services across the Mission’s Program Cycle management-related tasks, primarily for the Program Office and Technical Offices.

Z-MELP was requested by USAID/Zambia’s Health Office to provide third-party monitoring (TPM) services for the Program for Advancing Supply Chain Outcomes (PASCO) activity, which is being implemented by Chemonics in support of the Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency (ZAMMSA). PASCO is an outsourced distribution contract in which Chemonics and Connexi will act as a 4PL to strengthen the transportation and distribution capacity of ZAMMSA with the goal of ensuring sustainable access to safe, effective, quality-assured, and affordable lifesaving health commodities. The mandate of PASCO is to transport health commodities to Service Delivery Points (SDPs) and to ensure those commodities reach their intended destination securely. The TPM component of PASCO is intended to verify the lead Implementing Partner’s (IP’s) performance against pre-determined performance objectives.

Scope of work:
The Monitoring Assistant will be responsible for leading Z-MELP’s TPM data collection and data review. This involves the review of PASCO’s operational documentation pertaining to commodity delivery to SDPs and verifying the information in this documentation through telephone interviews with SDP points of contact. To successfully meet the objectives outlined above the Monitoring Assistant will:

• Actively participate in the enumerator training and testing of the data collection tools.
• Contact personnel from assigned health facilities via phone, schedule, and conduct phone interviews using a pre-determined set of questions.
• Participate in data cleaning exercises as needed.
• Submit clean data for all assigned health facilities.
• Support the capturing of challenges and lessons learned during data collection to improve the survey implementation process.
• Conduct health facility site visits for data collection as required.
• Assist with TPM report development as required.
• Assist with TPM data management as required.
• Communicate regularly with PASCO TPM manager to discuss observations from interviews and site visits, as well as to resolve any challenges completing assigned tasks.

Required Qualification and Experience:

• Must have at least a bachelor’s degree in any social science program.
• At least three (3) years of experience as a Monitoring or Research Assistant.
• Experience in conducting TPM on behalf of clients.
• Experience in conducting phone-based interviews and in-person interviews.
• Ability to take quality interview notes that can be easily transferred to reports.
• Experience with working on USAID monitoring, evaluation and learning activities.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to engage with implementing partner staff and government representatives.

Place of performance:
Lusaka, Zambia. Field locations as necessary

How to Apply:
To submit your application, kindly provide your CV using the form provided below.

Position will remain open until a suitable candidate has been identified.