STRATEGIC INFORMATION MANAGER C7, USAID-SDVCA Ref No. SI/SI/10/03/22

Reports to the Deputy Chief of Party. S/he leads technical expert responsible for all strategic information responsibilities related to the program, including all monitoring, evaluation, analytics, and reporting of performance and results. S/he leads activity efforts to strengthen monitoring and evaluation, and performance reporting within the geographic area of the activities, which includes overseeing support to community organisations to monitor, document and analyze the performance of their HIV/OVC services and activities and ensures data quality. S/he liaises with relevant technical advisers and counterparts responsible for district and provincial level strategic information, and monitoring and evaluation, and supports coordination with national management information system.

Main duties

• Provides overall technical oversight to the SI team under USAID ECAP III project, supports local government and partners on strategic planning and M&E of program activities including data collection, analysis, quality assurance, and reporting.
• Supervises the SI team, including district-based Data Associates through M&E officers seating in the provinces.
• Leads the development of a DHIS2 client level data management database for the project in collaboration with the senior management and the technical leads.
• Provides technical leadership in ME&R including monitoring the performance of all PEPFAR required Performance Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning indicators and custom indicators.
• With the project technical and the CIDRZ communications team, develops success stories, conducts qualitative and quantitative analysis and strategically uses M&E data within the project, for donors and for external relevant stakeholders.
• Prepares regular reports for the COP, the CIDRZ executive team and liaise with the relevant team in USAID to regularly update required information is uploaded in DATIM timely with highest quality
• Develops M&E tools and databases necessary to document, analyse and report program data
• Provides M&E and quality improvement trainings to the SI and program team for program and data team synergy in the field.
• Promotes evidence-based planning and decision making through use of program data as well as supplemental data sources, including DHS and ZAMPHIA.
• Oversees routine data quality assurance processes; conducts regular and standard DQAs and prepares sites for USAID SIMS visits.
• Advises and trains staff to perform their appropriate M&E tasks that includes, but are not limited to data collection, reporting, analysis, quality improvement, conducting data quality audits (DQAs) and subsequent data quality improvement.
• Directs development of data use and visualisation tools such as dashboards.
• Serves as the focal point for ME&R and liaise closely with the technical team, and SI unit of USAID
• Develops and/or supervises weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual reports for submission to USAID, MCDSS, MOH, MoGE and other stakeholders including ad hoc USAID and MCDSS requests.
• Participates in national, regional and district-level M&E related meetings and workshops.
• Prepares monthly bulletin, quarterly progress review meetings in close collaboration with the DCOP and other technical leads of the project.
• Participates in development and submission of articles for peer reviewed journals.
• Participate in development of abstracts, posters and oral presentations for international conferences.

Qualifications

• A Master’s degree in public health, epidemiology, monitoring & evaluation, demography, bio-statistics, statistics, analytics or a related field is required.
• Minimum 7 years of ME&R senior level experience in international health projects in a technical capacity; preferably including several years with USAID-funded projects.
• Demonstrated applied skills in ME&R methods and innovations, data analysis, and use of data for systems strengthening projects
• Demonstrated written, presentation, communication and organisational skills in English.
• Demonstrated leadership working with other technical experts in ME&R in the international community
• Demonstrated hands-on practical experience setting up and managing ME&R systems for health programs.
• Excellent report writing, analytical and communication skills, including oral presentation skills.

Additional Preferred qualifications

• Experience in the ME&R of HIV projects, PEPFAR experience desirable
• Experience in the routine ME&R of OVC programs highly desirable
• Progressive experience in designing, establishing, and managing monitoring and evaluation systems, ensuring data quality, and managing data intensive, performance-based programs (preferably funded by PEPFAR).
• Demonstrated ability to be the senior technical specialist and as a senior subject matter expert in data analytics.
• Demonstrated ability to perform robust data extraction from internal and external information systems.
• Demonstrated ability to perform complex data analytics; expert quality data visualisations; ability to perform complex data quality analyses and make recommendations based on findings.
• Demonstrated ability to portray complex data sets in easy-to-understand formats including visualisations.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of Zambia’s health and social service information systems and monitoring and evaluation processes as it relates to data collection for performance-based reporting.
• Demonstrated knowledge and working experience in the use of mapping and other similar tools (including computer software programs) to target program interventions and resources; and
• Ability to convey ME&R results to non-technical stakeholders and generate interest in the use of ME&R data/results for programmatic improvements.