Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Specialist

About the company

Organization: Sydani Group

1) Safeguarding Commitment Sydani Group is committed to safeguarding the dignity, rights and well-being of all individuals we engage with, including adults, women, children, partners and communities. We have a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of abuse, exploitation, harassment and neglect. All applicants are expected to uphold our safeguarding standards and contribute to a safe and respectful environment.

2) Whistleblowing Policy Sydani Group is committed to the highest standards of integrity and accountability. Employees, partners and applicants are encouraged to report suspected misconduct, including fraud, corruption or unethical behaviour, through the confidential channels provided on the Sydani website. All reports will be handled in line with the organisation’s whistleblowing policy.

Your tasks

Sydani is seeking a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Specialist to provide strategic and technical support across its health and development programmes. The MEL Specialist will lead the design and implementation of monitoring, evaluation, learning, and performance measurement approaches to generate timely, reliable, and actionable evidence on programme performance and results. The role will support the development of M&E frameworks, indicators, data collection and management systems, data quality assurance, analysis, reporting, and learning processes, while working with government institutions, development partners, programme teams, and other stakeholders to strengthen data use, accountability, adaptive management, and evidence-informed decision-making.

Job Responsibilities The MEL Specialist will strengthen and operationalize Sydani’s MEL system, ensuring that project teams and management receive timely, reliable evidence to assess performance, support learning and guide course correction. The role will:

1. Monitor progress against project results, milestones and targets across states and implementation levels.
2. Improve the quality, completeness and use of project and routine government data.
3. Translate monitoring findings and stakeholder feedback into actionable insights for programme improvement and adaptive management.

The MEL Specialist will undertake the following

1. Operationalise and continuously strengthen MEL frameworks, indicators, data collection tools, reporting templates, and monitoring workflows across assigned projects.
2. Coordinate the timely collection, compilation, validation and updating of monitoring data from project and state teams.
3. Analyse indicators, milestones and targets to identify trends, variances, bottlenecks and emerging performance issues requiring management attention.
4. Maintain project datasets, databases, trackers and monitoring repositories, with appropriate documentation, version control, confidentiality and access safeguards.
5. Conduct routine data verification and consistency checks, support periodic Data Quality Assessments, and track corrective actions to completion.
6. Clean, organise, analyse and disaggregate quantitative data, triangulating findings from DHIS2, HRH information systems, facility records, supervision and MPDSR/MNCH reports, referral registers, community feedback and partner reports.
7. Develop and maintain dashboards, visualisations, tables and other evidence products for routine monitoring, management reviews and stakeholder meetings.
8. Prepare MEL summaries and accurate, evidence-based inputs for monthly, quarterly, annual, donor and project reports.
9. Support performance and learning reviews, document lessons and decisions, prepare briefs, and track agreed follow-up actions.
10. Build the capacity of project teams and government counterparts to improve data recording, reporting, interpretation and use through practical guidance and on-the-job support.
11. Ensure MEL activities comply with organisational requirements for safeguarding, ethics, confidentiality, data protection and responsible data management.

Reporting Arrangements The MEL Specialist will report to the M&E Manager, with a dotted reporting line to the Program Manager, and work closely with technical leads, state teams, government counterparts and implementing partners. The role will provide regular progress updates and participate in project coordination, performance and learning meetings as required.

Requirements

Applicants should demonstrate

1. A bachelor’s degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Health, Statistics, Economics, Development Studies, Social Sciences, Epidemiology, Data Science or a related field; a relevant master’s degree is an advantage.
2. Four to six years of relevant experience in monitoring, evaluation, learning or data management, including implementing MEL systems for health, development or other complex programmes.
3. Demonstrated experience with routine programme data, government information systems, data quality assessments, quantitative analysis, reporting and data visualisation.
4. Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and competence in at least one statistical package, such as R, Stata or SPSS; experience with Power BI and digital data collection platforms such as ODK, Kobo, SurveyCTO or CommCare is an advantage.
5. Ability to translate theories of change and results frameworks into measurable indicators and practical monitoring systems.
6. Strong analytical, communication, facilitation and technical writing skills, with the ability to present evidence clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
7. Experience working with government counterparts, implementing partners and multi-state programmes; familiarity with DHIS2, maternal and newborn health, or health systems strengthening is an advantage.
8. Proficiency in a language commonly spoken in the project states is an advantage.
9. Willingness and ability to travel frequently to project implementation states and engage effectively with diverse stakeholders.

Other

Job Summary Position: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Specialist

Location: Abuja, Nigeria, with frequent travel to project implementation states

Contract type: Full-time, fixed-term one year, renewable annually based on satisfactory performance, continued funding and project needs