United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Start Fund Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager

About the Start Network

The Start Network is a consortium of 24 leading NGOs working together to connect people in crisis to the best possible response. In order to meet the needs of crisis-affected people in a future of great uncertainty and complexity, we believe that the humanitarian sector must change. We promote a way of working that enables international and local humanitarian actors to coexist. We envision a self-organising system where the agencies best placed to respond to a crisis are empowered to do so. To realise this vision, we are working to catalyse a humanitarian sector that is more diverse, decentralised and collaborative.

The consortium works in three principal areas 1) Start Fund (financing for emergency response); 2) Start Build (strengthening civil society capacity); and 3) Start Beta (creating platforms for partnerships and learning). Innovative financing mechanisms and anticipatory crises response tools are also being developed.

The network extends to nearly 7,000 partner agencies, comprised of over a quarter of a million staff working in 200 countries and territories. The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Team is presently hosted by Action Against Hunger UK.

About the role

The Start Fund confronts old challenges with new solutions based on the evidence generated through its rapid humanitarian responses. It is constantly iterating based on this evidence and thus requires a flexible and adaptive approach to monitoring, evaluation and learning.

Currently, the Start Fund MEL Team services the Network on nearly £30 million of humanitarian response programming through a bespoke Learning Framework that emphasizes: light and simple processes, peer review, utilization-focused approaches, accountability, sharing and influencing good practice, innovation and strategic leadership. The Start Fund MEL Managerwill provide dedicated expertise to maximize uptake and impact of evidence for accountability and learning in the consortium.

This person will combine humanitarian experience with partnership brokering skills to push the Start Fund to improve the technical quality of its monitoring and evaluation and help ensure that learning leads to change. They will also build links across the Network to encourage a community of practice related to key questions facing the Start Fund and its theory of change. They will work within a fast-paced, passionate team of practitioners at ACF-UK to consolidate current processes, bring new approaches, build technical capacity of colleagues, share learning and take initiative in improving the Start Fund MEL service.

They will also link closely with the Start Fund Manager in the central Start Team (hosted by Save the Children) to co-create appropriate MEL processes that promote the strategic aims of the Start Fund and protect quality and accountability. The role will require both traditional evaluation management and coordination expertise and significant ability to innovate and build partnerships within a consortium context to ensure a participatory, inter-agency process from beginning to end.

The Start Network endeavours to provide a new global public good to the humanitarian sector to transform emergency response and preparedness. The Start Fund MEL Manager within the MEL team will contribute to the evidence base and learning that will enable this radical change to happen. As this is a hosted position, the successful candidate may rotate to another Start Network member in the event that ACF-UK ceases to host the Start Fund MEL team.

For further information on the role, please visit our website to download the job description.

Closing date: 11th October 2015, only candidates with the right to work in the UK may apply.

Unfortunately due to the number of applications we receive we are only able to contact shortlisted applicants. Thank you for your understanding.