• Treatment and prevention of disability, including mass drug administration (MDA), diagnosis and treatment, surgeries, morbidity management.
• Increasing the integration of aspects of NTD programmes within the health systems.
• Strengthening national health systems, integrating efforts to strengthen the relevant building blocks of the health system.
• Data for targeting and monitoring, including impact assessment and alignment of NTDs with national and international MEL systems and processes.
• Cross-sectoral collaboration, in particular within the health and WASH/BCC sectors.
  DFID has contracted Crown Agents together with its consortium partners to act as Fund Manager for ASCEND in Uganda.  Therefore, Crown Agents will work with the Ministry of Health (MoH) to support the immediate procurement of services from Implementing Partners (IPs) that will further the above-stated objectives of ASCEND in the country.

Scope of work
The MEL officer will be seconded to the NTD – Division in the Ministry of Health and will oversee and support all the monitoring, evaluation and learning activities of the NTD division. He/She will be responsible for implementing the country MEL framework as outlined in the ASCEND MEL strategy and build the capacity of the MOH staff and partners in all aspects of MEL.
The MEL officer will be reporting to the head of the Division of Vector-Borne and Neglected Tropical Diseases (DVB&NTD) who also is the National NTD Program Manager and to ASCEND Country Lead.

The MEL Advisor will be responsible for the following;

• Lead all MEL initiatives for the ASCEND project including development/draft the M&E plan, tracking the program indicators, collect and report key indictors as required for the monitoring of the ASCEND logframe and informing staff capacity building initiatives.
• Support the development/review and implementation of monitoring procedures and tools as required by the MoH and agreed upon by the ASCEND consortium.
• Identify the training needs of the MEL and the County health records officers and for all implementing partners and coach, train and mentor them as needed.
• In collaboration with data manager, identify in-country efforts to mainstream NTD reporting into national and district-level health systems; where need arises include and monitor NTD indicators among national health indicators;
• Ensure implementation of country -level M&E work plans and technical M & E reports  that will be used to inform program strategies.
•  Conduct periodic internal Routine Data Quality Assessments (RDQA) to assess the validity, reliability, integrity and timeliness of reported data and, where necessary, to adjust as per the data audit findings.
• Guide the process for identifying key learning questions and parameters for monitoring project performance and comparing with targets, and spearhead the overall project learning agenda through quarterly reviews, reflection and planning sessions.
• Facilitate the project team to document lessons learned through case studies and other methods such as most significant change
• Provide leadership in sharing lessons learned through workshops, seminars and other forums

Bachelor,   5 to 6 Years work experience

• Minimum of a Bachelors Degree (advanced degree or post graduate diploma preferred) in: Monitoring and Evaluation, public health, Statistics, or related field from an accredited university.
• At least 5 years’ experience in monitoring an NTD control programme, or Health management information system  including experience in NTD survey activities (TAS/IA/Coverage surveys).
• Working knowledge of NTD diseases is essential; experience in NTD research is preferred.
• Experience in design and programming of m-Health surveys and applications, including training of surveyors is essential.
• The MEL officer will be reporting to the head of the Division of Vector-Borne and Neglected Tropical Diseases (DVB&NTD) who is also the National NTD Program Manager, ASCEND Country Lead and ASCEND regional MEL manager.
• Demonstrated experience in Microsoft Office, including Word, Power Point, and Excel.
• Demostrated knowledge of protection, prevention of sexual abuse and exploitation, and the field of safeguarding is an added advantage.

Skills (Special Training or Competence):

• Ability to build strong working relationships to enable effective management of partnerships and work collaboratively as part of a global team.
• Ability to deliver group-training sessions and build strong M & E capacity  in the Uganda NTD Program.
• People management skills with a robust diplomatic understanding of culturally and ethnically sensitive issues.
• Strong communication skills as proven by past work experience.
•  Willingness to travel and to conduct regular field visits including in hard to reach areas.
•  English fluency (required)