The Senior M&E Officer will lead the design, implementation, and quality assurance of monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) activities for the Global Health Security (GHS) portfolio in Uganda, with a strong focus on Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic preparedness, detection, and response. The officer will build and run a results-focused M&E system that tracks the timeliness and quality of outbreak detection, investigation and response; generates reliable data for decision-making by the Ministry of Health, districts and partners; meets donor reporting requirements; strengthens JCRC and district capacity; and supports compliance with donor, government and JCRC requirements.

Responsibilities or duties

• Develop, maintain and operationalize the M&E plan, results framework and indicator reference sheets, aligned to IHR (2005) core capacities, the Joint External Evaluation (JEE), the National Action Plan for Health Security and donor requirements.
• Track preparedness, detection and response indicators (e.g. timeliness of alert notification, investigation and response, contact follow-up, laboratory turnaround, IPC readiness, points-of-entry screening, risk communication).
• Strengthen data collection, flow and use across districts, Regional Public Health Emergency Operations Centres (RPHEOCs) and national systems (e.g. DHIS2, eIDSR, laboratory information systems); develop dashboards for real-time and routine decision-making.
• Plan and lead routine data quality assessments, data reviews and supportive supervision; ensure data protection and ethical standards are upheld.
• Rapidly set up or scale M&E and reporting during EVD alerts and outbreaks, including situation reports, response performance tracking and daily/weekly data reviews.
• Design and conduct after-action reviews, simulation exercise evaluations, assessments and operational research; lead the learning agenda and translate findings into program improvements. Maintain action trackers, document lessons and good practices, and promote adaptive management and continuous improvement
• Analyze and visualize indicator trends, alert-to-investigation timelines, readiness gaps, geographic coverage and response performance; provide concise briefs and recommendations to incident management and programme leadership.
• Prepare high-quality weekly, monthly, quarterly and emergency reports, briefs, success stories and lessons learned and presentations for timely donor, Ministry of Health
• Conduct data-quality assessments, verification, cleaning and triangulation; investigate reporting gaps and implement corrective actions with districts, health facilities, laboratories
• Build the M&E skills of district teams and other partner staff in on indicators, digital tools, surveillance/M&E integration, data quality, analysis and data use; participate in relevant technical working groups and coordination forums.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the supervisor.

Qualifications and skills required

• The ideal candidate must possess a Master’s degree in public health, Epidemiology, Biostatistics/Statistics, Health Informatics, Population Studies, Development Studies or a related field, from a recognized institution. A relevant bachelor's degree with substantial advanced M&E experience may be considered
• Postgraduate training in M&E or a Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) in outbreak analytics, field epidemiology, surveillance, research methods, data management, is an added advantage.
• At least 7 years of progressively responsible M&E, epidemiology, surveillance or public-health programme experience, including at least 3 years years in epidemic preparedness and response, health security, or surveillance (EVD/viral haemorrhagic fevers or other epidemic-prone diseases).
• Demonstrated experience supporting infectious disease emergency preparedness or response, preferably viral haemorrhagic fevers/EVD or comparable outbreaks, and working with government, districts, donors and implementing partners.
• Proven experience in results frameworks, indicator management, data-quality assurance, evaluation, quantitative analysis, dashboards and donor reporting in complex, multi-partner programmes.
• Experience with donor-funded programmes (e.g. CDC, WHO, Africa CDC, or similar) and their reporting requirements.
• Experience working with the Uganda health system, Ministry of Health, districts and PHEOCs; experience supervising a team is an added advantage.
• Sound knowledge of IHR (2005), JEE, IDSR, PHEOC operations and outbreak performance metrics (e.g. the 7-1-7 targets); strong knowledge of surveillance and emergency-response information flows
• Advanced Excel; proficiency in R, Stata or SPSS; DHIS2; dashboarding (Power BI/Tableau); experience with DHIS2 and mobile data platforms (KoboToolbox/ODK).
• Excellent technical writing and presentation skills for technical, policy and lay audiences.
• Strong coordination, mentoring and stakeholder-engagement skills
• Fluent in English; knowledge of a local Ugandan language is an added advantage

Experience needed

At least 7 years of progressively responsible M&E, epidemiology, surveillance or public-health programme experience, including at least 3 years years in epidemic preparedness and response, health security, or surveillance (EVD/viral haemorrhagic fevers or other epidemic-prone diseases).

Note: JCRC is an equal opportunity employer. Any attempts of influencing the recruitment process will lead to automatic disqualification.

• Develop, maintain and operationalize the M&E plan, results framework and indicator reference sheets, aligned to IHR (2005) core capacities, the Joint External Evaluation (JEE), the National Action Plan for Health Security and donor requirements.
• Track preparedness, detection and response indicators (e.g. timeliness of alert notification, investigation and response, contact follow-up, laboratory turnaround, IPC readiness, points-of-entry screening, risk communication).
• Strengthen data collection, flow and use across districts, Regional Public Health Emergency Operations Centres (RPHEOCs) and national systems (e.g. DHIS2, eIDSR, laboratory information systems); develop dashboards for real-time and routine decision-making.
• Plan and lead routine data quality assessments, data reviews and supportive supervision; ensure data protection and ethical standards are upheld.
• Rapidly set up or scale M&E and reporting during EVD alerts and outbreaks, including situation reports, response performance tracking and daily/weekly data reviews.
• Design and conduct after-action reviews, simulation exercise evaluations, assessments and operational research; lead the learning agenda and translate findings into program improvements. Maintain action trackers, document lessons and good practices, and promote adaptive management and continuous improvement
• Analyze and visualize indicator trends, alert-to-investigation timelines, readiness gaps, geographic coverage and response performance; provide concise briefs and recommendations to incident management and programme leadership.
• Prepare high-quality weekly, monthly, quarterly and emergency reports, briefs, success stories and lessons learned and presentations for timely donor, Ministry of Health
• Conduct data-quality assessments, verification, cleaning and triangulation; investigate reporting gaps and implement corrective actions with districts, health facilities, laboratories
• Build the M&E skills of district teams and other partner staff in on indicators, digital tools, surveillance/M&E integration, data quality, analysis and data use; participate in relevant technical working groups and coordination forums.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the supervisor.

• Advanced Excel; proficiency in R, Stata or SPSS; DHIS2; dashboarding (Power BI/Tableau); experience with DHIS2 and mobile data platforms (KoboToolbox/ODK).
• Excellent technical writing and presentation skills for technical, policy and lay audiences.
• Strong coordination, mentoring and stakeholder-engagement skills
• Fluent in English; knowledge of a local Ugandan language is an added advantage

• The ideal candidate must possess a Master’s degree in public health, Epidemiology, Biostatistics/Statistics, Health Informatics, Population Studies, Development Studies or a related field, from a recognized institution. A relevant bachelor's degree with substantial advanced M&E experience may be considered
• Postgraduate training in M&E or a Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) in outbreak analytics, field epidemiology, surveillance, research methods, data management, is an added advantage.
• At least 7 years of progressively responsible M&E, epidemiology, surveillance or public-health programme experience, including at least 3 years years in epidemic preparedness and response, health security, or surveillance (EVD/viral haemorrhagic fevers or other epidemic-prone diseases).
• Demonstrated experience supporting infectious disease emergency preparedness or response, preferably viral haemorrhagic fevers/EVD or comparable outbreaks, and working with government, districts, donors and implementing partners.
• Proven experience in results frameworks, indicator management, data-quality assurance, evaluation, quantitative analysis, dashboards and donor reporting in complex, multi-partner programmes.
• Experience with donor-funded programmes (e.g. CDC, WHO, Africa CDC, or similar) and their reporting requirements.
• Experience working with the Uganda health system, Ministry of Health, districts and PHEOCs; experience supervising a team is an added advantage.
• Sound knowledge of IHR (2005), JEE, IDSR, PHEOC operations and outbreak performance metrics (e.g. the 7-1-7 targets); strong knowledge of surveillance and emergency-response information flows