Information Management Specialist

TITLE: IM Specialist  TEAM/PROGRAMME: MEAL / PDQ Department  LOCATION: Port Sudan GRADE: 3 

CONTRACT LENGTH: 

12 months 

CHILD SAFEGUARDING: (select only one) 

Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff. 

ROLE PURPOSE: 

Save the Children (SC) Sudan is recruiting an Information Management (IM) Specialist to oversee IM systems across SCs implementation areas. 

 

The IM Specialist will be the technical backstop for the IM teams in all Area Offices (AO) in Sudan Country Office, providing high-level technical and managerial support to field teams and implementing partners. S/he will be based in Port Sudan / Sudan and report directly to the Head of MEAL. The IM Specialist will be responsible for the establishment and maintenance of centralized IM systems and processes. S/he will manage the day-to-day operations of the IM systems, work with the IM teams in Program / Operation department and be expected to standardize and centralize data management processes across area offices. This role is crucial in terms of making data accessible in a timely and quality manner to the use of the teams involved in design and implementation of the programs. In addition, this person will act as a bridge between the Program / Operations Information Management function and MEAL team in Sudan, being the accountable for the availability and quality of data.

 

Success Criteria’s: 

 

• Sudan Country Office having robust information management systems and ways of working that allows the flow of timely and quality data from field to design, evaluation, reporting processes
• Reduce the workload of MEAL and IM personnel by developing automatized and digital solutions that would decrease level of effort required for data cleaning, processing, transformation and consolidation

 

SCOPE OF ROLE: 

• Reports Direct: Head of MEAL 

•  Reports Indirectly to: N/A 

• Staff reporting to this post: N/A 

•  Staff indirectly reporting to this post: Technical dotted line with Information Management personnel in program / operation teams (in total xx)

•  Budget Responsibilities: Budget holder for IM lines 

• Role Dimensions: 

 

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY: 

 

Team Management:

• Technical line manager (dotted line) of the IM personnel reporting to the Head of Technical Units under Program Operations
• Take part in the performance evaluation of IM personnel upon request from their programmatic line managers
• Responsible for developing written assessments, conducting scoring and evaluation, and actively participating in the selection process for Information Management (IM) staff across all area offices, ensuring the recruitment of highly qualified individuals

 

Information Management:

 

Establishment and Operation

• Ensure that a creative, user-friendly data-management system supports Save the Children’s programme implementation in Sudan
• Support the implementation of mobile technology to support Save the Children’s data collection management systems.
• Support the programme and MEAL teams by entering, storing, and presenting data to enable quality analysis and use
• Support the operation and improvement of any available information management system in coordination with the IT function in country (e.g., online Feedback and Reporting Mechanism)
• Conduct reviews for information management system gaps and come up with diagnostics that are backed up by recommendations

 

Standardization and Centralization

• Build and sustain a set workflow for information management in Sudan that is aligned with the upcoming Global SCI project management system – PRIME
• Advocate and work towards unified and standardize naming convention (as per UNFPA / OCHA), particularly for locations across information management systems and visualization tool
• Work with Program / Operation teams to standardize and improve databases, and day to day information management practices
• Ensure that any data management system is linked to centralized dashboards of the Sudan office. This includes the improvement and operation of the dashboards
• Standardize activity (naming conventions) and indicators used in data management systems, or develop approaches that translate information from A to B, or to C to allow country office to report on various formats, for 5Ws, Donor Reporting and Internal SCI reporting
• Work with Thematic Advisors to ensure that all data collection tools are standardized and following calculation methodologies set earlier.
• Build a unified database for the historical data. This requires of the investigation and tracking of the historical data, databases and reports.

 

Data Accessibility and Visualisation

• Ensure service and activity mapping is available to the key stakeholders including Senior Management, MEAL and Head of Technical Units of Program Operations
• Work with OCHA / UNFPA counterparts to ensure that country office has access to most up to date population and displacement statistics that are available through detailed excel with admin units
• Ensure that key programmatic information is available and in an effective format to be disseminated to all key stakeholders (e.g., monthly data factsheets / infographics)
• Work on infographic software to increase quality and frequency or data presentation throughout the programme
• Focus on innovative and creative methods of presenting data and information tailored to different teams/levels of management
• Work with the communications team to build their capacity on the presentation and use of appropriate data and information in communications material

 

Alignment with SCI Global initiatives and trends

• Facilitate the communications between the country office and global data initiatives, raise awareness and support the uptake of solutions developed by the global teams.
• Take part in global information management initiatives and engage with counterparts to identify good practices for potential adaptation

 

Capacity building for staff and partners

• In coordination with stakeholders, support learning and training needs of SCI staff and partners in analysis and provide the necessary coaching, mentoring, and trainings
• Build the capacity of IM focal points to deliver improved quality of reporting, information, data, and analysis
• Support or lead capacity building of data clerks, and any program personnel responsible of data collection / data entry on facility and activity level to assure data quality from the first level of the information management
• Provide technical support and guidance to field IM and MEAL teams on data collection and management systems

 

 

Engagement with MEAL, Program / Operation and Other Functions

• Respond to data requests of the different functions and support the work of the Sn. Learning Specialist on data analysis and its reporting against learning agenda, PDQ MEAL Officer, and Humanitarian MEAL manager on external reporting
• Lead / or provide support during the development of annual reach calculations, methodologies for duplication calculations based on knowledge and understanding of the historical data
• Support MEAL teams and implementing partner staff in the design, development, roll out, and maintenance of additional data management tools for all sectors, as required and requested
• Work with any other supporting functions such as Finance, Safeguarding, Advocacy Media and Communications, Human Resources, Awards and Supply Chain to provide information management solutions
• Promote innovation and the adoption of best practices in country office related to IM

 

 

Data Audits and Quality Assurance

 

Human error checks and data audit

• Perform a meticulous review of data accuracy by selecting a monthly sample from each quarter, across all sectors. These efforts would cover all information management tools available in the country office.
• Verify the overall number of beneficiaries, distinguishing between children, adults, girls, boys, women, and men
• Investigate discrepancies in the data and identify the source of error for any corrective interventions

 

MoVs and data quality checks

• Conduct a granular examination of data quality by scanning the IPTT for each grant
• Review activity reports for indicators where MoVs are activity-based, such as PTA meetings, comparing reports from the first, middle, and last meetings to ensure meetings service improvement purposes
• Confirm proper data archiving by ensuring that IPTT and MoVs are stored in corresponding file locations for streamlined retrieval during audits

 

Community reach analysis

• At year-end, compare the total number of beneficiaries reached across all sectors with the population of the community (for community-based responses) or the population of the camp (for camp-based responses)
• Assess whether the unique beneficiary count exceeds the population limit, prompting investigation into potential displacement movements to or from the location

 

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice) 

Accountability: 

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values 
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved 

 

Ambition: 

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same 
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others 
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale 

 

Collaboration: 

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters 
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength 
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to 

 

Creativity: 

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions 
• Willing to take disciplined risks 

 

Integrity: 

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity 

 

 

QUALIFICATIONS 

• Minimum bachelor’s degree (preferably Software, Computer or Statistics) in a relevant subject or equivalent field experience 
• Experience of building personal internal and external networks 
• Ability to prioritise and deal with competing demands 
• Ability to deliver results against demanding timetables and in the face of competing demands 
• Ability to travel and work within challenging environments 
• Awareness of own strengths and weaknesses and evidence of commitment to self-managed personal development 
• Self-motivated with the capacity and willingness to be flexible and accommodating in difficult working circumstances 

 

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS 

• At least 7 years of related work experience, preferably 5 years within the Information Management area 
• Proven knowledge of MS office applications and IT literacy and capacity to learn and use other packages 
• Experience in establishing and managing databases 
• Experience in ODK based data collection tools (e.g. Kobo Toolbox) 
• Experience and knowledge in statistical programmes (such as R for example) and/or Python programming language 
• Good knowledge and experience in ArcGIS and or QGIS to design maps 
• Adobe Illustrator and / or Adobe InDesign knowledge to design infographics 
• Advanced Power Apps and PowerBI knowledge to create interactive dashboards 
• Experience in PowerQuery and DAX language for data manipulation 
• Experience and knowledge in R and or Python (Optional) 
• Experience in SQL and database design (Optional) 
• Experience in supporting assessments, research, and reporting 
• Experience within an INGO or similar other organisation working with vulnerable communities and children or with similar experience within Save the Children 
• Excellent verbal communication and report writing and reading skills in Arabic and English 
• Commitment to the aims and principles of SC. In particular, a good understanding of the SC mandate and child focus and an ability to ensure this continues to underpin our support 
• Commitment to Save the Children Child Safeguarding policy 

 

Desirable 

• Experience in DHIS Data Management Systems 
• Familiarity with context in Sudan
• Previous experience working in the Eastern Africa and in an IDP response
• Experience of national or local level representation with key stakeholders, and co-ordination with other NGOs/UN 
• Experience and knowledge of monitoring, evaluation, accountability and Learning approach and systems