M & E professional

Cover Letter

Tell: 077******* 070*******

Email: *********@*****.***

Date: 10/08/2025

The Human Resource Department

Nurture Africa

Re: Monitoring and Evaluation Manager

I am writing to express my interest in the Monitoring & Evaluation Program Officer position at Nurture Africa. With over eight years of experience in Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning

(MERL), I bring a solid track record in designing and operationalizing M&E systems, strengthening data quality, and using insights to drive impact—especially in maternal, newborn, and child health programming across Uganda and East Africa.

Currently serving as the Country Monitoring & Results Measurement Manager at Swisscontact, I lead planning, evaluation, and strategic learning across development and humanitarian interventions. I have previously worked with Malteser International and Pathfinder on USAID and BMZ-funded projects, where I spearheaded large-scale evaluations, data systems strengthening (DHIS2, EMR), and continuous quality improvement initiatives across Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and South Sudan. My academic background includes a Master of Science in Public Health, a Postgraduate Diploma in M&E, and a Bachelor’s in Demography and Reproductive Health. I am skilled in data analysis (Excel, STATA, R), dashboard development, collaborative learning approaches (CLA), and translating complex data into actionable insights for program improvement and policy engagement. I am eager to contribute my skills to co-design country investment plans, support evidence-driven grantmaking, and ensure high-quality data use for maximum impact. Ojaka Elly

CV

Name: Ojaka Elly. Nationality: Ugandan. Gender: Male. Tell: 077******* 070*******

Email: *********@*****.*** Websit:

ellyojaka.wixsite.com/elly-ojaka-portfolio

Professional Summary

I am a MEL professional with over 7 years’ experience supporting donor-funded programmes with Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), research, continuous quality improvement (CQI), Strategic Planning, and Information Management. I am an experienced MEL leader, having led teams of up to twelve, supporting their continuous professional development along the way. I have proven experience engaging with government and non-government stakeholders at the sub-national, regional, district and community levels within Uganda. In my recent role as Regional Programme Coordinator MEL with Pathfinder, I supported the development of program monitoring tools, coordinated operational research, and studies, worked with the MEL teams to review and update annual MEL work plans and budgets. I also supported development of milestones, capacity building and tracking partner performance across all regions. He is well versed in Continuous Quality Improvement, monitoring, evaluation and learning. In my current role; as Country MEAL Expert with Malteser International, I support multiple projects including areas of Emergency Medical Services (EMS), WASH, Environment, livelihoods, and refugee response in the regions of Kampala, South-West, and West Nile in Uganda working closely with District Health Teams (DHTs), healthcare providers, community health workers (CHWs), leadership in Refugee settlements and host communities. I also provide backstopping support to piloting projects in South Sudan, DR- Congo, Rwanda, and Kenya. I provide technical support to proposal development, M&E, Research Systems, Indicator performance tracking, and Learning initiatives to enhance program outcomes and donor reporting. Here are the tools and systems and have worked with

Core competencies.

Technical Expertise: Advanced knowledge of MEAL frameworks, Log-Frames, KPI tracking, and data analysis using tools like STATA, R, Power BI, and QGIS. Other tools include advanced Excel and Kobo toolbox. I have worked with DHIS2 over the years and gained expertise in designing data entry forms, creating data elements and generating indicators, building dashboards, and supporting teams in managing DHIS2 systems. Leadership and Coordination: I have a track record of leadership and managing teams, engaging with government officials, donors, leaders, and other stakeholders to ensure program alignment and buy-in while delivering complex programs across multiple regions, ensuring high-quality implementation, and meeting requirements. Planning: Over the years, I have developed program work plans and budgets, aligning with organizational goals and donor expectations and ensuring budget control during the implementation Education.

Date Qualification Institution

April, 2024 Master of Science in Public Health (MSc-PH) University of Suffolk-UK. Mar, 2024 Post Graduate Diploma in Business Intelligence and Data Analytics (PGD-BIA)

University of Sacred Heart Gulu (USHG)

April -2018 Post Graduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluation Uganda Management Institute (UMI) Jan-2015 Bachelor in Demography and Reproductive Health: Kyambogo University Kampala Work Experience:

January 2025 to Present…

Title/Position Monitoring and Results Measurement Manager. Organization Swisscontact Uganda

Projects/Funding Multiple Projects under

Role Management and coordination of MRM Initiatives

Provide strategic guidance to the Country Director and Project Managers across all projects to guide decisions driven by data analysis and filed findings.

Manage the overall Monitoring and Results Measurement strategy for Swisscontact Uganda

Ensure high standards of data quality, integrity, transparency, and reproducibility across Swisscontact Uganda Projects.

Lead the development and management of Swisscontact Uganda Reporting and Management Information System (MIS)

Provide overall guidance and support to Project Managers, other team members on project implementation as per the donor mandate ensuring standards

Support the development of data analytics and visualizations, building dashboards, to support information sharing working with the communications departments.

Contribute to planning, budgeting, monitoring & evaluation and documenting of project interventions.

Lead and facilitate the preparation of partnership strategy documents, concept notes, intervention plans and Intervention Guides.

Ensure that the all projects deliver all desired targets on time and with quality.

Establish and operationalize performance management framework for monitoring and overseeing various project components in coordination with the implementing partners.

Develop and operationalize results chain, monitoring and results measurement plan with partner organizations.

Develop and operationalize reporting format for all the interventions/components and partner organizations.

Develop and operationalize a framework for aggregating quantitative results from the interventions/components, analyze the results and present progress to different clients (consortium partners, donor, Government, etc.) within agreed timeline and format focusing on outcomes.

Oversee data quality, MIS management, and GIS integration for regional programs.

Coordinate multi-country program evaluations, assessments, and operational research.

Capacity building for Programs, partners, and MEAL staff and partners across regional projects. April,2024 to January 2025

Title/Position Country Monitoring Evaluation Accountability & Learning Expert Organization Malteser International- Country Office. Projects/Funding Multiple Projects under (Health, WASH, Environment, & Livelihoods) Role National Coordination and Regional Support to (Kenya, Rwanda, S. Sudan) Summary: Technical support to the development and implementation of the MEAL systems, including MEAL SOPs, guidance, and tools, in line with Global MI MEAL approaches, standards, and procedures for all MI projects in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and South Sudan.

Work with teams in the development and implementation of MEAL systems across multi-country projects implemented in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and South Sudan. Including capacity building for program and MEAL teams in program countries.

Oversee data collection, storage, and analysis, across regions and countries ensuring high-quality data to support decision-making. Including maintaining updated project performance indicator tracking tables IPTT.

Lead integration of Geographical Information System (GIS) in program analysis, reporting, and mapping for enhanced decision-making. This includes GIS analysis for WASH support, health facilities and communities supported, and numbers reached across the different regions and countries.

Coordinate the design of quantitative and qualitative Program evaluations, assessment including DQAs, and other operational research interventions.

As a country MEAL, I lead the initiatives to support sub-grantee partners and CSOs in strengthening their Monitoring systems, including support to develop and define indicators, development of program databases, and capacity building in Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning.

Facilitate Collaborative, Learning, and Adaptation (CLA) activities to support the use of data and information from the M&E system for real-time decision-making to improve project implementation.

Work with multi-county MEAL teams to ensure program reporting through different reporting mechanisms, MI- Global Indicator system, Donor databases, and program technical report writing. July-2020 to April 20204

Title/Position Regional programs Monitoring Evaluation & Learning Coordinator Organization Pathfinders International-Uganda (Albertine/Bunyoro-Region) Projects/Funding USAID/Family Planning Activity (FPA)-Reproductive Health Role Regional Coordination and Technical support

Summary: Providing technical and coordination support in the Bunyoro region on Implementation and MEL activities. This involves collaborating with local government officials, health teams, and stakeholders to ensure quality HMIS reporting, data validation, and management. The role includes coordinating evaluations, surveys, and capacity-building for health facility and community staff for sub- grantees, developing tools and SOPs, and designing dashboards for performance tracking. Additionally, it involves leading continuous quality improvements, collaborative learning, and creating technical reports, abstracts, and documentation to support program implementation.

Duties/achievements.

Main duties & Responsibilities.

Coordinated program Monitoring and Evaluation & Operational Research activities for USAID/FPA in the Bunyoro/Albertine region including monitoring tools development like the VHT community reporting Registers, Health facility DQA, and Assessment tools, leading research teams, ensuring Reporting and Data Quality, program data Analytics and dashboard development for Realtime data visualization.

Supported USAID’s National Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) studies across FPA-supported regions. Other studies I have supported include coordinating USAID/FPA Baseline Evaluation and Gender Youth and Social inclusion (GYSI) Analysis, Data Quality Audits (DQAs), Root Cause Analysis (RCAs), Beyond Bias Evaluations, among others working with various district stakeholders and Implementing partners.

Technical support in building and strengthening Districts and Facilities for Continuous Quality Improvement

(CQI) initiatives, including training and capacity building in CQI, continuous onsite mentorships at Health facilities, strengthening District CQI team for continuous monitoring to ensure projects contribute to health Indicator Improvement.

Integrated USAID’s Collaborative Learning and Adaptation concept (CLA) in program implementation. This involved ensuring intentional collaboration with districts, health facilities, and other partners, frequent learning opportunities

(eg at departmental levels, district, and regional levels), and strategic action planning and adaptation of approaches that are working. CQI engagements offered one such opportunity, especially at facility and district levels, Performance & after-action reviews, etc.

Participate in program strategic planning, updating AMELP, developing annual work plans, budgeting meetings, and reviewing and developing program indicators for continuous monitoring & Evaluation.

Supported program localization and sustainability strategy, including the identification and prequalification of community-based Civil Society (CSOs) for sub-grants, developing sub-grantee milestones, capacity building, continuous monitoring, and mentorship for the local partners in program implementations.

Led digital health system strengthening for the organization. This entailed capacity building for program teams in the use of DHIS2 for data capture and analysis, moving from paper-based data capture. Integration of the Kobo system to other platforms as Power BI and DHIS2 interoperability, developing dynamic dashboards, and ensuring digitized data management for quick analysis and decision making.

Support program documentation including participating in technical and donor report writing, documentation of success stories, developing program abstracts for publication and presentation in conferences and other platforms, and developing program fact sheets for the USAID/FPA program.

Coordinate regional offices working with district DHOs, Biostatisticians, Surveillance teams, and facility HIAs to ensure all level data quality and standard HMIS reporting, Data cleaning, Data use, and Visualization for decision making including at community, health facility, districts, and regional levels.

Working with USAID/FPA-MEL teams and led the strategy for community health information management including adopting and editing the CHWs-VHT home visit tool, and community dialogue tools and aligning with the national HMIS and Pathfinder information systems indicators to facilitate information capture and tracking for all community interventions under USAID/FPA program..

Dec-2018 To July-2020

Title/Position Programs Technical Officer Monitoring and Evaluation. Organization John Snow Inc (JSI)-Uganda

Projects/Funding PEPFAR-USAID/RHITES-N-Lango project. Role Coordination, supervision and technical support to MEL activities Summary: The role involved coordinating MEL, research, and program implementation in Lango sub- region districts, working with district health teams, political and technical leads to ensure smooth program operations. My responsibilities included capacity building for health facilities and CSOs, supervising over 12 data officers and research assistants, and ensuring quality research, data use, and reporting. The role also focuses on strengthening health information systems, improving health services, and contributing to program analysis, system development, and report writing. Roles/Duties:

Led MEL activities across districts, enhancing documentation, reporting, and data quality for various health programs. Collaborated with teams to ensure accurate data capture in systems like DHIS2, EMR, and PEPFAR DATIM, and conducted regular performance monitoring and mentorship.

Coordinated research, surveys, and data quality assessments, ensuring stakeholder engagement and dissemination. I also led Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) initiatives across thematic areas like HIV, TB, and Malaria, driving quality care improvements through innovative approaches.

Updated MEL program documents, designed tools, and supported system informatics. Conducted training and mentorship for M&E staff, leading HMIS & DHIS2 training across districts.

Facilitated the implementation and use of the Uganda-EMR System for patient data management. Supported the MEL department in analyzing and reporting Key Performance Indicators across various platforms.

Assisted in recruiting data personnel and organized learning and performance-sharing meetings to foster best practices and experience sharing across districts and health facilities. Sept-2016 To Dec-2018

Title/Position Data and Quality Improvement Officer Organization URC-University Research Co., LLC Center for Human Services Projects/Funding PEPFAR-USAID/ASSIST (Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems) Roles/Duties:

Provide technical support to health facilities in assigned districts to improve patient level information documentation across all HMIS tools used in all supported districts and health facilities in the areas of HIV, TB, VMMC, Malaria, Nutrition, OPD, IPD,

Work with districts HIAs to support compilation of quality monthly and quarterly and all periodic HMIS reports; quality of HMIS report compilation 033b, 105, 106, 108, 097, among others and timely/complete entry into the national DHIS2.

Support all data entry into program MIS including PEPFAR reports into the DHIS2 based HIBRID systems and sync with the National system for all program areas, DREAMS Tracker system, PMTCT Retention M-Track systems, among others.

Conduct regular mentorships and follow up on Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Initiatives, ensuring Projects are updated with quality data and report progress through the CQI database systems.

Coordinate and conduct periodic DQAs in the supported district to ensure the quality of HMIS data being reported and support mentorship to facilities on data use and documentation.

Support districts Biostats to ensure accurate quantification and availability of HMIS tools for patient information capture at all health facilities in the districts.

Work with districts to periodically analyze health performance indicators and organize district performance review meetings involving all stakeholders to review performance and develop actions to improve health services.

Conduct training and mentorship to health workers on HMIS and documentation during service delivery to improve the quality of health data/information.

Supported health facility ART clinics to install and use the Uganda-EMR System. Involve training responsible staff and regular on-site mentorship on the system.

Jan-2015 To Sept-2016

Title/Position Projects Coordinator

Organization Action for Behavior Change-Uganda

Projects/Funding Multiple funds as below

Roles/Duties:

Led the implementation of activities for multiple projects across multiple districts (Tororo, Bugiri, and Mbale), ensuring seamless coordination among project officers, data officers, and other team members. I ensured established strategic partnerships with District/Local Governments and other implementing partners, fostering smooth and coordinated program execution across the districts.

As projects coordinator, I also doubled as the lead for Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) processes for four projects across Tororo, Mbale, and Bugiri districts, including overseeing periodic quarterly reporting and addressing donor information needs. I supported the development of management information databases and tools for the different projects as below.

Tool Development for Youth Programming: I collaborated with the MEL team at Plan International to design monitoring tools for youth activities under the Ni-Yetu Program (focused on SRHR, GBV, and Governance) in Tororo and Bugiri districts.

Data Management & Capacity Building: Supported the migration of beneficiary information to the OVC-MIS under the USAID/UPHSP_E-OVC program, and developed staff capacity for continued system use, data entry, analysis, and reporting.

Conflict Resolution & Data Tracking: Led the creation of an incident tracking tool and database for the USAID/SAFE project, documenting and storing information on resolved conflicts in Tororo district.

Strategic Planning & Budgeting: Spearheaded quarterly work-planning and budgeting meetings, aligning activity implementation, identifying priorities, assigning roles, and tracking progress across all projects.

Agriculture Project Coordination: Facilitated the formation and assessment of Community Farmer Groups under the USAID/Feed The Future (FTF) Project, monitoring their activities, and linking them to private markets for improved market access.

Donor Communication & Reporting: Served as the primary contact for project donors, responding to data requests and field information needs, while leading the preparation of periodic reports that adhered to donor requirements and highlighted program successes.

Other prior roles I held include the following

Period Position Organization

Apr-2016-Jul-2016 Participatory Learning and Action Consultant: Plan International 2014 Ward Supervisor, 2014 Uganda National Census Uganda Bureau of Statistics Census 2013 - 2015 District HMIS Focal person (Voluntary) District Health Department Tororo DLG May-Nov-2011 Research Assistant: Uwezo Learning Assessment Uwezo-Uganda 2010 to Jan-2015 Peer Champion and Youth Counsellor Reproductive Health Uganda References:

Name Position Contact

Patrick Elyanu MEAL Technical Advisor URC-

USAID/Uganda Health Activity

Tel: +256-*********

E-mail: ********@*****.***

Philip Bakahirwa MEL-Advisor USAID/UFPA, Kampala Tel: 077******* E-mail: ******.*********@*****.***

Dr. Peter Okila Project Coordinator RHITES-N-

Lango

Tel: 077*******

Email: ******@*****.***

Contact this candidate