Lead Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning

Location

Ahmedabad, Gujarat preferred; remote arrangements may be considered, with willingness to travel

Organisation

Mahila Housing Trust (MHT)

Employment Type

Full-time or consultant/contract basis, depending on candidate fit

Reports To

Director & Managing Trustee

Seniority

Senior MEL position at MHT

About MHT

Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) is a women-led, grassroots non-profit that has spent over three decades building bridges between informal urban communities and the public and private institutions that can improve their lives. Working through community-based women's collectives - Community Action Groups (CAGs) and Vikasinis - MHT strengthens women's leadership at the ward level and supports them in engaging directly with municipal and state governments on housing, water and sanitation, and climate resilience. This community-to-institution model has earned MHT national and international recognition and now underpins its expansion into public health, building on the same grassroots trust and government relationships that have driven its work in habitat and climate resilience.

Role Summary

MHT is seeking a senior Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) professional to lead the organisation's MEL function. As MHT expands into public health and deepens its climate-and-health work, rigorous and credible evidence is central to donor confidence and to MHT's case for larger, longer-term institutional funding. This role will design and lead MHT's overarching MEL architecture across housing, climate resilience and public health, giving the successful candidate meaningful influence over how MHT measures, researches, learns from and communicates its impact. Research is a core part of the role: the Lead will design, commission and deliver applied, practice-facing studies - including case studies, learning reviews and action research - that strengthen MHT's evidence base and inform new programme areas such as public health. The role also requires strong attention to accurate, consistent and timely project-level data collection as the foundation for organisation-wide reporting and dashboards.

Key Responsibilities

•     Lead the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of MHT's organisation-wide MEL framework, spanning housing, climate resilience, and public health programming.

•     Define indicators, data collection tools, and reporting cadences for each programme area, ensuring alignment with donor and organisational reporting requirements.

•     Strengthen project-level data collation and reporting discipline as the foundation of MHT's MEL system, ensuring every project's data is consistently and accurately collected and reported before organisation-level aggregation and dashboards are introduced.

•     Own the quality assurance and verification process for all programme data and impact figures prior to external or donor-facing use, building the field- and programme-level habits and relationships needed to catch inconsistencies at source rather than relying on tools or dashboards alone.

•     Design, lead and/or commission applied research studies, evaluations and learning reviews, including practice-facing studies, case studies and action research, ensuring findings inform donor engagement, programme design and organisational strategy.

•     Build MEL capacity across field and programme teams, including training on data collection protocols and use of MEL tools and dashboards.

•     Mentor and guide junior MEL staff and consultants in documenting case studies, learning briefs, and stories of change from field data, building a pipeline of credible, donor-ready evidence and narrative material.

•     Work closely with fundraising and programme leadership to ensure evidence and impact data are effectively translated into donor reports, proposals, and strategy documents.

•     Support programme managers in communicating confidently and transparently with donors on data and reporting queries and helping bridge gaps between donor expectations and on-the-ground realities with context and honesty rather than deflection.

•     Establish and maintain MHT's MEL data systems and dashboards, ensuring data integrity, security, and accessibility for authorised users.

•     Represent MHT's MEL function in donor due-diligence processes, evaluations, and relevant sector forums.

•     Mentor and manage any junior MEL staff or consultants, and serve as the organisation's final point of authority on MEL methodology and data quality.

Qualifications & Experience

•     Substantial, senior-level experience in monitoring, evaluation, and learning within the development or non-profit sector; this is the most senior MEL role in the organisation, so seniority and depth of expertise are essential. Typically 10+ years, or equivalent senior MEL leadership experience.

•     Strong technical grounding in MEL methodologies, indicator design, quantitative and qualitative data collection, and evaluation design.

•     Demonstrated research design and implementation skills — able to conceive, design, and execute applied research studies (case studies, learning reviews, action research), not necessarily peer-reviewed academic research, that generate credible evidence for donor engagement and inform programme design, including for new areas such as public health.

•     Experience building or leading MEL systems across a multi-programme portfolio, ideally including climate, health, or urban development themes.

•     A track record of prioritising data quality and reporting discipline at the project level, working closely with programme managers and field teams and valuing capacity-building alongside appropriate technical tools.

•     Experience mentoring or building the capacity of junior staff in case study documentation, learning capture, and narrative writing from field data.

•     Demonstrated ability to translate MEL findings, research, and case studies into strategic and donor-facing narratives, in close collaboration with fundraising and leadership.

•     Strong data management skills, including familiarity with digital data collection and dashboarding tools such as Kobo/ODK, Excel-based MIS, Power BI, DHIS2 or GIS-linked datasets. Experience with any specific platform is an advantage but is not mandatory.

•     Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present technical findings clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences, including funders.

•     Postgraduate degree in a relevant field (statistics, public health, development studies, social sciences, or similar) preferred.

•     Willingness to travel to field locations as required for data verification and evaluation work.

Reporting Line

This position reports directly to the Director & Managing Trustee.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should send a CV and a brief cover letter outlining relevant experience to [Confidential Information],with the job title in the subject line.

Application Deadline: Open until filled

Selection Process

The selection process typically includes an initial screening call, a short written task or case exercise relevant to the role, a panel interview, and reference checks. Candidates will be kept informed of timelines at each stage.

Equal Opportunity

MHT is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from all qualified candidates. Recruitment decisions are based on relevant skills, experience and suitability for the role, without discrimination on the basis of gender, caste, religion, disability or background.