MERL Consultant for Early Childhood Education Programme

About the role

UNICEF is seeking a Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) Consultant to lead the design, implementation and continuous improvement of the MERL system for the SCALE Innovative Partnership, an initiative aimed at improving early childhood education quality in Nepal.

Key responsibilities

• Strengthen and refine the programme Theory of Change, results framework, indicators and learning agenda.
• Develop and operationalise the MERL framework, including data collection tools, reporting templates and evidence management systems.
• Design and facilitate the Test‑Learn‑Adapt (TLA) process, including learning questions, adaptation pathways and scale‑readiness milestones.
• Build monitoring systems for routine tracking of implementation fidelity, reach, quality, affordability and scale‑readiness, and maintain dashboards.
• Lead baseline, midline and endline assessments, develop sampling approaches and research instruments, and coordinate impact‑evaluation activities.
• Produce decision‑support products, evidence summaries and adaptation memos for programme management and government stakeholders.

Required profile

• Technical leadership experience in monitoring, evaluation, research and learning for large‑scale education programmes.
• Proven ability to work with government ministries, implementing partners and research organisations.

Required skills

• Design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation frameworks.
• Data collection, validation, analysis and reporting.
• Development of cost‑effectiveness, affordability and value‑for‑money analysis tools.