Organizational Context
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian network, with 191 member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. IFRC uses the Triple R – response, resilience and respect – to deliver on Strategy 2030. IFRC responds to disasters and crises, ensuring timely, coordinated and locally led humanitarian action. IFRC supports its members in building community resilience in the areas of climate and environment, health and wellbeing, and migration and displacement. IFRC promotes respect for our fundamental principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality, including in our work on values, power and inclusion. The IFRC focuses throughout on our core mandate – our raison d’être – of strategic and operational coordination, humanitarian diplomacy, National Society development, and accountability.
IFRC is led by its Secretary General and has its Headquarters in Geneva and five regional offices in Africa (Nairobi); the Americas (Panama); Asia Pacific (Kuala Lumpur); Europe (Budapest); and MENA (Beirut) as well as representation offices, service centres and delegations across the globe.
The IFRC has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, and lack of integrity (including but not limited to financial misconduct). IFRC also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles.
The Country Cluster Support Team for Central Asia is based in Bishkek and oversees IFRC support to five National Societies: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The IFRC is seeking a Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (PMER) officer to provide planning monitoring evaluation and reporting support to the Central Asia IFRC Office and the five Central Asian National Societies (listed above) for their ongoing programmes, unified planning and capacity enhancement on PMER, as well as other programmes and operations.
Job Purpose
The incumbent of the position is responsible for maintaining and strengthening the Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (PMER) framework across the humanitarian operations within the IFRC Central Asia Country Cluster Office. The role ensures the development, quality, and effective implementation of PMER systems and processes, supporting evidence-based planning, performance monitoring, evaluation, reporting, learning, and accountability.
The position holder provides technical guidance to operational leadership and programme managers on all aspects of PMER and supports the integration of results-based management (RBM) standards across programmes and emergency operations. This includes advancing Unified Planning and Reporting approaches, improving the quality and timeliness of plans and reports, and promoting coherent planning and monitoring systems across the cluster.
The role also focuses on strengthening PMER capacity within National Societies in the Central Asia cluster, ensuring core competencies in PMER and supporting effective results-based and pledge-based programming. Through engagement with the cluster and global PMER community of practice and internal knowledge-sharing mechanisms, the Officer contributes to continuous learning and improved operational performance.
Working closely with programme managers, thematic focal points within the Central Asia Country Cluster, Red Crescent National Societies, and IFRC network partners, the position holder ensures PMER standards and deadlines are met and that PMER remains central to operational strategy and programme delivery. The role also supports engagement with major donors, including contributing to proposal development and maintaining strong donor relations.
By strengthening planning coherence, monitoring systems, and reporting quality, the position holder contributes to improved accountability, better resource allocation, and more effective programme delivery across the IFRC network in Central Asia.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Reporting
- Establish and manage a reporting timetable and deadlines for programmes and operations, communicate this with programme staff and monitor compliance to ensure all agreed deadlines have been met using ERP (D365) as the primary tracking tool in addition of other tracking tools such as Teams Planner.
- Coordinate all reporting processes with the operational leadership and Regional PMER team – including agreeing a reporting timetable, deadlines, quality and best ways of reporting.
- Manage efficient and effective quality control and delivery of reporting (e.g. Operations Updates, situation reports, information bulletins, and other relevant reports) ensuring all reports are clear, accurate and informative.
- Work closely with IFRC and NS teams and technical counterparts to draft and ensure quality work on the Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) applications, operations updates and final reports.
- Ensure compliance with the IFRC’s reporting standards and formats.
- Collaborate with technical and support managers, particularly finance, to ensure compatibility between narrative and financial information in all reports and for any pledge-based reporting including standard and non-standard reports (e.g. EU DG ECHO).
- Provide support and coordination for the delivery of mid-term and annual reporting on the Unified Planning.
- Check that all reporting on the operations is compliant with the IFRC’s standards and formats.
- Maintain effective communications with technical / operational counterparts within IFRC and NS staff and volunteers to ensure reports are informed by accurate and relevant information.
- Develop capacity strengthening strategies for NS reporting focal points, based on assessing PMER needs and capacities
Planning
- Promote and socialise the IFRC network`s updated unified planning guidance and tools to develop quality plans, ensuring engagement and compliance from all management, technical and support teams to a results-based and adaptive process.
- Maintain effective and good communications and liaise with technical / operational counterparts, particularly IM and CEA, and with NS staff and volunteers, to ensure that plans are informed by accurate and relevant information and by the voice of those affected.
- Engage with Host National Societies, Participating National Societies and IFRC staff on fundraising and resource mobilisation initiatives including but not limited to the Harmonised Resource Mobilisation System (HRMS) initiative to ensure that Unified planning serves as the basis of coordinated approaches for resource mobilization. • Support the identification and tracking of programme risks, assumptions, and external factors, integrating them into monitoring systems and planning processes
- Provide technical advice and support to the Head of Country Cluster Office (HoCC) and teams to ensure quality plans (e.g. design of the logical framework and indicators) and support the coordination of the plans from the different teams/NSs to bring together a coherent and high-quality unified plan.
- Verify that monitoring and evaluation activities are incorporated into the plan and budget - plan for the implementation of the relevant monitoring systems and reporting deadlines from the outset.
- Coordinate or contribute to needs assessments, baseline studies, and secondary data reviews to inform programme design and planning.
Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)
- Ensure that PMER is well represented and supported in the operational planning and budgeting and in operational management.
- Support National Societies in the implementation of the Way of Working initiative in coordination with the National Society Development and Membership Services coordinator.
Monitoring
- Support the development and implementation of M&E plans for the programmes and operations, including outlining data sources, collection methods (quantitative and qualitative methods), frequency, and people served.
- Design and establish system(s) to collect reliable and timely monitoring data that captures the operation’s implementation and informs operational management and quality programming.
- Provide technical support to monitoring exercises, including post-distribution and post-activity monitoring, encompassing the design of methodologies, tools and data analysis processes.
- Work closely with Information Management and Community Engagement and Accountability teams to ensure that planned monitoring is well informed by available information / data and engages with and reflects the voice of the affected population.
- Support or prepare analysis of monitoring, through reports, data visualisation and ensure it is evidence based, user-friendly and accessible for those managing the operation, to inform decision-making.
- Strengthen the integration between PMER and Information Management functions to ensure coherent data systems, improved evidence generation, and enhanced data-driven decision-making across the cluster.
- Promote the use of IFRC standardized indicators, data collection tools, and data disaggregation approaches to enable aggregation, comparability, and coherent reporting across programmes and National Societies.
- In synergy with IM, provide support to National Societies in developing context-appropriate internal monitoring systems.
- Maintain and manage the evidence base for monitoring and evaluation activities, supporting accountability to donors and partners
- Promote the use of monitoring data, evaluations, and community feedback to inform adaptive management and timely course correction of programmes and operations.
- Ensure that all PMER and IM activities adhere to IFRC standards on data protection, confidentiality, and ethical data collection and use (including “Do No Harm” principles).
- Evaluation / Review
- Prepare, design and implement any necessary surveys, such as baseline surveys, reviews, evaluations or lesson learning exercises or other relevant studies, in response to operational requirements.
- Facilitate or contribute to any internal reviews of operational progress, including lesson learning reviews, specific projects, DREF operations, and ad-hoc purposes.
- Verify all review or evaluation work is evidence based and considers the outcomes, as well as the outputs of the response, to ensure that this informs future operational decision-making and quality programming.
- Facilitate the coordination of all evaluations, ensuring timely planning, stakeholder engagement and follow-up on findings.
Learning
- Ensure that learning from all monitoring, reviews or evaluations is captured can be accessible and used to inform operational decision-making and the direction of the operation.
- Support and promote tracking and follow-up of the recommendations from evaluations and reviews, to ensure their integration into programme design and planning.
- Set up systems and forums for capturing and sharing operational learning.
- Help animate the global PMER community of practice to foster knowledge sharing, peer learning, and exchange of best practices.
Education
Accountability
- Contribute to the accountability focus of all PMER work across the operation, working closely with the CEA team to ensure accountability to affected populations.
- Promote a culture of accountability with management and across all sectors.
- Support the evidence-base of monitoring and evaluation work on the operation, to inform accountability.
Required:
- Graduate degree in a relevant humanitarian or Social Sciences or studies relating to data management, statistics etc.
Preferred:
- Post-graduate qualification in a PMER or related field
Experience
Required:
- Minimum 3 years’ experience working for the humanitarian or civil society sector
- Minimum 3 years’ experience working in planning, monitoring or reporting fields
- Background in data collection, management, analysis and presentation methods and tools, and ability to set up systems and procedures for reliable data collection and management
Preferred:
- Experience in working with Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
- Experience working in an emergency response context
- Demonstrable track record of managing a high value programme for an NGO or a CSR programme for a corporation
Knowledge, Skills and Languages
Required:
- Knowledge of institutional reporting and finance systems (planning, reporting systems, financial database, data collection tools, business objects etc)
- Skills in supporting organizational learning, accountability and performance
- Strong analytical and written skills, including report writing and presentation skills
- Strong skills in designing and using PMER concepts, tools, and best practices
- Knowledge and skills around results-based planning (logframe) and setting up robust planning systems for complex programmes
- Knowledge of assessment, survey and monitoring methodologies and experience implementing them
- Knowledge of how to develop and write funding proposals, corporate applications and reports
- Demonstrated core proficiency in (a) digital communication & collaboration, (b) basic digital content creation, (c) digital safety & security, (d) data literacy, and (e) problem solving with technology (including responsible use of AI assistants.
- Understanding of and commitment to IFRC’s mission and values.
- Fluently spoken and written English and Russian
Preferred:
- Knowledge of institutional reporting and finance systems (planning, reporting systems, financial database, data collection tools, business objects etc)
- Knowledge of evaluation and review for disaster response or recovery work
- Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic)
Competencies, Values and Comments
Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability
Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust
