Mbuso Jama

Mbuso Jama has more than 17 years of experience as a Monitoring Evaluation Accountability Research and Learning expert (MEAL and MERL). His work has involved humanitarian, rehabilitation, and development efforts in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Partnership countries. His experience ranges from designing MEAL systems for adaptive management to impact evaluations. He has worked on projects funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), United Nations, US Agency for International Development (USAID), Canadian International Development Agency, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, European Union, and European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.

Mbuso provides thought leadership to improve Abt Britain’s MERL and knowledge management capability. He supports MERL technical leadership and quality assurance for business development and programme delivery. Mbuso serves as Monitoring, Reporting, Learning, and Quality Assurance (QA) Lead on the FCDO-funded Brazil Better Health Programme. He provides quality assurance and technical support for FCDO’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Operational and Research (MEOR) Programme in Nepal. He offers technical input and MEL oversight on FCDO’s Good Governance Fund. He also develops and manages MERL plans for seven countries under USAID’s Local Health Systems Sustainability project.

Before coming to Abt Britain, Mbuso served in a variety of capacities for World Vision United Kingdom. As senior impact advisor, he designed holistic education; nutrition; governance; water, sanitation, and hygiene; and cash-based interventions and programs. He also developed an impact evaluation policy, standards, and strategy. As organizational design and M&E (DME) capacity building specialist for World Vision Philippines, he developed training and coaching material for the organisational DME process and coordinated the evaluation for 20 area development programs and 29 baseline studies on education, health, nutrition, and child protection. Mbuso served as C-SAFE Zimbabwe’s M&E consortium coordinator.

Expertise:

• Thought leadership in MEAL/MERL
• Design of MERL Frameworks and Systems
• Evaluation methodologies
• Broad spectrum of sectoral expertise, from health and nutrition to education and youth skills
• Research Designs and Presentations in International Conferences on MERL

Key Projects:

• MERL, Quality Assurance and Knowledge Management for the Better Health Program in Brazil
• Quality Assurance for the MEOR Program in Nepal
• Quality Assurance and MERL Support for the P-MEL in Nepal
• Quality Assurance and MERL Oversight for the Good Governance Fund in Eastern Partnership countries (Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia)
• MERL Advisor for the Local Health Systems Sustainability project in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kyrgyz Republic, Laos, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Publications:

• 2021 - Community Help for Inclusive Learning and Development (CHILD): A Study of How Mobile Phones Were Used to Recruit and Equip Community Volunteers to Support Children’s Learning During Covid-19 School Closures in Zimbabwe http://oro.open.ac.uk/75468/
• 2021 – Emerging trends and methods in international development evaluation https://www.abtglobal.com/insights/events/emerging-trends-and-methods-in-international-development-evaluation
• Gender and Disability : Findings from the Girls Education Challenge https://www.globalpartnership.org/events/webinar-gender-and-disability-findings-girls-education-challenge
• 2018 - Listening to the most vulnerable children. https://www.worldvision.org.uk/media/dtwdqvk3/wvuk_listening_to_the_most_vulnerable_children_-_year_1-__summary_report.pd
• 2011 - Determinants of Household Vulnerability Among Rural Communities in Maphutseng Area Development Programme of Lesotho