Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Action (MELA) Officer at IITA - International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

Ref: IITA-HR-NRS2019-0014
Location: Ibadan, Oyo
Recruitment Type: National (1-year renewable contract)     

Duties
Successful candidate will among other things perform the following duties:

• Contribute to setting the overall programme direction by prioritising and organising actions and resources to achieve set objectives, in close coordination with the Country Manager
• Contribute to the development of annual business plans, strategic work-plans for the country programme 
• Provide support functions in monitoring adherence to contractual agreement, HarvestPlus policies and procedures and relevant external rules and regulations
• Provide support functions in ensuring programme activities align with donor and HarvestPlus standard policies and procedures
• Support the finance teams to ensure proper financial management, procurement, administration, human resources and logistics for programme activities
• Provide support functions in coordinating information sharing with contractual and collaborating partners, and other implementers
• Represent HarvestPlus when required at meetings - government, donors, national and international workshops and other relevant events 

M&E System Design and Calibration:

• Design and implement a gender sensitive and results based MELA system and strategy
• Develop and regularly review country programme’s Theory of Change (ToC) to ensure alignment with programme delivery strategy and changing realities 
• Develop country specific MELA system instruments including MELA operational manual, MELA plan, monitoring survey protocol, data quality assessment guidelines, reporting templates, technical data collection tools 
• Work with programme specialists and unit Heads to align M&E with programme objectives, develop monitoring tools and integrate M&E in work plans and across all programme components
• Develop guidance materials that clearly indicate staff responsible for specific M&E products, orienting programme staff to their M&E roles and responsibilities as necessary
• Coordinate the design, development and operationalisation of the country programme databases and mobile data collection applications

Programme Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning:

• Coordinate the implementation of M&E activities across programme life cycle and ensure minimum standards are adhered to
• Conduct baseline studies to establish baseline values for selected indicators
• Coordinate the design and implementation of outcome monitoring sample surveys
• Facilitate the execution of impact assessments and evaluations; oversee the scope of work, deliverables and overall quality of work of other external led operational research and studies
• Coordinate data collection activities across the various functions and implementing partners, analyse and share results within the country programme to increase learning and for global reporting 
• Organize M&E technical meetings to ensure regular programme planning across consortium partners, review progress, and document lessons/address challenges encountered
• Undertake regular field visits to all project sites to support implementation of M&E and to identify where adaptations might be needed
• Document processes and achievements to ensure best practices are captured and disseminated; this will contribute to continual re-evaluation of programme activities and information, with resulting activity adjustments in keeping with new insights
• Adapt and implement global M&E data quality guidelines to ensure that data generated in-country meets the required data quality criteria
• Ensure programme data and analysis is used for learning by facilitating progress review and lesson learning reflection platforms with programme partners

Management Information Systems and Reporting:

• Advance the use of innovative ICT tools to simplify data collection and transmission to HARVESTAT and global programme database;
• Create a programme beneficiary tracking database, allowing for monitoring of stakeholders;
• Prepare consolidated progress and periodic reports to meet management and donor reporting requirements in accordance with approved reporting formats and timelines;
• Document achievements/impact of innovative programme components, produce written reports on activities, capturing the impacts of activities;
• Work with team members to generate practical information that can be used for ongoing analysis and decision-making while also capturing results at the impact level

Capacity and Team Building: 

• Strengthen staff and partners capacity in the use of data collection and office/work tools through comprehensive and continuous training and coaching;
• Provide on-going guidance to team members and partners in the implementation and review of their reports and statistics 
• Adapt and implement global M&E capacity building strategy at country staff and implementing partner level 
• Promote a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence;
• Support the recruitment, orientation, professional development and ongoing training of staff to ensure the successful implementation of activities;
• Perform other duties as assigned by the Country Manager.

Qualification and Experience

• Master's degree in Agricultural Economics, Economics, Statistics or Social Sciences with minimum of 4 years working experience in monitoring and evaluation.  

Competencies
The ideal candidate must have:

• The ability to manage multiple priorities/tasks effectively;
• Good knowledge of monitoring and evaluation systems development 
• The ability to work with little or no supervision under pressure in agricultural working environment;
• Good interpersonal and communication skills;
• Have strong computer skills;

Remuneration

• We offer highly competitive salary with equally attractive benefits and excellent working conditions in a pleasant campus environment.