Assessment and Evaluation Advisor, USAID/Nigeria Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Support Activity (MELSA) at Social Impact (SI)

Proposal Objective:

The purpose of this five-year project is to support USAID/Nigeria staff and partners to implement more efficient, effective, and transparent activities by improving: (1) USAID and Implementing Partner’s (IP) capacity to achieve expected results; (2) USAID’s understanding and tracking of activity and project performance; and (3) Mission and activity ability to collaborate, learn, and adapt (CLA).

Position Description:
SI is seeking a full-time Assessment and Evaluation Advisor who will be responsible for the overall management and functioning of all evaluation, assessment, survey, and special study tasks, as well as related cross-cutting tasks under this activity. This position will be based in Abuja. The Assessment and Evaluation Advisor will serve as a core team member on a full-time basis throughout the remaining four-year period of performance.

**Please note: Only candidates with Nigerian citizenship will be considered.**

Responsibilities:

• Oversee evaluation, analyses, and assessments throughout the life of the activity, including scope of work development, data collection, design of methodologies and protocols, data analysis and reporting writing.
• Ensure the quality of deliverables/reporting of all evaluations, assessments, surveys, and special studies.
• Oversee consultants and MELSA MEL Specialists who participate on assessment and evaluation teams. Ensure that short- and long-term evaluation team members recruited under this contract are of a high caliber and possess the required technical expertise.
• Manage evaluation and assessment workplans, timelines, budgets, and consultant teams to ensure timely and quality deliverables.
• Work with the Technical Office to organize Post Evaluation Action Plan (PEAP) to encourage action on evaluation recommendations at the Mission and Technical Office (TO) levels
• Provide capacity building to USAID staff and other stakeholders on USAID evaluation policy guidelines and evaluation processes
• Work with the Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) and other team leads to ensure that evaluation information is shared and fully utilized through knowledge sharing and strategic learning processes to speed innovation and improve upon and bring new innovations to the Mission's programmatic work in-country.
• Provide support, leadership, and technical expertise to overall management of the activity to ensure that the activity meets all its performance and reporting requirements.
• Lead communications with and engage USAID, government partners, implementers, and stakeholders for collaborative inputs in the design, implementation, and utilizing research findings and recommendations and seeking feedback and approvals when required.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in a relevant field, and a minimum of seven years of professional work experience in the design, management, and implementation of assessments, evaluations, analyses, and special studies.
• Ability to organize, manage, prioritize, and follow through on multiple tasks in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment.
• Expertise conducting MEL activities in one or more of the following technical fields: 1) Economic Growth and Environment; 2) Education; 3) Health; 4) Peace and Democratic Governance.
• Proven skills in quantitative and qualitative methodologies.
• Excellent qualitative data analysis skills including command of at least one coding software/program for qualitative data (Dedoose, NVivo, AtlasTi, etc).
• Excellent quantitative data analysis skills including good command of statistics, sampling methodologies, and statistical analysis software such as SPSS, STATA, Epi Info, among others.
• Extensive experience drafting and finalizing evaluation reports.
• Experience providing training and mentoring for groups of various sizes and one-on-one on evaluation- related subjects.
• Familiarity with utilization-focused evaluation is a plus.
• Previous experience supporting USAID-funded contracts desired.
• Computer literate and possess superior oral and written communication skills.
• Fluency in written and spoken English required.
• Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations and implementing partners.