MEL Coordinator at TechnoServe

Requisition Number: MELOF01903
Location: Abuja, Nigeria (with international travel)
Employment Type: Full Time
Job Category: Operations
Project: Prosper Cashew
Reporting Unit / Supervisor: MEL Manager

About the Project

• Prosper Cashew is a five-year, $26 million project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Food for Progress Program that aims to catalyze investment for the West African cashew processing sector.
• Over the next five years, the project will strengthen and revive existing cashew processing facilities across Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria and support the development of new processing facilities and other value chain enterprises as part of the project’s overall goal to increase the share of raw cashew nut that is processed in the region from about 8% to 50%.
• Over five years, Prosper Cashew will improve the capacity of 60 processing units who source cashews from approximately 34,000 farmers, facilitate $497 million of investment in the cashew sector, and generate $1.5 billion in cashew kernel sales. The project expects to create more than 26,000 new jobs (at least 50% for women) and indirectly benefit more than 133,000 women, men, and children in West Africa.

Position Description

• Under the overall guidance of the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Manager, the MEL Coordinator will perform activities related to monitoring, evaluation and learning for the project, including organizing and implementing data collection and analysis
• for the project. S/He will serve as a point of contact for data collection and aggregation that supports project reporting and will provide inputs to inform project decision-making and adaptive management.

Duties and Responsibilities
Support MEL implementation for the project, including:

• Coordinate data collection from primary data sources to final reporting and reporting against project performance indicators and emergent project information needs
• Support application of qualitative and quantitative methods to inform knowledge gaps
• Contribute to the design of forms, surveys, and indices as well as the data management system
• Perform regular development of databases and dashboards
• Perform regular data quality assessments, data cleaning, and data analysis
• Conduct field visits to understand the context and identify additional data needs
• Provide ongoing technical assistance and training to project technical staff on their role in performing data collection, basic analysis, and data review and use
• Coordinate the project’s learning agenda through data collection, analysis and reporting and in the mobilization of consultants and other experts for specific learning questions
• Ensure that project’s monitoring system captures impact of project activities on women and other disadvantaged groups
• Become familiarized with the applicable donor rules and regulations, including the donor’s evaluation guidelines and indicator handbook
• Understand the specific MEL deliverables that the project is contractually responsible for, and manage their development.

Provide inputs to data-driven decision-making:

• Assist in the process of adaptive management in the project using project MEL data
• Support the documentation of best practices and production of information to capture and share lessons learned
• Support information flows across the implementation team and the sharing and analysis of new information
• Actively engage with project staff on areas for course correction, serving as a collaborative and reflective source of information to inform project progress
• Assist in the development of all project reports.

Participate in the broader MEL ecosystem at TechnoServe:

• Attend capacity building meetings and other relevant events related to MEL as directed
• Support access to and insight into the project’s MEL approach to facilitate the Regional MEL’s assessment of the project against organizational standards and annual impact reporting
• Assist in the development of corporate measurement reports as required

Required Skills & Experience

• A Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant field, such as Economics, Social Science, Business Administration, Agronomy and/or other relevant field and a minimum of 3 years of experience in results-based MEL and or project/program management
• Knowledge of food processing and cashew or other tree crops, including market actors, characteristics, norms and institutions is an added advantage
• Experience participating in the implementation of MEL methods and methodologies (such as qualitative, quantitative, and participatory methods)
• Knowledge of and capacity to learn data collection and analytical software (SurveyCTO, ODK, Commcare, Power BI/Tableau, Ms products or Google products, NVivo, SPSS/R/STATA among others)
• Strong written and oral communication skills and a capability to produce clear and concise reports.
• Strong skills in data management, analysis, and interpretation; ability to present data in simple and straightforward graphs, tables and dashboards
• Takes an inquisitive and creative approach to problem-solving, can manage high volume tasks, and effectively prioritize and manage time
• Inherent value and respect for voices of staff at all organizational levels, external stakeholders, and the women and men we work with
• Fluency in English required, basic understanding of the French language is an advantage
• Willingness to travel up to 30% of the time (including 25% domestic and 5% international)
• Strong ability to work well independently, and function effectively as a member of a geographically dispersed team.