Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Specialist at Creative Associates International

West Africa Trade and Investment Hub (The Trade Hub)

Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Specialist

Position Location: Abuja Nigeria

Background:

Creative Associates International is a dynamic, fast-growing global development firm that specializes in education, economic growth, democratic development and post-crisis stabilization. Based in Washington, D.C. Creative has a field presence in more than 25 countries with a strong client portfolio that includes the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department, among others. Since its founding in 1977, Creative has earned a solid reputation among its clients and is well-regarded by competitors and partners alike.  

Project Summary:

The USAID-funded West Africa Trade and Investment Hub Project (the Trade Hub) is a five-year trade and investment facilitation Activity that seeks to improve private sector competitiveness in West Africa through market-based approaches. The Trade Hub is an integral part of Prosper Africa initiative and partners with the U.S. and West African private sector firms to generate new private-sector investment in key sectors to create jobs and increase trade between the U.S. and West Africa, including through increased utilization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). This Activity comprises of two main components: (i) design and administration of a grant-making facility for private sector partnerships and (ii) technical assistance (TA) that directly supports, coordinates, and engages with qualifying recipients (i.e., partners and grantees) to achieve USAID’s trade and food security objectives.

Through this co-investment facility and technical assistance, the Trade Hub will improve companies’ ability to expand business operations, increase productivity, and create jobs that build on the talents and aspirations of West Africa’s growing population. The Trade Hub will collaborate on specific commercial opportunities with firms, service providers, research organizations, and other business network actors to access private capital that will contribute to the creation of large-scale jobs, exports, and investment, particularly with strong demonstrated or potential links to the U.S. companies and investors. The Trade Hub is also innovating catalytic grants under contract for co-investments, first loss provisions for new fund structures, special purpose vehicles, digital platforms, and transaction advisory services to achieve objectives.

Reporting & Supervision:

The position will be reporting to the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Director, based in Abuja, Nigeria. The MEL Specialist will provide technical support in all monitoring, evaluation, and learning activities of the Trade Hub across different location of its implementation.

Primary Responsibilities:

• The MEL Specialist will support the MEL Director in developing Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) systems, including data quality assurance procedures, and compiling, processing and analyzing activity performance data.

• Ensure regular and consistent documentation and that reporting deliverables are met timely and in compliance with USAID rules and regulations.
• Participate in the development of Annual Work Plan(s), prepare and annual updating of the MEL Plan in alignment with project’s expected deliverables and results;
• Maintain an up-to-date catalog of all project MEL tools and forms in electronic and hard copy data files;
• Ensure quality and streamlined data entry in Creative corporate web-based MEL platform MEDAL (Monitoring and Evaluation Database for Adaptive Learning);
• Coordinate with regional project’s field staff to receive grantees’ raw MEL datasets, populate MEDAL, building global dashboards, suggest changes and improvements to data structuring and collection;
• Analyze data and create user-friendly dashboards for the Trade Hub;
• Assist in the collection, storage, and analysis of accurate, high quality, and reliable data and GIS information, in particular, ensure performance indicators and output, outcome, and impact data are prepared and collected properly in targeted geographic and thematic areas;
• Identify in-country MEL training and STTA needs and ensure that these needs are met and provide training on MEL activities as needed;
• Ensure that partners submit reports within the agreed time schedule;
• Conduct project site visits to collect quantitative and qualitative data; including site visits for secondary verification of data results;
• Collaborate with the Gender & Social Inclusion Manager, based in Abuja, to integrate gender into MEL by identifying key indicators and ensuring lessons learned are collected to inform future program design and implementation;
• Supports the project’s Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) approach to monitoring and evaluation; and
• Perform other tasks as assigned by the MEL Director.

Required Skills & Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in International Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, Economic, Statistics, Agriculture, other relevant Social Sciences and/or equivalent combination of education and work experience is required. Master’s degree in any of these field will be an advantage.
• Minimum of Five (5) years’ work experience in relevant position in international development programming and implementing MEL systems for USAID funded projects in Economic Growth is required.
• Experience working across West Africa countries will be an advantage
• Experience conducting data collection required; including using qualitative and quantitative techniques;
• Excellent computer skills, particularly with Microsoft Excel, SPSS and other statistical package as well as mapping tools such as ArcGIS.
• Demonstrated experience in MEL report writing.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and teamwork;
• Proficiency in written and spoken English required. Ability to communicate in French will be an added advantage.
• Must be legally authorized to work in West Africa and willing to travel across the region.