Monitoring & Evaluation Director at Partners of the Americas

Overview 

• Partners of the Americas seeks an experienced Monitoring & Evaluation Director (M&E Director) to work on a program in Nigeria focused on poultry and aquaculture within Agriculture and Agricultural Trade. This multi-year initiative aims to increase poultry and aquaculture productivity and expand trade by strengthening market systems, improving compliance with international standards, and fostering public-private partnerships. This position will lead the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) component of the Nigeria Project. This area is responsible for monitoring activities and measuring progress during project implementation, according to the Work Plan, indicators and their corresponding goals, objectives, changes, effects, and expected impact. M&E guides and ensures compliance with quality standards during the processes of capture, processing, analysis, and reporting, contributing useful and timely information for strategic decision-making of the project.  This position reports directly to the Chief of Party. The M&E Director will be based in Lagos (Nigeria). 

 Key Responsibilities 

• Formulates MEL plan and systems for capturing data and pertinent information on project activities, beneficiaries, outputs, outcomes, and impact. 
• Provides leadership, training, and mentoring to carry out MEL activities, including designing tools, conducting data collection and analysis, and sharing and utilizing data to evaluate and enhance program impact. 
• Effectively implements data collection and reporting systems to all staff and partners through training, site visits, manuals, and other necessary technical support. 
• Collaborates across the project to ensure alignment to targets and indicators contained in the project proposal and utilize information from the MEL systems (Activityinfo) and tools to enhance program effectiveness. 
• Facilitates the collection and use of qualitative data and implementation learning to facilitate collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA), including participating in special studies to answer learning agenda.  
• Coordinates and support baseline, mid-term, and final evaluations. 
• Directs and provides the day-to-day management of the M&E activities for the project and its partners.  
• Leads the development, update, and implementation of the project’s M&E Plan, including the approach to collecting, evaluating, and validating data to measure overall progress toward project outcomes and objectives.   
• Proactively participates in project evaluations, including the baseline, mid-term and final evaluation, collaborating, and coordinating closely with the donor and the external consultant.  
• Monitors and updates project indicators and their progress toward established goals in coordination with the technical team.   
• Develops and ensures adequate performance of M&E platforms, data integrity, and accuracy in project-relevant reporting.  
• Contributes to the elaboration of Requests for Proposals for relevant consultancies assessing project progress, such as annual, intermediate, final, and others as required.  
• Manages the renewal of the licenses of the required software tools.  
• Supports the development of project progress reports, annual work plans, and other documents as required by the donor, by providing accurate and reliable data.  
• Collaborates and regularly meet with the project’s technical team to update the Work Plan, activities and analyses lessons learned accordingly.  
• Stays up to date on the donor’s M&E guidance and opportunities, including but not limited to revised standard indicators and opportunities to give feedback or highlight project achievements.  
• Regularly improves project M&E systems and empower local staff, stakeholders, and partners to use quality data to drive meaningful changes related to project interventions.  
• Works closely with project staff and partners to develop mechanisms for the project’s Work Plan to actively incorporate lessons and modify approaches in implementation as needed.  
• Creates, organizes, and submits M&E deliverables as required by the donor.  
• Develops learning, knowledge, and results management materials for internal and external audiences.  
• Designs and monitors the proper and responsive management of data collection instruments (e.g. surveys, focus groups, evaluations) with project beneficiaries and target populations.  
• Coordinates closely with POA communications team members and partners in the preparation and delivery of inputs for the development of project success stories to ensure project achievements are widely shared and reported to the donor and key stakeholders.  
• Works closely with all project units, technical teams at POA, and partners to ensure that M&E is aligned with the project.  
• Designs and maintains project dashboards updated for timely and relevant decision-making.  
• Uses relevant secondary research for M&E purposes, including context and a better understanding of project performance.  
• Supports the development and implementation of partners’ organizational development and monitor the progress of project activities to strengthen their capacity.  
• Other relevant tasks that are assigned by the Chief of Party.  

Team Management  

• Develops team capacity, deepen understanding of their roles and responsibilities, and assist in career development.    
• Assists team members with information, tools, and resources to improve performance and achieve goals.  
• Promotes accountability, communicates expectations, and provides constructive feedback formally and informally with regular one-on-one meetings and performance reviews.  
• Creates and maintains a mutually respectful work environment where team members strive for excellence.  Hire, mentor, and direct team members as needed.  

 Responsibilities of All Partners’ Team Members  

• Have a clear and deep understanding of POA and donor policies and standards to comply with programmatic, financial, administrative, procurement, logistics, human resources, and security processes.    

 Required Qualifications 

• Minimum of eight (8) years of professional experience in management and leadership positions, or equivalent, executing monitoring and evaluation activities for international development projects, specifically projects focused on rural development and food security.  
• Professional with an advanced degree (preferably a master’s degree) in statistics, demography, public policy, international development, economics, or related field.  
• Experience in the design, implementation, and operation of monitoring and evaluation systems from project inception to the closeout stages.  
• Desirable familiarity with indicators from the donor’s programs.  
• Experience in strategic planning and performance measurement, including indicator selection, goal setting, reporting, database management, and development of monitoring and evaluation plans and implementation of monitoring plans.  
• Knowledge of main evaluation methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, mixed method, and impact) and data collection and analysis of the methodologies.  
• Experience in planning and managing surveys and developing and refining data collection tools.  
• Desirable understanding of the main problems of agricultural value chains, including market access, collection and processing of products, and provision of inputs and services to producers.  
• Advanced proficiency in English, native in French and Arabic; written and oral communication.  
• Desirable knowledge of project management tools such as Smartsheet and other applications for data management such as Kobo Toolbox and Power BI.