Senior Capacity Strengthening and Learning Specialist, Nigeria MEL at EnCompass

Location: Abuja, with travel throughout the country.

Job Description

• EnCompass seeks (Senior) Capacity Strengthening and Learning Specialist candidates for an anticipated United States Agency for International Development (USAID) monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) program in Nigeria
• This anticipated 5-year project will provide USAID / Nigeria with a central platform for the procurement of support services that will strengthen, support, and facilitate USAID’s capacity for utilizing MEL approaches that will improve development outcomes and strengthen the capacity of USAID / Nigeria’s strategic partners
• It is also anticipated that this project will seek to improve USAID’s ability to monitor and track the performance of their in-country portfolio, along with the Mission’s ability to collaborate, learn, and adapt (CLA) across this portfolio.
• The (Senior) Capacity Strengthening and Learning Specialist will manage and lead the design and implementation of a portfolio of activities intended to advance the capacity USAID Mission staff, local M&E specialists, civil society, and governmental staff as appropriate/requested
• S/he will work closely with project team members and relevant governmental stakeholders in partner countries to assess capacity, using participatory frameworks and approaches, and develop plans to sustainably enhance monitoring and evaluation capacities.

Position Duties and Responsibilities

• The (Senior) Capacity Strengthening and Learning Specialist will work to establish, build and maintain collaborative relationships with leading government and regional institutions, engaging them as partners and co-creators of capacity strengthening initiatives toward national and subnational entities
• S/he will also look to identify and build relationships with local organizations in partner countries, and short-term technical assistance that can be engaged to deliver training and learning activities for the project.
• S/he may be called upon to design training materials, deliver training, facilitate learning and communities of practice, develop learning agendas, design and maintain evaluation activities to determine effectiveness of capacity strengthening activities, and coordinate with project and partner support staff for training deliveries
• S/he will be committed to use participatory and strengths-based learning design and delivery approaches, as well as blended learning and evidence-based learning theory in all activities.

Qualifications

• Master's Degree in International Development, Organizational Development, Social Science or a related field preferred
• No less than five (5) years of demonstrated experience in capacity strengthening and training for strengthen skill sets, preferably in the field of monitoring and evaluation
• Experience should include experience designing curricula and materials for face-to-face and virtual training delivery, as well as facilitation of institutional strengthening processes.

Experience and Skills:

• Experience building monitoring, evaluation and learning capacities of relevant stakeholders including implementers, funders, and government staff preferred
• Demonstrated experience applying a variety of participatory and strengths-based learning design and delivery approaches, blended learning and evidence-based learning theory
• Familiarity with e-learning tools, virtual Instructor-Led Trainings (vILT) on AdobeConnect, and other online instructional products highly desirable
• Experience building evaluative and learning capacities of USAID staff, implementing partners, and government counterparts highly preferred
• Experience managing complex relationships with a variety of stakeholders
• Strong familiarity with USAID’s Evaluation Policy and CLA practices preferred
• Understanding of knowledge management as it relates to USAID programs an asset
• Ability to work with host-country governments at different levels
• Strong communication, supervision, and management skills required
• Working knowledge of and experience with USG-funded program management, policies, regulations and procedures
• Previous work experience in Nigeria required
• Familiarity with USAID/Nigeria Mission is preferred
• Superior skills in written and verbal English required
• Proficiency in local language(s) greatly preferred.