M&E Lead, USAID/Niger Resilience Food Security Activity

Summary:

Save the Children is seeking a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Lead for the upcoming USAID/Niger Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA). The goal of the Activity is to improve food and nutrition security and resilience among poor and chronically food insecure households and communities in a sustainable manner. The M&E Lead will provide technical expertise and leadership to generate and analyze quality evidence and data through monitoring, assessments, and evaluations. The M&E Lead will supervise the program’s monitoring and evaluation team and will coordinate with program learning and management processes to ensure effective feedback loops that contribute to the achievement of desired outcomes.

This position will be based in Niger for the anticipated five-year period of performance (exact location TBD). Hiring is contingent upon USAID approval of the candidate and award of the project to Save the Children. This position is unaccompanied.

What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties):

• Develop and manage the implementation of a sound program M&E plan.
• In close coordination with the technical team, lead the planning, design and implementation of formative research conducted during the Refine year or contextualization period of the RFSA.
• Build, manage, and continuously strengthen the program’s M&E system, ensuring that this system is developed in a consultative fashion and provides timely and accurate data regarding program progress towards food and nutrition security and resilience outcomes.
• Supervise the development of a program M&E information system (MIS), with an emphasis on cutting-edge digital M&E platforms.
• Lead the program’s qualitative and quantitative analysis and survey and sample design.
• Coordinate routine monitoring and annual monitoring survey processes, leading the contracting of external support (consultants, firms) as needed. Coordinate with donor processes for program baseline and final evaluations, and for ad hoc assessments or evaluations as needed.
• Lead or contribute to data quality assurance mechanisms throughout the life of the award.
• Contribute to the adjustment and management of the program’s Theory of Change (ToC), ensuring coherence between the ToC and M&E systems.
• Promote evidence-based decision making among the program’s senior management team, ensuring the use of evidence from the program’s M&E system in collaborating, learning and adapting processes.
• Supervise the program’s M&E team, providing training, mentoring, and coaching to team members as required while ensuring high performance.
• Contribute to the program’s Refinement or contextualization period (initial 6-12 months) studies, as well as the program’s overall targeting strategies and community consultation approaches.
• Play an important role in annual results reporting, while leading or contributing to M&E components of routine and ad hoc program reports.
• Perform regular monitoring visits in project zones of intervention.
• Develop Scopes of Work (SOWs) for external performance evaluators and supervise their assignments.
• Supervise all data collection for project-related studies and assessments.
• Participate in the development of project lessons learned using CLA (Collaborative, Learning, and Adapting) approach.
• Work effectively with the M&E teams of the BHA- funded IDEAL Associate Awards to strengthen collaboration and program quality.
• Lead project impact measurement through outcome harvesting and other relevant models.

Required Background and Experience:

• A master’s degree in a quantitative or highly relevant field (economics, agricultural/development economics, statistics, biostatistics, nutrition, applied sociology, or other relevant subject) with significant training in quantitative and qualitative methods and eight years of relevant work experience leading the M&E of large, multi-year development or resilience awards.
• Demonstrated experience building or strengthening monitoring systems, conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis, designing survey methodology, and promoting evidence-based program management.
• Proven experience in resilience measurement including recurrent shock monitoring surveys, resilience capacity measurement and analysis.
• Knowledge of theories of change (TOCs), logic models, food and nutrition security indicators, M&E plans, data quality assurance, data utilization, and gender and youth integration into M&E.
• Experience in leading the design, operationalization, reporting and dissemination of investigative studies.
• Experience with or knowledge of the graduation approach preferred.
• Experience developing and operationalizing a comprehensive M&E plan.
• Ability to network and engage with necessary stakeholders.
• Fluency in English and French required.
• Experience with USAID and U.S. Government regulations and reporting procedures and systems are preferred.
• Demonstrated experience working in Niger or other West African countries.
• Ability and willingness to travel frequently.
• Strong training and coaching skills
• Experience of using system thinking will be an added advantage.

About Save the Children

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

Our work for children and their families requires that we commit—at every opportunity—to work together to identify and dismantle persistent systemic and structural racism, inequality, and any other forms of discrimination in this country and beyond. As an anti-racist organization, Save the Children will not tolerate discrimination in any form—in our employment practices, amongst our staff, in our leadership or toward the people we serve. We stand in solidarity with all people to fight for equal rights, justice, inclusion, and belonging.

Save the Children is committed to conducting its programs and operations in a manner that is safe for the children it serves and helping protect the children with whom we are in contact. All Save the Children representatives are explicitly prohibited from engaging in any activity that may result in any kind of child abuse

Save the Children is committed to minimizing safety and security risks for our valued employees, ensuring all are given training, support and information to reduce their risk exposure while maximizing the impact of our programs for children and families. Our shared duty, both agency and individual, is to seek and maintain safe working conditions for all.