Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Manager – CORE

Position description

Venture37 is implementing the USAID–funded 5-year, $11.6M Cooperative Resilience and Equity activity “CORE” in Rwanda and Zambia. Running from October 2023 through September 2028, CORE aims at fostering vibrant, sustainable cooperative ecosystems in Rwanda and Zambia, in which self- managed cooperatives and all their members flourish economically and socially. Through CORE, Venture37 will take a localized and market-responsive approach, engaging market actors, including women and youth in activity design, implementation, and measurement to tailor activities to their unique needs while strengthening their capacity to create sustainable solutions.

Across Rwanda and Zambia, CORE will reach over 160 dairy, grains, horticulture, and oilseed cooperatives and 12,000 members in partnership with local market actors; the activity’s objectives will be met through three major components, namely:

–  Inclusively strengthen the capacity of cooperatives by dynamically responding to their unique challenges and market opportunities through but not limited to provision of tailored capacity strengthening, professional management, enhanced strategic market and finance linkages.

–  Improve the cooperative enabling environment by working with private and public service providers to deliver market-responsive and well-coordinated services to cooperatives.

–  Spur innovation, learning and continuous improvement in the local and global development community through embedded applied research.

Job Summary: 

The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Manager will lead MEL activities for CORE in Rwanda and provide technical oversight to MEL activities in Zambia with support from the headquarters MEL team. S/he will be responsible for design and overseeing implementation of the project MEL plan and research studies. This will include drafting the MEL plan, designing MEL data collection tools, training staff and partners to collect data, overseeing the quality of the data collected, conducting analysis of the data and contributing to associated report writing. This role will also lead internal data collection and oversee external evaluators and researchers.

Reporting and Supervision: 

The MEL Manager will report to the Chief of Party with technical support from the Venture37 Global MEL Team

Responsibilities: 

· Lead the development of the MEL Plan and update as necessary throughout the life of the project. This includes indicator definitions, data collection tools, analysis plans, and processes in accordance with the project objectives, reporting requirements, and learning goals

· Contribute to the design and testing of electronic data management system, and ensure all data is entered with quality;

· Train staff and partners in the monitoring data collection needs and oversee the quality of the data collected;

· Conduct internal annual data collection, including developing the scope of work, selecting, training and overseeing enumerators and data entry, ensuring data quality and completing data analysis and report writing. Oversee external evaluations for baseline and endline and research efforts, as assigned, including developing the Scopes Of Work (SOW), selecting the consultant, review and provide feedback on tools and draft report.

· Conduct periodic pause and reflect sessions and other learning events with the project team and stakeholders to explain results, collect feedback, and strategize on project adaption.

· Conduct field visits, regularly review data collection processes, perform data quality assessments, and adjust data collection processes as needed;

· Provide regular reports to project management on progress against expectation.

· Provide project reports to the Chief of Party for inclusion in donor reports, which highlights achievements against targets, bottlenecks and makes recommendations for process improvement;

· Lead the design and implementation of the MEL Community of Practice for the CORE program implementers, which may include developing a charter, facilitating quarterly meetings, and maintaining an online platform.

· Provide MEL technical support to the Zambia MEL specialist, including periodic check-ins and feedback on key documents.

· Utilize established SharePoint system to store key documents and share key project and country related information with other staff; and

· Participate in Project Management Team meetings;

· Demonstrate the highest degree of integrity throughout all activities, and raise any concerns with implementation quality immediately with the Chief of Party;

· Other duties as assigned.

Required Skills and Qualifications: 

· A master’s degree in monitoring and evaluation, economics, statistics, or related field and at least Seven (7) years of progressively responsible work experience in managing complex MEL activities on project(s) of similar size;

· Experience designing and overseeing MEL for agriculture/food security

· Experience conducting learning events and facilitating conversations with project leadership to encourage adaptive management;

· Experience overseeing MEL of an international donor project;

· Demonstrated ability in developing, managing and trouble-shooting a large-scale electronic data and storage system, or other similar information databases using appropriate software applications, for data entry, analysis and storage of quantitative data;

· Ability to work in a team environment and work with and train non-direct reports to implement MEL tasks; Strong writing, reporting, and presentational skills;

· Ability to independently establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor tasks;

· Highly developed conceptual, analytical and innovative problem-solving ability;

· Computer literacy and competency in the use of Microsoft Office software;

· Competency in quantitative data analysis software (preferably SPSS or Stata);

· Strong interpersonal skills, with ability to effectively build and manage networks and relationships for program promotion and issue-resolution;

· Professional proficiency in English and Kinyarwanda language required

Preferred Skills and Qualifications: 

· Specialized training in MEL

· Experience overseeing research studies

· Experience with cooperative development projects

· Experience managing MEL in a USAID-funded project

· Experience with gender-sensitive MEL

Application instructions

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