Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Specialist-HRA Project

Organization Description

Village Enterprise’s Mission is to End Extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship, innovation, and collective action. Our vision is a world free of extreme poverty, where people have the economic means to sustain their families. Village Enterprise provides business training, seed capital/start-up funds, and mentoring to entrepreneurs to start new businesses each year.

HRA Project Overview:

Feed the Future Ethiopia -Highlands Resilience Activity (HRA) is a USD 60 million, five-year program funded by USAID. The program aims to complement the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP5) by supporting 120,000 PSNP households to reach the graduation threshold by strengthening their participation in market opportunities.

Position Overview:

Village Enterprise MEL Specialist will use his/her expertise to support Village Enterprise’s dynamic field-level Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team and activities. Program areas of involvement include oversight for implementation of participant tracking systems; data cleaning and analysis; database management; information management; report writing, field visits; staff trainings; innovations in monitoring and evaluation tools and methodologies; design and oversight of M&E for special projects; participation in organizational research initiatives.

Job Description Key Result Areas

1. Regional/Project Specific MEL support
2. Cross-Region/Project MEL support
3. Operations Roles
4. Safeguarding

Regional/Project Specific MEL Responsibilities

Lead implementation of MEL Team initiatives for region/project(s), including:

• Manage data collection budget and timeline
• Measure and enforce adherence to data quality protocols, including:
  • Supervise Senior Enumerators, ensuring monitoring of data collection and ensuring audits are both carried out accurately and productively

• Conduct timely data quality assessment of all incoming data and submit data quality reports to supervisor. Supervised DQA may be assigned to advanced Senior Enumerators.

• Timely cleaning of all participants tracking and monitoring data.

• Analysis of participant tracking and monitoring data when needed.

• Maintenance of participant tracking and monitoring dashboards and custom reports; creation of additional internal reports and memos as necessary.

• Creation of MEL Reports for funders/stakeholders in line with regional/project specific obligations

• Train field teams of region/project(s) in data capture responsibilities as they relate to: targeting, participant enrollment, participant tracking, grant applications, and business spot checks

• Supervise Senior Enumerators to ensure high quality trainings are delivered to enumerators in relation to all data capture responsibilities

• Build and maintain relationships with field staff. Coordinate with staff from other teams as necessary towards the following goals:

  • Procurement of enumerator protective gear and data collection equipment as needed

  • Open and clear communication channels are maintained for sharing of MEL findings.

    • Clear timelines are in place for when staff might expect formal reporting (ex., targeting verification reports within 2 weeks of close of targeting; business owner registration stats available in real time but data fully cleaned within one week of final sync)

    • Additional findings are shared with relevant parties on an ongoing basis

  • Problems are brought forward, ‘lessons learned’ are openly discussed, and innovations/solutions are tested

  • Staff understand why information is needed from them and by when (for example, each cycle BM assignments are needed at least a week before the refresher training so that the database can be prepped, and the new targeting forms can be assigned to the Business Mentors in advance of the training)

• Support the MEL Manager in Coordinating MEL activities with Consortium partners in matters relating to MEL
• Coordinate the documentation of best/promising practices as well as documenting Lessons learnt for possible scale up within Village Enterprise areas of operation
• Supervise Senior Enumerators. In addition to responsibilities outlined above:
  • Recruit and train new Field Officers as appropriate and under the direction of MEL Manager
  • Support Field Officers in recruitment and training of Enumerators as needed under the direction of MEL Manager
  • Review Senior Enumerators’ planned expenses
  • Review Senior Enumerators field activity plans
  • Review Senior Enumerators field activity reports; on a monthly basis, aggregate relevant details from reports for sharing with staff (e.g., RMs, CDs, F&A, etc)
  • Host weekly meetings with Senior Enumerators
• Other monitoring and evaluation tasks as assigned.

Cross-Region/Project MEL Responsibilities

• In collaboration with other MEL Specialists and under the guidance of the MEL Manager:
  • Create or maintain high quality training materials (Manuals, PowerPoint presentations, practice TaroWorks forms, etc)
• Conduct timely updates of targeting data, Business Owner registration, Business Groups, Business Saving Groups, Small Grant data etc in salesforce
  • Design (when necessary), create, and publish, data capture forms
  • For outcome data, assist with data cleaning, analysis and reporting
  • Database management
  • Participate in special project evaluations, and review of M&E tools
  • Develop and maintain templates to be used by Senior Enumerators for planning and reporting
  • Develop, document in MEL Manual, and maintain policies and procedures to be followed by Senior Enumerators
  • Maintenance of MEL Manual
• Other monitoring and evaluation tasks as assigned.

Operations Role

• Assist in the adaptation, implementation, monitoring, and expansion of the Village Enterprise core program
• Provide support to field management team when needed
• Other operation tasks as assigned

Safeguarding: "Safeguarding at VE is everyone’s responsibility"

• Continuously sensitize program participants about possible risks of child abuse, sexual/financial exploitation, prevention and response mechanisms.
• Ensure compliance with VE’s safeguarding policies and Code of Conduct in all programs, operations and practices.
• Report any incident of child or adult safeguarding in program operations for appropriate action and follow up.

Equal Opportunity:

Village Enterprise will provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals. Employment decisions at Village will be based on merit, qualifications and abilities. Village Enterprise is a no corruption, solicitation or bribery zone. We do not charge fees from job seekers, communities and service providers. Village Enterprise does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, age, disability, marital status or any other characteristic protected by the law. Village will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would result in undue hardship to daily operations.

Industry: Nonprofit/International Development/Social Entrepreneurship 

Reports to: Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Manager

Project Name: Highlands Resilience Activity - HRA

Qualifications

• A university degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Economics, Statistics or a related field.
• 3-year experience conducting monitoring and evaluation for social impact programming

Key competencies

• Possess the technical knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the role, including Strong quantitative skills and experience with data analysis, good command of STATA, Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, MS Word, and MS PowerPoint, Proficiency with Google Documents, Gmail, and Android applications

• Understand the elements of data quality: consistent, complete, accurate, timely, verifiable, valid Proven ability to design monitoring and evaluation plans, including developing theories of change and logical frameworks

• Ability to develop SMART indicators Literacy with the basic methods for data collection: surveys, interviews, performance tests, site visits/observation, focus group discussions, participatory methods, pre-existing data

• Experience conducting data quality assessments and with cleaning data, Experience supervising data collection and teams of field worker

• Possess Training and Communication Skills

• Demonstrate ability to communicate key concepts to people with less than Level 5 education. Ability to orally communicate issues, problems, and key information. Ability to write clear, concise memos highlighting issues, problems, and key information

• Experience working as part of a diverse team with the ability to work via email, phone, Skype, and other virtual communications
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and a team player
• Must be a very strong critical thinker able to identify potential solutions to challenges in new environments
• Experience with Salesforce and/or TaroWorks
• Ability to speak major languages spoken in the Northern Ethiopia, Southern Ethiopia and Central Ethiopia regions.

How To Apply

Please send your Cover letter and CV online by following the below link: https://villageenterprise.careers.flair.hr/positions/a78Jw000005cm5ZIAQ

Note: Please do not contact Village Enterprise to enquire as to the status of your application. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Deadline: Applications will be accepted through September 17,2024.