Devex is assisting the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) in their search of a Director for Monitoring, Evaluations, Knowledge, and Communications which will be based remotely. This position has travel requirements to Costa Rica.
BACKGROUND
As the world’s social, geopolitical, economic and environmental challenges intensify, the demands placed on agricultural value chain stakeholders, from farmers to agribusinesses, have never been greater – from implementing best regenerative practices, to measuring and disclosing their risks, impacts and dependencies on nature, to aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and international conventions. The next few years will witness significant transformations in the food systems and agriculture sectors that will be characterized by unstability, disruption and the need to build resilience. Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), as a global impact network, has a responsibility and the opportunity to be part of the creative and effective solutions needed.
SAN has a 5-year Strategic Plan 2019-2024 to support its mission to transform agriculture to secure a sustainable future for food, people and nature. The current SAN Strategic Plan has been jointly developed and refreshed among staff, member organizations, and partners, and represents the proposed road map for an organization that is permanently reinventing its business model to be a fit for purpose and ready to grow organization. Working through our global impact network of member organizations, SAN aims to provide agricultural value chain stakeholders with the data, information, lessons, skills, resources and links to markets, services and compliance with growing regulations, needed to advance in making agriculture regenerative at the scale and speed required. The current Strategic Plan has three goals that include: 1) Expand and strengthen SAN as a global impact network of organizations that secure a sustainable future for people, food, and nature; 2) Catalyze credible sustainability and climate commitments, through an expanded set of nature-based tools, partners, and delivery channels; and, 3) Improve rural livelihoods through innovative, scalable, and locally adapted technological solutions in agriculture. As we approach 2024, SAN has started the evaluation of its current Strategic Plan and the development of the new one for the period 2025-2030; a period when never has humanity had so much to lose, and never has it faced so many challenges and changes at once across so many sectors and over so short a period of time. SAN is committed to be an innovative and courageous part of the solutions to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), as well as the international conventions relevant to agriculture, such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD), and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Job Summary
To deliver on its strategy built on our nature as a global impact network (probably the only one focused in transforming agriculture), to deliver value for money through collective impact initiatives that take advantage of the Secretariat role as an orchestrator of effective multistakeholder partnerships, SAN is seeking effective monitoring, evaluation, knowledge management and learning capacity so that we can gather data more effectively and strengthen our ability to analyze and communicate results and lessons learnt from our work to support decision making and reporting impact and better support our customers, especially the corporate sector. The MEKC director will work within a global team located in different continents and supporting our members in all continents to (i) enhance monitoring and evaluation data systems from the Secretariat and Members project portfolio; (ii) oversee impact evaluations with emphasis on identify evidence-based best practices and lessons with potential for replication and scale; iii) assess our collective performance along with members and communicate evidence about how our work is transforming agriculture and improving the lives of smallholder farmers and other stakeholders, with emphasis on economic wellbeing, market linkages, equitable decision-making, and regenerative production; and iv) support the consolidation of SAN as a global impact network.
This work will be done in collaboration with our internal team at the Secretariat, network Members, customers, partners and funders. The position will be responsible for developing theories of change and MEL frameworks for all newly designed programs, in collaboration with the business development and technical teams; collecting, analyzing and managing data within program delivery by using sound research methods that produce reliable, actionable and valid results; and communicating results in collaboration with the business development, technical, and network engagement teams, members and customers, to communicate the evidence base for the impact of our programming. The successful candidate will be part of a small, competent and passionate Secretariat team that orchestrates program and project implementation in a collaborative way with Members, strategic partners, customers and funders. As such, the Director will report to and work closely with the Executive Director, the Program Services Director, the Corporate Services Director, the Senior Manager Environmental, Social and Governance Programming, the Senior Manager Institutional Relations, the Senior Manager of Network Impact Engagement, and, the Senior Manager of Communications and Marketing.
DESCRIPTION OF MAIN TASKS:
REQUIREMENTS
Agency-wide competencies for all SAN staff are rooted in the mission, values and principles of SAN and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and includes serves with integrity and passion; models stewardship and accountability; cultivates constructive and collaborative relations; strives for innovation; and promotes continual learning and self-improvement.
