Job Description
Devex Talent Solutions is assisting the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) in their search for a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Coordinator. This is a remote position that will be required to liaise with a variety of stakeholders in different time zones through virtual meetings. Candidates can be based in Europe, America or Africa.
The Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) is a global impact network of organizations on a mission to transform agriculture towards a sustainable and equitable future for communities and nature. With more than 20 years of experience in over 40 countries and 100 crop systems, SAN works with corporate and institutional partners to provide robust, practical, and innovative agricultural solutions to some of the most pressing environmental and social problems of our time.
SAN is a member-owned organization, and its Secretariat is headquartered in Costa Rica with global presence. The Monitoring, Evaluation, Knowledge and Communications (MEKC) department goal is to track progress and measure the impact of SAN’s interventions, showing accountability to stakeholders and enhancing cross-projects and cross- members learnings. It aims to facilitate evidence-driven decision-making and continuous improvement across the
Network.
This new Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Coordinator role will strengthen the MEKC team and support the implementation of SAN’s MEL Strategy and enhance the MEL culture across the Network and the programs. The MEL Coordinator will actively contribute to the design and implementation of robust frameworks to track progress, measure & report collective impact, and facilitate organizational learning. The role also includes a Knowledge Management (KM) component, with the coordination of the Network’s future KM platform.
This is a permanent position. It has a global remit and can based in Europe, America or Africa.
SAN is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, disability, or any other legally protected status. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and ensuring that all employment decisions are based on valid job requirements.
DESCRIPTION OF RESPONSIBILITIES AND MAIN TASKS
Track and report progress towards SAN’s targets at project and network levels
- Promote a unified approach to monitoring that reflects the diverse contexts of our 34 member organizations while
maintaining overall consistency.
- Consolidate and translate the projects’ and members’ monitoring data into a cohesive narrative and visuals, for
SAN’s secretariat to effectively harness and highlight the collective efforts of the members.
Enhance organizational learning and coordinate the network-wide Knowledge Management platform
- Monitoring feedback and Learning loop:
- Coordinate monitoring efforts across members:
- Develop and provide standardized monitoring frameworks, tools, and guidelines for the 34 member
organizations to ensure consistent data collection and reporting.
- Engage with members to identify capacity gaps and understand their needs related to monitoring and
data management.
- Facilitate training sessions, workshops or webinars, and develop resource materials to build or strengthen
the monitoring capabilities of members, when needed.
- Facilitate regular communication to address challenges, share best practices, and ensure alignment with
SAN’s strategic objectives.
- Coordinate monitoring efforts across Secretariat-led projects and programs:
- Work with the Institutional Relations and the Strategic Programs teams to include strong MEL components
in the project proposals submitted to (potential) donors: review projects logframes, develop TOCs when
needed, define output and outcomes indicators, etc.
- Perform or supervise the MEL activities of Secretariat-led projects: monitor, analyze and report on overall
progress and achievement of results on a quarterly and annual basis, coordinate annual project reviews
and end-of-project evaluations (internal or third-party commissioned).
- Engage with the projects’ stakeholders to identify capacity gaps and needs in terms monitoring and
evaluation.
- Facilitate training sessions, workshops or webinars, and develop resource materials to build or strengthen
the MEL capabilities capacity of projects stakeholders, when needed.
- Quality assurance and data validation
- Review and validate the data received from members and from projects to ensure accuracy,
completeness, and reliability.
- Provide feedback and support to members and projects teams to address any data quality issues or gaps
identified during validation.
- Data consolidation and management, in coordination with the IT team:
- Establish and maintain databases to manage large volumes of data efficiently and securely.
- Collect and compile monitoring data submitted by members into a centralized system.
- Analysis and reporting:
- Analyze consolidated data to assess the collective impact of the network’s sustainable agriculture
initiatives.
- Collaborate with the members, as well as with the Strategic Programs and the Communication teams to
build an annual Collective Impact Report, highlighting overall achievements, trends, and areas for
improvement.
- Create visualizations and summaries that effectively communicate the network’s impact to each
stakeholder group (donors, partners, beneficiaries, general public, etc.).
- Use insights from consolidated data to inform network-wide strategies and decision-making.
- Share lessons learned and success stories across the network to promote continuous improvement, in
collaboration with the Network Strategy & Engagement team and the Communications team.
- Enhance learning from projects:
- Systematically capture lessons learned, success stories, and innovative approaches from projects.
- Facilitate the synthesis and packaging of knowledge into actionable insights to facilitate dissemination and
inspire replication & scaling of good practices.
- Collaborate with the Technical Unit to produce Case Studies on key projects and strategic themes.
- Support the creation of Communities of Practice across members, in collaboration with the Network Strategy & Engagement team:
- Establish and support Communities of Practice (CoPs), discussion forums, and collaborative spaces to foster peer-to-peer exchange.
- Encourage SAN Members to contribute, share insights, and engage in thematic learning groups aligned with their interests and challenges.
- Coordinate the piloting and launching of a network-wide Knowledge Management System (KMS):
Support the development and implementation of overall MEL strategy and related workstreams
- Contribute to the development MEL Results Framework and definition of monitoring indicators & protocols.
- Identify and propose relevant, high-quality content (case studies, toolkits, research, best practices, etc.)
to be shared through the KMS.
- Maintain an organized, up-to-date repository of knowledge products and resources, ensuring easy
navigation and retrieval.
- Work closely with the IT team to suggest or improve KMS functionalities and enhance the overall user
experience.
- Regularly gather feedback from KMS users to assess the platform usability, identify content gaps, and
inform upgrades.
- Promote the use of the KMS as a fundamental tool for evidence-based learning, innovation, and impact
measurement across the network.
- Develop MEL capacities of SAN secretariat and SAN Members when needed.
- Lead the monitoring of SAN Secretariat’s carbon emissions to report on SAN’s Carbon Footprint.
- Contribute to the development of a Carbon Emission Compensation Program within SAN Network.
- Represent the MEKC team in various internal and external events, working groups and activities.
TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES
Academic level
- University degree in relevant area such as International Development, Environmental science, Social science, Economics, Agriculture or Rural development, etc.
Qualifications:
- Minimum 7 years relevant working experience, including a minimum of 3-years in a role focused on designing and
implementing MEL activities in an NGO, a multilateral or network organization.
- Experience working in sustainable agriculture, nature conservation or related fields.
- Experience designing MEL frameworks including logframes, indicators and data collection plans as part of the proposal
development process.
- Experience implementing MEL activities at project, program and organizational level.
- Experience managing project evaluations in rural settings, including the design of methodologies, data collection tools & sampling, using both qualitative & quantitative approaches.
- Experience recruiting and managing external consultants to deliver MEL and research work.
- Demonstrated grasp of the key issues in sustainability and knowledge of sustainable agriculture, especially in the smallholder farming context
- Strong understanding of knowledge management principles and best practices, including content curation, taxonomy development, and knowledge dissemination strategies.
- Proficiency in using Microsoft Office and other Windows applications. Experience with Salesforce is desirable.
- Experience in managing digital platforms (e.g., intranets, online communities, learning management systems) to ensure effective knowledge sharing and collaboration.
PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL SKILLS
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with a proactive approach to finding and proposing solutions.
- Ability to gather, analyze and synthesize information, and write clear, structured, articulate, persuasive content for reports and other communication materials, for both external and internal audiences.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English; Spanish is desirable.
- Ability to organize & coordinate multiple activities and priorities, and to manage data & information flows from different sources.
- Understanding of diverse cultural contexts and capacity to adapt communication and facilitation styles to effectively engage stakeholders from varied backgrounds.
- Skilled at guiding discussions, moderating CoPs, and creating inclusive & supportive environments that encourage peer-to-peer
exchange and collective learning.
- Strong commitment to and interest in SAN’s mission and work.
- Availability to work remotely, with counterparts in different time zones.
- Availability to travel internationally approximately twice per year
