Title : Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Specialist
Location: Sokoto State, with possible travel throughout the six-state area of implementation and Abuja pending
security situation
Background:
The purpose of the five-year (2020-2025)
“State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness” (“State2State”) Activity
is to increase the accountability, transparency, and effectiveness of selected
state and local governments (LGAs) in Nigeria. This will be achieved by:
strengthening governance systems (with a focus on public financial management
[PFM] and procurement, as well as monitoring and evaluation) related to the
delivery of services in key sectors (basic education, primary health care, and
water, sanitation and hygiene [WASH]); increasing government responsiveness to
citizen needs and priorities; and improving government and civil society
capacity to manage conflict (through work on prevention, mitigation and
reconciliation with the same sectoral partners, not stand-alone assistance to
the police or judiciary). State2State will achieve this purpose by facilitating
the strengthening of subnational governance systems in a sustainable manner,
supporting the efforts of local reformers, and building on locally derived
solutions including, to the extent possible, reforms already working in other
parts of Nigeria.
Position Objectives:
The MEL Specialist in the state field office
(FO) will support the implementation of all MEL interventions in the state,
including data collection and management, monitoring, and reporting as well as
providing cross-cutting support as needed.
Responsibilities:
The MEL Specialist will:
· Work closely
with Director Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (DMEL), Senior MEL Specialist
and other MEL Specialists to ensure the strategic and functional integration of
all MEL interventions as well as active collaboration with donors, other
implementers, and local counterparts.
· Oversee MEL interventions, provide technical direction,
and support the design process, guide the direction of implementation and
ensure results for contract interventions are adequately captured, reported and
documented.
· Will undertake, with DMEL guidance, investigations
of reform issues and possible solutions.
· Support State2State’s Collaborative
Learning and Adaptive (CLA) approach and facilitate reviews to determine
whether initiatives, are producing the
expected results.
· Assist with timely
rapid scans of the political economy, conflict, and PFM, and measure State2State’s
impact within states.
· Oversee
data collection, analysis and management of the Activity’s results and
indicators, as well as the compilation of state data required on a regular
basis to track program performance.
· Verify and conduct data
audits and collection procedures.
· Support M&E
training of staff and assist in cultivating a culture of learning.
· Collaborate with
Program Specialists to produce qualitative data for both quarterly and annual reporting.
Reporting:
The MEL
Specialist in the state FO reports to the DMEL in the Main Office technically and
works with colleagues across units and teams and reports secondarily/administratively
to the State Team Lead.
Minimum Requirements:
· Bachelor’s degree in any of the following or related
fields: social science, international development, evaluation research,
statistics, and economics. Master’s degree preferred.
· At least 8 years
of relevant experience designing, managing, and implementing
results-based MEL activities. The ideal candidate possesses experience in
democracy and governance sector projects, especially USAID-funded projects.
· Experience in tracking and submitting M&E data is
required.
· Experience working with government (national,
subnational, and local) and civil society organization (CSO) strengthening in
Nigeria is highly desirable.
· Ability to work collaboratively, foster goodwill, and build coalitions with relevant sectoral agencies, groups, and organizations.
· Ability to analyze and contextualize data related to Public Finance Management (PFM), citizens engagement and conflict mitigation issues especially as it relates to Education, Health, and WASH sector.
· Technical skills in analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, with excellent organizational, oral, and written
communications skills in English.
· Progressively responsible experience in monitoring and evaluation; preferably in democracy and governance programs and working with development agencies and organizations, government officials, CSOs leaders,
community leaders, project beneficiaries, and project staff.
· Extensive knowledge of reporting procedures, best practices, guidelines, and tools for monitoring, evaluation, and learning, including impact evaluation.
· Ability to conduct research and documentation.
· Experience using USAID Monitors for quarterly and annual data reporting preferred.
· Supervisory skills, and ability to work well on a team.
· Proficient in Microsoft programs, Excel, Word,
PowerPoint, etc., and the ability to use various commercially available
statistical software programs.
· Strong attention to detail is required.
