Opportunity in Washington, DC
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has contracted through ZemiTek partnered with CAMRIS International, to recruit and hire qualified individuals for the following position:
Title: Prosper Africa Trade and Investment Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor
United States Agency for International Development/Bureau of Africa/Office of Sustainability and Development/Prosper Africa Executive Secretariat
With more than 30 years’ experience providing information technology (IT) and management consulting services worldwide, Rosa Caldas, formed ZemiTek in 2007. Based in the Washington, DC metro area, ZemiTek delivers solutions to the federal government by supporting agencies such as USAID, US Patent and Trademark Office, US Department of Justice, US Department of Agriculture, and Department of Homeland Security, among others; and internationally to their missions in Africa, Asia, Europe and Eurasia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East.
CAMRIS International is among the top 20 USAID contractors for the third year in a row. CAMRIS realizes innovative solutions to health and development challenges through high-quality, cost-effective programs and research management services. With experience working in more than 80 countries, CAMRIS combines proven systems with today’s most effective, evidence-based best practices to improve the lives of people around the world.
BACKGROUND:
The Prosper Africa initiative is a whole-of-U.S. Government effort to substantially increase trade and investment in the United States and Africa. Prosper Africa will mobilize and coordinate the U.S. Government’s full range of capabilities, influence, and assistance to substantially increase trade and investment while supporting jobs at home and abroad. The initiative aims to improve the U.S. government’s ability to encourage and facilitate engagement by U.S. businesses in Africa, accelerate African economic competitiveness and the growth of the continent’s middle class, and improve the business environment in promising African economies. Importantly, while Prosper Africa is a strategic investment by the U.S. Government, it will be responsive to the interests and direction of the private sector.
The Prosper Africa Executive Secretariat (PAES, or Coordinator’s team), supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), seeks a M&E Advisor to provide strategic monitoring and evaluation advice and leadership as part of the PAES team as it coordinates, synchronizes, convenes, monitors, and reports on interagency members’ Prosper Africa-related trade and investment efforts to substantially increase two-way trade between the United States and African countries.
As a critical member of the Initiative, the M&E Advisor, under the guidance of the Executive Secretariat, will
1) need to understand the strategies and roadmaps of USG Prosper Africa interagency member trade and investment functions, programs and activities;
2) develop and/or facilitate, coordinate and advise on the development of the Prosper Africa initiative monitoring and evaluation and related plans,
3) articulate individual agency plans and how they fit into and support and the larger Prosper Africa government effort,
4) review goals, objectives, and results to provide USG Prosper Africa goals and objectives, ensuring that all discussions around Prosper Africa results are in a unified USG voice,
5) facilitate, advise, and participate in, as needed, the development and implementation of Prosper Africa strategic, implementation and operational plans to analyze, track, and present the progress of USG efforts to achieve Prosper Africa initiative goals and objectives.
* Serves as the PAES advisor, facilitating, coordinating, reviewing, participating in the development of, maintaining, and disseminating information related to the Prosper Africa initiative goals, objectives, measures, benchmarks, milestones , outcomes and results;
* Plan, establish, facilitate, and support the development of a USG Prosper Africa monitoring and evaluation plan, including Learning Agenda, and related organizational processes (after action reviews, Partners meetings, on-line engagements, documenting lessons learned) for integrating various USG efforts into Prosper Africa’s workflows as well as building a repository of Prosper Africa management tools.
* Coordinate, convene, facilitate, and support the work of Prosper Africa interagency member agencies on technical matters related to M&E in line with Prosper Africa’s M&E strategy.
* Liaise closely with Points-of-Contact at other U.S. Government agencies to coordinate USG Prosper Africa M&E efforts, communicate short and long-term results, ensure progress, plan and problem solve for emerging issues, and respond to inquiries from leadership.
* Identify and disseminate lessons learned and best practice materials based on evaluations and performance reports.
* Help lead regular and ad hoc USG Prosper Africa reporting and facilitate and support the interagency members as they report on their individual work and results in support of the USG Prosper Africa initiative.
* Facilitate and support the collection, synthesis, analysis, and reporting of USG Prosper Africa data for use by the Prosper Africa Coordinator and interagency member leadership to inform budget and program planning and program performance management.
* On request, prepare analytical progress reports for Prosper Africa USG interagency management.
* Support the development and application of standard templates for presenting strategic performance information to USAID and U.S. Government leadership, partner-government officials, and other key stakeholders.
* A Master’s degree, and at least 10 years of professional experience with a significant proportion of it working in a M&E related capacity on development programs.
* Experience working in Africa (north and/or sub-Saharan)
* Experience working on trade and investment with the USG is preferred.
* Facilitating collaborative learning, among organizations of varying size and mission, through partner meetings, peer assists communities of practice, and other means.
* Facilitating and identifying knowledge gaps in respective theories of change and determining ways to fill them in coordination with program designers and technical teams.
* Engaging in regular opportunities to reflect on progress with USG agencies and stakeholders.
* Using project and activity M&E data to adapt programming.
* Ability to quickly acquire a thorough understanding of USG trade and investment programming objectives, Prosper Africa’s strategy, results expected, planning and reporting systems and the key lines of investigation and learning agendas.
* Knowledge of the objectives and operations of the U.S. Government functions related to trade and investment in the United States and Africa preferred.
* Demonstrated interpersonal skills, implemented within a complex interagency setting, including coordination, facilitation, and presentation skills that can bring disparate groups together and lead to decisions, and foster organizational change strategies.
* Demonstrated abilities and track record in strategic, systems and holistic thinking, managing resistance to change and understanding of organizational culture, learning and change management.
* Ability to serve as an effective USG Prosper Africa representative with a wide array of individuals and institutions is required.
* Strong writing skills and ability to prepare clear, substantive reports and briefing papers in English, in a timely manner.
* Familiarity with a wide range of issues, such as program evaluation and barriers to trade and investment between the United States and African nations.
* U.S. Citizenship required with the ability to obtain and maintain a secret clearance.