MONITORING EVALUATION AND LEARNING SPECIALIST (MEL) (VARIOUS POSITIONS)

Job Description

• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture.
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply;
• Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO’s values
• FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination　　
• All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality

Organizational Setting

The Regional Office for Africa (RAF), located in Accra (Ghana) is responsible for leading FAO’s response to regional priorities for food security, agriculture, and rural development through the identification, planning and implementation of FAO’s priority activities in the region. It ensures a multidisciplinary approach to programmes, identifies priority areas of action for the Organization in the region and, in collaboration with departments and divisions at headquarters, develops, promotes and oversees FAO’s strategic response to regional priorities. RAF also advises on the incorporation of regional priorities into the Organization’s Programme of Work and Budget and implements approved programmes and projects in the region, monitors the level of programme implementation and draws attention to problems and deficiencies.

One of the RAF priorities for the 2023-24 is to ensure an integrated approach to Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) within the region with the aim of upgrading the quality, availability and consistency of data and evidence on the results achieved in the region. To achieve this, it is essential to ensure an adequate level of capacities and qualified human resources for Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) at regional, sub-regional and country levels.

RAF operates through four sub-regional offices (SROs) located in Senegal (SFW), Ethiopia (SFE), Zimbabwe (SFS) and Gabon (SFC) and cover 47 countries. The sub-regional offices maintain policy and technical dialogue with and among FAO Member Countries, involving national and regional institutions and promote technical cooperation among the countries of the region using a multidisciplinary approach. The multiple positions will be located in both RAF and the RAF sub-regional offices and may be deployed for specific short-term country-level assignments, according to the emerging needs.

Reporting Lines

The MEL specialist/s located in RAF will work under the overall supervision and responsibility of the RAF-ADG, the functional supervision of the Regional Programme Leader (RPL) and the administrative and technical supervision of the RAF M&E officer. The MEL specialist/s located in SROs will work under the administrative supervision of the sub-regional coordinators (SRCs), the functional and administrative supervision by the assigned SRO personnel and the technical supervision by the RAF M&E officer. MEL specialists at both regional and sub-regional levels will closely collaborate with technical and programme leads, as well as with the relevant regional and/or sub-regional counterparts.

Technical Focus 

The MEL specialist/s will be responsible for generating quality evidence on results achieved through FAO projects and programmes implemented in the RAF region in various areas of FAO’s mandate, to inform adaptive programming and organisational learning. This will entail the: i) development and operationalization of frameworks, tools and processes needed to systematically collect and analyse performance-related data; ii) capacity development on MEL of internal and external actors; iii) monitoring of the quality of programme implementation; iv) implementation of the country-level learning agenda and learning roadmaps.

Tasks and responsibilities

Overall responsibilities:

•    Design, develop and implement MEL systems (including results frameworks, theories of changes, etc,) in alignment with corporate, regional, and sub-regional MEL and information priorities.
•    Support mainstreaming of MEL in project/programme formulation stage, including theory of change development, log frame design, budgeting for MEL, MEL plans development.
•    Support management and project managers to identify priority Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and realistic targets, to promote a programmatic approach to monitoring and evaluation, and to ensure their alignment with regional and sub-regional priorities and/or relevant KPIs.
•    Conduct periodic data collections and analyses, in line with the established data needs, learning priorities and/or KPIs.
•    Compile, manage and curate relevant regional/sub-regional results-based datasets.
•    Contribute data for internal and external reporting.
•    Facilitate the dissemination and use of monitoring data to inform programme development, adjustment or review.
•    Contribute to organisational learning by developing subject-matter analytics, lessons learned compilation and briefs/reports.
•    Develop capacity of FAO staff and implementing partners in M&E methodologies and practices.
•    Perform any other duties, as requested.

Specific responsibilities:

Support sub-regional and country offices with the efficient operationalization of the corporate, regional and sub-regional MEL requirements. This will entail:
•    Providing orientations to sub-regional and/or country offices on data collection methodologies, quality assurance criteria and MEL tools and/or databases (e.g. through After Action Reviews (AARs), MEL health checks, Quality Assessments, Lessons learned reviews, etc.).
•    Supporting the set-up of MEL work and data flows.
•    Providing support with improving existing/establishing sub-regional/country MEL systems where appropriate and/or lacking.
•    Providing direct technical support (one-to-one, mentoring, orientations) to sub-regional/country-level MEL personnel, programme/technical staff and management.
•    Providing gap fill support to country offices when country-based MEL capacity is not present or is insufficient, based on a request and/or identification of need by country office.
•    Supporting sub-regional and country management in using evidence from MEL for adaptive programming.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•    University degree in social sciences (sociology, anthropology, political sciences, international relations, research methods or alike) and/or data sciences (statistics, survey methods or alike) and/or evaluation.
•    Specific training in MEL and/or demonstrated qualified and relevant experience in setting up and operationalizing monitoring and evaluation systems in food security and livelihoods programs and/or in food security analysis/vulnerability assessments mapping in the NGO and/or IO/UN context:
–    At least two years for the Junior MEL Specialist (category C),
–    At least five years for MEL Specialists (category B).
•    Working knowledge (level C) of English and/or French and limited knowledge (level B) of one of the other FAO languages is required for a consultancy contract. Working knowledge of Portuguese would be considered an asset.
•    Working knowledge of one of the FAO official languages (English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, and Chinese) is required for a Personal Services Agreement (PSA) contract.

FAO Core Competencies

•    Results Focus
•    Teamwork
•    Communication
•    Building Effective Relationships
•    Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

•    Excellent mastery and knowledge of principles and current approaches to MEL.
•    Demonstrated understanding of data and information needs for program management and decision making, as well as of the project cycle management.
•    Extensive and demonstrated experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods.
•    Demonstrated experience in facilitating MEL-related capacity building initiatives.
•    Experience in using softwares (e.g. such as PowerBI, Tableau, STATA, SPSS, NVivo, CommCare, Survey Monkey, Survey CTO, Kobo, ODK, MS Dynamics 365 and Visio, Pictochart, Infogram) is highly desirable.
•    Extensive experience in developing data products using advanced data visualization tools would be an asset.
•    Advanced use of MS Excel is highly desirable.

Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency

HOW TO APPLY

• To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, and language skills
• Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile
• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application
• Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications
• Incomplete applications will not be considered
• Personal information provided on your application may be shared within FAO and with other companies acting on FAO’s behalf to provide employment support services such as pre-screening of applications, assessment tests, background checks and other related services. You will be asked to provide your consent before submitting your application. You may withdraw consent at any time, by withdrawing your application, in such case FAO will no longer be able to consider your application
• Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered
• Your application will be screened based on the information provided in your online profile
•  We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.

If you need help, or have queries, please contact: Careers@fao.org

Application Deadline: 17/Jul/2023, 11:59:00 PM