STARS program

Location: Based in Kigali, Rwanda.
Work responsibilities for Rwanda and Ethiopia

Travel: 30-50%

Languages: English

Duration: 1 year initially with
possible
extension

Background

ICCO Cooperation is
a Dutch organization founded in 1964 and implementing programs with partners
worldwide. Our programs focus on economic empowerment, food security and
sustainable consumption and responsible business.

About the
program

The “Strengthening
African Smallholders (STARS)” is a 5-year program running from 2016 to 2020,
aiming to increase food security and income of smallholder farmers in Rwanda,
Ethiopia, Senegal and Burkina Faso by facilitating access to financial markets
and agricultural services. Key to the program is that it strives for
market-based systemic change by developing and piloting business models in
value chains and value chain finance that can be replicated by independent
market actors. ICCO Cooperation implements the program in collaboration with
ICCO Terrafina and in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation.

Our model is based
on three core activities: (1) To develop and implement innovative, sector
specific agriculture financial products with MFIs for smallholder farmers; (2)
To strengthen value chains and link smallholder farmers into these chains as
well as linking them to financial and extension services (3) To broaden the
evidence base in rural agricultural finance, value chain development and share
lessons learned. In close connection with this process, a MEL plan will be
elaborated per country based on the overall STARS MEL framework.

The overall MEL
framework follows the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED)
Standard for Monitoring and Results Measurement.

Job
background

The MEL Advisor will
implement the STARS program’s overall MEL framework into country-specific MEL
plans for the two countries in collaboration with program staff and under the
supervision of the MEL Coordinator. The MEL Advisor implements the MEL plan and
continuously ensures that staff is supported in MEL issues, that the MEL plan
is followed and that data are collected as stipulated. Strong technical
knowledge is required on aspects like questionnaire design, indicator
development, sampling approaches, theories of change, attribution strategies,
data analysis and organizational learning.

If necessary the MEL
Advisor will revise the project MEL plan together with the MEL Coordinator and
the country leads. The MEL Advisor will furthermore provide technical support
to the staff and train enumerators to ensure quality data collection, quality
data interpretation and quality data management. The MEL Advisor will
contribute to STARS’ third core activity by aligning data collection with
learning objectives, and actively identifying, analyzing and documenting the
learnings from the program.

Key
Responsibilities

· Ensure that the
country MEL plans for Ethiopia and Rwanda are in compliance with the overall
MEL framework, and continuously coordinate with the MEL Coordinator on this;

· Support country
teams in the interpretation of market analyses and needs assessments, and the
translation of these analyses into intervention results chains and indicator
selection;

· Develop
measurement plans including planning, sampling and stakeholder validation in
the specific country context of Ethiopia and Rwanda;

· Liaise with the
MEL Advisor in West Africa for cross-country alignment of MEL systems, tools
and approaches;

· Organize, prepare
and oversee baseline surveys as well as other data collection approaches like
Focus Group Discussions or Rapid Rural Appraisals;

· Participate in the
development, standardization and contextualization of questionnaires and tools
to collect relevant data on the program.

· Contribute to the
development of Terms of Reference for studies, audits and evaluations;

· Support the
execution of external impact studies that are planned for in the program;

· Support the
exchange and learning with program participants. Provide support in designing
and organizing workshops, progress reports and strategic reviews, as well as
the communication on data collected and lessons learned;

· Give advice on and
provide support to the interpretation of collected data in order to make
informed decisions for improvement. Identify and suggest potential improvements
to the MEL system;

· Cooperate with
program staff to capture lessons learned, best practices, expected and unexpected
results, and other information to generate stakeholder reports, articles, case
studies, and other documentation;

· Implement the use
of tablet-based data collection with AKVO-FLOW.

Qualifications
& Work Experience:

· A Master’s level
degree in International Development, Economics or other relevant field;

· At least 3 years
relevant work experience in MEL in complex programs in the international
development sector;

· Strong knowledge
of and experience with MEL approaches, including the set-up of MEL systems,
data collection and analysis tools, and learning approaches; This includes
questionnaire design, indicator development, sampling approaches, theories of
change, attribution strategies, data analysis and organizational learning;

· Knowledge of working
with results chains, the DCED Standard and/or the Markets for the Poor approach
would be considered a very strong advantage;

· Experience in
mixed-method approaches including quantitative and qualitative data;

· Experience in
using mobile tools for data collection;

· Knowledge of or
experience with HFIAS, PPI or AKVO FLOW would be an added benefit;

· Combination of
analytical skills with strong hands-on mentality, being able to translate
abstract learning objectives into practical approaches that can be implemented
in the field;

· Good international
and/or intercultural experience, and knowledge of the social, economic and
political situation in the East Africa region;

· Excellent computer
skills; skilled in Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint as well as cloud-based
systems like Google Docs, Sheets, etcetera. Experience in using data analysis
software is preferable (SPSS, other);

· Exceptional
written and verbal communication skills in English;

· Good presentation,
interpersonal and networking skills;

· Can-do mentality,
pro-active, good ability to take initiative and be creative;

· Willingness to
travel frequently.

Terms of
employment

This position is a
national position NOT
an international position and will be based on the pay bands of the Regional office
in Uganda or the country of the Duty station Rwanda. As this is a local
position, East-African candidates are strongly encouraged to send in an
application.

Position in
the organization

The MEL Advisor
reports to the MEL Coordinator based in The Netherlands and works closely
together with the Country Leads in each country as well as the Program Director
based in Rwanda. He/she will collaborate with the MEL advisor for Burkina Faso
and Senegal, who is based in Burkina Faso. The MEL Coordinator is the overall
responsible for the STARS MEL framework and will oversee the development into
country specific MEL plans. Other work relations are Micro Finance advisor, the
Value Chain Development Advisor, Program Director, Communications officer and
Finance and Administration officers.

To apply, please
follow the link below:

http://career.nftconsult.com/index.php?m=careers&p=showJob&ID=2641