SNV – Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisor.

SNV is a not-for-profit international development organization that applies practical know-how to make a lasting difference in the lives of people living in poverty. We use our extensive and long-term in-country presence to apply and adapt our top-notch expertise in agriculture, energy and WASH to local contexts. SNV has an annual turnover of €130 million, over 1,250 staff in more than 25 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. We are proud to be a not-for-profit organization that uses project financing to implement our mission. This requires us to work efficiently and to invest in operational excellence.

In its current Strategic Plan period (2019 – 2022), SNV will more explicitly aim for systems change during project preparation and implementation – by strengthening institutions and kick-starting markets that help many more to escape poverty beyond our projects. We will continue to position ourselves as a premium organization, with decentralized management.

For more information on our operations in Kenya and SNV generally visit our website: http://www.snv. org 

Background

In May 2018 the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs/DGIS awarded SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) the Climate Smart Agriculture East Africa (CSA-EA – now known as the Climate Resilient Agribusinesses for Tomorrow (CRAFT)) project (Activity #4000000819) which is being implemented in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. This five-year project is being implemented by SNV in partnership with Wageningen University (WU) and Wageningen Environmental Research (WEnR), CGIAR’s Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security Program (CCAFS), Agriterra, and Rabo Partnerships (RP). The project is expected to leverage at least €10 million in additional private sector investments. The consortium offers a strong platform to not only manage and coordinate a robust Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) project, but also provide targeted technical assistance, business facilitation, and research and knowledge management support. The consortium partners are also leveraging and creating synergies with existing programs as well as public and private sector partners in the three targeted countries, thereby creating the institutional environment for wide-scale adoption of CSA practices and technologies.

The overall project goal is to contribute to increased availability of accessible and climate resilient food for the growing population in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. This is being realized through the implementation of three strategic objectives, namely:

• Increased productivity and income for 300,000 smallholder farmers.
• Improved business performance for 50 agribusiness SMEs and 30 cooperatives (of which at least 25% are managed by women and/or youth).
• Climate resilient sustainable food production practiced on 600,000 hectares.

The key project interventions areas include:

• Climate risk analysis of major food value chains and identification of business opportunities in CSA.
• Business case development and climate smart investments support to the private sector, SMEs and cooperatives.
• Investment leveraging through facilitating access to finance.
• Policy influencing and operationalization of climate plans.
• Feedback on practical applicability of CSA technologies, models, and climate science.
• Knowledge sharing among countries and networks.

CRAFT is in its third year of implementation. With so much that has been done and captured with and through the private and public sector partnerships there is a need to intensify the level of effort in that regard to be able to tell a complete story. CRAFT therefore needs to continue monitoring progress, evaluate achievement and document lessons that informs continuous evidence-based learning. The project understands that monitoring and evaluation (M&E) should also inform and steer adaptations to technical strategies. Against this background, CRAFT is looking to recruit an experienced, self-driven, result oriented and committed monitoring, evaluation and learning professional to fill the available vacancy of ME&L Advisor.

Principle duties and responsibilities

Reporting to the Project Manager – CRAFT Kenya, the ME&L Advisor will be responsible for ensuring quality implementation of the CRAFT country ME&L plan and framework, and availability of and access to relevant M&E data, findings, and project learnings to project staff, SNV management, the donor, partners and other stakeholder.  Additionally, the advisor will advise and guide the implementation of the learning agenda. 

A large part of the work consists of obtaining high quality reliable data and ensuring that data entered in the monitoring information system is cleaned, validated and presented in an user friendly manner.

Additionally, the ME&L will be responsible for:

Data management:

Keep oversight of the CIIF M&E data management, ensuring the following happens

• Overall responsible for data quality management as collected by business champions
• Liaise with the technical staff, PMU ME&L personnel and SNV data aggregator (Omni-Tech) to develop appropriate or improve measurable results and progress milestones and methods for data collection.
• Conduct data verification and validation exercises of business cases data in collaboration with technical advisors and interns 
• Conduct baseline and annual survey training of enumerators, data collection data management and quality assurance during field work.
• Farmer Profiling: Support new Business Champions in farmer profiling and ensure farmers are formally profiled using CRAFT farmer profiling/registration forms and corresponding clean details uploaded in the CRAFT MIS system.
• Conduct routine physical monitoring visits of BC activities to assess the quality of activity implementation, milestones and indicator results reported.
• Support the business champions with monitoring, evaluation and learning processes including recruitment and supervision of data interns, consultants, and other ME&L personnel.

Contribute to the overall project learning agenda through advising PMU and taking coordinating role in the collection of evidence and knowledge products

• Organise the knowledge agenda, and coordinate with the different parties involved.  Lead the production process of knowledge materials
• Coordinate within the regional MEL team on the generating the qualitative data
• Support training of staff/partners in ME&L related trainings
• Manage a team of SNV M&E interns who are seconded to selected business champions
• Leads the development and implementation of the internal and external knowledge development processes, including the sharing of critical lessons documented and disseminated and applied in the day-to-day implementation of interventions
• Facilitate periodic project reviews and learning forums and ensure proper documentations of findings and learnings.

Reporting

• Take a lead in developing workplans, data aggregation and reporting as required by the donor.
• Liaise with the technical staff, PMU ME&L personnel and SNV data aggregator to develop appropriate or improve measurable results and progress milestones and methods for data collection.
• Take lead in analysis and interpreting data to inform project implementation
• Work jointly with all relevant CRAFT and SNV staff

• A relevant academic qualification: Bachelor’s degree in monitoring and evaluation, statistics, economics, quantitative economics, business administration. A master’s degree is an added advantage
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) management, within donor-funded technical assistance projects of similar magnitude and complexity
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in developing countries, preferably in East Africa
• Demonstrated experience using a mix of informational sources and M&E/research methods to analyse project progress, communicate findings to a range of external and internal stakeholders, and apply M&E results and learning to work planning
• Preferable background in/understanding of agribusiness, value chain development and climate change
• Hands on experience in facilitating and/or training field-based partners in the use of monitoring and evaluation/data collection tools.
• Experience in catalysing programmatic learning and adaptive management with donors, NGOs, contractors, or international organisations
• Excellent communication skills to articulate technical M&E issues effectively, with the ability to adapt styles to the needs of different audiences
• Experience with innovative digital data systems, tools and devices
• Excellent analytical and writing skills
• Fluent spoken and written English
• Team player with good interpersonal and communication skills.
• Willingness to travel to all project locations within East Africa

Contract Duration: 1 year

Application and Submission: Interested and qualified candidates are required to click on the the “I’M INTERESTED” tab on this page and submit a cover letter and CV on or before 24th June 2022.

NB:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

We do not appreciate third-party mediation based on this advertisement.

Applicants are not required to undertake any medical checks before selection or pay any money at any stage of the recruitment process.