Senior Monitoring and Evaluation and CLA Manager

Program Overview

Feed The Future Mozambique Promoting Innovative and Resilient Agricultural Market Systems (FTF

Premier-Oholo) is a USAID Feed the Future financed activity implemented in selected districts of the Nampula, northern Zambezia and southern Niassa provinces (Nacala Corridor).

FTF Premier-Oholo(PRO), implemented by TechnoServe and its partners DAI and ELIM will support agri-businesses in the Nacala corridor through advice, capacity building and grants to improve their businesses management skills and expertise, to reduce the risk of investments and to facilitate access to finance to help them to make better use of market opportunities: 

1. expanding existing and establishing new inclusive business schemes with local agro-processors and agri-businesses to the benefit of these business and small holder farmers;
2. support agri-businesses to invest in and enhance local value addition thought quality improvements. efficiency gains and increased local processing in value chains, seizing attractive opportunities in export and local markets;
3. improve the capacity of local third-party service delivery partners to provide business, financial, and technical advisory and assistance to the Nacala corridor’s agriculture sector and agri-businesses.

FTF Premier-Oholo(PRO) aims to create a thriving, competitive agribusiness sector in the Nacala corridor that will increase incomes, create employment and improve food security for the region through the development of local food systems.

Job Summary:

The Senior Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) and Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation (CLA) Manager is responsible for leading and delivering all of the project’s M&E activities and reporting, as well as all activities related to Collaboration, Learning and Adapting initiatives. The MEL Manager will be responsible for the fostering of a culture of learning and adapting across the whole of the FTF Premier team. S/he will define the CLA and MEL calendar of activities, lead the FTF Premier team in delivering the same, and ensure that clear learning objectives are defined. The MEL Manager will be responsible for quarterly and annual data collection, storage and analysis, baselining, and quarterly and annual reporting on FTF Premier indicators.

The Incumbent will manage a team of two M&E assistants and a CLA Specialist, based in the FTF Premier office in Nampula. The Senior MEL Manager is part of FTF Premier-Oholo’s Management Team in Nampula and is supervised by and reports to the Chief of Party and prepare reports on TechnoServe indicators, project status and project quality assessments to the TechnoServe Country MEL manager.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities:

Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Responsible for monitoring the FTF Premier-Oholo activity implementation,
• Responsible for the FTF Premier-Oholo CommCare and MySql base, MEL system up to date and adapt the system to new donor requirements due to additional funding streams for the FTF Premier activity, including the development of questionnaires for beneficiaries, partnering businesses and finance institutions, and the data collection, storage and reporting systems,
• Build and monitor a dataset that covers 100,000 beneficiaries, and over 400 partner agri-businesses that are reached with multiple types of interventions.
• Ensure the database is properly maintained and data management routines are followed.
• Organize and supervise FTF Premier-Oholo quarterly and annual indicator data collection from beneficiaries, including the selection and training of data collectors, interviewee selection,
• Assess the quality of FTF Premier-Oholo monitoring data conform USAID standards, validate the data, and analyze data.
• Responsible for accompanying and supporting the USAID annual Data Quality Assessment (DQA) team and follow up on and implement recommendations from the DQA.
• Monitor the FTF Premier deliverables’ deadlines.
• Prepare and oversee the midline data collection, analysis and reporting for the mid-term evaluation.

Reporting:

• Assure timely and complete quarterly and annual indicator reporting in DIS and to USAID, including analysis of under and over achievements of targets.
• Responsible for timely quality responses to ad-hoc USAID requests.
• Prepare monthly performance reports to the FTF Premier-Oholo Management team including analysis of under and over achievements,
• Update USAID’s AOR on a weekly basis on progress with MEL, and interact with the USAID Mozambique M&E team on M&E related issues and requests.

Collaboration, learning and Adaptation:

• Develop a learning and adapting culture in the FTF Premier-Oholo team.
• Lead the CLA agenda development and supervise the CLA activity implementation.
• Contribute to annual work planning processes.
• Advice and support FTF Premier-Oholo technical and grants team in determining USAID indicator based targets for grants and partnerships,
• Train, coach and mentor the FTF Premier-Oholo MEL and CLA Assistants,
• Participate in and contribute to Southern Africa regional leadership meetings and support the TNS Mozambique country and SA regional M&E managers with understanding of USAID’s M&E requirements.

Required Skills, Experience and Qualifications:

• A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, such as economics, business administration, statistics, evaluation, data science, or other; and a minimum of 10 years of experience managing MEL and CLA components in USG financed projects.
• Or a master’s degree and 7 years of similar experience.
• Experience with project management systems that allow for effectively planning, tracking, and ensuring quality reporting for complex projects.
• Background in a range of monitoring and evaluation methodologies, including both quantitative and qualitative research approaches
• Proven ability to translate research, methodologies, and data into accessible formats for colleagues with non-technical backgrounds
• Experience demonstrating the value of integrating gender into project approach
• Comfort delegating responsibility and thinking creatively about how to use the available resources to achieve the best results for the FTF Premier activity.
• A commitment to developing and promoting MEL staff skills.
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills and a demonstrated track record of producing high quality, well-written deliverables
• A demonstrated ability to coordinate and communicate effectively and diplomatically with a range of external and internal colleagues including donors, partners and senior and junior team members across diverse cultures
• An ability to value and respect voices of staff at all levels, external stakeholders, and the men and women we work with.

Required Languages 

Verbal and written fluency in English and Portuguese is required.

Travel 

Local travel to monitor project activities and supervise quality data collection is required for 30-40% of the time.

Supervisory Responsibilities

The Senior MEL Manager will supervise the MEL team and CLA assistant. The MEL team is tasked with project activity monitoring, data collection, data quality and completeness control, data analysis and preparing reports. The CLA Assistant is tasked with preparing and implementing the Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation activities of the FTF Premier activity

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