MEL Assistant at USAID

Background:

USAID Kenya and East Africa (KEA) recently received approval for its 2020-2025 Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS). Within three months of CDCS approval the KEA mission must develop a performance management plan (PMP) to accompany the strategy.
The USAID/KEA Strategic Planning and Analysis Office is charged with developing said PMP and has requested the Mission Support for the Journey to Self-Reliance Pivot (MSP) activity to support PMP development with short-term technical assistance (STTA).
USAID/KEA aims to develop a comprehensive and utilization focused PMP. The purpose of this work order is to provide support for the development of that PMP, AND to improve the PMP product and the process of its development so that it will be utilized throughout the life of the strategy.

Scope:

Support for PMP development provided by MSP will include STTA and MSP staff. MSP will work with a USAID/KEA Mission PMP core group and various internal development objective (DO) or project working groups. MSP will be guided by a point of contact from the SPA office and liaise with the Mission Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) working group and CLA champions group throughout the process.
MSP support will include advisory services, coordination, group facilitation, knowledge capture, ideation, writing, editing, and document production. Although MSP may provide guidance and suggestions, all proposed monitoring, evaluation, and learning approaches and activities will be approved by USAID. Extensive participation, ideation, content creation, information sharing, and program guidance must come from USAID. This PMP support activity is expected to last up to three months.

Public health situation note:

Because of the current public health situation which restricts safe movement and interaction with stakeholders, all meetings will be conducted remotely.

Position background:

MSP seeks highly motivated Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Assistants to support USAID/KEA development objective (DO) working groups (teams) to develop plans for monitoring, evaluation, and learning activities which will form the basis for the mission’s performance management plan. MEL Assistants will be assigned to specific DO teams at the mission and support that specific team while ensuring cross-team collaboration and communication throughout the process. MEL Assistants will be led by the MEL Advisor for the same task and collaborate with other USAID and MSP staff. MEL Assistants must apply their knowledge of USAID technical areas, background in MEL, and skills in coordination and documentation to ensure their respective DO team assignments and the overall PMP are completed on time with quality and accuracy. Further, MEL Assistant should ensure ideas and content created for and adopted in the PMP reflect the decisions of their respective teams, relevant technical and support offices, and the mission leadership. MEL Assistants will look to the MEL Advisor for guidance on USAID automated directives and policy but will also work with the USAID/KEA Strategic Planning and Analysis office, MEL working group, and MSP to ensure coherence and alignment to the strategic choices in the 2020-2025 CDCS.

MEL Assistants’ Responsibilities:

• Support one or two DO/project teams and MEL Specialists to develop
  • monitoring,
  • evaluation, and
  • CLA plans.
  • Coordinate working sessions and other meetings (scheduling), support meeting preparation, including technology support,
  • Capture detailed notes, ideas, accurate decision-points, and discussions with mission colleagues, and
  • Provide timely follow-up communications.
• Knowledge management: Support Mission with just-in-time information sharing so that CDCS, PMP, MEL, and related documentation can inform performance management planning.
• Compile and organize written content from mission colleagues for monitoring, evaluation, and CLA plans. Perform preliminary error checking. Align formatting.
• File management: Track changes and maintain accurate logs of PMP documents, version control.
• Support MEL Specialists to generate performance indicator reference sheets and context indicator reference sheets.
• Conduct background research on indicators, monitoring methods, evaluations, etc.
• Track and communicate timelines and milestones against the overall PMP workplan and within individual working groups. Communicate timelines and milestones to MEL Specialists, MEL Advisor, MSP, and USAID/KEA.
• Other duties, as assigned by USAID or MSP.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in related field
• 1+ year of experience in monitoring, evaluation, and learning
• Experience coordinating with various stakeholders on tasks and timelines
• Ability to take accurate notes with excellent attention to detail
• Excellent oral and written English communication skills

Team collaboration:

Four MEL Assistants, four MEL Specialists, and one MEL Advisor will comprise the team. The MEL Advisor will lead with the consultant team and assign responsibilities to each team member which are aligned to the responsibilities in their respective SOWs and DO working groups. Team members will be jointly
responsible for the final deliverables and individually responsible for their specific tasks and level of effort.

Place of performance: Nairobi, Kenya, and Remote/Teleworking

Period of performance: October 26, 2020 – January 31, 2021 unless extended by a modification to the agreement or terminated in accordance with SoCha LLC policy and Kenya law.

Level of Effort (LOE): • 75 days LOE