Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Administrator at TechnoServe Kenya

Travel: Frequent travel to the field

Grade: 7

Program Description: Through the mSPARK program, TechnoServe proposes to work with 28,000 micro-enterprise owners (70% youth, 60% women) for 12 months to provide targeted digital and financial support that helps them navigate and survive through the COVID-19 crisis and reduce the pandemic’s negative impact on them and their communities.

From our experience working in Kenya’s micro-retail sector, shop owners are predominantly youth (63%) and women (62%) and thus represent a strategic leverage point to support the economic survival of these groups and their ability to protect and invest in their health and that of their households during the COVID-19 crisis.

Further, micro-enterprises can play an important role as trusted leaders and providers of essential goods, services, and health and safety information in their communities, many of which are lower-income, high-density, and at greater risk to COVID-19 and its economic impacts.

Through a mixture of support packages, mSPARK will seek to ensure micro-enterprises survive the economic crisis brought about by the pandemic and in so doing, protect the jobs of owners and their employees.

Working closely with a financial technology credit provider, a large Charitable Grant will be disbursed to the micro-enterprises to help and cushion them to survive and stabilize businesses in this sector.

Position Description: The MEL administrator will be responsible for assisting the Performance & Learning Manager and the Program Manager in preparing monthly, quarterly and annual progress reports while monitoring the project activities regularly; developing and maintaining the MIS of the project, and will be responsible for the collection and analysis of different data about the project activities.

He/She will be responsible for enabling evidence-based decision-making processes, maintenance of M&E systems, and effective implementation of M&E activities.

The position shall also support the implementation of the strategies designed to assure high quality of data collection, collation, analysis and reporting through consistent application of existing monitoring and evaluation Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and other guidelines.

He/She will report to the Performance & Learning Manager and collaboratively with program implementing team.

Key Roles and Responsibilities:

ME Systems: –

• Responsible for monitoring and evaluating program performance per the result chain and reporting requirements;
• Be able to enter data into and analyze information from M&E systems for use throughout the project lifecycle;
• Administrate mSPARK’s program’s management information system (MIS)
• Undertake regular visits to the field to support the implementation of M&E activities;
• Conducting data quality assessments and ensure timely completion of assigned M&E deliverables, while at the same time identifying where modifications might be needed;
• Ensure quality control and identify where adaptations might be needed;
• Ensure timely completion of major M&E deliverables, regular periodic analysis of data to identify and communicate lessons-learned, and regular periodic presentation of data and analyses to management;
• Work with Performance & Learning Manager and Program Manager to integrate M&E data into program planning and decision-making processes, PSR, CM reporting and narrative reports;
• Work with project team members to collect and analyze data regularly;
• Monitoring project activities, outputs and progress towards anticipated results;
• Analyze data for weekly, monthly, half-yearly and annual reports;
• Manage and maintain the Mirror Retailers’ M&E system;
• Help to identify the cause of potential bottlenecks in implementation;
• Contribute to determining the effectiveness of technical training packages through regular participants’ training feedback surveys and analysis;
• Support partners in collecting data and reporting;
• Supporting in developing tools for partners in data collection;
• Supporting learning lesson documenting and development of case studies;
• Any other duties as may be assigned from time to time.

Impact Evaluations:

• Conduct periodic analysis of data to identify and communicate lessons learned;
• Coordinate and supervise baseline and end of project evaluation following the project theory of change;
• Coordinate and supervise surveys and disseminate the results externally and internally to introduce course correction.

Coordination:

• Ensure M&E information is shared and flows transparently within the project team;
• Share best practices and lessons learned across the project;
• Support program adaptation and use of standard templates and tools for key project deliverables;
• Work closely with program management to help ensure that program work plans are on target to meet deliverables in a timely and effective manner;
• Share analyses and trends with project team members to help synchronize decision-making processes with M&E results.

Knowledge development, application and sharing:

• Ensure information is shared and flows transparently between regions;
• Regular periodic analysis of data to identify and communicate lessons learned;
• Regular periodic presentation of data and analyses to project management to identify opportunities and challenges for integration into project planning;
• Support the project team in documenting lessons learned and leverage them for external dissemination.

Data Management:

• Keep and maintain the project database with information from all data sources
• Mine the database to analyze the data and respond to ad-hoc requests from the donor and internal senior management;
• Proficiency in MS Office, especially Excel and PowerPoint;
• Working knowledge of web-based surveys (e.g. CommCare, ONA, Kobo tool kit) is desirable;
• Strong interpersonal skills, including skills in coordination and ability to work in teams.

Required skills and experience

• Degree in areas of business, economics, statistics, IT and international development;
• 3-4 years of experience with M&E methods and approaches, including designing, planning, and implementing M&E systems, analyzing and reporting using a logical framework and other strategic planning approaches;
• Proven ability to work with various M&E methods and approaches;
• Ability to identify and measure social indicators is critical;
• Excellent information analysis and report writing.
• Experience working with youth training and/or mentorship programs preferred;
• Excellent interpersonal and oral and written communication skills a must;
• Ability to generate innovative solutions in work situations;
• Proven ability and experience working with teams will be an added advantage;
• Fluency in English and Kiswahili required;
• Willingness and ability to travel to remote rural locations.

Success Factors: Competency is a combination of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) directly related to successful performance on the job.

Core Competencies include:

• Integrity and honesty: Is widely trusted; seen as a direct, truthful individual; presents truthful information in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admits mistakes; does
  not misrepresent himself or herself for personal gain.
• Team Work/ Relationships: Works cooperatively and flexibly with other members of the team with a full understanding of the role to be played as a team member and/or leader, to achieve
  a common goal. Ability to build and maintain effective relationships and networks.
• Learning attitude: Proactively takes advantage of opportunities to learn. Actively identifies new areas for learning; applies and shares new knowledge and skill appropriately.
• Diversity/Inclusiveness: Demonstrates an understanding and appreciation for diversity and supports diversity efforts. Interacts effectively with and inclusively with people of all races, cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds, religions, ages, and genders.
• Communication: Expresses ideas effectively in individual and group situations. Listens effectively; shares information, ideas and arguments; adjusts terminology, language and communication modes to the needs of the audience; ensures accurate understanding; acts in a way that facilitates an open exchange of ideas and information; use appropriate non-verbal communication.
• Decision making/Problem Solving: Is able to analyze situations, diagnose problems, identify the key issues, establish and evaluate alternative courses of action and produce a logical, practical and acceptable solution. Is able to make effective decisions on a day-to-day basis, taking ownership of decisions, demonstrating sound judgement in escalating issues where necessary.
• Results-Oriented/High-Quality Deliverables: Stays focused on the efforts necessary to achieve quality results consistent with programmatic or departmental goals. Demonstrates the ability to achieve effective results; works persistently to overcome obstacles to goal achievement. Accomplishes tasks by considering all areas involved, no matter how small; showing concern for all aspects of the job; accurately checking processes and tasks.
• Planning & Time Management: Establishes a course of action for self and/or others to accomplish a specific goal. Effectively plans, schedules, prioritizes and controls activities; identifies, integrates and orchestrates resources (people, material, information, budget, and/or time) to accomplish goals. Prioritizes work according to the program or department’s goals, not just own job responsibilities; manages own time effectively.
• Business Acumen: The ability to use information, ask the right questions and take decisions that make an impact on the overall business performance.

Job Specific / Technical Competencies include:

• Financial & Resource Management: The ability to estimate, justify, and manage appropriate funding levels to support goal accomplishment. Managing Resources is about understanding human, financial, and operational resource issues to make decisions aimed at building and planning efficient project workflows, and at improving overall organizational performance.
• Donor/Partnership Management: Identifying opportunities and taking action to build strategic relationships between one’s area and other areas, teams, departments, or organizations to help achieve business goals.
• Analysis, Research, Report Writing: Experience in business planning and analysis, modelling for feasibility and execution. Able to analyze and express oneself clearly in business writing.
• Innovative Mindset: Curious inquiries, asks questions and seeks out information from multiple sources, learns from mistakes, sees change as an opportunity.