Research Officer in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Coordination at United States International University - USIU Africa

The Global Agribusiness Management and Entrepreneurship (GAME) Center at the United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa), is a Research, Training and Consulting Center is housed at the School of Graduate Studies, Research, and Extension. The Center leverages on the university faculty diversity, highly skilled staff in projects management, specialized agriculture consultants and trained senior and graduate student research assistants to deliver a wide range of services targeted at the Agriculture sector in Eastern Africa. The Center partners with specialized technical consulting firms to guarantee the quality of service and end-user satisfaction. The Center is looking for a research officer responsible for coordinating a MEL project.

Duties and responsibilities

• Establish, monitor, and update work plans and budgets for the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning project;
• Oversee mobilization of evaluation teams, including organizing and managing team planning meetings and overseeing all necessary logistical preparations for field data collection;
• Support representative Country Coordinators to identify, recruit and train the research assistants, support teams technically, assist in orienting consultant team members to the procedures of working with GAME;
• Assure high-quality deliverables and evaluation reports;
• Support development of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning including background and supporting research for ongoing/upcoming IEs and oversight of survey development;
• Manage Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning datasets throughout the evaluation life-cycle from coordination of local data collection partners to data management and cleaning to preliminary analysis;
• Support the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team to develop, review and finalize evaluation analysis plans, evaluation frameworks, and contribute to drafting of work plans, data collection tools, and field monitoring tools for each IE activity;
• Work with Project Evaluation Team to provide timely updates and reports on evaluation activities as needed;
• Participate and/or support the dissemination of findings; and
• Perform any other tasks required to advance the Center’s objectives.

Key Competencies, qualifications and experience:

• A Degree in Social Sciences including Development Economics, Agricultural Economics, Business Administration with specialization in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning of development projects.
• Ability to conduct large-scale surveys in developing countries and handle large datasets
• Work experience (of at least 3 years) in project management .
• Experience designing and implementing one or more of the following: implementation research, process evaluations, formative research, qualitative research, and report writing.
• Excellent written, presentation, and communication skills; ability to present arguments and analysis in a structured and succinct manner.
• Ability to work with large data sets.
• Ability to work independently; self-starter and highly motivated.
• Statistical knowledge in particular for the design of impact evaluations.
• Proficiency in English is required.

The position will be based at the United States International University – Africa in Nairobi, Kenya and may include some travels for Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) activities in other countries.

Interested candidates are invited to submit their application in English and include:

• A letter of application not exceeding one page, highlighting your qualifications and experience relevant to the terms of reference;
• A statement of research interests and project management goals (1-2 pages) and
• A detailed CV with contact information for three professional references.