Senior Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Manager, East Africa and Food Processing at TechnoServe Kenya

Job Summary:

The Senior Regional Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Manager is the most senior MEL position in the region and is tasked with providing leadership across the MEL function, ensuring  the foundational building blocks for managing to impact are in place. Primary responsibilities include: developing and rolling out our standards; backstopping staff; directly managing evaluations, audits, and research projects; supporting recruitments and onboarding new staff; supporting the drafting of new project proposals; and developing project-level MEL management systems.  Additionally, the Senior MEL Manager will manage a Data Specialist as a direct report and facilitate his/her work in developing and maintaining technology systems for data collection and utilization. The Senior MEL Manager position requires strong technical MEL expertise, but is also fundamentally a leadership position. Success in the roles requires effective communication with senior staff, an ability to build and manage relationships remotely, strong project management skill, and strategic thinking.

The East Africa portfolio includes 20+ projects, ranging from small pilots with lightweight MEL approaches, to large scale (>$20M) value chain projects with multiple MEL staff across several countries. Some projects focus on farmer training or entrepreneurship, however, the majority are work on food processing and food systems. Therefore, while this position will be embedded in the East African Region, it will collaborate closely with Food Processing Practice leaders, as well as our emerging “food systems” practice area, to develop and advance best practices.  This will involve providing some direct support to projects throughout TechnoServe’s global portfolio.

This position sits within TechnoServe’s Global Impact Team and reports to the Global Impact Director, based in Washington DC. At TechnoServe, in order to promote project learning and smooth adaptive management, most MEL staff report to project or country directors. Having the Global Impact Team sit outside of these reporting lines allows it to remain objective while providing high-level leadership, coordination, and backstopping.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities:

Provide direct technical assistance to projects (60% LOE):

• Lead internal evaluations or special studies; Manage external evaluators.
• Provide support and technical oversight to junior MEL staff (e.g. regular check-ins and sign-off on deliverables for projects that only have junior MEL Associates).
• Provide advisory and direct technical assistance on specific MEL deliverables.
• Support the effective utilization of data and technology systems through managing and facilitating the work of a Data Specialist.                                                                                                                               

Execute the core functions of the Global Impact Team, including (20% LOE):

• Promote TechnoServe’s Global MEL Standards through staff training, conducting diagnostics, and developing MEL improvement plans.
• Support or lead annual/semi-annual global initiatives in the region, including Corporate Measurement and the Program Quality Survey.
• Provide inputs to the Program Development team, including reviewing the MEL section of proposals and advising on logical frameworks.
• Hire and onboard country-level and project-level MEL staff
• Promote knowledge sharing across the East African region and between regions.

Provide leadership to the Food Processing Practice  (10% LOE)

• Work closely with practice area leadership to develop standards, best practices, and tools to improve the quality of MEL across the practice. This includes standard indicator guidance, analysis guidelines, database standards, monitoring dashboards, and data collection tools.
• Play a leading role in developing practice area learning agenda.

Provide regional leadership (10% LOE):

• Collaborate with the Impact Director, Regional Director, and country teams to systematically improve the structures, processes and resources that enable application of good MEL practices, including standardization of tools and technology use,
• Support the exchange of information and knowledge by participating and contributing to internal and external fora.
• Work with the East African Regional team to have a coordinated management system at the project level for the planning of MEL activities, storing of MEL documents, and tracking of MEL deliverables.

Qualifications:

• A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, such as economics, public health, business administration, statistics, evaluation, data science, or other; and a minimum of 10 years of experience designing, managing and implementing multidisciplinary and results-based MEL systems in an international context.
• Or a master's degree and 7 years of similar experience.
• Expertise in evaluating projects that are focused on food system improvements, including interventions focused on food processors, nutrition and backward linkages etc.
• Experience with project management systems that allow for effectively planning, tracking, and ensuring quality 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 region.
• Hands-on capacity-building experience, including development of training materials, as well as delivering actual training sessions.
• 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 effectively multi-task and manage projects, including staffing, work plans, deliverables, timelines and budgets
• 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.