Job Title

Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer

Reports to

Country Programme Manager

Management Responsibility

Consultants and Monitoring Evaluation Assistant

Job location

Kigali, with extensive travel within Rwanda  

Contract Duration

1 Year contract, renewable

Grade

Grade3-2

International Alert

International Alert is over 30-year old independent peacebuilding organisation. We work with people who are directly affected by violent conflict to improve their prospects of peace, and we seek to influence the policies and ways of working of governments, international organisations like the UN and multinational companies, to reduce conflict risk and increase the prospects of peace.

We work in Africa, several parts of Asia, the South Caucasus, the Middle East, and Latin America and have recently started work in the UK, Somalia, and Kenya. Our policy work focuses on several key themes that influence prospects for peace – the economy, climate change, gender, the role of international institutions, the impact of development aid, and the effect of good and bad governance.

We are one of the world’s leading peacebuilding NGOs with more than 200 staff based in London and 15 field offices. To learn more about how and where we work, visit www.international-alert.org.

Alert’s Great Lakes programme (GLP) works in Burundi, the DRC, Rwanda, and Kenya. The GLP works on a range of peacebuilding issues, including women in peacebuilding, reconciliation, natural resources management, and the economy. It supports and collaborates with local initiatives, and advocates for policy change. The programme is managed from London and implemented by staff based in London and the region, in close collaboration with local organisations.

Job Purpose

The purpose of this position is to support the continued growth and consolidation of the Rwanda Programme. This is a local position, the holder will work across programme projects to provide technical support programme staff and implementing partners in monitoring, evaluating, research and learning from programme implementation. They will establish a clear and reliable result-based monitoring, evaluation and learning system for Alert’s projects in Rwanda. This will involve working closely with the Alert team in Rwanda and local partners in ensuring data quality and supporting project teams to examine projects outcomes and impact using participatory approaches. The successful candidate will have knowledge and experience of programme or project design and implementation, including monitoring and evaluation processes. The Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer will also input into Africa Programme wide initiatives such as supporting the implementing of the organisational impact plan and sharing lessons, tools, and approaches with other country teams across the organisation. The post holder will be supported remotely by the Senior Programme Design and Assessment Officer, based in London, and will be line managed by Alert’s programme manager.

Duties and Responsibilities

1.    Support the Rwanda project teams in strengthening their Monitoring & Evaluation and Learning (MEL) systems and to demonstrate impact achieved

• Build knowledge and skills on MEL within the Rwanda project teams by providing regular trainings to country teams on MEL.
• Monitor the quality and progress of projects implementation.
• Manage, coordinate and participate in the implementation of baseline studies, monitoring missions, and evaluations (including developing terms of reference for external evaluators and contributing to recruitment processes of these consultants, organising field visits for evaluators, organise internal evaluation workshops; supporting the process of responding to evaluations by taking part in compiling management responses to evaluations, ensuring that evaluation reports (internal and external) are shared and disseminated widely both with relevant stakeholders in Rwanda and throughout Alert), ensuring quality methodology and analysis as well as timely delivery.
• Provide leadership in developing monitoring systems (e.g. good quality indicators, M&E plans, data collection tools, evidence-based processes, and knowledge management plans);
• Monitor the quality and progress of projects implementation.
• Analyse data collected and share findings with key internal and external stakeholders.
• Oversee internal communication on M&E progress and results – promote effective communication between M&E team, project staff, partner teams, and Head quarter M&E team.
• Contribute to project and program planning and review meetings, including preparing and sharing monitoring data on progress and challenges.
• Contribute to reporting procedures in compliance with donor procedures and agreements in the award (including USAID and EU amongst others).
• Contribute to the promotion of collaborative cross-organisational relationships, e.g. by bringing colleagues from different projects together on project design and evaluation processes.
• Support project teams on all M&E activities noted in the points above for both national projects and Great Lakes regional level projects.

2.    Contribute  to Rwanda team in submitting new project proposals

• Together with the Senior Programme Design and Assessment Officer, provide substantive inputs to M&E related sections of project proposals (logframe, risk and hypothesis matrix, workplan, monitoring and learning strategy, best practices and lessons learned from previous project/initiatives etc.);
• Contribute ideas, text, and verify that budget for MEL activities is adequate.
• Support teams in timely compliance with contractual agreements specifically in relation to baseline and evaluations.

3.    As a  member of Alert, contribute to Alert’s systems, best practice and learning in programme development and impact assessment

• Share best practices in MEL with the wider Rwanda team and the Great Lakes.
• Support project managers in ensuring that data from proposals and projects are regularly and properly updated on PROMPT, for the purposes of maintaining the Rwanda online database updated and sharing within the wider organisation.
• Contribute to team-wide communications including especially marketing donor-funded programme results and best practices through social media in close collaboration with Country Programme Manager, knowledge management, and participate in organisation-wide events and discussions on related topics/projects
• Contribute to monthly situational reports
• Undertake other tasks reasonably expected of her/him

Travel requirements

The job is based in Kigali with extensive travel to districts outside of Kigali and other destinations as required.

Talents

At Alert, we have introduced Talent Management to our business model as we believe talented people are crucial to the success of our work.  We believe all individuals are talented and that success comes in matching the right talents to the right roles.

For this role, the skills, qualifications and experience listed below are important, but we believe that to be great in this job you are likely, first and foremost, to have a talent for analytical thinking and persuasive communication, balanced with a constructive and collegial personal working style that can advance Alert’s goals of coalition-building and promoting peaceful outcomes in Rwanda. This is what we will be looking for above all else.

At least Bachelor’s degree level in a relevant field preferably in development studies or peace studies and conflict transformation

5- years’ experience of project monitoring and evaluation at an NGO

Specific experience of field-based data collection inclusive of use of digital surveying and analysis experience using both quantitative and qualitative data, and primary and secondary data sources

Collaborative working style that enables coaching and training in M&E principles and best-practices

Experience conducting participatory research or participatory M and E, including using tools such as focus group discussions, case study interviews and outcome harvest approach.

Demonstrated capacity to coordinate evaluations, including experience developing evaluation terms of reference and recruiting and managing consultants

An eye for detail and accuracy and an ability to balance competing demands

Proficient in use of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, Pivot Tables, Access, KOBO, as well as web browsers

Knowledge or demonstrable interest in peacebuilding

Ability to be creative and innovative in generating new ideas and undertaking research

Committed to International Alert organisational values and goals.

Excellent written and spoken English, French and Kinyarwanda – demonstrable ability to analyse and present a cogent argument both in writing and orally

Excellent communication skills

A collaborative team player, willing to lend a hand and go the extra mile

A self-starter with initiative and the ability to work with minimal supervision