Monitoring and Evaluation Officer

GRADE RANGE: FSN 9-10

1. BACKGROUND:
The Seed Trade Project is a five-year project funded through USAID/Southern Africa and implemented by DAI with a primary goal of improving the availability of and access to high quality seed in the SADC countries. It is designed to support SADC and member states’ leadership and provide the necessary technical assistance for harmonizing policies and regulations governing seed trade in the region. The work facilitates seed trade across the region, integrating small and isolated national markets into one larger SADC-wide market for seeds. While the primarily focus is on Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, many regional project activities benefits all 16 SADC Member.

2. PURPOSE:
The Monitoring and Evaluation Officer will support DAI Global LLC in the implementation of USAID Southern Africa Seed Trade Project. Specifically, he/she will work with the M&E Specialist in routine project activity data collection and collation, drafting various project performance reports, updating various project databases (USAID TraiNet and Development Information Solutions (DIS), Feed the Future Management Information System (FTMS) as well as DAI’s TAMIS and providing M&E technical support to internal Project Technical Team and Project sub-grantee or partner organisations and assist in maintaining or enhancing the quality data to meet the indicator reporting requirements. He/she will be responsible for the following on a day-to-day basis:

3. TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Conduct Project routine data collection
• Ensure that the Technical Team has all relevant M&E documentation as they travel to implement project activities in the field
• Work with the M&E Specialist to develop and implement the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plan (MELP)
• Support the implementation of various project surveys and updating of Project indicators and targets, and gather qualitative and quantitative data related to those indicators and targets.
• Provide training and ongoing technical support on tools, methodologies, and M&E systems to staff and local partners to ensure the implementation of a strong M&E system
• Work with the M&E Specialist to ensure data inputs in both internal and external databases, including the Feed the Future Monitoring System (FTF MS), TraiNet, DIS, TAMIS, and the Performance based system on a quarterly basis.
• Work with the technical team, communications team and M&E Specialist to ensure timely preparation of M&E related progress reports on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis
• Work with the technical team to provide data analysis in support of periodic reporting and success stories development in collaboration with the communications teams
• Identify lessons learned and provide advice to the supervisor on improving project performance using M&E findings
• Conduct internal and grantee data quality assessments to test the validity and reliability of data used to measure program impact
• Perform other duties as assigned.

4. QUALIFICATIONS AND COMPETENCES:

a. At least 5 years of middle Management – level experience in monitoring and evaluation
b. Bachelor Degree in applied mathematics, statistics, economics, agricultural economics, development studies or another relevant field
c. Experience with survey design, supervision and analysis
d. Demonstrated ability through previous experience with data quality assessments and oversight, developing and refining data collection tools and analyzing data, and managing and providing ongoing training to technical team and grantees
e. Experience in Leading Project Internal and Grantee M&E Capacity Building
f. Experience with USAID trade, economic growth and Feed the Future data reporting
g. Knowledge of the SADC Seed Systems as it relates to regional seed trade and seed law harmonization
h. Proficient in Feed the Future Monitoring System (FTF MS), TraiNet, DIS, TAMIS, etc.
i. Experience in database management and data analysis
j. Computer skills using MS Office applications
k. Strong writing skills required
l. Fluency in English is required
m. Legal residency status in Zambia is required.

The Monitoring and Evaluation Officer will be based in Lusaka, Zambia.