Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Specialist
Cooperative Development Program
Lusaka, Zambia
Background:
Land O’Lakes Venture37 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit helping communities around the world build economies by strengthening agriculture from farm-to-fork, helping businesses grow, and linking farmers to markets. Since our start in 1981, we have been leveraging nearly 100 years of expertise in crop inputs, agricultural insights, dairy and animal nutrition from our close affiliate, Land O’Lakes, Inc., a farmer-owned agribusiness committed to fulfilling its purpose of feeding human progress.
Project Description:
Venture37 is implementing the USAID–funded 5-year, $11.6M Cooperative Resilience and Equity activity “CORE” in Rwanda and Zambia. Running from October 2023 through September 2028, CORE aims at fostering vibrant, sustainable cooperative ecosystems in Rwanda and Zambia, in which self-managed cooperatives and all their members flourish economically and socially. Through CORE, Venture37 will take a localized and market-responsive approach, engaging market actors, including women and youth in activity design, implementation, and measurement to tailor activities to their unique needs while strengthening their capacity to create sustainable solutions. Across Rwanda and Zambia, CORE will reach over 160 dairy, grains, horticulture, and oilseed cooperatives and 12,000 members in partnership with local market actors; the activity’s objectives will be met through three major components, namely:
- Inclusively strengthen the capacity of cooperatives by dynamically responding to their unique challenges and market opportunities through but not limited to provision of tailored capacity strengthening, professional management, enhanced strategic market and finance linkages.
- Improve the cooperative enabling environment by working with private and public service providers to deliver market-responsive and well-coordinated services to cooperatives.
- Spur innovation, learning and continuous improvement in the local and global development community through embedded applied research.
Job Summary:
The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Specialist will be responsible for the oversight of all monitoring, evaluation, research and learning activities for CORE in Zambia under the technical direction of the MERL Manager, based in Rwanda.
The MEL Specialist will be responsible recruiting and managing enumerators, overseeing routine and major data collection efforts, maintaining and validating data quality, coordinating and negotiating MEL standards for all project partners, and cleaning and analyzing data.
Reporting:
The MEL Specialist will report to the CORE Zambia Program Manager.
Responsibilities :
- Support the development of the MEL Plan and update as necessary throughout the life of the project in coordination with the CORE Rwanda MERL Manager.
- Train all relevant project staff in project monitoring and learning,
- Coordinate data collection, oversee the quality and completeness of data, solve data problems as they arise and adjust protocols as needed
- Clean and analyze data for reporting and contribute to periodic programmatic reporting, under the direction of the Rwanda MERL Manager
- Select and manage appropriate consultants for required evaluations and research hand monitor these activities, including reviewing survey design and tools, assisting with selection of consultant with skills appropriate to conduct study, and oversee quality control/monitor progress of the consultants.
- Lead dissemination of program and research learnings, in consultation with the HQ GMEL lead and CORE Chief of Party.
- Serve as the Zambia facilitator for CORE’s Cooperative Development Organizations (CDOs)’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) Community of Practice under the direction of the Rwanda MERL Manager.
- Demonstrate the highest degree of integrity throughout all activities and raise any concerns with implementation quality immediately with the CORE Zambia Program Manager.
- Other duties as requested
Required Skills and Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in applied economics, statistics, sociology or related area of study.
- A minimum of three years (3) years of progressively responsible work experience in managing MEL activities on project(s);
- Experience contributing to MEL Plan design and implementation, including experience in data collection, cleaning and analysis.
- Experience facilitating training and mentorship of enumerators and field-based agricultural staff tasked with data collection;
- Familiarity with gender issues in monitoring and evaluation;
- Strong writing, reporting, and presentation skills;
- Highly developed conceptual, analytical and innovative problem-solving ability;
- Computer literacy and competency in the use of Microsoft Office software and quantitative data analysis software (preferably SPSS or Stata);
- Willingness to work occasional long hours and travel to the field in both Rwanda as required, potentially semi-annually;
- Professional proficiency in English and Nyanja or Bemba languages is required.
- Local candidates with the minimum qualifications are strongly encouraged to apply.
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. No phone calls will be accepted.
Land O’Lakes Venture37 will never ask you for personable identifiable information, and we will never request money or payment during the recruitment or employment process. Please submit any questions or concerns to: Venture37generalinquiries@landolakesventure37.org.
Land O’Lakes Venture37 is an equal opportunity employer and an organization striving to help global communities thrive through agriculture. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or veteran status, among other factors. Our culture values a diversity of voices. So, bring us your unique experiences, your workstyle, and your dreams — they’ll only make us stronger.
