Monitoring and Evaluation Lead, USAID/Niger Non-Formal Education Activity

Summary

Save the Children is seeking a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Lead for an anticipated five-year USAID-funded Non-Formal Education Activity in Niger. This $25 million activity will target out-of-school adolescents and youth, particularly girls and those affected by conflict and crisis, who do not have access to safe, equitable and contextually relevant learning opportunities needed to strengthen their resilience and contribute to their communities. Specific areas of focus anticipated include strengthening foundational skills in literacy, numeracy, social emotional learning (SEL), and soft skills, building resilience capabilities and assets, and strengthening pathways between non-formal to formal education.

The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Lead develops, implements, and continuously improves M&E systems for all project activities. They will be responsible for ensuring development and operationalization of high-quality M&E systems and reporting on a large-scale USAID education project. They will incorporate best practices to ensure information collected is accurate, timely and disseminated appropriately in high-quality reports. The M&E Lead will use these findings to improve the program and achieve the objectives. They will also be actively involved in promoting learning through documentation of lessons learned and developing approaches for community analysis and using data for decision making.

This position is contingent upon donor approval and funding.

What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties)

• Develop, revise and implement the M&E Plan on an annual basis.
• Provide leadership, training and mentoring to develop M&E Plans, M&E tools, survey design, methodology, and data analysis to assess program impact.
• Develop systems for capturing and documenting data and relevant information on project activities, beneficiaries, outputs, outcomes, and impact.
• Design methodology and coordinate research activities for project operations and assessments.
• Effectively roll out M&E collection and reporting systems to all staff and partners through trainings, site visits, manuals, and other technical support as needed.
• Capture appropriate cost and financial information to track money indicators, including benchmarking information to analyze program effectiveness and cost-effective inputs.
• Ensure programming is aligned to targets and indicators contained in the project proposal, and use the information from the M&E systems and tools to improve program effectiveness.
• Manage and support rigorous evaluations of project performance, impact, and cost effectiveness, including coordinating mid-term and final evaluations and supporting donor and external reviews.
• With support of other senior staff, provide oversight of M&E budget and ensure effective and timely use of appropriate M&E activities. Provide on-going support to maintain M&E systems, identify skill gaps and build capacity among project team members.
• Prepare high-quality, accurate and timely reports for Save the Children, project partners and USAID as required.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in statistics, mathematics or related field is required.
• Advanced training in quantitative methodologies, including database management.
• Minimum of five years of experience in monitoring and evaluation related to education, literacy or other related fields.
• Experience with qualitative research approaches and methodologies.
• Knowledge of gender equity and transformative concepts.
• Prior experience overseeing and ensuring the success of M&E systems in USAID education projects including ensuring approval of the M&E plan, reporting on approved education projects, and successfully completing annual data quality assessments.
• Strong analytical skills and an understanding of monitoring, evaluation and assessment tools to promote evidence-based learning.
• Ability to analyze complex data and summarize it for a range of audiences.
• Ability to gain support from staff across teams and to build the capacity of others.
• Sound strategic thinking and planning skills, including ability to think creatively, innovate, set manageable priorities and work plans, and evaluate progress.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to lead and work effectively in team situations.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and French required.
• Familiarity with the political, social, and cultural context of Niger.
• Personal commitment to gender equality, child rights and social inclusion.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior work experience in the monitoring and evaluation of non-formal education programs and assessing student learning outcomes.
• Experience in systems thinking and application of complex adaptive systems methodologies would be advantageous.
• Strong experience working within a complex national program in the context of an emergency intervention or in conflict/fragile state contexts.
• Research experience with communities and youth.
• Ability and willingness to be very flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes dangerous working circumstances.

About Save the Children

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

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We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, ancestry, sexual orientation, national origin, age, handicap, disability, marital status, or status as a veteran. Save the Children complies with all applicable laws.

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Save the Children is committed to minimizing safety and security risks for our valued employees, ensuring all are given training, support and information to reduce their risk exposure while maximizing the impact of our programs for children and families. Our shared duty, both agency and individual, is to seek and maintain safe working conditions for all.