Senior MEL Officer

Finn Church Aid (FCA) is Finland’s largest international aid organization with more than 70 years of experience. We specialize in the world’s most fragile contexts and work with the most vulnerable people, regardless of their religious beliefs, ethnic background or political convictions.

Starting 2022, FCA is implementing the COOL-YA project which seeks to attract more youth to the agriculture sector by making it more appealing and interesting for the young people through bringing elements that excite young people – technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, start-ups, IT and mentorship. The project will investigate ways on how young people can be involved in agro business and bring in new blood to this very traditional sector which is considered less prestigious for young people. To tackle these issues the project will support young farmers and cooperatives with infrastructure and equipment as well as with training (including TVET, entrepreneurship, foundational skills, new pre- and post-harvest techniques etc.) and hands-on technical support. The project will support cooperatives and agro businesses in order to increase their productivity and create new job opportunities for youth. The project pays special attention to innovation and integrating technology and IT solutions through supporting innovative thinking among students, supporting IT start-ups, as well as running an online platform that supports direct connection/sales between farmers and consumers. Given extremely low participation of women in the agricultural sector and poor working conditions the project will systematically work on reducing barriers for women to join the sector; at the same time, seek to promote a decent job agenda in agriculture to improve working conditions and ensure rights of the workers.

Hence, FCA is looking for a motivated, enthusiastic and qualified candidate to be responsible for MEL aspects related to COOL-YA project, the MEL Officer will be in charge of the planning, design, implementation and coordination of M&E tools, processes and activities for the COOLYA project. He/she will do this through regular in-depth analysis, extracting and reading findings of the data, assessments and achievements, and reflect the findings in continuous learning and improvement.

The main purpose of this position is to

• • Support and strengthen project planning, monitoring, inspection, evaluation, and reporting (PMER) procedures. – Conduct local field visits to project locations to verify proper use of monitoring tools. – Review all data feed in from project partners and report recommendations to Project Manager – Manage M&E tools to track implementation performance in line with the logical framework. – Assign and manage data entry and M&E volunteers to support collecting and analyzing data – Promote knowledge sharing through the organization’s operational processes to ensure seamless exchange of information across systems. – Actively seek innovative MEL good practices for local operations including support units practices and monitoring; – Oversee the data entry and analysis of data, and ensure that data is verified for accuracy and inconsistencies are addressed. – Contribute to project reporting by consolidating data regarding progress toward project indicators. – Design baseline and end-line surveys, including developing TORs, identifying consultants, training data collection teams, coordinating data entry and analysis, and writing reports. – Provide technical assistance and capacity building to staff and partners in the implementation of M&E activities. – Close monitoring of project partners’ performance and compliance to Cool Ya project and donor guidelines. – Lead and conduct analysis of quantitative data as well as qualitative data on all project inputs, outputs and outcomes – Advise on best M&E solutions to be adopted by the project staff in order to digitize data collection, analysis and reporting. – Prepare data visualization for reports and presentations that reflects planned versus achieved key activities. – Prepare data visualization for reports and presentations that reflects planned versus achieved key activities.

Specific Responsibilities:

Program Reporting(20% of time and effort):

• • Work with program team to develop and follow up on Program Level PMER. – Support in the identification of different projects indicators and linking them with global indicators.

Required Education, Competencies and Experience:

Competencies:

• Organises and accurately completes multiple tasks by establishing priorities while taking into consideration special assignments, frequent interruptions, deadlines, available resources and multiple reporting relationships
• Shares knowledge and experience and provides helpful feedback and advice;
• Conceptualizes and analyzes problems to identify key issues, underlying problems, and how they relate;
• Has the ability to identify beneficiaries’ needs, and to match them with appropriate solutions;
• Has the ability to work indirectly with partners and beneficiaries and advise regarding outcomes achievement practices.
• Has the ability to comprehend, analyze and abstract information and recommnedations from data and information sheets which will feed in the project-, country and regional reports.
• Has excellent communication skills; business writing (log frames), MEL budgets, data reports summary, presentation skills both orally and electronically, etc.;
• Has excellent knowledge of monitoring and the application of methodology: Good understanding of capacity assessment methodologies; excellent ability to identify significant capacity building opportunities;
• Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view;
• Has the ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints;
• Has strong IT skills; MS Office, KOBO data collection tool.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Has knowledge in leading, designing, and implementing impact assessment methodologies e.g. FGD, pre and post questionnaires/surveys, coordinated needs assessments, etc

Education:

• University degree in international development, statistics, business administration, social sciences, culture, education or related field.

Required experience:

A minimum of 8 years of professional experience specifically in the area of evaluation of international development initiatives and development organizations with at least 2 years of experience on project management cycle with PMER responsibiltiies

Design tools and strategies for data collection, analysis and progress report drafting;

Understanding of the development contexts and working experience for refugees in Jordanian context.

Proven experience in Monitoring and Evaluation for Economic Empowerment projects/ program such as Self/Employment focused projects.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in spoken and written English and Arabic.