Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist

Title: Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Specialist
Level: Junior to Mid-level
Term: Part-time
Duration: October or November 2012 – August 2014
Location: Ondjiva, Angola
Contact: gcc@onlinedts.com

dTS is a strategic management consulting firm leading initiatives in social and economic development with a view to promoting equality and accountability. Our services in gender integration; training and capacity building; and monitoring and evaluation have been applied in a variety of sectors across 60 countries for USAID, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), the US Department of State, and other clients.

dTS is recruiting an Angola-based M&E Specialist to support the Evaluation of the Eenkono Project (NGO Strengthening for Improved Resilience and Climate Governance in Angola’s Cuvelai Basin). This evaluation is funded under the three-year USAID funded Global Climate Change (GCC) Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Project.

Qualifications for the Position:

- Degree in social sciences, statistics, agricultural economics, environmental studies, natural resource management, or other related fields. Master’s degree preferred but not required.

- One or more years of academic and/or work experience preferred demonstrating
o Experience designing and implementing monitoring and evaluation work for development activities, preferably projects for international organizations
o Background in overseeing surveys or related quantitative methods
o Familiarity with issues involving rural livelihoods in Angola
- Written and verbal fluency in English and Portuguese in a business context.

Strong communicator, with strong verbal, writing and editing skills. Fluency in Kwanama, the local Bantu language of the Cuvelai Basin Region, strongly preferred.

- Demonstrated competence to assess priorities and concurrently manage a variety of activities effectively to meet deadlines with attention to detail and quality.
- Good problem solving skills.

The GCC M&E Project is in charge of the impact evaluation of the Eenkono Project.

The evaluation will require identifying measures and causal links for DRR activities and Flood Forecasting and Early Warning System (FFEWS) components. The project will undergo an impact evaluation, including requisite baseline data, built into the design of the project. Evaluation of the DRR activities, climate forecasts, and flood early warning systems will be essential as the Agency tests innovative pilots and applies lessons learned from development in other sectors to emerging climate change challenges. The evaluation should be as rigorous as feasible given project scope keeping in mind an efficient budget despite high costs of operating in Angola.

The evaluation may cover only elements of the project that involve key evaluation questions supporting USAID’s results frameworks or climate change-related knowledge.

The Angola-based Evaluation Specialist will be an essential member of dTS's local evaluation team and will be based in the capital of the Cunene province, Ondjiva although occasional trips to Luanda are possible. Specific responsibilities may include:

- Serving as a liaison between the dTS evaluation team, USAID/Mission staff, World Learning, and organizations that collect data for evaluations.

- Monitoring progress of projects being evaluated via on-going communication with all parties, and alerting the Evaluation Team Leader to anticipated or actual changes that may affect the evaluation. These include (1) changes related to project approach, implementation sites, schedule, performance monitoring plan (PMP), and key staff, (2) changes in USAID mission leadership or implementation staff, (3) factors that may affect data collection, and (4) any other factors that may positively or adversely affect the evaluation, including changes in the political, economic, and social context.

- Making site visits to project target areas and to attend project activities;
- Accompanying dTS staff to meetings and on-site visits when in country;
- Assist in arranging logistics for dTS field visits;
- Provide linguistic and cultural assistance as needed.
- As relevant and appropriate (per technical directive):
o Collect or accompanying project staff to collect administrative data about municipalities and villages to inform selection of the targeted project villages.
o Help determine appropriate locations for control or comparison areas/groups;
o Suggest revisions to the evaluation design to the Team Leader;
o Gather information on quality of potential data collector organizations;
o Monitor data collection processes for quality assurance purposes;
 Recruit and oversee other local staff on a temporary basis to monitor data collection for quality control;
 Monitor data entry processes for quality assurance purposes to assure that data collector meets standards;
o Review project or other relevant documentation in local language(s); ensure dTS evaluation team staff have access to translations of key documents;
o Other tasks as assigned by the Evaluation Team Leader.

- Submit short bi-weekly status reports containing key activities undertaken, key concerns or issues for the evaluation that arose during the period, and any other items requested by the Evaluation Team Leader.

- Participate in periodic conference calls, as requested.

The M&E Specialist should expect to spend extended periods of time in the project area such as during project start up to collect administrative data and when household data collection is being prepared and ongoing.

Please send your resume to gcc@onlinedts.com. In the subject line, indicate “Angola M&E Specialist.” A cover letter is not required but welcome. We regret that we are unable to take phone calls or accept submissions via fax. Only finalists will be contacted. Thank you for your understanding.

dTS is an equal opportunity employer.