National Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist

IMPORTANT NOTICE\: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device

FAO seeks gender, geographical and linguistic diversity in order to best serve FAO Members in all regions.

Qualified female applicants are encouraged to apply.

People with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply.

All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality.

The main aim of the FAO country offices, which are headed by an FAO Representative, is to assist governments to develop policies, programs and projects to achieve food security and to reduce hunger and malnutrition, to help develop the agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors, and to use their environmental and natural resources in a sustainable manner.

FAO is currently supporting the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in piloting Integrated Agro-Industrial Parks. The Government of Ethiopia identified the creation of agro-industrial parks as one of the key mechanisms for accelerating the development of the agro-industrial sector in Ethiopia, and it expects this sector to play key role in economic growth of the country over the Second Growth and Transformation Plan 2015/16-2019/20.

Within this framework, the Government of Ethiopia and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) have allocated resources to support the implementation of the project “Inclusive and Sustainable Development of Agricultural Value chains in Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples “Region (SNNPR). This project is a soft loan (30 Million Euros) contributing to the creation of favorable conditions for the development of Bulbula and Yergalem IAIPs in Oromia and SNNP regional states.

The project will facilitate the development of four (4) efficient, effective, inclusive, and sustainable agricultural value chains (avocado, pineapple, tomato and wheat).

Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) also allocated 4 Million Euros to FAO Ethiopia country Office to provide technical supper to the Ministry of Agriculture for implementation of the soft bilateral loan.

To ensure adequate support to the planned project activities under the bilateral loan project and the FAO Technical support project (project GCP095/ETH/095/ITA), FAO is seeking to recruit a National Specialist in Monitoring and Evaluation. The terms of Reference for this specialist are developed below.

Reporting Lines

The position is under the overall guidance of the FAO Representative in Ethiopia, the direct supervision of the FAO Agribusiness Officer in FRETH and the technical supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) through the Federal Project Coordinator to whom the consultant will report.

The incumbent will provide technical and operational support to ensure proper monitoring and evaluation of the activities undertaken by the bilateral loan project and the FAO project GCP /ETH/095/ITA-Technical Assistance to inclusive and sustainable value chain development in Oromia and SNNPR.

The overall objective of the assignment is the establishment of operational Monitoring and Evaluation system for the project. The purpose is to provide the project team with tools to effectively monitor, project progress and achievement, and to provide evaluations at the end of project with sufficient information to assess the project success.

Elaborate monitoring and evaluation tools

• Reference to the project documents both the bilateral and the FAO project GCP /ETH/095/ITA (including, but not limited to the project document, work plans), propose improvement to the log frame and result matrix;

• Elaborate a M&E system with relevant, simple and straightforward indicators to monitor the project activities, outputs and outcomes;

• Establish an effective data collection system and reporting forms for capturing quantitative and qualitative information;

• Based on the relevant indicators, help design baseline and end line socioeconomic surveys;

• Identify sources of verification that the project can use;

• Establish an operational manual of M&E system that includes the above and guides the project team in processing and evaluating the information;

Implement the monitoring and the evaluation system

• Implement the established M&E system during the life cycle of the project to ensure i) efficient implementation and accomplishment of the activities of the FAO and the bilateral projects and ii) assessment of the progress and impacts of the activities till the end of the projects.

• Contribute to the production of relevant document required for organization of steering committees;

• Compiling and analysing of the collected data and information for producing the following reports

  • Monthly Progress Reports\: each month, the expert will review and approve the progress reports prepared by different selected service providers hired by the project. The monthly report will include narrative section of the activities ( progress in achieving the set milestones for the reporting period, challenges, deviation, alternate solution and new initiatives)

  • Quarterly M&E Reports
  • Six months progress reports
  • Annual reports
  • Support any evaluation mission

  • Final Report including extended and summary Report

Contribute to the document of best practices and learning process

• Documentation of best practices of the project at the end of the project Perform other related tasks as required

• Candidates should be national of Ethiopia

• Advanced University Degree in Agricultural Economics, Business Management, Statistics or other closely related field.

• Five years of relevant experience in the fields of Monitoring and Evaluation of projects;
• Excellent knowledge of English both written and spoken;
• Familiarity to work with UN agencies, Government and other partners under joint programs.
  

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

• Extent and relevance of experience and knowledge of Monitoring and Evaluation tools;
• Extent and relevance of experience in developing M&E tools and information materials;
• Familiarity to work with UN agencies, Government and other partners;
• Relevance of experience with Italian-funded projects is an asset;
• Ability to work under pressure and willingness to travel frequently to rural areas of Ethiopia;
• Demonstrated capacity to write technical reports in English;
• Quality of both oral and written communication skills;