Monitoring Evaluation & Learning Manager – USAID Empower West Africa (EWA)

Finance September 25, 2023

0 4 minutes read

RTI seeks a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Manager for the anticipated USAID Empower West Africa program.

Monitoring Evaluation & Learning Manager – USAID Empower West Africa (EWA)

Research Triangle Institute (RTI) has over 30 years’ experience assisting governments, communities, and the private sector. As a not-for-profit, independent research institute based in North Carolina, USA, RTI has roughly 6,000 employees with global experience implementing international development projects. RTI’s Sustainable Growth & Resilience (SG&R) technical unit within the International Development Group brings together RTI experts and capabilities across food security, agriculture, energy, environment, water, governance, and economic opportunity. SG&R will leverage RTI’s experience designing and delivering multisectoral programming and technical solutions to respond to climate change, build resilience, and promote economic growth around the world.

SG&R’s Energy Division is working to develop and implement low emission energy technology alternatives, raise private financing for energy infrastructure, bring efficiency to utilities, work with governments on legal and regulatory reforms to alleviate bottlenecks in energy generation and consumption, and increase access to green energy to sustain economic growth and reduce poverty. We serve as a chosen partner for USAID’s Power Africa program in sub-Sahara Africa and have an established international energy portfolio of over $300 million across Africa, Asia, Pacific Islands, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Project Description

The purpose of the Empower West Africa (EWA) activity is to increase the availability of and access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and clean energy in West Africa in order to reach measurable economic growth, development outcomes, such as reducing poverty, improving livelihoods and increasing inclusive access to electricity-enabled services in such areas as health, education, sanitation, and food security. The activity will additionally support Just Energy Transition; improve the reliability of power supply; reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector by supporting cleaner electricity generation delivered by the national power grids; accelerate distributed renewable energy (DRE); support the transition of host governments’ resource planning leading to the adoption and further integration of renewable energy sources and solutions to meet climate action commitments; crowd in new technologies and innovations that scale access and impact; and increase access to private capital investment including improved uptake of climate funds, while working in partnership with governments to improve the enabling environment for energy sector investment and innovation. The EWA activity anticipates supporting the West Africa region in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

Position Description:

RTI seeks a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Manager for the anticipated USAID Empower West Africa program. The MEL Manager will be responsible for leading the MEL team that oversees all monitoring, evaluation, and learning activities for the program. The MEL Manager will lead efforts to collect and analyze data related to activity performance; conduct and/or organize rapid and other activity-related performance evaluations; conduct and/or organize assessments, studies and other analyses to better understand the local context; ensure the quality of activity reporting; and promote adaptive learning based on monitoring, evaluation and learning. The MEL Advisor will support the technical staff to develop and manage interventions to improve local MEL. She/he will also coordinate with other USAID-supported MEL mechanisms.

This position will be based in Accra, Ghana and will report to a senior technical team member.

Position is contingent upon award and funding.

Responsibilities

Provides technical oversight for the development of the Activity Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (AMELP), including the Performance Monitoring Plan (PMP), learning plan/Agenda, and oversees its implementation and periodic revision.
Leads the development, implementation, refinement, and harmonization of the project’s MEL system; develops and operationalizes indicators, set targets, and monitors progress in accordance with the activity contract.
Works with technical staff to oversee tools for data collection, storage, and analysis; trains staff and partners on MEL system operations, collection methods, and tools.
Contributes to project efforts to build the technical, systems, and operational capacities of local partner organizations and other relevant stakeholders.

Spearheads Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) approaches, including providing leadership for the organization of Pause and Reflect and/or Results Review meetings.
Performs data analyses, generates reports of findings, and creates graphics and other visualizations, as needed, to contribute to reporting requirements and project communications products.
Plans for and supervises intermittent political economy analysis (PEA) studies and performance evaluations, collects and disseminates lessons learned, and shares successes during activity implementation.
Together with the COP and other members of management, supervises the implementation of workplan activities under the contract to ensure that performance schedules are observed, and outputs are completed according to schedule.
Works closely with the Communications team to create an inward- and outward-facing learning agenda.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree and 8 years of experience, or Master’s degree and 6 years of experience.
At least 6 years of MEL experience designing and implementing M&E systems for international donor-funded projects.  
Knowledge of reporting procedures, best practices, guidelines, methods, and approaches for MEL.

Demonstrated experience with computer and/or web-based performance data recording and reporting systems and other technologies to improve the quality of monitoring system integrity and data collection/analysis/reporting/visualization.
Excellent management, communication, and organizational skills (attention to detail is required); demonstrated flexibility and capacity to multi-task.  
Ability to articulate and apply CLA principles. 
Experience and in-depth knowledge and familiarity with USAID development sector priorities and reporting requirements; experience with programs focused on energy considered highly desirable.
Experience with MEL that measures and promotes gender, equity, and social inclusion.

Experience in providing technical assistance to local partners, organizations, and grantees.
Proficiency in English is required. French Skills are preferred.
Local Nationals encouraged to apply.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY ONLINE: Monitoring Evaluation & Learning Manager – USAID Empower West Africa (EWA)