Reports to: Research Team Leader – Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

Location: Rabat, Morocco

Purpose of the position

This project-based position supports the monitoring and evaluation of project indicators under the country results framework. Reporting to the Research Team Leader – Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning, the role ensures effective data collection, quality assurance, analysis, learning and reporting.

About the Project
Rural Employment through Animal Feed production (REAP) is a five-year multi-country initiative intended to advance education and relieve poverty by enabling 1,000,000 financially disadvantaged young women and men, aged 18 to 35 years, to access new work opportunities in sustainable feed and livestock value chains across the seven countries. The Program will equip financially disadvantaged young people with technical, entrepreneurial, financial; digital and workplace skills linked to viable economic opportunities. It will also improve their access to employment, finance, productive assets and markets, creating income-generating opportunities that strengthen household resilience and wellbeing. Among its participants, the Program shall target 70% young women and at least 5% youth with disabilities and 20,000 refugees and displaced young people.

The programme will support youth-led and youth-inclusive enterprises to enter, stabilise and grow in feed and livestock markets; strengthen market systems, services, and commercial relationships; and improve policy, finance, innovation, extension, and other enabling systems required for youth-led enterprises to succeed and generate additional employment opportunities. Across these areas, it applies gender-transformative and inclusive approaches to address restrictive gender and social norms, reduce barriers to young women’s participation, and strengthen their agency, voice, leadership and access to resources and opportunities. Safeguarding measures are embedded throughout the programme to protect young people from harm and support their safe participation.

About ICARDA                                                                                                                

The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is a treaty-based international non-profit research organization supported by CGIAR.  
ICARDA’s mission is to reduce poverty, enhance food, water, and nutritional security, as well as environmental health in the face of global challenges including climate change. We do this through innovative science, strategic partnerships, linking research to development and capacity development that take into account gender equality and the role of youth in transforming the dry areas. ICARDA works in partnership with governments, universities, civil society, national agricultural research organization, other CGIAR Research Centers, and the private sector. With its temporary Headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, ICARDA operates in regional and country offices across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. For more information: www.icarda.org.

Main responsibilities           

Monitoring and Evaluation

·       Support project activity monitoring by recording the project on the web-based MEL platform (HTTP://mel.cgiar.org) and continuously appraise the status of deliverables including through routine field visits and interactions with project staff and stakeholders.

·       Track the progress of the project against the country result framework and its performance indicators (Shared and Customized Measures with the required disaggregation by sex, age, disability and displacement status.

·       Conduct or manage project evaluation processes at baseline (Year 1), mid-term and endline (Year 5), consistent with ICARDA’s MELIAF Policy.

·       Participate in the relevant project research studies through the development of data collection  tools and program or provide technical backstopping for their programming in mobile data collection platforms such as ODK, ONA, CSPro, KOBOToolbox, etc.

·       Support the project in the development and review of Plans of Work and Budget and periodic reporting processes.

·       Implement project pause-and-reflect activities to identify, document and share/ disseminate lessons learned, and utilise them for adaptive management.

·       Develop and maintain simulation and foresight models suitable to estimate higher-level results and associated innovations.

·       Participate and make input to the MEL community of practice of the project

·       Provide MEL support, tools, templates and training and delivery partners operating in the country, so that indicator data are collected, verified and reported consistently across the country portfolio.

·       Conduct data quality assurance in the field, including back-checks, spot-checks and periodic data-quality assessments with participants and enterprises, and follow up on corrective actions with partners.

·       Undertake other tasks relevant for the efficient and effective running of the monitoring, evaluation and learning function, and ICARDA as a whole, as may be assigned by the Research Team Leader – Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning.

Data Management

·       Develop and coordinate the Data Management Plan (DMP) implementation.

·       Support research scientists to manage data across the project and data life cycles, in compliance with data management guidelines.

·       Curate reported datasets in accordance with institutional requirements and best practices.

·       Prepare and submit data through the program submit-review-approve-lock workflow, working with the ICARDA MEL team data management specialist, so that results aggregate cleanly into program-level reporting.

·       Ensure all data collection complies with ICARDA’s Research Ethics Policy and the CGIAR Research Ethics Code, including ethics clearance, prior informed consent, data minimization, de-identification and secure storage.

Requirements

Education, qualifications, and experience

·       Master’s degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Agricultural Economics, Development Economics, Agriculture, Statistics or related disciplines.

·       At least 7 years of work experience in a monitoring and evaluation role with an organization in the agrifood systems research and development sector.

·       Previous experience coordinating or conducting field studies for purposes collecting monitoring and evaluation data.

·       Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and Arabic.

·       Ability to engage with project stakeholders in a clear and professional way

·       Strong computer skills, including in using MS Office, and familiarity with web-based platforms.

·       Experience working in the country.

·       Professional level of attention to detail, accuracy of work & ability to multitask and manage deadlines.

·       Ability to work in interdisciplinary & multicultural teams.

·       Knowledge of the CGIAR, its research portfolio and Centers.

·       Work or research experience in livestock, animal feed or agricultural value chains, and in youth employment, enterprise development or financial inclusion programs.

·       Experience managing data of a research and development project with multiple partner institutions.

Benefits

Terms of appointment, salary, and benefits

This is a nationally recruited position open for Moroccan nationals for which ICARDA offers an attractive compensation package including a competitive salary, medical insurance, 30 days of annual leave, five months’ maternity leave, 15 days’ paternity leave. The successful candidate will be offered an initial contract of 3 years, renewable subject to continued need for the position and satisfactory performance.

Please be advised that ICARDA accepts applications only in English, as per the organization's standard communication language. Applications in other languages will not be considered.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.