The International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) seeks a monitoring and evaluation specialist for a project under the West Africa Cotton Improvement Program (WACIP). This USAID-funded project is working in four countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali plus to some extent Senegal – in nine intervention areas clustered under:
· Cotton productivity
· Value added operations in cotton processing and transformation
· Cotton sector policies and institutions
The objectives in these countries are to: (1) Increase cotton and related system crop yields and incomes of cotton producers; (2) Improve the competitiveness, quality and value addition of the cotton sector; (3) Increase producers’ share of marketing margins, and (4) Improve the longer term environment for sustainable income growth through better policies, institutions, research and technologies.
To ensure the project responds to national priorities and is sustainable, nearly half the project funding will be incorporated in a sub-grant program. The objective is to strengthen the capacities of national and regional partners though trainings, workshops, study tours, local consultants, rapid assessments and business plan development. Moreover, the project team will work with national and regional partners to leverage the resources and influence of other donors to help transform the sector.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist will be responsible for monitoring project progress and evaluating the project outcomes against the targets, enabling USAID, project management and West and Central African partners to gain feedback and determine the direction of progress. He will report to the Program Administrator.
Duties
Assist the project team and partner organizations to ensure effective, efficient and reliable data collection and analysis and to report against the targets in the indicator tables and outlined more specifically in annual work plans.
· Provide guidance to partner institutions, in particular grant recipients, to strengthen their capacity for participatory monitoring and evaluation systems of WACIP.
· Write periodic reports on progress being made – using indicator tables and logical frameworks as developed in the work plans and the participatory monitoring and evaluation plans.
· Provide guidance on adjustments of work plan activities and targets at all levels of WACIP, based on the periodic assessments.
· Provide the COP and Program Administrator with all information necessary for continuous monitoring and decision making and to help them deliver periodic progress reports to USAID on time.
Job requirements
· Masters Degree or DEA in a relevant discipline
· Experience for at least 3 years with participatory Monitoring and Evaluation
· Ability to perform statistical analyses and to interpret results correctly.
· Ability to provide positive and timely feedback to colleagues and staff of partner institutions.
· Excellent command of computers and statistical software. Ability to manipulate large data sets.
· Ability top speak and report in English and French.
· Ability to work independently and to take initiative.
· Excellent skills to work in a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary environment.
Qualified and interested candidates are asked to send a curriculum vitae together with a cover letter to (ifdc@malipages.com) by March 02, 2007.