Expertise France recruits 01 Senior expert in Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL)

Expertise France recruits 01 Senior expert in Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL)

Position Senior expert in Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL)

Country or Region Caribbean OCTs (permanent Programme Team based in Sint Maarten)

Duration short-term (maximum of 500 mandays over 58 months), or indicatively 100 per year

Deadline for submission of CV 08/07/2019

Project reference 18DDU0C052

Project description The Caribbean OCTs Resilience, Sustainable Energy and Marine Biodiversity Programme (ReSEMBiD) is financed under the 11^th European Development Fund (EDF) Caribbean OCT Regional Programme (36.7M€). The stakeholders of this action in the broadest sense are the 12 Caribbean OCTs:

• British: Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands
• Dutch: Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten
• French: Saint-Barthélemy

The Prime Minister of Sint Maarten, being the Regional Authorising Officer for the 11th EDF Caribbean Regional Programme, represents vis-à-vis the EU the 12 Caribbean OCTs. The RAO plays a key role in information sharing, knowledge management, and in liaising with national authorities and other stakeholders of the Caribbean OCTs. Various stakeholders can be identified in the individual OCTs:  governmental representatives, NGOs, focal points for the regional programme and departmental staff dealing with resilience, climate change adaptation, disaster preparedness, energy and biodiversity, research and/or educational institutes, gender machinery, private sector.

The Action shall be carried out at the following location: all twelve Caribbean OCTs qualify for activities of this action, but exact locations of the activities are not yet known. The programme team will be based in Sint Maarten, and supported by Expertise France liaison office in Paris.

The overall objective of the action is to strengthen environmentally sustainable economic development in the Caribbean OCTs. The key specific objectives to be pursued based on the consultation of both the Regional Authorising Officer and the Caribbean OCTs are indicatively described below. They represent the three components of the Action:

• Sustainable Energy : To increase energy efficiency of infrastructures with high impact on energy consumption ;
• Marine biodiversity: To improve protection and sustainable management of the OCTs marine biodiversity;
• Resilience: To increase the resilience of the Caribbean OCTs to adapt to extreme and recurrent natural events (transversal component).

Expertise France aims to contribute to the Caribbean countries’ social, economic and environmental development. Building resilience to the effects of climate change, striving towards a low carbon economy and marine biodiversity protection will contribute to sustainable economic development in the Region, including gender equality.

Great emphasis will systematically be given on the participatory design of the programme and its management, from the beginning involving all relevant stakeholders (beneficiaries, civil society, local population, funding institutions, etc.). Furthermore, stimulation of the development process through progressive learning by the beneficiaries is also considered as an absolute prerequisite and major indicator of the programme’s success.

Qualifications and skills of the candidates will therefore be assessed with regard to all the considerations aforementioned.

The programme team will be composed of:

• In the field: a Programme Director, a Resilience and Climate change adaptation Senior Advisor, 1 Programme Manager/governance and support, 3 Programme Managers/thematic, a Financial, Fiscal and Administrative Manager and an assistant, a grant officer, a MEAL and communication experts and an assistant.
• In Paris (liaison office): Sustainable Development Department Director and Head of thematic unit, a Programme Manager and an Assistant Projects Manager.

Short term expertise will also be mobilised according to the programme needs.

We are looking for an expert who meets the following criteria:

Job description

Under the supervision of Expertise France and in close coordination with the programme director and senior technical advisor, the MEAL expert will work transversally with the entire team to develop and promote the use of the MEAL systems to ensure that:

• The programme staff, partners and other key stakeholders are sufficiently informed on the extent to which the programme activities are impacting the lives of the targeted populations;
• Feedback on programme activities are shared and support the elaboration of the programme strategy;
• The mechanism for beneficiary accountability is in place;
• Learning from projects is captured with evidence support, and is applied in future activities or programmes.

S/he will accomplish this through the design, coordination and implementation of the comprehensive MEAL framework/system focusing on building the capacity, as well as promoting and fostering a culture of shared learning and accountability, and promoting innovation within the programme ecosystem. He/She will develop a systematic monitoring framework to improve the project management, and he/she also will provide technical assistance to the beneficiaries.

The key responsibilities of the role include (but are not limited to):

DEFINING THE MEAL STRATEGY AND TOOLS

• Provide strategic direction for the development and maintenance of MEAL systems and the roll-out of new initiatives.
• Ensure that the MEAL strategy and system are in compliance with local policies, procedures, standards and strategic initiatives and EU MEAL and Reporting policies and guidance.
• Ensure the consistency of indicators and tools across all partners, sectors, and programs as appropriate, maintaining a bank of key program indicators.
• Develop and regularly update the MEAL operating manual, covering data collection tools, data flow maps and analysis plans for program quality and donor reporting.
• Lead the development of project tracking, record keeping and filing methodologies for all activities.
• Work with IT staff to maximize the value and utility of ICT4D in MEAL initiatives.

IMPROVING PROGRAM QUALITY

A primary responsibility for the MEAL expert is to strengthen the capacity of staff to design, implement and utilize MEAL systems to improve program quality:

• Take an active role in promoting implementation of the programme’s MEAL policies and procedures.
• Support programme staff and partners to design and plan MEAL systems that meet project needs, enable responsiveness to both beneficiaries and donors, and ensure program quality.
• Provide guidance to teams to effectively collect data, e.g. as part of field assessments, baseline, monitoring, mid-term and final evaluations, including:
• Advising on data collection methodologies and sampling;
• Developing or reviewing instruments for data collection;
• Designing data management systems;
• Advising on data entry needs and requirements;
• Establishing mechanisms to effectively utilize local consultants.
• Support staff and partners to analyze and report on data collected, including training in quantitative and/or qualitative analysis, as appropriate.
• Work with staff and partners to develop information and communications technology (ICT)/management information systems which meet stakeholder information needs and streamline MEAL management.
• Work with staff and partners to strengthen existing beneficiary accountability systems that meet stakeholder information needs and enable community engagement.
• Champion use of MEAL data to revise project theory of change/assumptions and adapt project strategies, as needed, to ensure high quality programming.
• Perform and take the lead using Data Quality Assessments (DQAs)
• Help ensure integration of cross-sectoral priorities in MEAL, including gender, age and diversity analysis, stakeholder analysis, organizational capacity, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
• Develop and maintain MEAL data base.

SUPPORTING PROGRAM GROWTH AND STRENGTHENING MEAL CAPACITIES

• Design projects that ensure rigorous logic between activities, outputs, results; have a clear Theory of Change; and provide for robust accountability mechanisms;
• Ensure MEAL policy and procedures’ requirements are addressed during the design phase of the programme,
• Advise on development of indicators and selection of methods that will ensure rigorous MEAL during project implementation;
• Support design of field assessments to collect the information necessary for project design and strategy development;
• Be familiar with and advise on integrating relevant donor MEAL requirements (e.g.EU).
• Assist local beneficiaries in strengthening the capacity of both CRS and partner staff to implement and utilize MEAL systems to improve program quality, including on-site capacity building and distance coaching through reviews, emails and conversations which provide tools, resources, and practical advice in simple terms.
• Support learning-to-action activities to systematically analyze data to promote adaptive management and to document and incorporate lessons learned into program design and implementation.
• Conduct regular field monitoring visits / events.
• Collect and analyze lessons learned and best practices from previous and ongoing programs capturing the impact of activities.
• Leverage lessons learned, best practices, program data, evaluations and other information to generate donor communication pieces, proposal annexes, success stories, case studies and other high-quality, results-based documentation.

• At least 10 years of work experience in design, implementation, and oversight of evaluation and research for international development projects;
• At least 5 years of experience in M&E/MEAL design and implementation at the project and programme level;
• Fluent English (speaking and writing).

Qualitative criterias

• Academic background
• Relevance of the academic background related to the field
• Competence
• Level of competence in the field
• Familiarity with EU policies related to evaluation and performance management
• Good knowledge of the Caribbean region context;
• Fluent English (speaking and writing) is essential;
• Professional experiences
• Relevance of professional experiences in the field of MEAL
• Relevance of professional experiences in the field of MEAL in multi-country programme
• Prior experience working in SIDS and especially in the Caribbean region strongly preferred
• Relevance of publications in the field of MEAL or within the framework of development cooperation projects
• Prior experience in assessment of activities and achievements in the field of gender mainstreaming on the basis of predetermined targets

• an updated resume with contact details for at least two professional referee;
• a cover letter detailing your skills, experience and interest in this position.

Together with CV, candidates have to give full coordinates of the company which is to be contracted by Expertise France.

Contacts :

Please refer as object of your e-mail application « ReSEMBiD : MEAL Senior Expert » and send it to  alain.chhuor@expertisefrance.fr ; julia.morelli@expertisefrance.fr

Please note that interviews will take place for this positions as of June 24th, 2019.