Program Officer, Monitoring & Evaluation

Job Description

Position summary

The Program Officer Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) is responsible for coordinating and carrying out M&E activities in Rainforest Alliance’s Landscapes & Livelihoods projects in Ghana.

The Program Officer M&E will support these projects by working with Rainforest Alliance staff, project partners, consultants and stakeholders to build and manage sound M&E systems that improve understanding of the local context and tracks the project implementations and outcomes of interventions over time.

This includes designing and evaluating implementation of project activities; training technical staff, project partners, and field consultants on M&E methods and tools; ensuring proper output and outcome indicator data collection, quality control, analysis, and management; and reporting on key findings. The position will also coordinate closely with other Rainforest Alliance units.

The position is open to expand in time and geography depending on funding and development.

Responsibilities

• Develop and manage field-based project M&E systems´ including methods, tools and processes, in coordination with Senior Manager Strategic Projects West-Africa, Ghana Country Lead, West-Africa Regional Lead and other Project Managers.
• Facilitate baseline assessments at project inception to understand needs, gaps, and opportunities for achieving rural development outcomes in the context of business and local community needs;
• Design and provide remote and in-country training and technical assistance to staff, project partners and field consultants on M&E methods, tools and processes, ensuring M&E best practices;
• Collaborate in the design and conduction of field-based studies, and supervise assessment teams as necessary;
• Implement and take responsibility for quality control procedures to ensure transparent, evidence-based M&E systems, and the collection, management, analysis and reporting of high-quality output and outcome indicator data;
• Identify M&E partner organizations, such as local universities or research institutions as appropriate;
• Support Project Managers in maintaining updated project information in the SharePoint-based project site;
• Support Project Managers in the preparation of quality and timely project performance technical reports as required by donors, as well as in the preparation of presentations to partners, Senior Manager Strategic Projects West-Africa, and other Rainforest Alliance units;
• Ensure that Rainforest Alliance´s Key Performance Indicators are embedded in project design; and M&E best practices into the project;

Required Skills or Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in international development, Agriculture, Social Sciences, Economics, Natural Resources Management or related field;
• Minimum 4 years of experience in similar position, including minimum of 2 years of experience conducting project M&E activities, impact assessments of programs and projects, and/or related studies, preferably related to sustainable livelihoods, sustainable agriculture, agricultural supply chain management, and/or community engagement;
• Experience advising and supervising field teams or consultants in the collection of field data on social, environmental and/or agronomic and/or socioeconomic indicators for performance assessment, and in the use of associated field methods and tools (household surveys, farm monitoring, etc.)
• Fluent English required, and knowledge of French is a big plus;
• Ability to develop and implement cost-effective performance-based monitoring systems;
• Demonstrated ability to build capacity for project M&E among project staff and partners;
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills;
• Experience in West Africa;
• Ability to be results-oriented and multi-task, as well as motivate field staff and teams to manage diverse and time-sensitive activities while delivering quality results; and
• Ability to travel locally and internationally at least 40% of the time.