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Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant

Economic Recovery and Development Technical Unit – Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant
BACKGROUND:
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of the largest humanitarian agencies in the world providing relief, rehabilitation, and post-conflict reconstruction support to victims of oppression and violent conflict. IRC has worked for over seventy-five years and today is involved in 25 conflict zones in the world.
The Economic Recovery and Development Technical Unit (ERD) provides technical assistance, ensures innovation, promotes best practices, and helps to improve data collection and analysis for economic and livelihoods programming within the organization.

SCOPE OF WORK:
IRC is currently seeking a M&E Consultant for the ERD unit to support its goal of increasing incomes, improving the utilization of resources, and creating jobs in post conflict/crisis-affected communities. The Technical Unit team is responsible for providing dynamic, innovative support to IRC’s field offices in program design, strategy development, monitoring and evaluation, and new business development. IRC seeks an M&E Consultant to develop and roll-out systems at the field and HQ level that contribute to evidence-based learning across all ERD programs. We are looking for individuals who display intelligence, good judgement, the capacity to anticipate, integrity, and high-energy drive.
The responsibilities of the consultant include:
1) Continuing the work on ERD Standardized Indicators 1&2
(SI 1: income increased, SI 2: jobs created/obtained)
2) Developing and piloting in the field Indicator 3 (focused on qualitative impact of Indicators 1&2 for example Most Significant Change technique)
3) Make at least one field visit to an ERD programme to test use of Standard Indicator 3 at project level
4) Facilitate session on the use of Standard Indicators at the ERD conference in Kenya August 2011
5) Set-up of knowledge management and tracking systems to be used by field and HQ
The activities and final report covering the deliverables as set out on the scope of work must be completed by 15th September 2011.

This engagement may be based in or close to New York, or London, with travel to the ERD conference in Kenya (August 22-25th) and at least one other ERD field location before the end of August 2011.

ERD seeks an individual with a mix of the following competencies:
I. TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES
· Experience with economic recovery programming and development of relevant M&E systems to track outcomes
· Comfortable with a cross-sectoral approach to programming
· Well-grounded in field experience, especially in post-conflict settings
· Technical knowledge in:
o Monitoring and evaluation: ability to design indicators and systems that demonstrate the value added of IRC’s work especially in economic recovery and development activities
o Familiarity with assessment methodologies appropriate to economic recovery work, such as: value chain analysis, household economy analysis, and/or market surveys
o Competence in using information technology including: experience with word-processing, spreadsheets and database software
II. Behavioral Competencies
· Vision: the capacity to envision outcomes different from those that seem obvious and develop plans to support those outcomes
· Intelligence and good judgement: the ability to prioritize successfully to meet objectives
· Foresight: the ability to anticipate issues and address them before they reach crisis level
· Demonstrate integrity in interactions with beneficiaries and donors
· High-energy drive and motivation
· Innovative and creative thinker: ability to problem-solve and incorporate new strategies into existing programs
· Flexible work attitude: the ability to travel to challenging environments and work under difficult circumstances
· Coordination: ability to work collaboratively internally and externally to improve design and outcomes
III. REQUIREMENTS:
  • Graduate Degree in a related field is preferred
  • Min. 5 years progressive work experience in economic programming around agriculture, early recovery support and/or food security programs in a post-conflict/crisis setting
  • Familiarity and successful collaboration with major donors such as DFID, the EU and USAID
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Speaking proficiency in at least one foreign language; French strongly preferred
To apply for this position, please submit your CV and cover letter with daily rate/compensation requirements to http://ircjobs.org/. This position is found in the Economic Development department listings. Applications must be submitted by June 15th 2011.


SCOPE OF WORK:

The Economic Recovery and Development Technical Unit wishes to monitor the impact of its global programming in a systematic and transparent way. To do so, ERD has decided to design and roll-out three standardized indicators to measure overall program size and impact. ERD has already made progress on the first two indicators (“additional income generated” and “number of jobs created” thanks to ERD programming) and seeks to develop a third, more qualitative indicator (for instance the “Most Significant Change” technique). The main assignment of the M&E Consultant will be to further develop, test and refine the standardized indicators to arrive at truly standardized, user-friendly, easy-to-collect and convincing measures.
The responsibilities of the Consultant include:
1) Continuing the work on ERD Standardized Indicators 1&2
(SI 1: income increased, SI 2: jobs created/obtained);
2) Developing and piloting in the field Indicator 3 (focused on qualitative impact of Indicators 1&2 for example Most Significant Change technique)
3) Make at least one field visit to an ERD programme to test use of all three Standard Indicators at project level
4) Facilitate session on the use of Standard Indicators at the ERD conference in Kenya August 2011
5) Set-up of knowledge management and tracking systems to be used by field and HQ
DELIVERABLES:
By the end of the assignment, the Consultant needs to submit following deliverables:
1) A detailed and practical plan on how to collect data on the first two indicators in a standardized way across all country programs. This plan needs to specify what types of data to collect in a systematic fashion (i.e. across all country programs), when (i.e. at what stage in the project) to collect it, how to collect it, and the feasibility (in terms of logistics and cost) to collect these data on all ERD projects in all countries;
2) A well-argued proposal for the third indicator. Although there is some thought on using the MSC indicator, we are open to alternative methods which measure impact in a qualitative fashion. This proposal needs to take into account the feasibility of implementing this indicator in a standardized way across the globe and the cost-effectiveness of doing so.
3) A report from the field visit that lays out the Consultant’s approach to implementing the three standardized indicators for a specific project and the practical difficulties encountered.


Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant