Senior Evaluation Specialist, Measuring Biodiversity Impact

Management Systems International (MSI) is a global international development firm based in Washington, D.C. providing specialized short- and long-term technical assistance. MSI is part of Coffey International Development, a global international development consulting firm. Together with Coffey ID, MSI now has more than 1,500 development professionals worldwide, a corporate presence in 11 countries and manages more than 200 projects worldwide. It currently manages more than 20 long-term projects in countries, including Iraq, Sudan, Colombia and Russia. Broadly, MSI implements a range of analytical and field projects in its core technical areas, including democracy and governance, strategic management and performance improvement, organizational capacity building, human development and natural resource management. For more information on MSI, please visit our website at www.msiworldwide.com.

Project Summary:
The objective of this contract is to improve USAID's programming in biodiversity and forest conservation and integrated activities by: 1) enhancing capacity of USAID and partners to design and adaptively manage effective biodiversity, forestry and related integrated programs; 2) increasing USAID capability for project evaluations; 3) strengthening the evidence base for the contribution of biodiversity conservation to rural development; and 4) enhancing USAID's technical leadership in the conservation field.

Position Summary: The Senior Evaluation Specialist position will be a senior-level position reporting directly to the project Chief of Party (COP). The position duties include supporting the following project tasks: 1) build the capacity of USAID's environment staff to design and support rigorous project evaluations; 2) evaluate current and past biodiversity and integrated programs to guide adaptive management and to inform future programming; and 3) identify and disseminate key lessons learned from each of the evaluations.

The Senior Evaluation Specialist position is based in Washington, D.C. and is full-time. The project is expected to begin in late 2012 and will run for a five-year period.

Specific responsibilities include: • Provide intellectual and thought leadership in the area of Environmental and Natural Resource Management (ENRM) and Climate Change Evaluation; • Produce a guide for use by USAID staff in designing biodiversity and integrated project evaluations which incorporates the best practices and criteria agreed upon by a working group of USAID ENRM staff, and is consistent with the goals of the USAID Evaluation Policy; • Coordinate and provide technical assistance to an internal USAID ENRM evaluation review committee responsible for reviewing and providing input into all scopes of work for evaluations conducted under this contract; • Oversee up to 13 evaluations of global biodiversity and forest conservation activities; and • Disseminate to the wider conservation community the lessons learned on key themes and issues, via presentations at technical workshops and donor forums, white papers, articles on public websites, etc.

Qualifications: • Strong skills and expertise in research related to biodiversity, forestry and other natural resource management activities, including in-depth knowledge of research methods, survey and sampling design, and quantitative analysis; • Significant experience in evaluation design and delivery for international development activities and biodiversity conservation projects, including the appropriate use of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods; • At least a Master's degree (Ph.D. preferred) in international development, biodiversity conservation, ecology, economics, sociology, anthropology, or public administration; ● At least 10-15 years' experience in international development or closely related field, with significant overseas experience; ● Demonstrated understanding of the USAID program management cycle; ● Spanish language fluency preferred.

Only candidates who have been selected for an interview will be contacted. No phone calls, please.

How to apply:

To apply, please visit our website: www.msiworldwide.com.