National Monitoring, Evaluation, Research & Learning Manager Full-Time

The Position

AKF Mozambique is seeking a National MERL Manager to oversee and lead the organization’s MERL activities. Working as a member of AKF Mozambique’s Senior Management Team, the National MERL Manager will take a portfolio-wide perspective and ensure that all of the organization’s MERL activities are planned and implemented to a high quality standard and in accordance with donor expectations. He/she will have a supervisory role over AKF Mozambique’s junior MERL staff – establishing work plans, evaluating staff performance and providing mentoring support to ensure that these staff can carry out their duties to the best of their abilities. He/she will ensure that AKF Mozambique’s MERL budgets and systems are fit for purpose and aligned with the organization’s overall strategic plan as well as being in accordance with the needs of individual donor-funded projects. He/she will provide ongoing guidance to project/programme teams on optimal ways to ensure the collection and reporting of reliable monitoring data. He/she will have a particularly important role to play in leading the technical design and implementation of research studies and project/programme evaluations, ensuring that these are designed ethically and according to appropriate technical standards in terms of methodology and data collection/analysis methods. Finally, he/she will be expected to lead the analysis and reporting of study and evaluation results, ensuring that these are communicated effectively to donors, as well as to AKF and partner staff as well as beneficiaries.

The requirements

The successful candidate is expected to have:

• A graduate degree in a field related to international development, ideally with a specific focus on project evaluation and/or with academic training on the applied use of qualitative and quantitative research methods;
• 6-8 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation of development projects, particularly in relation to rural economic development, community health and/or Early Childhood Development; demonstrated field experience is essential.
• Experience in positions of organizational leadership and team management, with a track record of mentoring junior colleagues on the design and rollout of MERL systems;
• Extensive knowledge of international development programming, including proposal design as well as the development of specific MERL-related components such as Performance Measurement Frameworks and SMART indicators;
• Demonstrated experience at all stages in the implementation of project/programme research studies and evaluations. Capacity to work with both qualitative and quantitative research methods would be a considerable asset, as is demonstrated experience as a trainer in the use of these methods for field-based data collection;
• Experience with different approaches to data visualization and their practical application for organizational communications and learning;
• Willingness to lead/participate in field activities and to travel to remote areas within Cabo Delgado province on a regular basis;
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively as part of a team; experience serving as a member of senior management in past positions would be an asset;
• Fluency in both English and Portuguese as well as the ability to write effectively in both languages;
• Strong analytical skills;