03.10.2023

Вакансія: USAID ERA looks for MEL Officer

ЗАВЕРШЕНО

Since 2018, USAID Economic Resilience Activity (ERA) has focused its activities on eastern Ukraine. In 2022, it expanded its geography of cooperation to other regions due to Russia’s full-scale invasion and occupation of part of Ukraine. In 2023, given the military and political circumstances and challenges, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) changed ERA’s priorities.

ERA is one of the implementers of the U.S. Government’s Interagency Agriculture Resilience Initiative – Ukraine (AGRI – Ukraine), which aims to support Ukrainian agricultural production and exports and help address the global food crisis exacerbated by Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine. USAID supports the Government of Ukraine, including working with the State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure of Ukraine (SARDI) and the State Customs Service, through ERA, to modernize border crossing points to improve grain trade and exports, passenger traffic, and perceptions of Ukraine. ERA is also implementing the Economic Stability and Recovery Initiative (ESRI), which focuses on job retention and creation and assists small and medium-sized enterprises.

USAID ERA prioritizes work on AGRI and rehabilitating EU-facing border crossing points (BCPs). The AGRI component is extending its technical assistance to Ukrainian Agri-traders and logistics companies supporting them in increasing capacity and potential of grain export logistics. The BCP component includes complex construction management and procurement of equipment and service for BCPs to become more efficient in processing big cargos of grain and other commodities through the border.

About the job

The MEL Officer provides information management and design of a monitoring and reporting system, including the development of program indicators to help inform USAID, the Chief of Party, and Technical Program Officers of project status and progress toward achievement of key results as agreed in the annual work plans. This position ensures that the Activity produces and disseminates high-quality knowledge, tools, and lessons learned through routine monitoring, evaluation, and implementation experience. The MEL Officer is based in Lviv or Odesa and is expected to travel extensively along the western border of Ukraine. The MEL Officer reports to the Deputy Chief of Party, Technical.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning:

Support systematic data collection and analysis of progress towards Activity key performance indicators;
Coordinate data collection on informational and communication events;
Support technical team in grants design in terms of the development of appropriate systems of grant monitoring and evaluation approach;
Develop surveys and survey administration protocols to assess the impact of program events such as workshops, training, seminars, etc.;
Analyze data for donor-requested reports;
Train and support ERA grantees and relevant vendors in terms of ERA MEL requirements, including reporting on progress, achievements, lessons learned, and data collection;
Support grants’ evaluation;
Travel across the Western Ukraine border and conduct site visits to ongoing interventions;
Prepare data and visualizations for reports and presentations.

Communication: in coordination with the Communication Team,

represents ERA in a professional manner to relevant stakeholders;
fosters ongoing positive cooperation with the stakeholders and ERA staff;
ensures that the correct USAID ERA branding and marking are utilized during the performance of the technical tasks.

Reporting:

Contributes to the preparation of ERA quarterly and annual reports;
Provide M&E-related inputs for regular reports to the Activity beneficiaries (Luhansk and Donetsk oblast state administrations);
Support regular reporting of ERA Geodata to USAID/Ukraine Geodata system;
Ensure progress towards ERA key performance indicators is reported in a timely manner;
Monitor grants and direct interventions implementation in terms of progress towards key performance indicators through the review of reports, correspondence, site visits, direct communication with grantees and vendors, etc.;
Serves as the point of contact for all official communication dealing with M&E management;
Performs other functions as requested by ERA management.

About you

Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field;
Two or more years of experience in monitoring and evaluation management, preferably for USAID-funded programs;
Expertise in developing and managing MEL systems and instruments;
Proficiency in data collection and analysis, data quality assessment;
Proficiency in database management;
Expertise in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies;
Experience in survey design and development;
Expertise in database management and data analysis;
Strong writing and analytical abilities;
Proficiency with desktop publishing;
Fluent English and Ukrainian are required.