Fixed term contract: 1 year renewable subject to funding and performance.
Interpeace
Interpeace is an international organization for peacebuilding. Its aim is to strengthen the capacities of societies to manage conflict in non-violent, non-coercive ways by assisting national actors in their efforts to develop social and political cohesion. Interpeace also assists the international community (and in particular the UN) to play a more effective role in supporting peacebuilding efforts around the world. For more information about Interpeace, please visit www.interpeace.org
Position within the Organization
The Monitoring & Evaluation and Learning Officer (MEL) for Mali is a member of Programme Management Unit which manages and implements Interpeace’s active and ongoing programmes around the world. The Programme Management Unit is led from the Headquarters office in Geneva, although team members are based in various locations including in East and Central Africa, West Africa, Europe and the MENA region. The MEL Officer reports to the Programme Officer for the Mali Programme.
The MEL Officer will also work in close collaboration with members of the Design, Monitoring Evaluation and Learning team on technical aspects for the Mali programme as well as institutional MEL work.
Purpose and General Overview
The MEL Officer will be responsible for leading the processes of design, monitoring and evaluation as well as learning for the country programme Mali as agreed by both Interpeace and its local partner in Mali. The MEL should be the key resource person for the Mali Programme Team in terms of design, monitoring and evaluation as well as learning.
Duties and responsibilities
50 % H3I project – 50% Mali Programme
Design, Monitoring and Evaluation
Lead and manage design, monitoring and evaluation processes to ensure that the Mali Programme adhere to global M&E standards while adapting them to capacities and realities of the programme team as well as strategic thinking between Interpeace and its partner in Mali. The goal is to facilitate the measurement of effectiveness of programme implementation, to drive evidence-based programme management and to better understand and learn from peacebuilding processes and their effects. Tasks include:
- Lead the reflection about and innovation of monitoring and evaluation systems and tools.
- Lead the development and roll-out of monitoring and evaluation systems and tools on the country or project level, which includes design and facilitation of workshops for the development of M&E systems and tools for specific projects.
- Provide support and coaching for Interpeace staff and partner in M&E related questions.
- Ensure that shortfalls in monitoring, evaluation and information management that affect programme implementation are identified and addressed.
- Contribute to and facilitate programme reflections among Interpeace staff and partner to generate relevant information for programme reporting and self-evaluations on programme-induced change processes.
- Contribute to and review programme reports to donors to ensure coherence with M&E standards.
- Serve as lead focal point for internal and external programme assessments, evaluations, etc. Supervise the execution of external evaluations, including budget management, recruitment and management of consultants, design of data gathering process and review of final reports;
- Ensure the integration of recommendations from external and internal evaluations into the ongoing work;
- Ensure that the programmatic work in-country complies with and feeds into Interpeace’s institutional MEL frameworks;
- Contribute to the writing of programme proposals and concept notes in order to ensure that issues about monitoring and evaluation are taken into account, clearly stated and in line with team capacities and existing systems (e.g. Logframe and indicators, M&E plan, Theory of Change);
- Work closely with other colleagues across the organization supporting their programme design with experience from West Africa
In addition to the previous mentioned tasks and specific to the Vestibules de la Paix project:
The MEL will be responsible, in collaboration with the local partner MEL officer and Project Coordinator, IDS, Humanity and Interpeace Partnership Officer, for:
- Ensuring the implementation of the learning pillar of the project, by calibrating the innovative MEL methodology with the continued objective of identifying and documenting lessons learned and good practices in the context of peacebuilding in order to create a basis for evidence;
- Documenting the process, the use of its specific tools, and the expected or unexpected outcomes;
- Leading on the monitoring of the context-specific indicators of created for the project, and improve or add to them as necessary;
- Leading on the continual improvement and adaptation of the operational guidelines and manuals for the implementation of the approach applied during the project, as necessary.
Learning
Lead processes to enhance learning among Interpeace’s Mali staff and partner to ensure application of up-to-date best practices, to facilitate connection with other peacebuilding practitioners within and beyond Interpeace, and to promote innovation in programme processes and tools. Tasks include:
- Develop strategies for documenting and disseminating lessons learned, success stories and methodological innovations within Interpeace;
- Develop and update internal documents which allow to capture lessons learned and ensure the transfer of savoir-faire among colleagues and between programmes;
- Organize and facilitate regular reflective workshops and exercises within the Mali team and/or programme partner on peacebuilding practices;
- Contribute to advancing the Interpeace approach by sharing lessons learned, best practices and innovations with Interpeace colleagues beyond the Programme;
- Support review of written products including publications and donor reports to provide quality control for communicating about impacts and change;
- Lead the fostering of a learning and reflective atmosphere within the programme team/partner teams this includes accompanying the programme team in the development of work plans for learning as well as mobilization for face-to-face meetings between partner and staff from different countries and regions;
- Ensure the effective knowledge management within the Mali team, including the use of Sharepoint, mailing lists and internal communication processes
Training and capacity building
Coordinate efforts to strengthen staff capacities. Tasks include:
- Lead the development and implementation of induction processes for regional staff and support partners in development of their own induction system;
- Coordinating internal efforts of personal development, ensuring that needs and existing capacities are assessed regularly within the regional team (and partner teams when applicable) with the aim of fostering a culture of mutual coaching and mentoring;
- Identify training and learning opportunities and engage in networking at the regional and national level in order to source potential training and learning opportunities for the staff/teams;
- Design and contribute to the delivery of training conducted by Interpeace for partners and donors.
Qualifications:
Education
- Master’s degree in international relations, peace and conflict studies, security studies, human rights, diplomacy, international cooperation, humanitarian aid, psychology, communication or related fields
Experience
- 3-5 years of experience of DME and learning preferably in peacebuilding or development organizations with a particular emphasis on developing systems and processes which are owned by the project teams and allow to generate and analyse field, program and organization level results information. The results should be shown to feed into decision-making and organisational learning concerning ongoing projects and programme development.
- 1-3 years of experience using innovative MEL methods such as Outcome Harvesting, Most Significant Change, After Action Reviews and other qualitative and quantitative participatory methodologies
- 1 – 5 years of professional experience in providing adapted support to daily tasks of local partners in project implementation (strategy, planning, reflection, monitoring, or evaluation) in the fields of peacebuilding, development, social business or similar fields
- 1 – 5 years of professional experience in writing reports for donors and in developing project proposals and concept notes
Competencies
- Demonstrated use of a variety of M&E approaches, particularly Theory of Change, RPP Change Matrix, Outcome Mapping and/or Logical Framework
- Demonstrated work experience in West Africa considered a strong asset
- Demonstrated knowledge of and experience in capacity building and mutual learning is considered a strong asset
- Knowledge of and experience in research, advocacy is considered an asset
- Full professional proficiency in French or native speaker (CEFR: C2) and professional working proficiency in English (CEFR: C1)
Other qualities
- Demonstrated interest and experience (e.g. policy brief, analytical publication, academic dissertation, work experience, volunteer engagement) in peacebuilding dynamics in West Africa (social cohesion, reconciliation, trust building, dialogue, radicalization, violent extremism, dynamics of violence etc.)
- Aptitude to adapt to a different context regarding security, culture, climate or health issue, demonstrated by at least 6 months experience outside of country of origin
Interpeace Competencies
- Collaboration and Weaving
- Communication
- Drive for results
- Adaptability and Continuous Learning
- Respect for Diversity
Success factors
- identify with Interpeace’s core objectives.
- enjoy integrating into a dedicated, dynamic and international team
- be motivated to closely collaborate with our national partner
- be eager to learn more about peacebuilding and conflict prevention
- be creative and a critical thinker.
- be flexible, including regarding working hours and short‐notice availability