International Monitoring & Evaluation Expert (1)

madagascar

Organization: WFP - World Food Programme
Location: madagascar
Grade: Level not specified - Level not specified
Occupational Groups:
- Monitoring and Evaluation
Closing Date: Closed

Recrutement Title

Type of contract

Duration

Unit :division

Duty Station (City, Country)

: Monitoring & Evaluation expert

: Regular Consultant

: 11 months

: Programme/ Nutrition

: Ampanihy - Madagascar

BACKGROUND

Madagascar is a low-income country facing hunger challenges categorized as alarming on the 2017 Global Hunger Index. Eighty percent of the population lives in poverty. Low incomes and poor agricultural productivity contribute to food and nutrition insecurity. The situation is exacerbated by declining natural resources, increasingly prevalent and severe climate-related shocks, the limited capacity of governance systems and infrastructure, gender inequalities and traditional practices that perpetuate malnutrition. The income of more than half the population is less than the cost of a minimum nutritious diet, and 42 percent of children under 5 are stunted.

The Government’s development priorities are articulated in the national development plan for 2015–2019 and have the aim of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through strategies that deliver inclusive economic growth and build human, economic and environmental capital for sustainable development. This approach is reflected in the 2018 integrated strategy for development of the Grand Sud. WFP is uniquely placed to contribute to the achievement of these objectives by helping the Government establish effective systems for crisis response, social protection, school feeding, the prevention of malnutrition, and resilient livelihoods. These efforts will support delivery of the objectives of current and future United Nations development assistance frameworks and the Government’s strategic ambition of “valuing and protecting Madagascar’s natural capital through strong growth and inclusive services for the equitable and sustainable development for all”.

Malnutrition is associated with at least 44% of deaths among children under the age of 5 in Madagascar. It is also more prevalent in rural areas, in households of lower economic level and in households whose heads are poorly educated. Significant differences are noted between regions and boys are significantly more affected than girls. Persistent food insecurity, combined with structural constraints related to inadequate maternal and child care practices and poor access to general medical care, have had an impact on the nutritional status of children under 5 years.

The 2020 first quarter nutrition surveillance bulletin showed that Ampanihy district has been in a nutrition emergency or alert situation for more than one year, while the MICS 2018 survey showed that chronic malnutrition affects more than one third (38%) of children under five in the Atsimo Andrefana region.

In Madagascar, WFP’s country strategic plan (CSP) has five mutually reinforcing strategic outcomes that have the aim of promoting an integrated, shock-responsive social protection system for ensuring that vulnerable populations have access to nutritious food before, during and after crises; providing children in vulnerable communities with access to nutritious foods while at school; extending integrated approaches for the prevention of malnutrition among vulnerable women, adolescent girls and children; building the resilience of vulnerable smallholder households and communities; and ensuring that interventions for addressing both chronic and acute needs are supported by enhanced capacities and resources for emergency preparedness and response.

From 2014 to 2016, an integrated package was provided by WFP, UNFPA and the national nutrition office (ONN) at community level as part of a stunting prevention project called Miaro (prevention in Malagasy) in the communes of Itampolo and Fotadrevo, Ampanihy district. The project included the following components:

Nutritional supplementation for children aged 6 to 23 months and pregnant and lactating women and girls
Strengthening of reproductive health services
Communication for behavioural change at the community level

This approach has led to improved dietary diversity, increased attendance at health facilities for antenatal care and improved childcare practices. It has also had an impact on reducing the prevalence of chronic malnutrition by 7.3% in one of the targeted communes. There was less impact on stunting reduction in the food insecure areas, resulting in wider partnerships with other food security partners such as FAO in the scale up phase in 2017-2019 in two districts.

WFP has received a contribution from Koica to implement a project to prevent chronic malnutrition in two communes (Itampolo and Fotadrevo) in the district of Ampanihy, in the South of Madagascar, targeting children 6-23 months, pregnant and lactating women and girls, and children in primary school. This project aims at preventing stunting through a multisector approach that tackles the main causes of malnutrition with three outcomes:

Outcome 1: Prevent undernutrition through the provision of specialized nutritious foods for the first 1,000 days since conception

Outcome 2: Awareness and practices of optimal infant and young child feeding is increased among caregivers and communities

Outcome 3: Improve nutritious foods usage and accessibility in local communities through nutrition-sensitive projects

Theory of change of the project:

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

Under the general supervision of the Project manager and the technical supervision of the Nutrition Officer and the M&E officer in the country office, the M&E expert will be responsible for the development and implementation of Monitoring, Review and Evaluation Plans of the project, aligned to WFP corporate standards to generate quality evidence on the lives of beneficiaries and inform policy, strategy and programme design and implementation. This includes coordinating monitoring activities, managing or supporting the management of decentralized evaluations, supporting thematic/mid-term reviews and positioning WFP as a reliable partner for governments to build monitoring and evaluation strategies.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Specifically, the incumbent will be responsible for the following:

Develop the Monitoring, Review and Evaluation plans that will provide the most relevant and strategic information toward achieving expected results of the project, while being compliant with WFP evaluation and monitoring requirements.
Support the development and coordination of data gathering and monitoring/assessment systems ensuring that rigorous quality standards are maintained
Contribute to evidence-based decision-making on programme design and implementation, notably through making monitoring, review and evaluations findings accessible, developing innovative, user-friendly and informative products
Support the project manager in addressing recommendations from monitoring, reviews and evaluations to ensure that follow-up actions are taken as required
Contribute to building M&E capacity of WFP staff and partners through training and information sharing. Manage junior staff members and guide as required to enable high performance
Take responsibility for integrating protection and gender perspectives in all areas of work, to ensure equal participation of women and men
Support the project manager in ensuring that project monitoring systems and tools are in place and compliant with corporate standards including the minimum monitoring requirements (MMR), standard operational procedures (SOP) and establishment of baselines and targets in alignment with the updated corporate results framework (CRF).
Draft regular monitoring reports on status of results and implementation progress and contribute to the data analysis
Support mid-term reviews and thematic reviews of the project, which are intended for internal learning, strategic and operational decision-making.
Support the organization of joint supervision mission with all stakeholders of the project
Liaise with implementing partners (internal and external) to monitor ongoing projects, ensuring effective collaboration, timeliness and efficiency, and highlight potential risks to project delivery
Collaborate with Public Information unit to ensure visibility activities with donor and press, including press releases, meetings and field visits, as well as strengthen communication activities around the project
Support the CO in any other programming issues as required by the supervisor

4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES:

4P Theme	Capability Name	Description of the behaviour expected for the proficiency level
Purpose	Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives	Understands WFP’s Strategic Objectives and the link to own work objectives.
	Be a force for positive change	Flexibly adapts individual contributions to accommodate changes in direction from supervisors and internal/external changes (such as evolving needs of beneficiaries, new requirements of partners).
	Make the mission inspiring to our team	Recognizes and shares with team members the ways in which individual contributions relate to WFP’s mission
	Make our mission visible in everyday actions	Sets own goals in alignment with WFP’s overall operations and is able to communicate this link to others.
People	Look for ways to strengthen people's skills	Assesses own strengths and weaknesses to increase self-awareness and includes these in conversations on own developmental needs.
	Create an inclusive culture	Participates in open dialogue, and values the diverse opinion of others, regardless of background, culture, experience, or country assignment.
	Be a coach & provide constructive feedback	Proactively seeks feedback and coaching to build confidence and develop and improve individual skills.
	Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit	Participates in accomplishing team activities and goals in the face of challenging circumstances.
Performance	Encourage innovation & creative solutions	Shows willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work.
	Focus on getting results	Consistently delivers results within individual scope of work on time, on budget and without errors.
	Make commitments and make good on commitments	Commits to upholding individual accountabilities and responsibilities in the face of ever-changing country or functional priorities
	Be Decisive	Makes rational decisions about individual activities when faced with uncertain circumstances, including in times of ambiguity regarding information or manager direction.
Partenrship	Connect and share across WFP units	Seeks to understand and adapt to internal or cross-unit teams’ priorities and preferred working styles.
	Build strong external partnerships	Demonstrates ability to understand and appropriately respond to and/or escalate needs of external partners.
	Be politically agile & adaptable	Portrays an informed and professional demeanor toward internal and external partners and stakeholders
	Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships	Provides operational support on analyses and assessments that quantifies and demonstrates WFP’s unique value as a partner.

FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES:

Capability Name	Description of the behaviour expected for the proficiency level
Strategic Management	Demonstrates understanding of humanitarian and development actions in different contexts and knowledge of global geo-political issues and UN Reform, and applies it to enhance existing monitoring and evaluation systems that support WFP’s strategic objectives. Is able to demonstrate to stakeholders the value of monitoring and evaluation for policy and programming to promote learning within organizations and achieve the SDGs. Has knowledge of identifying monitoring and evaluation needs and of analyzing existing evidence needs and contributes to the design of a comprehensive monitoring, review and evaluation plan that will address learning and accountability needs.
Performance Management	Has performance management cycle skills to support the design and development of monitoring and evaluation systems in line with WFP corporate standards. Demonstrates understanding of internal and external best practices and supports the development and implementation of optimal monitoring, review and/or evaluation arrangements. Has knowledge of the Theory of Change approach and process and is able to support the CO team in developing a ToC for moderately complex programmes. Has knowledge of international norms and standards for evaluation and is able to apply them appropriately, seeking advice where appropriate.
Methodology, Approaches and Analysis	Reviews and provides feedback on the selection and application of high quality, credible, analytical approaches and qualitative and quantitative methods appropriate to monitoring and review requirements and evaluation needs. Support the development of terms of reference for decentralized evaluations and reviews. Has knowledge of a range of evaluation, data collection and analysis methods and is able to identify key methodological requirements for various types of evaluation and review the evaluation design proposed by evaluation teams seeking advice where appropriate. Is able to validate data quality and ensure that data collection and analysis have been conducted ethically.
Communication & Use	Demonstrates ability to communicate effectively key evidence from monitoring, reviews and evaluations to a range of stakeholders. Demonstrates active listening and conflict resolution skills to promote constructive engagement from stakeholders with diverse, complex and high-stake interests and seeks guidance and engagement from CO management where appropriate
Ethics	Demonstrates ethical behavior at all times and communicates WFP’s expectation that all WFP personnel act ethically in furtherance of the ideals of the UN and WFP’s mission. Understands the specific implications of ethics in monitoring, review and evaluation activities and is able to consistently ensure that appropriate actions are taken to safeguard ethics.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:	Advanced University degree in social sciences, statistics, development economics, performance management, monitoring and evaluation or other related fields, or First University degree with additional years of relevant work experience and/or training/courses.
Experience:	At least five years of relevant professional work experience including monitoring and evaluation activities. Experience using a variety of quantitative and qualitative analytical tools and methods. Experience with U.N. system and good knowledge of WFP and its role in fighting malnutrition are an asset. Experience in Madagascar would be an advantage.
Knowledge & Skills:	Good understanding of the development issues of the developing countries; Proven ability to conceptualize, develop, plan and manage programs, leadership and teamwork skills, good analytical, communication, negotiation and advocacy skills; Ability to plan and organize his/her own work in support of and in coordination with other members of the team; Ability to work in a team and establish effective working relationships with people of different national and cultural backgrounds; Ability to work within tight deadlines and manage multiple tasks simultaneously independently; Strong analytical and interpersonal skills; Advanced computer skills with mastery of Windows and Microsoft Office; General knowledge of WFP programs is an advantage
Languages:	Fluency (level C) in French and English languages