Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist

The Millennium Challenge Account Nepal (MCA-Nepal) is a Government of Nepal (GON) agency, formed under the Development Board Act 2013 BS (1956 AD) in order to manage a USD 697 million infrastructure program. The program is co-funded by the US Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact grant of USD 500 million and the GON’s contribution of USD 197 million. The program aims to increase the availability and reliability of electricity, maintain road quality and facilitate power trade between Nepal and the region to help spur investments and accelerate economic growth. The Electricity Transmission Project, a national pride project, and the Road Maintenance Project are two projects under the program. MCA-Nepal is currently in preparatory phase of the program before start of implementation of projects. In this context, MCA-Nepal invites application for the following positions:

Deadline: 2023-07-11 05:00:00
Required number of candidates: 1
Location: Kathmandu
Employment Level: C – Process Management
Employment Type: Regular Employees
Shift: Day
Minimum Education Qualification: Bachelor (Required)

Education Program

• Economics
• Statistics
• Monitoring & Evaluation
• Or relevant field

Minimum Experience Years: 5 Years (Required)
Is Age Specific?: No
Require Two Wheeler?: No
Expected Salary Required?: Yes
Is Internal?: No

Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist

MCA-Nepal
Organization Branch: Kathmandu Head office
Organization Division: Management

Job Description

Position Objective:

The M&E Specialist, under the supervision of the Manager- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Economic Analysis (MEE), is responsible for implementation of the monitoring and evaluation activities of the compact, with the goal of producing timely, relevant, and reliable data and assessments related to the progress and quality of project implementation and the achievement of targeted results by the Nepal Compact.

General Responsibilities:

• Meets regularly with MCA-Nepal project, sector and cross-cutting staff in order to know the status of implementation including changes to project design, scope, work plans, and budget and to identify any necessary adjustments to the program logics and M&E activities as a result of such changes.
• Integrates with MCA-Nepal project teams to ensure that MEE’s data and analysis is accurate, up-to-date, and supports the needs of the project teams.
• Trains and guides the project team and implementing partners on the use of MCA-Nepal M&E tools and formats, to strengthen the quality of M&E outputs.
• Produces reports that facilitate the use of monitoring data by project teams.
• Collaborates closely with and responds to inquiries from MCC M&E Lead(s) and Economist(s) to ensure that MCA-Nepal is consistently fulfilling the terms of the Compact and adhering to relevant MCC Guidelines.
• Reviews and provides feedback on Terms of Reference produced by MCA-Nepal project, sector, and cross-cutting staff and deliverables produced by consultants and firms contracted by MCA-Nepal, with a specific view to ensure that required monitoring data and implementation updates will be reported to MCA-Nepal in the preferred format and frequency by project contractors/implementers.
• Develops Terms of Reference for procurements funded by the M&E budget.
• Assists in the preparation and publication of periodic reports including, but not limited to, M&E reports, quarterly and annual reports, budgets, implementation reports from project managers and implementing entities, procurement reports, and others as defined in the implementation procedures.
• Serves as a liaison to Implementing Entities and other relevant stakeholders.
• Participates in and provides input to the Environmental, Social, Health and Safety Management System and Social and Gender Integration Plan documentation and review process as applicable.
• Performs all other M&E related duties as assigned by the Manager-M, E, E.
• Maintains document filing system for all Compact-funded M&E contracts and deliverables for transfer to MCC at end of Compact.

M&E Plan Responsibilities:

• Leads the drafting of the M&E Plan:

1. Updates and expands the list of indicators noted in Annex III of the Nepal Compact document in consultation with project teams and MCC
2. Defines the performance indicators to be monitored along with their baselines and targets in collaboration with project teams; ensure that monitoring indicators are relevant to project management needs and that risks and assumptions included in the M&E Plan are appropriately tracked
3. Proposes monitoring strategies to be conducted by MCA staff or external consultants to support the M&E Plan
4. Proposes evaluation strategies to be conducted by the independent evaluators to support the M&E Plan
5. Monitors any project changes or new information that would require a revision to the M&E Plan, initiate revisions as necessary, and draft required documentation
6. Leads the development of a Post-Compact M&E Plan to ensure a continuation of necessary M&E activities following the completion of the Compact.

Monitoring Responsibilities:

• Implements the monitoring component of the Nepal M&E Plan to provide timely and relevant input to project management and external reporting, including:
• Designs the M&E data management system, including all related activities such as data collection, data entry, data analysis, and reporting.
• Collects and analyzes data to be reported in the quarterly M&E Plan Indicator Tracking Table (ITT), including checking inconsistent values with project leads and implementers, and storing supporting documentation for all data that is reported each quarter.
• Prepares quarterly narrative report to provide analysis of ITT data and provide contextual information drawn from other monitoring work.
• Implements plan to resolve data gaps or quality issues related to M&E Plan indicators with the party that produces the data (e.g. government entities or project implementers) or through independent data collection
• Implements field assessments of project implementation and achievement of outputs and intermediate outcomes
• Manages an independent Data Quality Review of monitoring data reported by MCA-Nepal and implement a plan to address any identified weaknesses
• Collaborates with MCC Economist(s) to ensure appropriate monitoring of key parameters and variables in the Cost-Benefit Analyses, updating of program logics, and sharing of data and information relevant to the Cost-Benefit Analyses and Beneficiary Analyses.

Evaluation Responsibilities:

• Supports design and implementation of the evaluation component of the Nepal M&E Plan to promote accountability and learning, including:

1. Provides data and documentation required to inform the design and implementation of evaluations to MCC and independent evaluators
2. Monitors adherence to the project design and implementation plans and report any deviations to the independent evaluator
3. Reviews evaluation reports, survey instruments, and other materials produced by each of the evaluators hired by MCC to conduct independent evaluations of the Compact projects.
4. Manages local stakeholder reviews of evaluation reports and materials.
5. Organizes meetings/events for the dissemination of evaluation findings for each evaluation report
6. Manages and oversees baseline/interim data collection to ensure alignment with the approved evaluation design and ensure coordination with the independent evaluator.

Job Specification

• Must hold Bachelor’s Degree (minimum) in Economics, Statistics, Monitoring & Evaluation or a related field;
• Five (5) years of experience in Monitoring and Evaluation, specifically: managing household surveys, drafting monitoring and evaluation plans, assessing data quality, extracting and assessing the quality of administrative data;
• Experience conducting program evaluation;
• Experience conducting qualitative data collection (ex: key informant interviews, focus groups);
• Experience conducting quantitative data collection (ex: household surveys, business surveys);
• Experience extracting and assessing the quality of secondary/administrative data;
• Willingness to undertake regular field visits and interact with the different stakeholders. Occasional international travel may also be required;
• Good written and oral communication skills, ability to work with wide range of stakeholders;
• Written and spoken fluency in Nepali and English;
• Demonstrated experience in one or more of the following statistical analysis software and databases, such as STATA, SPSS, SAS, CSPRO, Access, Excel and strong knowledge of MS Word and PowerPoint;
• Excellent organizational skills related to data and document management;
• Ability to manage a variety of tasks and demands to meet deadlines in a responsible and flexible manner;
• Demonstrated experience working successfully in a team;
• Experience working in the Energy and/or Roads sectors preferred;
• Experience working with GIS data preferred.

For detailed job profile, please visit MCA-Nepal website: https://mcanp.org/en/jobs-2
To apply: Please use the following link https://hrmis.mcanp.org/careers and apply by NPT 17:00 hours (GMT + 5:45) July 11, 2023.

The organization reserves the right to reject any/all applications without assigning any reason whatsoever. Canvassing ut any stage of the process shall lend to automatic disqualification. These positions are open to all interested applicants; competitive local compensation package will he offered. Women, people of ethnic minorities and Wits are highly encouraged to apply. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for further selection process.

Millennium Challenge Account Nepal (MCA-Nepal)
Lal Durbar Convention Centre, Yak & Yeti Complex, Durbar Marg, Kathmandu +977-01-4540951 | info@mcanp.org | www.mcanp.org

Source: The Himalayan Times, 28 June 2023

Tagged as: Evaluation Specialist, Kathmandu, Monitoring Specialist