Job at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for a Head of Monitoring and Evaluation

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), is a not-for-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, we improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, increase employment, and preserve natural resource integrity. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future. We are recruiting to fill the position below: Job Title: Head of Monitoring and Evaluation Ref: DDG-R4D/H/MES/05/17 Location: Ibadan Recruitment Type: National (3-year renewable contract) Job Summary

• The Head of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) shall provide leadership for establishing and nurturing a strong, integrated and effective institutional M&E framework for IITA.
• The Head of Monitoring and Evaluation shall provide support on proposal/strategy development, baseline and special studies, annual reporting, mid-term, and final evaluation methodologies; and facilitate critical reflection and learning across the institution based on information generated from the M&E system.
• In addition, contribute to increased appreciation of the need for quality M&E across the Institute, as well as increased confidence within the Unit by mentoring and appreciation of its personnel.
• Leadership tasks include, but are not limited to guiding the institution into building a strong M&E culture and practice; obtaining, institutionalizing and managing an appropriate software platform to automate the aggregation and presentation of necessary M&E data; providing oversight to ensure quality data collection, analysis, and reporting to IITA management, donors and other stakeholders in a timely manner; building and overseeing the implementation of a strategy for capacity development of M&E personnel, focal persons as well as key partners to ensure best practices.
• S/he shall be based at the IITA headquarters in Ibadan, Nigeria and have close interaction with the four hubs, country offices, and IITA project sites.

• Guide the conduct of M&E across all projects and programs of the institute. Institutionalize and manage the automation of M&E processes.
• Generate verifiable information for strategic decision-making through aggregation of data from all reporting levels.
• Lead the integration of results-based management into all interventions.
• Collaborate with the impact assessment team to streamline methodologies for measuring results.
• Coordinate the institute-wide M&E team that includes M&E professionals and focal persons of hubs or other projects. Interact and contribute to data aggregation and alignment functions of KPIs and Systems and Site Integration.
• Maintain/Develop M&E related collaborative relationships with strategic partners on behalf of IITA.
• Represent IITA on the CGIAR M&E groups, and regional M&E communities of practice.
• Review progress on achieving institutional objectives and provide IITA Management with information about important lessons learned and replicable practices.
• Collaborate with other research support units to implement knowledge management systems that provide up-to-date information on institutional performance and operational effectiveness.
• Continuously review, the M&E framework and ensure existence of M&E competences throughout the institution in terms of human and resource capacity as well as an enabling environment. Identify and minimize existing M&E procedures leading to duplicated efforts in order to save IITA’s resources.

• Work with hub-level M&E personnel to review hub level M&E status and provide requisite support to strengthen the systems with specific attention to project inception, implementation and the various stages of project evaluations.
• Support program/project teams in development and implementation of M&E systems that satisfy institutional and donor standards, which include:
  • M&E plans with clearly defined indicators reflecting causal models;
  • Procedures for collection, collation, analysis, reporting, and use of data for decision-making;
  • Monitoring, documentation and learning approaches that are integrated, aligned, and mainstreamed into project activities and coordinated with stakeholders;
  • Plans for evaluation studies on outcome and impact level achievements.
• Develop staff capacity in maintaining data quality standards, and conduct data quality audits of all sources of M&E data that are reported.
• Support the use of appropriate software systems within the hubs, country offices and programs/projects as well as linkage to the institutional wide software system.

• The candidate should hold a PhD, MBA or similar advanced degree in a relevant field.

• At least 10 years of relevant experience.
• Excellent track record in developing M&E frameworks and implementing results-based performance management.
• Proven leadership skills and sensitivity to cross-cultural and gender issues and ability to work with multi-disciplinary teams.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English language are required with proficiency in other international languages viewed as a strong asset. Demonstrated strategic thinking and time management skills.
• Commitment to gender equity and diversity
• Knowledgeable in:
  • Performance analysis indicators
  • Logical framework approach
  • Theory-based evaluation
  • Formal survey techniques
  • Rapid appraisal methods and other participatory methods
  • Cost-benefit analysis and impact assessment approaches
• Conversant with database development, storage and management.