Regional Technical Advisor on Monitoring and Evaluation at the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

The Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (German Agency for International Cooperation) is an international enterprise owned by the German Federal government, operating in many fields across more than 130 countries.

In Nigeria, GIZ's portfolio includes among others, a programme to support the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in its regional integration goals. The programme aims to strengthen sector-specific capacities in the areas of Peace and Security, Customs and Trade as weir as Strategic Management and Organizational Development in the ECOWAS Commission.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Regional Technical Advisor on Monitoring and Evaluation

Vacancy No.: 092
Location: Abuja
Organization: GIZ Nigeria, ECOWAS Agricultural Trade (EAT) project

Background
GIZ. Solutions that work.

• is a service provider in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education work, we are dedicated to shaping a future worth living around the world. GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment promotion, energy and the environment, and peace and security. 
• The diverse expertise of our federal enterprise is in demand around the globe – from the German Government, European Union institutions, the United Nations, the private sector and governments of other countries. We work with businesses, civil society actors and research institutions, fostering successful interaction between development policy and other policy fields and areas of activity. 
• Our main commissioning party is the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The registered offices of GIZ are in Bonn and Eschborn. Our approximately 23,500 employees, almost 70 percent of whom are national personnel, work in a round 120 countries (July 2020)
• GIZ has worked in Nigeria since 1974. From 2004, GIZ has maintained a country office in the capital city Abuja. Currently 361 national and 66 international employees, 19 regional staff, 4 integrated specialists and 3 development workers are working in the country (June 2020).

The Project
GIZ EAT - a vibrant new project for the ECOWAS region:

• The BMZ funded regional project ECOWAS Agricultural Trade (EAT) is implemented by GIZ and officially started in January 2022 with a funding of 10 Mio. EUR for 5 years. The project management unit is based in Abuja. Major activities will start from January 2023. The project focuses on five countries, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and three others to be determined with the partner.
• The objective of EAT is to improve institutional and technical requirements for intra-regional agricultural trade in the ECOWAS region and selected countries. The main partner is the ECOWAS commission (Directorates for agriculture, trade and customs), regional organizations and national line ministries or trade associations.

EAT works on 3 components:

• Strengthen the role of the ECOWAS Commission in coordinating sustainable gender-sensitive agricultural trade instruments with ECOWAS Member States
• Support sustainable gender-sensitive agricultural trade facilitation measures and services for traders at border posts and along agricultural trade value chains.
• Improve regional agri-trade promotion services and business performance of the traders. 

The target group of the project comprises trade companies, organizations and actors in agri-food sector trade in the ECOWAS region. The supported agricultural commodities are raw, semifinished and finished products that are traded form farm gate, factory or warehouse to consumer markets.

Responsibilities & Tasks

• You are supporting the Senior Regional Technical Advisor and the Technical Advisor for communication and knowledge management of the ECOWAS Agricultural Trade (EAT) project by setting up a Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) system covering the indicators of 3 components (policy advice, trade facilitation and trade promotion) and to support conceptualization, planning and implementing of major project activities by operating and managing the M&E system.
• The position involves key responsibilities in collecting and analyzing data in the ECOWAS region and in member states/ at borders, to perform technical, institutional support and to back stop activities of implementing partners for M&E. Digital and statistical innovative methods for processing data of the M&E, provision of project data and report writing/ documentation on a daily basis are requested for the position. Further, supporting stakeholders and partners on developing data bases for market data or traceability might be necessary. 
• The tasks cover the technical and statistical analysis of improvements of trade facilitation data across borders and trade promotion data esp. for gender aspects in cooperation with implementing partners, stakeholders and private sector actors as well as target groups on various levels (esp. women trader groups and border communities). 
• You are taking over responsibility proactivity within your scope of work and have a results-oriented and structured way by following up performance of key indicators, implementation of activities and evaluation of preliminary impacts.
• You contribute essentially to set up a hybrid/ digital M&E system based on best practices and manage the collection, analysis and evaluation of data. You are motivated to travel in the ECOWAS region (border areas, markets, capitals) and work in close contact with partners and stakeholders. 
• You have a special interest to work on various methodological aspects of monitoring and evaluating, but you are also technically interested e.g. to capture gender aspects in trade.

As a Regional Technical Advisor, you will have the following responsibilities and tasks:

Project implementation and backstopping:

• Gives support to the Senior Technical Advisor on the provision of M&E data for 3 project components in the ECOWAS region
• Contributes to planning, organization and implementation of activities and events in all components from a M&E perspective
• Sets up and manages a new M&E system that covers the indicators and activities of all components based on existing digital or hybrid solutions
• Supports the drafting of TOR for M&E services, the initiation of service contracts with consultancies and accompanies partners and service providers during the contract period
• Backstops, follows-up and adapts activities for collection, analysis and reporting on M&E data to assure the documentation of results in all outputs

Technical advice and inputs:

• Sources and processes M&E data from implementing partners and consultants through digital or hybrid solutions; extract findings, results and recommendations of studies; extract key messages for policy advice
• Gives updates and summarizes M&E data in reports and presentation internally and externally
• Scopes for innovations and new solutions in digital data processing e.g. or market data or traceability
• Prepares and co-organizes planning workshops and steering meetings by EAT
• Assures the quality of data according to the SMART logic

Communication and facilitation:

• Communicates with partners, manages and documents contacts and partner networks
• Contributes to fluent reporting of important information within the technical team
• Informs the project team on best practises and obstacles for digital solutions
• Facilitates and moderate during technical meetings
• Identifies lessons learned and best practices for M&E.

Required Qualifications, Competences, and Experience
Qualifications:

• University Degree in Economics, Statistics, Computer Sciences, other related field of study in Natural Sciences

Professional Experience:

• At least 3 years’ experience working on M&E in public development projects using logframes.
• At least 2 years of professional experience in programming in MS Excel, SPSS or other statistic software and cloud data bases.
• Previous work with regional and national institutions national line ministries or authorities, regional and national organisations such is an advantage
• Experience to work in on different levels in West African countries (project office, partners, target groups) and to cooperate with enumerators
• A deep understanding of structuring data system for collection, analysis and evaluation.

Other Skills and Competences:

• Ability to understand and break down indicators to different levels for accurate data collection;
• Excellent analytical and statistical proficiency
• Capability to summarize specific data and to communicate the in a simple and comprehensive way
• Ability to communicate in partner network in the region for M&E purposes to assure the data flow
• Spoken and written language skills in English (level C1); and in French (level C1).
• Proficient use of MS Office and statistical software, data bases

Salary
According to GIZ salary scale for Band 4

Application Closing Date
9th November, 2022