M&E Specialist / Action researcher 135 views

Background

The 2SCALE program 2019-23 builds on achievements and lessons learnt from a first phase (2012-18, www.2scale.org). It aims to be a flagship program for the Netherlands’ food security policy and one of the leading catalysts of inclusive agribusiness in sub-Saharan Africa.

2SCALE is designed to incubate and accelerate inclusive agribusiness development in target countries in Africa (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger and Nigeria). Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are the core implementation modality to achieve the objectives of the program. 2SCALE’s strategy is three-pronged:

Incubating inclusive business: through PPPs, 2SCALE works together with private enterprises to develop agribusiness models that promote inclusiveness, develop (new) competitive edge, and have potential for scaling. PPPs support value chain development and agribusiness cluster formation. Local networks, also called agribusiness clusters (ABCs), are instrumental to the 2SCALE program to ensure better access to services, and to strengthen innovative and bargaining capacities of smallholder farmers. 2SCALE partners with African and multinational agri-food companies as drivers to increase productivity and to improve efficiency and sustainability of supported ABCs and value chains. Specific attention is given to youth and women to integrate value chains (as farmers, laborers, entrepreneurs, service providers), and to low income / “base of the pyramid” (BoP) consumers that represent the largest market for food products in sub-Saharan Africa.

Replicating inclusive business: through PPPs, 2SCALE supports the replication of most successful business models, in different settings (regions, industries), with the same or different private partners.

Facilitating sector transformation and policy alignment: 2SCALE also supports partnering enterprises to drive sector transformation and policy alignment for critical bottlenecks that cannot be solved by the actors within the focus PPPs, and which affects a number of actors in the sector simultaneously.

2SCALE is funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and implemented by a consortium led by the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) and comprising the Base-of-the-Pyramid Innovation Center (BoPInc) and the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV). The Partnerships Resource Center (PrC) supports the consortium as a strategic and knowledge partner.

Position summary

The M&E specialist / Action researcher for Ethiopia is part of the Partnerships Resource Centre (PrC) team. PrC is a strategic partner to 2SCALE. It supports the 2SCALE program through action-research on partnership-specific theories of change, prioritization of activities for deepening and scaling of partnerships and related business models, and case studies. The action-research program focuses on strategic questions about the contributions of partnership arrangements to the intervention repertoire for inclusive development and aims to identify pathways for replicating proven inclusive business models and for aligning partnerships with policy. The PrC is also responsible for the design of the Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) framework of 2SCALE and for leading the implementation of this M&E framework within the West and East African 2SCALE target countries.

The M&E specialist / Action researcher is responsible for the co-creation, application and monitoring of the Impact Pathways framework at the level of partnerships in Ethiopia. The M&E specialist in Ethiopia also contributes to data collecting and regular monitoring of the outcomes and contributions to development impacts at partnership level. The M&E specialist is responsible for the design and implementation of all M&E activities related to the partnerships under her/ his responsibility.

The M&E specialist / Action researcher works closely with the partnerships and the 2SCALE facilitators in ensuring that information for M&E is gathered in a timely and do-able manner with a specific interest in the influence of partnerships on the terms of inclusion of smallholder farmers, micro-enterprises and workers, and on the terms of access to food of low-income consumers in different market channels.

The M&E specialist / Action researcher develops an appreciative and participatory approach to action research and engages with the unfolding processes of inclusive development set in motion by partnerships. S/he also conducts case studies to deepen the understanding and practice of partnership working on inclusive development. S/he develops a contextual understanding of the capacities developed and mobilized by partnerships and has an open eye to the tensions, risks and unintended consequences of the interventions of and collaboration in partnerships.

Main tasks

S/he will be responsible for the following tasks:

Monitoring inclusive development at partnership level

• Conceive, visualize and broker partnership-specific impact pathways and theories of change, initially with the partnership facilitator and subsequently deliberated and agreed upon by partners.
• Identify and agree with partnerships on Markers for Change (M4C) and develop ways to monitor impact pathways tailored to the specific conditions under which partnerships operate.
• Integrate secondary baseline data on sector or area dynamics into the deliberation among partners on the monitoring of impact pathways and inclusive development during the diagnostic phase of partnerships and during the identification of M4C and setting of target values for the universal impact indicators.
• Reflect on the relevance and possibly refine M4C in order to support the monitoring and self-reporting by partnerships of the evolving process of change.
• Coach and support partnership facilitators in taking responsibility for organizing monitoring and information sharing at partnership level.
• Regularly reflect with the partnership facilitators on progress and direction of the process of inclusive development and encourage country-level learning processes of 2SCALE teams.
• Support a reflexive conversation among partners on possible amendment of impact pathways and the sequence and priority of interventions and actions.
• Assess the capacities of partnerships to co-create, direct and realize inclusive development and incorporate these insights in program-wide learning processes.
• Conduct in-depth case study research documenting the different modalities in which partnerships align business models of leading commercial actors, smallholder farmers and/or micro-enterprises in the making of inclusive development.
• Perform case-based assessments and analyze the contribution of partnerships to making healthy and nutritious food accessible for low-income consumers in peri-urban and rural markets.

M&E at partnership level

• Receive and process data monitoring the direction and progress of change of individual partnerships supported by 2SCALE (together with Partnership Facilitators) and to train, coach, collaborate with partnerships and partnership facilitators to design and use easy-to-handle tools for collecting and self-reporting information.
• Orchestrate the active involvement of country-level partnership facilitators, consultants, business service providers/ agribusiness cluster coaches and other relevant stakeholders (e.g., partners) and – if needed – interns/ students to assure that the data are collected in a reliable fashion and that M&E has been effectively integrated into each partnership’s interventions.
• Pro-actively collect and use feedback from partnership facilitators and partners to identify necessary conditions for implementing the M&E framework and to act when adaptations may be needed.
• Ensure that all partnership agreements and service provider contracts (i.e. subgrants, consultancy contracts) include specifications for the internal monitoring required of them, the reporting systems and the penalties for failure to report as specified.
• Contribute to training and capacity building activities supporting the participatory approach to M&E central to the program, particularly involving partnership facilitators and BSSs/coaches who conduct data collection at (target) value chain and agribusiness cluster levels.

The M&E specialist / Action researcher may implement other tasks that the 2SCALE/ PrC management deems necessary for the success of the program.

Supervision and team collaboration

The M&E specialist / Action researcher will be part of the team led and coordinated by the PrC within 2SCALE. S/he will be contracted by IFDC, that leads the 2SCALE consortium. S/he will be technically supervised by and report to the leader of the PrC team based in the Netherlands, and s/he will administratively report to the 2SCALE country team leader in Ethiopia.

The M&E specialist / Action researcher is expected to implement fieldwork activities independently and to manage the organizational and financial aspects when in the field. S/he works in close collaboration with the entire team of 2SCALE, and the other colleagues of the PrC.

Position and duty station

The M&E/Action research for 2SCALE Ethiopia is a national position with a duty station at 2SCALE’s office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The position requires intensive travels (up to 50% of the time) in target regions in Ethiopia. Trips to other 2SCALE target countries may also be required.

Contract duration

2SCALE/IFDC will propose a first contract ending on December 31, 2021. Based on the incumbent’s performance and availability of funds, the contract could then be extended or renewed.

Indicative starting date:       July 1^st 2020

Qualifications

We are looking for an enthusiastic team player, with a scientific interest in interdisciplinary research, educated in the social sciences, and experienced in M&E and action-oriented research together with private sector partners, governments and organized farmers. The successful candidate must have the following qualifications:

•  A strong academic record in a relevant social science discipline (MSc completed), with proven analytical skills and relevant knowledge of inclusive agribusiness development in Africa and a strong ambition to upgrade scientific knowledge and academic skills.
•  A completed master program in development studies, business or management studies, agricultural extension, sociology or anthropology or any other interdisciplinary field;
•  Knowledge and skills regarding research design, and experienced in qualitative approaches to data analysis and presentation;
• Knowledge of one or more local Ethiopian languages, while not necessary, will be a plus.

•  Hands-on experience in M&E tasks of complex intervention programs.
• Proven experience in systematically collecting and processing data;
• Capacity to check quality of data submitted by partners;
• Affinity with working with theories of change / impact pathways and open to using and combining multiple methods for evaluation.
•  Proven ability to collaborate with a range of societal stakeholders and facilitate dialogues and multi-stakeholder processes.
• Engagement with private sector initiatives, the public sector and public-private partnerships;
• Capacity to carry out independent fieldwork and organize workshops with a communicative attitude to practitioners in the dairy sectors and policy;
•  Transdisciplinary attitude and proven experiences with innovative and crafty ways in dealing with different stakeholders.
•  Demonstration of strong reflexive capacities both verbally and in writing.
•  A collaborative and team-oriented attitude, with an open mind for an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach to action research;
• Experiences in sharing insights in the interface between society and sciences and preferably written reflection on action research and deliberative processes.

•  Strong oral and written communication skills in English.