Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Assistant - ARE Activity

BACKGROUND

The Lebanon Agriculture and Rural Empowerment (ARE) activity, funded by USAID and implemented by Chemonics International, supports Lebanese rural and peri-urban communities to obtain technical and financial resources in order to facilitate increased productivity, sales, and exports, improved business income, while also ensuring livelihood sustainability. To support this purpose, ARE will increase jobs; improve incomes; improve female participation and employment opportunities; increase domestic and export sales; increase private sector investment; improve access to finance; link value chain actors to domestic and international markets; and improve production through improved practices, technology, increased volume, and/or decreased cost. ARE supports two key expected results:

1. Increased domestic and export sales at both firm and farm levels.
2. Livelihoods improved, especially in rural areas and for women. 

Based on market systems development theory, ARE adopts a facilitative approach to incentivize priority value chain and sub-sector stakeholders to take advantage of new and emerging opportunities and increase potential sales growth, both internationally and domestically. To this end, ARE identifies and partners with “Champion Firms,” which serve as anchors with whom ARE can work to leverage opportunities or address challenges within supported value chains. In collaboration with Champion Firms, ARE co-created a Partnership Framework Agreement (PFA) that guides the implementation of joint interventions that support actors throughout the entire value chain to unlock opportunities and create the underpinnings for new growth at the farm, firm, value chain, and sub-sector levels.

ARE targets several value chains, including fresh and processed produce, dairy and fodder, stone fruits, and table grapes. In particular, ARE promotes partnerships with Champion Firms that have the potential to address food insecurity and support livelihoods. The partnerships aim to promote import substitution, reduce production and processing costs, and ensure job creation or retention to increased or maintain household incomes.

Beyond the support to Champion Firms and priority value chains, ARE also responds to urgent needs and opportunities to generate an impact at the broader sectoral level. Strategic interventions include hybrid vegetable seed and seedling distributions, greenhouse upgrades, nursery upgrades, promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency for agriculture and food production. Other interventions include support to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to ensure their resilience and sustainable operations and issuing grants to promote innovation, upgrade technology, and support start-up ecosystems.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The MEL Assistant is a member of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team, under the direct supervision of the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Specialist. The MEL Assistant will work closely with the MEL Specialist and the data management team to ensure proper implementation of the MEL process at the grant level. The MEL assistant will be responsible for conducting MEL tasks related to   one of ARE’s two main grant portfolios: The Champion Firm Value Chain Development (CFVCD) portfolio and Strategic Innovation, Technology, and Sector Development (SITSD). The MEL Assistant will also ensure that technical teams have the proper MEL tools for capturing the right data for different interventions under the previously mentioned portfolios.

DETAILED RESPONSIBILITIES

• Support the MEL Specialist in managing the MEL process with partners.
• Assist with developing indicator targets for new grants.
• Conduct routinely and ad hoc field monitoring visits to partners for validating reported data and ensuring that completed activities are captured in MEL reporting.
• Assist the MEL Specialist in ensuring that data is collected and analyzed according to the Data Quality Assurance (DQA) system specified in the MEL plan.
• Conduct random data validation checks with partners in coordination with the MEL Specialist and the data management team.
• Support technical teams in completing MEL related tasks at the grant level.
• Participate in after action review exercises and draft the final grant indicator tracking table, comparing targets and achieved results, in coordination with the Data Management team.
• Take part in collaboration, learning, and adapting (CLA) events and ensure proper documentation for those events.
• Ensure that ARE’s MEL database is updated with all MEL and CLA related activities
• Collect lessons learned from the field and report them to the MEL specialist.
• Perform other MEL or CLA duties as necessary.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (with statistics background); Business Administration, Economics, Public Health, Social Science or similar
• Minimum of two years of experience in indicator tracking and reporting, and other monitoring and evaluation processes;
• Knowledge of USAID or other donor-funded monitoring, evaluation, and learning standards and regulations strongly preferred;
• Experience using MEL data analysis and tracking systems, particularly Microsoft Excel; Experience in Power BI is a plus.
• Strong written and oral communication skills; experience with report writing preferred;
• Fluent spoken and written Arabic, and proficient spoken and written English;

LOCATION OF ASSIGNMENT

The MEL Assistant will be based in the project’s main office in Beirut, Lebanon, and travel throughout the country as needed.

REPORTING

The MEL Assistant will report to the MEL Specialist or his/her designee