Vacancy: Policy LINK – MEL & KM Lead

Company Profile

Job Description

• Position: Policy LINK – Monitoring, Evaluation, & Learning and Knowledge Management Lead


• Location: Accra, Ghana


• Contract Name: USAID/Feed the Future Policy LINK


• Status: Long Term Project Staff (1-year Fixed Term Contract subject to renewal for duration of 5-year Ghana program activity)


• Start Date: May 1, 2022


• Supervisor: Ghana Country Lead

Project Background

The Feed the Future Policy LINK project will strengthen the capacity of local actors and institutions to lead and manage the agricultural transformation process and contribute effectively and collectively to improved, broad-based food security policy outcomes.

Specifically, the program aims to strengthen food security policy systems by investing in and reinforcing productive human and social capital and developing strategic partnerships that help bring these innovations and capacity investments to scale in order to achieve a critical mass of local actors with the ability and opportunity to effect positive policy change through collective action.

Policy LINK’s general approach is grounded in facilitative leadership and collaborative governance, which emphasize engaging stakeholders from civil society and public and private sectors in consensus-oriented decision making, collaborative problem solving, and adaptive learning.

Policy LINK in Ghana

USAID/Policy LINK Ghana is a five-year activity with the overall objective of fostering behavior change that strengthens the capacity and ability of Ghanaian stakeholders to participate in a more transparent, inclusive, and evidence-based agriculture and food security policy process that leads to improved food and nutrition outcomes and broad-based economic growth. Specifically, the activity will facilitate the transition towards a policy development paradigm driven by multiple stakeholders.

This approach to policymaking will strengthen the capacities of Ghana’s main agricultural policy system actors and institutions and support them to engage stakeholders traditionally excluded from decision-making, including academia, financial institutions, the judiciary, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private sector representatives from the national, regional, and local levels.

This approach is underpinned by Policy LINK’s overarching theory of change focused on increasing human and social capital, engaging policy system actors in collaborative processes, and developing mechanisms for collaborative governance and dynamic learning systems and platforms to sustain collective action.

Position Objectives

The MEL and KM Lead will provide thought leadership and lead implementation of learning activities including Collaborating, Learning and Adaptation (CLA) as well as Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E). Furthermore, the position will provide leadership in areas of knowledge management, institutional learning, and related topics as they relate to strengthening the policy system. The MEL and KM Lead will provide consultative analysis and knowledge management expertise, and operational and technical support, as well as oversee the country programs CLA and M&E in coordination with the Policy LINK’s global MEL team. The position will manage performance monitoring for the activity including indicator tracking and data management.

In addition, the MEL & KM Lead will play a key role on the broader Policy LINK Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team to contribute Ghana inputs in support of cross-project learning, knowledge management and other MEL initiatives to capture, evaluate and generate learning and action research.

S/he will continually reinforce Policy LINK’s agreed-upon core purpose and principles, and ensure all decision-making is rooted in those purposes and principles. S/he will contribute to foster a learning environment in which personal and team growth is supported, with a shared understanding that the “team” always comes before the “individual.”

Responsibilities

The MEL & KM Lead will be responsible for the following:

• Development and implementation of the activity MEL plan.


• Provide overall thought leadership on knowledge management, institutional learning, and related topics.


• Develop and implement tools and techniques that support internal adaptive monitoring.


• Coordinate CLA (Collaborating, Learning and Adapting) activities across the Activity.


• Support Activity-wide adaptive management through application of information and lessons learned from project data collection and analysis.


• Provide knowledge management support to Ghana sub-Activity teams to inform learning objectives, ensuring that after-action reviews and other lessons learned are shared across the activity and with the broader Policy LINK project.


• Lead multi-stakeholder research and learning platforms, such as:
  
  
  
  • Facilitate establishment and/or strengthening of online platforms to support locally led policy learning initiatives. 
  
  
  • Collaborate with research institutions and local organizations to pool findings on major topics, and to draft learning pieces that would be informative to a broader audience.
  
  
  • Design action-oriented policy learning forums on targeted policy questions at national and regional levels.
  
  
  • Facilitate multi-stakeholder analysis groups, which might include collaborating with and connecting other implementing partners and local stakeholders, such as research communities, NGOs, government, local media and advocacy groups to form or strengthen multi-stakeholder analysis groups, facilitating technical content and best practices across governance and operational frameworks.
  
  
  
  


• Provide demand-driven assistance (including facilitation, technical assistance, training design) to specific local government representatives, non-state actors, and other stakeholders to strengthen their capacity to apply adaptive learning techniques to programmatic decisions.


• Supporting and maintaining good communication and relationships with clients, program partners, consultants and participants and representing Policy LINK at meetings as required and appropriate.

S/he will also contribute actively to recruitment efforts throughout the contracted period of performance by serving on agreed-upon interview panels, according to Policy LINK’s recruitment policy and process. Responsibilities of interview panel members may include, but not be limited to:

• Contributing to position shortlists


• Developing or editing interview questions


• Serving as a “panel lead” for certain recruitment efforts


• Conducting oral reference checks

Data management, analysis and reporting

• Manage performance monitoring activities and systems, including necessary data management and visualization, software, and data collection instruments, to collect, store, manage, analyze, and report M&E data on output, outcome, and impact indicators.


• Liaise with multiple stakeholders for timely data collection, verification, and feedback.


• Conduct regular and ad-hoc data analysis and work closely with the broader MEL team, other technical leads to develop reports (monthly, quarterly, annual) to demonstrate progress and facilitate continuous learning for policy system actors, USAID, and project management.


• Ensure data is entered into indicator reporting systems as required (directly input as appropriate).


• Support Policy System Actors, Policy LINK and USAID in the development and dissemination of thought leadership and learning content including the preparation of responses and products.

Reporting

The MEL & KM Lead will directly report to the Ghana Country Lead.

Supervisory Responsibilities

The MEL & KM Lead may supervise short-term consultants hired to provide targeted support for Activity knowledge management and learning. S/he will coordinate closely with fellow Policy LINK team members in Ghana as well as remotely based Policy LINK colleagues contributing monitoring, evaluation, and learning support to the project.

S/he will coordinate closely with the Policy LINK Ghana senior management team (Country Lead, Ag & Food Security Lead, Climate Change Lead, Programs Lead, Communications Specialist and Finance & Operations Manager), Nairobi-based project-wide Technical Programs and Policy Director, and other Policy LINK colleagues in Kenya, South Sudan, and elsewhere to ensure that program activities are designed and delivered at a high quality in compliance with Policy LINK, DAI, and USAID standards.

Required Skills or Experience

Local Ghanaian candidates will be considered for this position. 

Additional qualifications:

Education

Master’s degree or higher in a social sciences or other relevant subject area.

Work Experience

• 8+ years of relevant work experience especially providing MEL, knowledge management and/or CLA (Collaborating, Learning and Adapting) support to a donor-funded project, with a preference for experience on a USAID-funded project.


• Working knowledge of USAID, Feed the Future, or other donor MEL guidance and policy.


• Demonstrated ability to coordinate with multiple stakeholders for data collection, data verification, reporting and dissemination.


• Demonstrated experience in data analysis and data visualization.


• Preference for experience providing knowledge management and/or CLA (Collaborating, Learning and Adapting) support to a USAID project focused on agriculture / agricultural policy.


• Preference for experience facilitating coordination between multiple stakeholder groups or across multiple implementing partners

Skills

• Good understanding of USAID knowledge management and learning priorities.


• Good understanding of Microsoft Office / Office 365 program suite, including SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, Word, and Excel.


• Data collection and analysis skills


• Ability to communicate/collaborate effectively across cultures, including with team members based in other countries.


• Critical thinker, self-starter, and able to work with minimal supervision and within established deadlines.


• Flexible, willing to perform assigned and additional duties and work under unpredictable conditions.


• Professional fluency in English and Akan.