The objective of this position is to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation functions within the
Programme Development and Management Unit (PDMU) of the Caribbean Community Climate
Change Centre (hereinafter referred to as “the Centre”). The Specialist is expected to enable the
PDMU to carry out more effective project/programme technical and financial monitoring, and
evaluation of outcomes and impacts of Centre activities. This position will be financed by a grant
secured under Cooperative Agreement #13/2017/USAID-CCAP/CCCCC between USAID Eastern and
Southern Caribbean mission and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre).
Under that Cooperative banner, the Centre and the USAID signed an agreement for Program 538-
RDOAG-DO3-2015 - Climate Change Adaptation Programme (CCAP) for the Eastern and Southern
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States. The initial program value was US$25 million but has
since been reduced to approximately US$10 million and is expected to run for the period July 2016 –
September 2019.
Fonctions
In carrying out his/her assignment, the MEL Specialist is required to employ a collaborative approach
and close engagement with various project/programme managers within the PDMU, Financial
Administration Unit, Member States and their focal points on Climate Change in ensuring that
projects/programmes are being implemented according to their proposal frameworks and that
contextual best practices, what works and what does not work are being captured and shared with a
wide cross-section of stakeholders. The project/programme proposals to be developed under the PPF
will establish linkages with planned and on-going climate change programmes to facilitate
complementarities and reduce potential for duplication. These kinds of linkages are also expected to
be monitored and evaluated to ensure that the region is indeed building its development resilience to
climate variability and change.
In addition, as the USAID CCAP operates at a regional scale, data collection and verification by the MEL
Specialist will rely on the network of Focal Points/Coordinators (also known as Focal Points) to report
on a regular basis. The MEL Specialist will collaborate and follow-up with CCAP Focal Points by email
and phone/voice-over-IP (Skype, ZOOM, etc.). Focal Points can be internal technical staff at the Centre,
a point of contact with a partner, a government staffer, consultant, etc. A key criterion to identify a
Focal Point is that they are closest to the information needed to be tracked and reported to USAID
CCAP. The MEL Specialist will be responsible for managing Focal Point interactions.
The USAID CCAP MEL system comprises data collection instruments, data storage capacity, and
reporting procedures and will involve:
1. The collection of data, input, verification, analysis, storage, and reporting.
2. Component leads and technical staff who implement interventions and conduct research.
These staff will assist in the collection of primary data using printed data collection instruments;
and
3. Data collection instruments and tools.
With support, the MEL Specialist will implement several data quality assessment procedures to ensure
confidence in the quality of data being reported. These procedures will include:
1. visiting field sites to assess if reports and inputs accurately reflect what occurs in the field;
2. reviewing data to ensure that what is being reported is accurate, including regular meetings
with staff;
3. using standardized data collection and analysis procedures, including procedures to reduce
error ensuring greater precision and ensure integrity; and
4. conducting an annual data quality assessment with input from an independent consultant
where necessary.
Using a checklist to ensure that data meet the standards described in ADS 203.3.5.1, Data Quality
Standards, data quality assessments will ensure that performance data meet the quality standards of
validity, integrity, precision, reliability, and timeliness. Summary descriptions of each standard are as
follows:
Validity: This refers to the extent to which a measure represents what we intend to
measure. This includes three dimensions – face validity, attribution, and measurement error.
Data collected for each indicator must be accurate, complete, and representative.
Integrity: Integrity focuses on whether there is improper manipulation of data. Proper
mechanisms should be put in place to prevent transcription errors and manipulations by the
various team members responsible for data collection.
Precision: Precise data have a sufficient level of detail to present a fair picture of
performance and enable management decision-making. Different indicators may have
varying levels of precision and different acceptable margins of error.
Reliability: Data should reflect stable and consistent data collection processes and analysis
methods over time. Variations in data collection methods and instruments should be
avoided to ensure that changes in data are reflections of true changes and impacts resulting
from project interventions and activities.
Timeliness: Data should be available and up to date enough to meet management needs.
Data will be collected with the required frequency and will current enough to be useful in
project decision-making.
As the MEL process is adaptive, the MEL Plan will be updated to ensure that indicators are serving to
adequately capture project results and performance, adjust for any information gaps that may be
identified, and make improvements as needed. Updating is performed by annual data quality
assessments and internal reviews of indicators and data collected.
3.2 LEARNING
To guide the Centre’s capacity improvement efforts, the MEL Plan includes adaptive management and
learning processes that will produce information to be used at periodic project reviews. Learning is an
adaptive management process that ensures the Programme/Project Team, partners, and stakeholders
learn from Activity interventions throughout the Centre. Learning fosters an understanding of the
effectiveness of the interventions and allows the team to act upon what they have learned together.
Learning from implementation of programs/projects informs the Centre’s decision-making to
adaptively manage the activity or to inform lessons for future projects. Thus, outcomes of learning
assist the Centre to meet its capacity improvement objectives in ensuring efficient and cost-effective
project/program management. Learning can resolve operational challenges and suggest course
corrections.
To ensure that the Centre and other project-driven teams learn from interventions to better reach
objectives, the MEL Team will coordinate with technical, communications, and project management to interpret data and analysis and to adaptively manage interventions and stay on track to meet its
objectives.
As illustrated in the figure below, a standard system of learning will be employed to increase the
likelihood that evidence collected from Centre-driven interventions informs decision-making both
internally at the Centre and externally with partners and stakeholders. This system of learning is a
process that occurs during each of the five stages of the 12-month annual activity cycle. Learning from
M&E will be shared during program/project planning, work planning and PAC meetings; program
management and resource allocation processes; implementation of technical work; communications
and knowledge and learning efforts with stakeholders and partners; and data and analysis phases. One
critical input would come from past activities from which lessons would need to be captured. This
ensures that learning from technical interventions and program management (past and current) is
leveraged to functionally assist, inform, and influence future work planning and task (e.g.,
subcomponent) designs.
Throughout the period of performance of the Activity, the MEL team will conduct analyses of collected
data and share information about the progress of technical areas against the activity’s objectives. The
process for sharing information will be guided by four learning questions, described below.
1. How do Work Plans of projects/programmes lead to results stated in each subcomponent?
This reviews progress of tasks against appropriateness and technical feasibility of interventions
and technical and program management’s ability to understand the time frames required of the
tasks.
2. How are the technical tasks in Work Plans appropriately resourced to ensure objectives will
be met? This includes a review of all MEL data collected to date and discussions on how the
data is demonstrably meeting the objectives of the three major technical components.
3. How well the Program Management team is appropriately resourced? This includes a review
of staffing, travel, procurement, and training needs for all program management-related staff.
4. How does the Work Plan build/continue to enhance capacity of the Caribbean Community
Climate Change Centre? This includes a review of how program management and technical
teams have measurably reached respective activity-related performance goals.
4. SPECIFIC ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MEL SPECIALIST
The MEL Specialist will engage consultants, and collaborate with International Business & Technical
Consultants (IBTCI), an international development consulting company with specialization in M&E for
USAID. IBTCI will provide advisory support on an as needed basis to USAID CCAP on matters related to
MEL. Short term consultants may occasionally augment the MEL team for periodic assessments,
surveys, or studies. Partners and beneficiaries will be directly involved in data collection to enhance
their capabilities to collect and analyze data for their purposes, while serving the broader goals of both
performance monitoring and organizational learning.
The MEL Specialist will conduct field visits to meet focal points and gain first-hand knowledge of the
work implemented by the technical staff. In addition to the data collection carried out by technical
staff over the course of project implementation in the field, the MEL Specialist will regularly visit
project sites to monitor activities, spot-check data collection methods and quality, and assess progress
made toward project outputs and outcomes. He/she will generate and distribute trip reports of site
visits, with findings regularly incorporated into quarterly/annual reports to USAID/ESC. USAID CCAP will
provide quarterly and annual performance reports that include baseline information and progress
toward targets in the MEL Plan. Where applicable, these reports will summarize activities performed to
control, verify, and validate reported MEL data, as well as variances identified and measures taken to
resolve them. Project reports will provide contextual analysis when factors beyond USAID CCAP's
control affect MEL information.
The MEL Specialist is responsible for all processes and procedures related to data collection, and will
ensure that the project team members have the necessary tools to collect data consistently,
accurately, and at the appropriate frequency. He/she is responsible for training project staff and
partners on the proper use of data collection tools, including all indicator details. The MEL Specialist is responsible for secondary data quality control, and will perform data analysis and tabulation to identify
potential erroneous data and design a spot check system to verify data at their sources through site
visits as needed. When variances are identified, the MEL Specialist will take appropriate measures by
consulting the data source and updating reporting, as appropriate. Annually, and in conjunction with
the USAID CCAP Project Manager and technical staff, the MEL Specialist will review the
appropriateness of the MEL Plan and make necessary additions or adjustments. The MEL Specialist will
report to the USAID CCAP Program Manager and have annual support from support staff, consultants,
and IBTCI.
5. ANALYSIS AND REPORTING
The MEL Specialist will produce both a narrative analysis of performance and MEL Performance
Management Plan (PMP) on a quarterly basis. The narrative will include a summary of MEL-related
activities implemented to control, verify, and validate the data being reported, indicate progress of
each indicator, discovery of anomalies, and descriptions of corrective measures. Reporting will also
provide contextual analysis when factors beyond the project’s control affect MEL information. In
addition to quarterly reporting, an annual summary report will be produced. This report will contain indepth
analysis of annual progress, an update of annual targets, discussions of progress and hurdles,
and (as feasible) a presentation of success stories, lessons learned, and best practices. In addition to
providing quantitative data, the technical staff should also provide written narratives covering major
achievements during the reporting period and/or major obstacles that hampered progress. Reporting
for the Centre and the CCAP will be done separately.
MEL reporting aims to be timely enough to influence management decision-making. The USAID CCAP
project team will review data in advance of semi-annual and annual project reviews to help inform the
subsequent year’s Work Plan. As part of the project team review, the MEL Specialist will explore if the
MEL Plan is effective and responsive to the needs of the Centre or the CCAP.
More specifically, the MEL Specialist will
1. Participate in and contribute to the finalization of monitoring and evaluation frameworks for
projects/programmes developed within the PDMU;
2. Develop or implement monitoring and evaluation tools and processes for the various
projects/programmes developed;
3. Provide technical support to implementation partners to strengthen their monitoring and
evaluation systems;
4. Update as necessary Monitoring and Evaluation instruments and plans, consistent with the
Implementation Plan’s monitoring, evaluation and information (MEI) framework, in
consultation with the Head, PDMU and the Senior Programme Development Officer within the
PDMU;
5. Strengthen systems and tools, and training materials to train implementing partners personnel;
6. Conduct assessment of the implementation capacity in the field of MEL, and develop and lead
the implementation of a capacity development plan;
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7. Provide technical guidance for the implementation of the MEL plan, through training and other
on-site support;
8. Facilitate review of progress on a quarterly basis and ensure problem solving through remedial
actions,
9. Ensure any disparities between planned and actual outputs are addressed;
10. Assist the Head , PDMU and Project/Programme Managers in the identification of potential
implementation problems, bottlenecks and risks, and recommend appropriate strategies to
address them;
11. Manage and provide leadership on MEL of the various programmes being implemented by the
Centre;
12. Prepare quarterly and annual programmatic progress updates on the various
projects/programmes being implemented by the Centre; and
13. Document lessons learned and good practices.
6. EXPECTED DELIVERABLES
The principal delivery of MEL Specialist will be:
Establishment of multi-year results and monitoring framework for the various projects and
programmes being implemented by the Centre;
Reports on project/programme progress and results;
Documentation of good practices and lessons learned; and
Preparation and/or coordination of final project evaluations.
Updates on the Monitoring and Evaluation instruments developed under the Implementation
Plan to the Regional Framework for Achieving Development Resilient to Climate Change.
7. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POSITION
Estimated Time line of Position: Until the end of the Programme (September 2019) with the possibility
of extension.
Location: The successful candidate will be located in Belize.
Start date: The successful applicant will be expected to commence work immediately on appointment.
Remuneration: An attractive package awaits the successful candidate.
Qualifications Requises
Candidates should have a post-graduate degree in Climate Change, Environmental Science/
Management or related discipline, and at least 5 years’ proven MEL experience in the field of climate
change, natural resource management or sustainable development.
Candidates should also have:
1. Extensive knowledge of monitoring and evaluation methodologies i.e. both quantitative and
qualitative data collection, processing and analysis;
2. A strong background in climate change, environment or sustainable development programmes,
having managed projects wherein systematic input, output and process data were collected
and used to guide programming;
3. A good understanding of routine climate change data information systems, and literacy in
management information systems;
4. Knowledge of sampling and questionnaire design;
5. Experience in designing and implementing country level MEL and providing information
systems training;
6. Experience working with and maintaining good relations with international, as well as
counterparts and beneficiaries (e.g. International and Local NGOs and government
representatives);
7. Solid experience in the management of people and systems in high-pressure environments;
8. Strong information technology skills; and
9. Excellent communication skills, inclusive of spoken and written English; and
10. Be a national from one of the CARICOM Member States.
9. REPORTING AND COORDINATION
The MEL Specialist will work within the PDMU and closely with staff within the various sub-units.
He/She will report directly to the Head of the PDMU for Centre activities and the CCAP manager for
CCAP MEL activities.
Dossier de candidature doit avoir ...
10. INDICATIONS OF INTEREST
Applicants wishing to signal their interest in undertaking the prescribed work are to email or otherwise
submit:
a) An expression of interest (Cover letter),
b) Curriculum Vitae,
c) 3 reference letters from the most recent employers,
d) Information demonstrating the experience and competence,
e) Proof of Nationality from one of the CARICOM Member States.