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Monitoring & Evaluation Officer

Our client is an African-based organization with a vision of a food secure and prosperous Africa achieved through rapid, sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers, majority of whom are women. Our client brings a wealth of human resources, vibrant network of partners and a keen eye for smallholder agriculture challenges and opportunities. They employ these to bring an innovative approach to strengthening crop value chains and scaling up effective technologies and models. Our client offers exceptional value to Agriculture Finance for Small holder farmers in Africa based on our expertise and experience in both agriculture and innovative Finance value chain strengthening.

The Purpose:

To provide technical support in the development and implementation of an M&E plan for our client’s Innovative Finance and other Agriculture Finance initiatives.

To assist our client’s Innovative Finance teams to develop and roll out an implementation strategy for the programing line with Our client’s M&E policy and Innovative Finance proposal requirements.

Our Client’s Finance M&E officer shall receive Technical directive and support from the Head of Strategy, Monitoring and Evaluation of our client, and will work under the supervision of the Head of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) and Innovative Finance with majority of tasks to be undertaken in collaboration with the Program Officers, and the Grantees of our client’s Innovative Finance grants. The M&E officer will not have supervisory responsibility in the programs.

General Scope of the Position

The M&E Officer is to support the PPP and Innovative Finance Uniting the development and implementation of the programs’ M&E Plan and Performance Monitoring Plan. He/she will also contribute to the development of the overall M&E strategy and other M&E initiatives for other innovative finance projects.

To provide technical support in the implementation of related activities with the Innovative Finance M&E plans and to ensure that systems and structures are in place within the portfolios’ activities and the grantees agreement to provide relevant data and information for reporting on the progress of the programs to our client’s Innovative Finance Team Leaders, Management Committee, Board of Directors and donors.

The critical task of the M&E Officer is to ensure that M&E systems are well established, that the key indicators have been accurately identified and these indicators are analysed and developed to ensure the program is being implemented effectively by key Grantees and Partners during the duration of the contract.

Key Performance Areas

Support our client’s Innovative Finance teams in countries where our client has Innovative Finance projects and grants to develop and implement practical and relevant M&E plans acceptable and comprehensible to private sector players and ensure that the overall M&E framework is incorporated with the grant work plans and implementation strategies
Work with the Team Leaders and Program officers of the Innovative Finance on all new grants and proposal development and submission of grants to our client’s Grants Committee
Contribute to the design of the M&E system that provides the information required for effective implementation of the finance team objectives.
To provide statistical and analytical support to the Innovative Finance team members in the establishment of Baselines and performance targets in accordance with the M&E plan and PMP
Propose and develop program evaluation designs and coordinate the learning agenda and implementation of surveys, special studies, and research as needed for the programs. And to ensure the quality of the data.
Identify and develop indicators that address the information/data needs at a strategic, tactical and managerial level so that the finance teams can produce quality reports to support the grantees, which are mostly private sector organisations, to report on the progress of their activities.
Work with the program teams to set monitoring procedures and to ensure data quality
To support and guide the Finance team on key indicators to facilitate accurately targeted capacity building development.
Support the Innovative Finance team to provide appropriate and timely information to M&E head and our client’s management
Support the program teams to submit timely and quality data quarterly through the Quarterly Indicator Performance Tracking Tables
Identifying M&E plan implementation risks, problems and mitigating actions
Consistently review the Programs M&E plan and PMP and recommend amendments, when necessary, to the program team leaders in accordance to our client’s M&E policy and donor requirements.
Ensure that quarterly and annual progress report are submitted to the Innovative. Finance donors on time
Actively participate in external reviews and missions by the teams or designated institutions and agencies by the donor.
Promote a culture of learning between the field teams and the M&E teams.

Support Our client teams to establish professional linkages with development partners, resources centers, and institutions in the areas of monitoring and impact evaluation.

Assist program leads on planning during the project to build a solid MPB for roll out across other countries.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

Candidates must possess the following knowledge, skills and abilities acquired through a combination of formal schooling, self-education, prior experience, or on-the-job training.

Requires a high level of Monitoring and Evaluation knowledge in Agricultural Finance, Private Sector Development and Financial Inclusion program experiences with contract development and negotiation skills, data and information organization, and management skills,
Sc degree in development economics or social sciences, plus a minimum of ten years’ experience in monitoring and evaluation of private sector development programs in Africa;
Strong quantitative and qualitative analytical skills, excellent knowledge on relevant performance indicators for financial sector interventions including econometric and statistical analysis;
Knowledge, skills and experience in Ag. Finance regulations and Key M&E standard tools such as PMP, Performance benchmarking measures, indicators and reports;
Training skills, including facilitation, mentoring and coaching;
Ability to communicate cross-culturally and gain trust among a broad range of (private sector) actors;
Excellent written and oral communication skills and ability to effectively relate to the needs of the program staff, as required.
Extensive experience and familiarity with computer applications (word processing, spreadsheet, data base management, and statistical programs) required.
Requires cross-cultural sensitivity and at least 3 years previous developing country experience.
Supervisory experience preferred.
Must have fluency in English and preferably French.

Period and Place of Performance

All work associate with this position will be performed in our client’s HQ in Nairobi and also in countries with Ag. Finance projects and grants, and any other Africa country that our client operates programs. The award for this position is for a period of 2 years with renewable options.

How to apply:

Please follow the link below to apply for this position:

http://kamakazi.co.ke/job/monitoring-evaluation-officer/

2. RURAL FINANCE OFFICER

The main role of Rural Finance Officer (RFO) is to provide banks, SACCOs and MFIs with technical assistance to build their capabilities in agricultural lending and engaging with value chain actors. The RFO will ensure the capacity building through technical service providers (TSPs).

Duties and Responsibilities

Strategy development– PFIs will be supported to articulate clear visions and strategies for agricultural lending with specific and clear goals that are quantified and time bound. Each PFI will be guided so that their goals indicate factors such as:
- Which segments within agriculture they will focus on, answering questions such as which value chains? Which crops? Which regions? What size players?
- What distinctive capability needs to be built in each segment i.e. distribution footprint; technology platforms to use for disbursing loans; credit scoring tools to assess credit-worthiness?
Building of strong lender capabilities: Banks will be supported to build their capabilities in agricultural lending and learn how to manage and reduce their inherent risks.
Streamlining of internal credit and risk assessment processes:Supporting banks to develop more appropriate credit and risk assessment processes to enable them to make better quality loans and manage their portfolio risks.
Support development of lending models and products: Lending models should be tailored to specific parts of the value chain, their risks and transaction costs. Products will need to be tailored to the different types of borrowers depending on the size and business. Some banks may lend through off-takers, processors at the top of the supply chain or aggregators. Smaller banks with rural networks lend through farmer organizations or organised SMEs. The use of ICT-based services is fairly well established among banks in Kenyaand AGRA will work with the PFIs to determine their appropriateness for PROFIT target groups. Wherever necessary and feasible, AGRA will support the banks to develop or modify and roll out products that make use of ICT.
Management Information Systems – Banks will require key performance data on agricultural lending at all levels to track the value of agricultural lending as a percentage of total lending, overall losses, and the profitability of agricultural loans; the number and value of agriculture loans, processing times per loan, loan losses for agriculture; progress versus financial targets, and customer repayment records.

Specific Tasks of the RFO include but are not limited to:

Providing technical leadership to operationalize the programme’s financial inclusion vision and objectives for direct beneficiaries and associated service providers;
Co-leading the technical preparation of the Programme’s annual work plan and budget with regards to financial inclusion objectives, targets, and activities;
Leading the technical preparation and implementation of the various financial services-related studies scheduled under PROFIT;
Leading the preparation and negotiations of performance-based agreement with programme partners and service providers intervening in the implementation of rural financial services;
Developing the TORs for the mobilization of technical expertise to support programme implementation (TSPs) for Banks, SACCOs and MFIs ; and follow through with concerned units to ensure their timely mobilization;
Guiding programme partners and service providers on the identification, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the programme financial services activities, including the promotion of financial inclusiveness;
Supervising and verifying the quality of rural finance-related services delivered by partners and service providers contracted by AGRA;
Contributing technically to the setup of the programme monitoring and evaluation indicators to measure the achievement of the programme targets and development objectives, and the performance of partners and service providers in the area of rural financial services;
Contributing to the management of information and data on the targets and performance of the programme with regards to the financial services;
Leading the technical preparation of the programme’s periodic progress reports in the area of rural financial services clearly assessing implementation progress, achievement of outputs-based expected development outcomes, and recommendations on the way forward;
In collaboration with the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, ensuring related knowledge management, including the identification of policy lessons;
In collaboration with the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer coordinating the economic and financial analyses on the impact of PROFIT-funded activities on target groups;
Ensuring implementation of the recommendations of supervision and follow-up missions in the areas of rural financial services;
Undertaking field monitoring visits to beneficiaries; and
Undertaking any other duty assigned by the Director.

The performance indicators for the Rural Finance Officer :

Annual work plan and budget prepared with regards to financial inclusion objectives, targets, and activities;
Performance-based agreement with programme partners and service providers intervening in the implementation of rural financial services developed;
TORs for the mobilization of technical expertise to support programme implementation (TSPs) for Banks, SACCOs and MFIs developed;
Quality of rural finance related services delivered by partners and service providers contracted by AGRA;
Quality field monitoring visits to beneficiaries undertaken;
Manuals developed;
Quarterly reports.

Skills and Other Competencies