The MEL Officer will be responsible for all monitoring and evaluation processes at Area Level in line with Kijani Forestry policies and standards; including maintaining systems to collect and analyze information on activities, outputs, outcomes and impact of Kijani. This will involve routine survival checks, data quality assessments, supporting periodic surveys, data quality assessments, reporting and capacity building.

Responsibilities

Monitoring & Evaluation (25%)

• Develop performance monitoring plans at Area Level to guide routine data collection and monitoring of Kijani activities
• Support and supervise routine data collection process such as Planting Site Registration, Survival Counts, tree growth rates etc. as specified in the detailed performance monitoring plan
• Perform routine (monthly) data quality assessments to ensure validity, integrity, precision, reliability and timeliness of all collected data; identify any deficiencies and suggest corrective actions; and assist the field based teams to maintain electronic and hard copy files.
• Lead all Kijani output, outcome and impact level assessments at Area Level as per the M&E plan and share through monitoring reports on progress in line with the key results framework
• Provide technical guidance and leadership at Area Level in conducting project assessments, baselines and Evaluations in line with Kijani guidelines

Data Management & Reporting (25%)

• Participate in the development of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for data management and cleaning of Kijani PSR and Survival Data
• Perform real-time validation on all the submitted data to ensure the completeness, consistency, accuracy and integrity of incoming data. This will involve conducting regular quality checks on data to identify errors, inconsistencies and missing information on all data coming in from the field.
• Conduct bio-data updates for framer records where applicable through routine monitoring activities
• Conduct real time cleaning of data in line with approved data cleaning and management SOPs including the cleanup and alignment of tree garden polygons
• Consult and engage the field teams in real time where applicable in the cleanup process for all incoming data in line with the data cleaning and management SOPs
• Work closely with the IT team in supporting the data cleaning process
• Setup a performance dashboard for the data cleaning exercise with clear illustration of progress on the PSR data collection and cleaning exercise
• Prepare weekly and monthly reports clearly illustrating progress on quality of the PSR & Survival data
• Develop a clear communication channel with all the field teams for purposes of sharing of challenges and solutions to ongoing field updates and challenges
• Support the compilation of data and interpretation of generated statistics for various reports.
• Offer technical support and guidance to the Field officers, PCs and BCs as required in regards to Kijani MEL activities.
• Highlight and report challenges that occur during data validation to the MEL Manager. These include data that are unreadable, out-of-range, and inconsistent with the interactive checks provided by the MEL department.

Documentation & Learning (15%)

• Compile Area Level progress reports (Monthly, Quarterly, Semi Annual and Annual) for management decision making in line with the project implementation plan and donor requirements.
• Promote utilization of data/information from progress reports, baselines, evaluations and other assessments at project level through reflection and learning forums such as monthly & quarterly review meetings and management meetings
• Documentation of learnings, project most significant change stories, best practices etc. in profiling the impact of Kijani interventions at Area Level

Capacity Building (25%)

• Develop capacity of staff especially PCs and Plantation Management Teams to utilize MEL tools such as the Kijani App, Kobo Collect data collection tools and other MEL tools for proper tracking and reporting in line with Kijani Forestry guidelines including coaching and mentoring
• Provide technical support to Kijani staff (PCs, BCs, ACs), beneficiaries and other stakeholders on monitoring and evaluation processes and applications
• Periodically support data collectors (PCs, BCs, ACs, Plantation teams) to increase their technical capacity in the area of data collection, management and reporting.
• Lead workshops at Area Level in data collection and reporting to ensure all reports capture the required features

Other duties (10%)

• Perform any other duties as assigned by management
• Assist with ad hoc data requests

Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree in Monitoring & Evaluation, Statistics, Quantitative Economics, Mathematics, Demography, Biostatistics, or a related field is required
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative M&E data collection and analysis methods, including tracking outcome indicators, is desirable.
• Knowledge of designing and managing M&E systems for effective generation of monitoring data
• Experience in designing M&E methodologies and tools, and the ability to coach and train others in their use is desirable
• Excellent of MS Excel, and working knowledge of at least two statistical data management packages/software’s (quantitative & qualitative) e.g., SPSS, NVIVO/Nudist, EPIINFO, STATA etc.
• Minimum of 2 years of work experience in managing data intensive interventions in designing, monitoring, and evaluation methodologies
• Strong report writing and communication skills