Overseas Volunteer Opportunity: Kenya

Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor

Contribute. Discover. Grow. Volunteer with CDF Canada.

Eligibility criteria:   Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada 

Location:   Nairobi, Kilifi, Machakos, Kericho, Kakamega, Homabay, Makueni, Kajiado and Narok.

Start Date:   Exact timing will be negotiated with the successful candidate.

Duration:   3-6 months in-country and online support

Language Requirement:   English (Mandatory)

Reporting to:   Country Program Officer

The Project – VOICE for Women and Girls

The VOICE for Women and Girls project is a seven-year initiative (2020 – 2027) aimed at strengthening the performance of developing country partner (DCP) organizations to advance gender equality and economic empowerment of 50,000 women and men from marginalised communities, in particular young women (target: 60% women and girls), in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Malawi with a focus on action areas of the Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP), namely:

• Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls, and
• Growth that Works for Everyone.

The Project responds to the needs identified by women and men of cooperatives and the entire members in the countries of operation and is designed to increase the capacities of individual producers and primary co-operatives to support more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient growth. Supporting institutions, including apex co-operatives, co-operative colleges, and government/regulatory institutions will also be engaged to increase the capacity and prioritization of vulnerable groups.

The Partners you will work with

The African Confederation of Co-operative Savings and Credit Association (ACCOSCA)

The African Confederation of Co-operative Savings and Credit Association (ACCOSCA) is a Pan-African confederation of national associations of savings and credit cooperatives societies. Having been established in Kenya by Co-operative leaders from across the continent in 1968, ACCOSCA has worked with various stakeholders in promoting the usage of the Co-operative Business model in a manner that would organically contribute towards the stimulating economic growth and development of a Country. Since its revitalization program at the Malawi General assembly in 2007, ACCOSCA has been leading the continent toward promoting financial inclusion in the local communities.

Currently, ACCOSCA has developed programs aimed at empowering and promoting cooperatives in Africa and is collaborating with various government bodies, development agencies and research institution in her service delivery to promote financial inclusion in Africa. Overall ACCOSCA aims at: Promoting the establishment of an institutional framework for mobilizing personal saving and credit cooperatives, Capacity Building, Technical Assistance, Information exchange, and Research on topical issues and addressing them amicably.

Cooperative University of Kenya (CUK)

Cooperative University of Kenya (CUK) is a public institution that provides education and training with an emphasis on Cooperative development. The mission of the college was defined and stated as, a national training institute involved in the training personnel of co-operative societies and unions as well as middle cadre government officers who help in the supervision of activities of the movement on behalf of the Ministry in charge of Co-operative Development (COCK Annual Report, 1983). CUK also works with small and medium entrepreneurs Co-operative Enterprises in Kenya to build their capacities and enhance their sustainability.

What you will do – Activities and deliverables

As a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Advisor, you will support the CDF Canada country project team to track, document and report on project achievements of CDF Canada’s VOICE for Women and Girls Project. Working under the CDF Canada’s Country Program Officer (CPO), the MEL volunteer will support data collection and analysis, information management and reporting processes and products. Your work will feed into high-quality communications with the Canadian government, the Canadian public and other stakeholders about activities, outputs and its outcomes of the VOICE project. With the support of the CDF Canada’s MEL Specialist and the CPO, you will help refine methodologies and tools for collecting data in the country. Liaising with CDF Canada’s country partners, you will have the opportunity to travel on a regular basis to the project sites in the country to collect and validate data. 

Objectives

The volunteer will be responsible for supporting the project team in Kenya, to properly track, document and report project achievements in VOICE’s reporting processes. S/he will also contribute to building a constructive learning environment at all project levels, promoting good practices and key recommendations for ensuring sustainability, lessons learned and ideas for future interventions. Furthermore, the role will capture and tell their volunteer journey during their mandate in Kenya to contribute towards increasing awareness of the volunteer program and international development among Canadian population.

Deliverables

As a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Advisor, your mandate will be to ensure good monitoring, evaluation, learning and accountability for Voice Project in Kenya while tracking and reporting progress. The advisor shall also ensure the qualitative documentation of results and impact in line with Voice Project’s systems for MEL and documentation.
As the MEL volunteer Advisor, you will:

• Ensure the alignment of MEL activities with program goals.
• Contribute to the development of annual work plans to identify project targets and ensure inclusion of MEL activities.
• Develop M&E frameworks, data collection tools and systems for the project, partners, and cooperatives.
• Maintain existing indicator tracking tools; develop additional databases and tracking tools as needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of project interventions.
• Ensure adherence to specific monitoring and reporting requirements for the VOICE project.
• Analyze data for accuracy, flag validation or quality issues, and contribute to system fixes.
• Aggregate and analyze data from across VOICE project sites to contribute to management decision-making and reporting.
• Ensure quality and timely submission of country quarterly reports; manage preparation of additional reports and other donors as required.
• Generate quarterly indicator reports for tracking progress against key indicators as needed.
• Conduct field visits for data validation and to monitor the quality and completeness of data sets; coordinate data collection at project sites to monitor program development and ensure timely compilation and reporting of data; capture and document lessons learned; and champion the scaling up best practices.
• Provide technical leadership and support to partner organizations and cooperatives in planning and implementing M&E systems and activities, data-based program decision-making, and results reporting; provide training as needed.
• Document all program related information and share with the country Program officer.
• Stay in constant communication with the CPO, partner’s focal person and the co-op managers to obtain the needed information regarding the co-ops.
• Prepare and submit weekly deliverables to the program officer and discuss what you require to complete those tasks.
• Complete monthly reports and timesheets, and submit to the volunteer coordinator.
• Develop and share case studies, success stories with communications advisor for social media content that communicates the project’s activities, outputs and/or outcomes.
• Will be required to provide technical support to other volunteers while preparing session plans for trainings.
• Support the volunteers in developing training assessment tools for collection of information about training and purposes of improvement.

Your qualifications

Education:

• Degree with a focus on Social Sciences, Agriculture, International Development or other relevant fields from a recognized institution.

Experience:

• Experience with group facilitation and training 
• A commitment to gender equality, youth inclusion, and international volunteering
• Ability to conduct research and experience with project cycle management. 
• Knowledge of qualitative and quantitative social science research methods  
• Flexibility, adaptability, excellent interpersonal skills, and cultural sensitivity 
• Excellent organizational and report-writing skills 
• Strong interpersonal and team working skills.
• Written and oral fluency in English
• Experience working in cooperative sector.
• A sense of proportionality in determining practical approaches to requirements with a focus on substantive value add and beneficiaries.
• Ability to work with a diverse team and stakeholders and experience managing internal teams toward a common objective.
• Ability to train and facilitate capacity building sessions at the community levels.
• Ability to work with the marginalized, be flexible to travel to and work with the rural SACCOs remain cool-headed when there are unexpected challenges and withstand the tests of a rapidly changing environment with resilience and resolve.

Additional experience considered an asset:

• Knowledge of statistics. 
• Experience working with monitoring and evaluation frameworks. 
• Content development for adult education 
• Demonstrated ability to remain patient in difficult environments, manage expectations in low resource situations, and stay positive in the face of challenges.

Support package

This is a voluntary assignment. CDF Canada supports volunteers through the provision of a comprehensive package designed to cover a modest and healthy lifestyle, while allowing for effectiveness in the placement:

• Monthly allowance.
• Return-trip international and/or domestic airfare.
• Visa-related costs (if needed).
• International health insurance.
• Vaccination and health-related costs (if needed).
• Interpreter and/or translator (if needed and depending on the position and duration of the assignment).
• Pre-departure support and orientation.
• Support and orientation during the assignment.
• Debriefing upon completion of the assignment.

E-volunteering

Depending on the nature of the placement, volunteers are encouraged to provide e-volunteering support to our local partners before or after their placement.

Engaging Canadians

CDF Canada provides technical and logistical support to young and experienced professionals through volunteer assignments to apply and acquire new skills and knowledge in international co-operative development. We ask each volunteer, regardless of the duration of their mandate, to share their experience during and/or at the end of their assignment either in the country of assignment or in Canada. The experience can be shared by providing stories of human interest and photographs that can be used for social media outreach; Participate in events/conferences or other public engagement activities to share their experience to motivate others.

Application Process

Please submit a cover letter and CV/resume, by applying directly on our recruitment webpage. You must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. Successful candidates will be required to obtain a police-check from their local police or RCMP detachment. All applicants are thanked for their interest in CDF Canada; however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.