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:   Makueni, Kajiado, Narok, and Homabay.

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 Partner you will work with

The African Confederation of Cooperative Savings and Credit Associations (ACCOSCA) is a Pan-African membership organization that brings together national associations of Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations (SACCOs) across the African continent. Established in 1968, ACCOSCA serves as the continental voice and representative body for the SACCO movement in Africa.

ACCOSCA works to strengthen cooperative financial institutions by providing capacity building, technical assistance, policy advocacy, and knowledge-sharing platforms for its member organizations. The Confederation promotes the adoption of best practices in governance, risk management, and financial sustainability within the SACCO sector. Through strategic partnerships, training programs, research initiatives, and continental forums, ACCOSCA supports the growth and resilience of SACCOs and advances financial inclusion across Africa.

What you will do – Activities and deliverables

The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Advisor will play a key role in supporting CDF Canada’s country project team in tracking, documenting, and reporting on the progress and achievements of the VOICE for Women and Girls Project. Reporting to the Country Program Officer and working closely with the MEL Specialist in Ottawa, the MEL Advisor will contribute to data collection, analysis, and validation across various project sites, while also enhancing information management and reporting processes. This role will support the development and refinement of tools and methodologies for effective data gathering, ensuring accurate and timely reporting to Global Affairs Canada and other stakeholders. Additionally, the MEL Advisor will work with local partners and cooperatives to strengthen their internal monitoring and evaluation systems, thereby improving accountability, learning, and program effectiveness at the grassroots level.

Objectives

The objective of the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) role is to support the project team in Kenya in effectively tracking, documenting, and reporting the achievements of the VOICE project through structured reporting processes. The role aims to foster a constructive learning environment across all levels of the project by promoting the use of good practices, identifying key recommendations, and capturing lessons learned. Additionally, the M&E officer will contribute to ensuring the sustainability of project outcomes and inform future interventions by facilitating continuous reflection, learning, and improvement within the cooperatives.

Deliverables
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 cooperatives.
• Maintain existing indicator tracking tools 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.
• 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 of best practices.
• Provide technical leadership and support to cooperatives in planning and implementing M&E systems and activities, data-based program decision-making, and results reporting.
• Provide training in M&E as needed.
• Document all program-related information and share with the country Program Officer (CPO).
• Complete monthly reports and timesheets, and submit to the CPO.
• Develop and share case studies and success stories with the 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 the collection of information about training and the purposes of improvement.

Your qualifications

Education:

• Degree with a focus on Social Sciences, Co-operative Development, International Development, Economics or other relevant fields from a recognized institution.

Experience:

• Experience with group facilitation and training, and ability to train and facilitate capacity building sessions at the community level.
• Experience working with monitoring and evaluation frameworks. 
• 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 
• Written and oral fluency in English
• Ability to work with a diverse team and stakeholders and experience managing internal teams toward a common objective.
• Ability to work with the marginalized, be flexible to travel to and work with the rural cooperatives, remain cool-headed when there are unexpected challenges, and withstand the tests of a rapidly changing environment with resilience and resolve.

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.

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