MERL Specialist

Company's Introduction:

Jobberman Ghana is on a mission to unlock work opportunities in Agriculture for Ghanaian youth - specifically in the rice, soybean, tomato and poultry value chains. The primary objective of the project dubbed Harnessing Agricultural Productivity and Prosperity for Youth (HAPPY) program, is to enhance the well-being, resilience, and active engagement of youth - especially women, in Ghana’s formal agribusiness and related sectors. The project activities will aim to dispense Agro-employability focused education through no-tech, low-tech and high tech platforms across the regions of Ghana to allow for inclusion and wide adoption. The main goal is to connect over 8,000 youth to employment opportunities in the Agriculture sector within 4 years, with inclusion principles applied to reach youth with disabilities. Key interventions of the HAPPY project include mobilizing job seekers in the respective agriculture value chains, linking participants with employers in the Agriculture sector through the Jobberman recruitment platform, online and offline job promotion, career fairs and other sensitization methods.

Responsibilities:

MERL Planning and Implementation:

• Lead the development of MERL frameworks including design of key project performance indicators to effectively track project performance and continuously monitor progress.
• Drive the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation plans, ensuring alignment with agricultural project goals.
• Lead the systematic collection, analysis and visualization of data to measure the impact of agricultural projects.
• Manage the project’s data and use it to advise on areas of improvement for better project performance
• Develop project monitoring tools and train project team members and implementing departments on the use of the same.

Research and Analysis:

• Lead efforts to identify key research questions, conduct in-depth research on agricultural trends, innovations, and best practices and develop related reports.
• Utilize strong analytical skills to generate insights from data, contributing to evidence-based decision-making.
• Collaborate with team members to synthesize research findings into actionable strategies.

Learning and Capacity Building:

• Contribute to the development of learning materials and resources.
• Lead and participate actively in internal knowledge-sharing sessions to enhance the project team's capacity.
• Represent Jobberman Ghana and/or the project in appropriate technical meetings and conferences for knowledge dissemination.

Reporting and Documentation:

•  Ensure timely and accurate MERL reporting to relevant stakeholders in accordance with approved reporting format and standard
• Lead the preparation of comprehensive reports documenting MERL processes and showcasing outcomes.
• Ensure the accuracy and completeness of MERL-related documentation within the agricultural context

Key Skills and Competencies: 

• Bachelors degree in quantitative research, statistics, development studies, project management, or any other field related to impact analysis; Any degree with additional M&E certifications will also be considered.
• At least 3 years of relevant working experience as a MERL specialist for impact projects, 2 years managing MERL activities in projects funded by international development agencies such as USAID, UK-AID, EU, etc.
• Experience in Agriculture projects is a plus.
• Experience developing theories of change, M&E systems or plans and conducting data quality assessments, data validation and data audits for youth empowerment projects highly preferred
• Demonstrated research experience and skills with understanding of qualitative and quantitative research design, complemented by experience in research information product development
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills for impressive presentations and effective report writing for various partners.
• Proven expertise in data collection methodologies, in-depth knowledge of sampling and use of interviews, focus groups and interactive tools to generate qualitative information and analysis with ability to communicate results clearly using graphs, charts, and other visuals.
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative research methods, statistical analysis, and data analysis software (Advanced Excel, ODK tool, KoBo Collect, google forms, power BI, SPSS, etc.)
• Extensive knowledge in MEL, collaboration, learning and adapting concepts for impact projects required.
• Strong teamwork and effective cross-cultural interpersonal skills with ability to work across various teams, willingness to listen, respect for diversity, demonstrated ability to build consensus and navigate complex operating environments
• Good time management skills, ability to handle multiple tasks at once and deliver high time constraints/deadlines

Location: Accra

Employment Type: Full Time