Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Officer Kenya

Salary: Local terms and conditions apply

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Contract: 24-month Fixed Term Contract (renewable)

Hours: Full time – 35 hours per week

About the role

Sightsavers is currently seeking a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Officer (MEL Officer) to work in our Kenya country office to support the portfolio of evaluations and learning by helping to coordinate, commission and quality assure mid-term and end-term evaluations and to disseminate learning.

As the MEL Officer you will focus on supporting external and internal evaluations by assisting with coordination of the evaluation process, from beginning to end. You will also support initiatives for learning and help to facilitate the uptake of learning and recommendations from evaluations and reviews into programme design and delivery.

Working and collaborating with other members of the global MEL Team, you will contribute to a culture of continuous learning and improvement. National and international travel will be required for this role for up to eight weeks a year.

Further duties include:

• Supporting the co-ordination of externally commissioned evaluations
• Support MEL Advisors with planning and implementation of internal evaluative activities.
• Support the planning and facilitation of workshops (remote and face-to-face), particularly in the Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) region.
• Co-ordinate and maintain evaluation planning schedules, ensuring plans are regularly captured in an appropriate format. Liaising with Sightsavers’ project, fundraising and donor liaison teams to co-ordinate evaluation planning.
• Support the MEL Operations Officer in the upkeep of evaluation resources on the MEL portal page.
• Collect, analyse and present project performance data for inclusion in disseminated material including internally produced evaluation reports, presentations and synthesis reports.
• Support the effective dissemination of learning and integration of evidence from evaluative activities into programme design and delivery.
• Support the promotion and dissemination of the team’s work by identifying opportunities for contributing to conferences, journals, articles, news bulletins, blogs etc.
• Develop and maintain mechanisms for ensuring that externally contracted consultants and members of the MEL Team comply with ethical, safeguarding and data protection procedures.
• Support the MEL Team to pursue strategic objectives for strengthening evaluative activities.
• Support implementation of organisational initiatives to help achieve MEL Team objectives.

Skills and Experience

As the ideal candidate you will possess experience or a degree in a relevant social science subject (international development, public health, sociology, education), have a background in monitoring, evaluation, and learning (preferably in the international development context), and hold knowledge and understanding of evaluation and learning approaches and methodologies, including relevant ethical considerations.

Further requirements include:

Essential

• Experience of liaising with, and managing relationships with external organisations, teams and individuals.
• Experience of drafting Terms of Reference as well as commissioning and contracting evaluators or consultants.
• Experience of planning, delivering and facilitating learning focussed workshops (remote and in-person).
• Proficient in using Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Ability to meet internal and external deadlines.
• Willing to travel locally and internationally, up to eight weeks per year.
• Understanding of and commitment to equity and inclusion principles, such as gender equity and disability inclusion.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

Desirable

• Masters’ degree in a relevant subject area.
• Other language skills an advantage, e.g., Swahili, French or Portuguese.
• Experience of participatory primary data collection and analysis.
• Experience of working effectively within multidisciplinary and multicultural teams based centrally and overseas.
• Experience of reporting to a manager based overseas and working with limited supervision.
• Familiarity with data analysis and visualisation software, such as Microsoft Power BI, as well as artificial intelligence software, such as Microsoft Copilot.
• Experience or understanding of accessible design principles.

This is a highly varied and involved role and the above is not an exhaustive list of duties or required professional skills. Please see the Job Description for full details.

Candidates are welcome to demonstrate their ability to match the person specification by expanding on how their experience, training and/or qualifications might have provided them with the knowledge or skills required for the role. Successful candidates will be appointed on merit.

We anticipate that interviews will take place during the week commencing 10 March 2025, and the evaluation process will include a written task and an oral interview.

Closing date: 23 February 2025 23.30pm GMT UK.

As a global equal opportunities employer, Sightsavers is committed to embracing diversity throughout our workforce by creating an inclusive environment that reflects the many cultures and locations where we work. Our workforce will be truly representative of all sections of society and we will actively promote the inclusion of individuals with a disability. Sightsavers is a Disability Confident Leader and qualified people with a disability are particularly encouraged to apply.

Sightsavers is an employer that does not tolerate any form of harassment and has zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse. All potential candidates will be subjected to rigorous background checks and controls.