Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. FAO helps developing countries in transition modernize and improve agriculture including livestock, forestry, and fisheries practices, ensuring good nutrition and food security for all. Upon request from the Government of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the FAO has agreed to provide technical assistance for the execution of the Food and Nutrition Security Enhancement Project (FANSEP), UTF/NEP/077/NEP from July 2019 to June, 2023. The project is implemented by Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.  

Objectives

FAO Technical Assistance to FANSEP will contribute to achieve the project development objective: improved agricultural productivity and nutrition practices of targeted smallholder farming communities in selected areas of Nepal

Reporting Lines 

Under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative and the direct supervision of Team Leader and technical supervision of the FAO designated technical officer in the FAO Regional office or FAO HQ, and in close coordination with the Government of Nepal’s designated technical officer for M&E in the PMU and colleagues of the Technical Assistant (TA) team, the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Specialist will have the responsibility of supporting planning, implementation and management of activities related to project monitoring, evaluation, reporting and Knowledge Management.

 Technical Focus

 M & E specialist will support in designing and establishing appropriate M&E system for project, preparing results‐based monitoring and evaluation framework and plan of action for timely monitoring and reporting of project outcome and outputs. With support

 Tasks and responsibilities

 The Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Prepare a results‐based monitoring and evaluation framework and plan of action for project interventions, including the definition of targets and identification of appropriate performance indicators at outcome and output levels
• Design, oversee and co‐ordinate the Project’s participatory M&E system, which should focus on the monitoring of food and nutrition security in collaboration with project counterparts
• Identify appropriate M&E mechanisms for the adoption of climate smart agriculture technologies and nutrition sensitive agriculture practices and improvement of agro‐ecological parameters at the field level
• Assist PMU in the establishment of disaggregated data base for monitoring and reporting of indicators of FANSEP result framework and annual work plan; and report to the GoN and the donor on stipulated time frame
• Support PMU for the establishment of project management information system
• Provide consolidated M&E information to PMU to feed into the project progress reports and technical papers
• Guide and oversee cluster team and project implementing partners on the social, financial, economic and environmental impact of climate smart agriculture and nutrition sensitive agriculture practices including relationships to resilience building and agricultural climate change adaptation and gender and social inclusion
• Assess the impact of project interventions on agricultural production, food and nutrition security, household income at the household and community levels
• Provide training to members of PMU and Cluster Project Support Unit (CPSU), counterpart agencies and implementing partners on the Project’s approach and methodology to participatory monitoring and reporting, including the collection of meaningful data at the field level
• Work closely with the PMU and FAO TA staff to set up community-level monitoring and evaluation systems in connection with the local-level institutions such as rural municipalities
• Develop a methodology for participatory resource mapping and group/community-level participatory development planning and monitoring systems
• Design the reporting channels of the established monitoring and evaluation system, in order to link key stakeholders for necessary feedback and allow management decisions to be taken for corrective measures to be implemented.
• Assist in making the information system monitoring indicators user-friendly.
• Design surveys and process monitoring mechanism to document progress of the project implementation
• Provide support to PMU for conducting impact studies
• Submit a work plan and monthly progress report as per the format developed by the project.
• Liaise and maintain partnerships with the World Bank and other agencies on behalf of FAO
• Undertake any other work as assigned by the Team Leader pertaining to project with focus to project monitoring and evaluation

 CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

 Minimum Requirements

• National of Nepal
• Advance University (Master) Degree in agriculture economics, statistics or any related field with a sound background in Agriculture and Food Security or Rural Development
• At least seven Years of relevant experience in the design and establishment of monitoring and evaluation system in the field of agriculture, livestock, food and nutrition security programs with sound knowledge in the design of indicators, database system and reporting
• Working knowledge of English and Nepali and limited knowledge of local language
• Candidate should have knowledge of computer skills (MS Office package: word, excel and power point) and data base management

FAO Core Competencies 

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Knowledge and working experience on RBM 
• Design and operationalization project monitoring and evaluation system
• Design of indicators, periodic monitoring and reporting to concerned agencies as per requirement
• Candidate should have knowledge of computer skills (MS Office package: word, excel and power point) and M&E database management 

Selection Criteria 

• Extent of technical experience in the field of monitoring and evaluation related to agriculture, livestock or food and nutrition security services,
• Having experience of working with multi-disciplinary team
• Experience in designing and conduction of surveys/ assessment studies.
• Good working knowledge of English, especially on written 
• Experience with similar internationally funded development projects will be an added advantage