Senior Associate, Monitoring, Evaluation

**Position summary**:
The Senior Associate, Monitoring, Evaluation Learning (MEL) is responsible for coordinating and carrying out a LandScale-based Monitoring Evaluation (ME) and Performance Management Framework and activities in Rainforest Alliance’s Landscapes Livelihoods project in Ghana. The Senior Associate, Monitoring, Evaluation Learning (MEL) is responsible for leading a participatory process with community members and landscape actors to backstop and provide maintenance of a hybrid community monitoring (HCM) system and coordinating and carrying out ME activities in Rainforest Alliance Landscape and Communities projects in Ghana. The Senior Associate ME will support these projects by working with Rainforest Alliance staff, project partners, consultants, and stakeholders to build and lead sound ME systems that improve understanding of the local context and tracks the project implementations and outcomes of interventions over time.

This includes designing and evaluating implementation of project activities; training technical staff, project partners, and field consultants on ME methods and tools; ensuring proper output and outcome indicator data collection, quality control, analysis, and management; and reporting on key findings. The position will also coordinate closely with other Rainforest Alliance units. The position is open to expand in time and geography depending on funding and development.

This role also includes supporting Landscape Management Bodies in rolling out and implementing LandScale-based, context adjusted systems to monitor their landscape´s performance. It will involve a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) system for the Action, while ensuring coordination of concerted efforts to build evidence and knowledge sharing across several landscapes.

**Responsibilities**:

- The Rainforest Alliance’s Core Values are Impact, Change, Collaboration, Openness and Trust and as such they form the basis of the behaviours we demonstrate;
- Develop the project´s MEL Plan, including tools, processes, and responsibilities to track project progress, assess its achievements, address the project´s challenges and risks, and documents its lessons learned, in consultation with MEL expert, and Senior Project Manager;
- Lead a participatory process with community members, lead farmers and landscape actors to provide troubleshooting and backstopping a hybrid community monitoring (HCM) system, including methods, tools and processes, employing GIS and satellite imagery;
- Develop and manage field-based project ME systems ´ methods, tools and processes, in coordination with the region´s Directors, Project Managers, and RA´s Senior Advisor on Projects ME and Quality Assurance;
- Collaborate with the Project´s Manager in the design and conduction of field-based baseline, mid-term, and end of project studies to understand needs, gaps, and opportunities for achieving rural development outcomes in the context of business and local community needs, and to assess the project´s contribution to such outcomes;
- Design and provide remote and person-to-person training and technical assistance to staff, project partners, and field consultants on ME methods, tools and processes, ensuring ME best practices;
- Designs and provide support, directly and remotely to actors of landscape governance bodies on ME methods, tools and processes, ensuring ME best practices
- Implement and take responsibility for quality control procedures to ensure transparent, evidence-based ME systems, based on reliable and timely field data collection, management and analysis, to generate and report high-quality output and outcome indicator values;
- Support Project Managers in maintaining updated project information in the Project Management Platform and SharePoint-based project sites;
- Support Project Managers in the preparation of quality and timely project performance technical reports as required by donors, as well as in the preparation of presentations to partners, and other Rainforest Alliance colleagues and departments
- Ensure that Rainforest Alliance´s Key Performance Indicators are embedded in project design; and ME best practices into the project;
- In coordination with the Project Manager, technically supports a participatory process in Landscape Governance Bodies leading to the design and implementation by the project´s Landscape Governance Bodies of context-specific, Landscale-based ME systems (including methods, tools and processes, employing GIS and satellite imagery) in each of the project´s target landscapes;

**Qualifications**:

- Bachelor’s Degree in international development, Agriculture, Social Sciences, Economics, Natural Resources Management or related field;
- Minimum 5 years of experience in similar position, including minimum of 2 years of experience conducting project ME activities including as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) officer for designing, delivery and impact assessments of progra