Through the Malawi Governance for Solutions (GfS) Activity, USAID seeks to build on the incremental gains in decentralization and associated service delivery improvements, with the understanding that to make the significant leaps now required for Malawi to meet its own development goals—in the face of a fast-growing, young population—a bold, adaptive, and sustainable approach is required. To successfully remove critical bottlenecks and diffuse effective governance practices, DAI will deploy a locally driven approach—Facilitate, Catalyze, and Scale—drawing on Problem Driven Iterative
Adaptation (PDIA) as a core methodology. Through the Facilitate, Catalyze, and Scale approach, DAI will help local stakeholders to tackle the root causes of service delivery failures through best-fit solutions and offer demonstrative models based on positive deviance. Through both process-oriented facilitation and the provisions of technical support and grants, GfS will foster stable, resilient, and more self-reliant partnerships that best position local communities to address their own challenges and contribute to the trajectory of Malawi Vision 2063.

2. Objectives of the assignment

Reporting to the MEL Director, the MEL Officer will support the design and management of systems for data collection, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and knowledge management (KM). He/She will assist in ensuring that the Project team generates data and learns from Project activities on an ongoing basis to identify the highest return opportunities.

3. Tasks & Responsibilities

In order to achieve the results identified in the scope of work, the MEL Officer will work in collaboration with other team members, technical staff, resource partners, and STTAs to carry out a variety of activities under the MEL component, and have the following specific responsibilities:

• Contribute to the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan and M&E system.
• Support the Program knowledge management strategy, including development and dissemination of materials.
• Help in the design of evidence-based approach to test new approaches, assess best practices and capture learning to enable scale-up.
• Contribute to the development, refinement and implementation of GfS learning agenda.
• Support the design of a rigorous baseline and specialized assessments of technical activities to determine efficacy of proposed interventions and measure Project impact.
• Support M&E and technical teams to develop activity indicators, with regard to USAID earmark requirements, and targets and gather quantitative and qualitative data related to those indicators and targets.
• Contribute to the disaggregation of data as required and the appropriate measurement of the GfS gender, equity and youth goals.
• Assist the MEL Director with working with technical teams to develop appropriate M&E plans for each activity during implementation.
• Work with the MEL Director to conduct participatory M&E of technical field activities to measure quantitative as well as qualitative impact.
• Contribute, as needed to the work of other Components in designing appropriate sector monitoring systems and integrating data for decision-making.
• Contribute to, and participate in, project reporting, events, and learning activities – particularly the Pause and Reflect sessions.

4. Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Statistics, Demography, Social Sciences, Implementation Science,M onitoring and Evaluation, or a related field. Those with a master’s degree will have an added advantage.
• Minimum of five years’ work experience in strategic learning, knowledge management, communications, and/or M&E at least in an international development context.
• Demonstrated knowledge of USAID MEL requirements and reporting protocols.
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to engage effectively with diverse stakeholders and facilitate collaborative learning processes.