MEL Assistants

The MEL Assistant will be responsible for supporting monitoring and data validation activities at cluster level in line with Kijani Forestry policies and standards; including maintaining systems to collect and analyze information on activities, outputs, outcomes and impact of Kijani. The MEL Assistant will work closely under the leadership and technical support of the MEL Assistant. This will involve routine data quality assessments, supporting periodic surveys, data cleaning and management, reporting and capacity building on MEL related activities.

Monitoring & Evaluation (40%)

• Support the development and execution of performance monitoring plans at Area Level to guide routine data collection and monitoring of Kijani activities
  

Support and supervise routine data collection process such as Planting Site Registration, Survival Counts, tree growth rates etc. with guidance from the MEL Officer

Participate in routine data validation activities to ensure validity, integrity, precision, reliability and timeliness of all collected data

Data Management & Reporting (30%)

• Perform real-time validation on all the submitted data to ensure the completeness, consistency, accuracy and integrity of incoming data. This will involve conducting regular quality checks on data to identify errors, inconsistencies and missing information on all data coming in from the field.
  

Conduct bio-data updates for framer records where applicable through routine monitoring activities

Conduct real time cleaning of data in line with approved data cleaning and management SOPs

Consult and engage the field teams in real time where applicable in the cleanup process for all incoming data in line with the data cleaning and management SOPs

Work closely with the IT team in supporting the data cleaning process

Prepare weekly and monthly reports clearly illustrating progress on quality of the PSR & Survival data

Offer technical support and guidance to the Field officers, PCs and BCs as required in regards to Kijani MEL activities.

Highlight and report challenges that occur during data validation to the MEL Officer. These include data that are unreadable, out-of-range, and inconsistent with the interactive checks provided by the MEL department.

Capacity Building (20%)

• Develop capacity of staff especially PCs and Plantation Management Teams to utilize MEL tools such as the Kijani App, Kobo Collect data collection tools and other MEL tools for proper tracking and reporting in line with Kijani Forestry guidelines including coaching and mentoring
  

Provide technical support to Kijani staff (PCs, BCs, ACs), beneficiaries and other stakeholders on monitoring and evaluation processes and applications

Periodically support data collectors (PCs, BCs, ACs, Plantation teams) to increase their technical capacity in the area of data collection, management and reporting.

Other duties (10%)

• Perform any other duty as assigned by management
  

Assist with ad hoc data requests

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Information Technology, or a related field in line with Social Works and Social Sciences, Development Planning etc.
  

• one (1) year experience in data collection
  

• Experience in designing data collection tools and or data collection and analysis is highly desirable.
  

• Knowledge and experience in utilising mobile applications in data collection such as Kobo Collect or ODK and or GIS.
  

• Experience in designing M&E methodologies and tools, with the ability to coach and train others, is an advantage.
  

• Excellent command of MS Excel and working knowledge of at least two statistical or data management software packages (quantitative & qualitative), such as SPSS, Nvivo/Nudist, EpiData, EpiInfo, STATA, etc.