Organisation Background

The Science for Africa Foundation (SFA Foundation) is a non-profit, public charity organisation that supports strengthens and promotes science innovation in Africa. The goal of the SFA Foundation is to address the continent’s most pressing developmental needs by generating scientific knowledge that solves problems and informs decision-making.

We serve the African research ecosystem by funding excellent research and innovation ideas; enabling interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers, building and reinforcing environments that are conducive for scientists to thrive and produce quality research that generates new, locally relevant knowledge.

The SFA Foundation takes a holistic approach to the development of science. Our programmatic initiatives are crafted to cater to the entire science ecosystem and span across the value chain from early discovery sciences to translation sciences and target cross-cutting gaps.

Our commitment to strengthening the entire research ecosystem is reflected in the creation of major science and innovation programmes implemented through a well-established grant-making scheme, advocacy and promotion of scientific excellence, emphasis on intra-Africa collaboration and evidence-based policy-making mechanisms.

Position Overview

The Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) Officer is responsible for supporting the implementation of evidence-based programming and continuous and adaptive learning within SFA Foundation and across our implementing partners. This includes supporting the development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation (MEL) activities and events within the SFA Foundation Programmes and among our partners; promoting MEL knowledge transfer internally and externally.

The MEAL officer is a key member of the SFA Foundation MEAL team and will join a dynamic and relatively flat team in a newly established organisation. The incumbent is expected to demonstrate experience and capability in leading detailed MEAL initiatives within the organization as well as acting as a representational ambassador for MEAL both internally and externally.

The MEAL officer is a mid-level position that will work under the guidance of the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) Senior Officer to ensure that proper monitoring, evaluation, and learning is carried out at the outcome level, that projects at SFA Foundation maintain their strategic vision and that all activities result in the achievement of intended outputs in a cost-effective and timely manner.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

Programme Planning Support:

• Contribute to the development and design of clear, relevant, and feasible MEL strategies to ensure clearly defined measurable indicators of outputs, outcomes, and impact in line with the SFA Foundation’s mission and strategy;
• Drive quality operationalization of the programmatic MEL strategies, with a focus on continuous improvement, adaptable evidence-based decision-making, and regular knowledge dissemination. This includes but is not limited to designing program MEL tools for data collection, verification, management, reporting, and data audits;
• Develop program and operational reporting templates that facilitate the acquisition and aggregation of information in programs, including input for impact-related success stories;
• Support the development and maintenance of an effective system for archiving MEL guidelines, tools, data files, analysis files, reports, and presentations for major activities undertaken.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting:

• Support the implementation of robust, efficient, and effective reporting frameworks that facilitate the acquisition and aggregation of knowledge and impact stories.
• In collaboration with Programme and MEL teams, contribute to reporting programme progress and key lessons including overall progress on achievement of results and project sustainability
• Working with the Communications team, take a lead in collating and disseminating relevant lessons learned in the course of programme implementation.
• Assist in the development of robust baseline, mid-term, and end-term evaluations and consultant recruitments as necessary.

Learning:

• Contribute to outcome and evidence-based strategic decision-making at SFA Foundation and promote a culture of evidence-based learning and adaptation;
• Participate in a multidisciplinary team to develop, implement and evaluate strategic plans to improve learning approaches at SFA Foundation.
• Support the Programme teams in developing strategies that enhance programmatic learning based on data collected and experiences noted during the implementation activities.
• Support the Programme teams in reviewing and revising theories of change, where necessary.
• Ensure proper documentation of innovative approaches and best practices for dissemination across SFA Foundation stakeholder groups.
• Coordinate mid‐term reviews and evaluation of program activities and ensure proper documentation of innovative approaches and best practices for dissemination and sharing experiences to promote repeat applications or scaling‐up in different community settings.

Training and Coaching:

• Build the capacity of project staff in monitoring, evaluation, and learning - specifically how to demonstrate impact
• Support the development of relevant training and coaching material to build the capacity of Programme staff and SFA Foundation grantees.

Communication and representation:

• Ably represent the SFA Foundation Programme teams in various local and international fora requiring liaison with current and potential implementing and funding partners.
• Support in gathering, summarising, and disseminating relevant technical updates on program planning monitoring, evaluation and operations research within the programmes;

Person Specifications

Academic Qualifications

• Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, Business Administration or any other related field;

Professional Qualifications

• Advanced certificate or training in MEL, statistics, data management or other relevant field.

Knowledge and Experience

• At least four (4) years of relevant experience in a pure monitoring, evaluation and learning function;
• Proven success in designing, implementing, and operating project MEL systems from project initiation to closeout stages
• Experience in managing MEL database systems
• Expertise in analyzing data using statistical software
• Proficiency in computer applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint and Outlook express including financial and statistical packages

Key Attributes

• Resilience: Maintains a focus on key priorities and deliverables, staying resilient in the face of pressure
• Ability to work in an international and multi-cultural setting.
• Self-motivated, goal and deadline driven; proven track record to deliver the highest possible quality within set timeframes.
• Highly organized with an ability to balance working independently whilst engaging teams.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, and an ability to represent SFA at all levels and in different cultural settings.
• Ability and willingness to travel up to 30% domestically and internationally.
• High moral standing with impeccable integrity.

HOW TO APPLY

Should you meet the above requirements, please submit a cover letter and a current Curriculum Vitae not exceeding five (5) pages including three professional referees to [email protected] with the name of the vacancy as the e-mail subject.

The cover letter should be no more than two pages long and explain why you are interested in this post and how your skills and experience make you a good fit.

The documents should be saved in MS Word or PDF in the following format: Your First Name-Your Last Name-Document Name-Date (mmyy) e.g., Deus-Wan-CV-092022-SFA Foundation or Deus-Wan-CoverLetter-092022 -SFA Foundation.

All applications should be submitted by Wednesday, 26^th April 2023.

SFA Foundation has a commitment to safeguarding people and our environment and this forms part of our background checks.