Manager - Monitoring/Evaluation & Learning - Contractual

About the Organization :

The organization put people, planet, and progress at the heart of trade by leveraging the power of markets to create better jobs, better incomes, a better environment, and gender equity for all. To catalyze change at scale, the organization innovates, convenes, and invests in inclusive and sustainable solutions that enable businesses to create value for people and planet, while improving their own performance.

About the Program:

Their program is an innovative jurisdictional model to foster agricultural ecosystems which conserve and enhance natural resources and build community resilience whilst enabling businesses to source responsibly.

It is a partnership that aims to create systems level shifts to catalyse and scale a model where:

- producers grow agri-commodities using natural and regenerative farming principles that restore, rather than deplete, natural resources and reduce emissions from farming systems; and

- smallholder farmers and communities thrive, through improved economic stability, enhanced livelihoods and greater participation in decision making; businesses can source responsibly while creating inclusive supply chain relationships.

- To achieve this, the partnership will support a locally-driven, multi-stakeholder governance structure to drive market transformation - bringing together companies that commit to sourcing responsibly, community and producer organisations for more inclusive decision-making, government institutions that enable sustainable and green growth; and impact investors and funders who seek scalable solutions that deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.

About the Role

Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) Manager

As the Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) Manager, you will own the development and execution of all functions related to the monitoring, evaluation and learning agenda for the program. You will report to the Senior Program Manager , and work closely with the Program team, Organization India M&E team and broader internal stakeholders and impact leads. In addition to the program, you will be called upon by the Country Director and Programs Director to support the capacity building of other landscape program teams in South India.

Key responsibilities are outlined below:

M&E Strategy and operations:

- Lead and execute the design of the Monitoring, Recording and Verification (MRV) Systems at the landscape level and in alignment of Organization Theory of Change.

- Manage external service providers to ensure M&E assignments meeting the needs of the program.

- Coordinate work on and be the owner of the spatial mapping and landscape analysis work. Help the team and partners to make use of spatial data and analytics for planning, implementation, and monitoring.

- Take ownership of the digital M&E system of digital data collection and management systems for program MRV, including setting up the indicator frameworks and their inter-relations in the system.

- Responsible for donor reporting and planning processes by providing input on program data in data management systems, performing quality checks, and reviewing the overall results within a set budget and timeline.

Learning and Knowledge Management:

- Work closely with the Program Lead and its secretariat to articulate, design, and draft a manual on Landscape Approach for practitioners and policy makers through capturing the learning / processes adopted by RPLC.

- Engage with state policy and other sectoral think tanks, to position the Organization landscape approach and support its wider adoption for creating impact at scale.

- Engage with the landscape program team and partners to design and capture learning (both success and failure)/ innovations and challenges/ outputs, outcomes and impacts from the ongoing ground level initiatives.

- Engage and support the landscape program team and its partners on need basis on conceptualising and delivering knowledge material on regenerative agriculture, landscape restoration, community livelihoods, and gender, equity and inclusion.

- Contribute in designing and implementing the claims framework for catalysing landscape centric responsible sourcing in Madhya Pradesh and South India.

General :

- Support the Markets Manager to arrange learning and training of the team/ partners on key sustainability frameworks that drive private sector commitments. Eg: SBTI, NetZero, Living Income, OP2B

- Support the Communications Officer in co-developing appropriate dissemination material and present these to internal and external stakeholders including in RPLC governance meetings.

What you bring:

- A Master's degree or similar in a relevant discipline

- Minimum 9-10 years working experience in M&E, learning and knowledge management related roles.

- Understanding of critical and interconnected challenges in smallholder agriculture, landscape degradation, and value chains (especially in the context of Madhya Pradesh)

- Ability to think conceptually around complex issues and to articulate/ framework the same to make it usable for the wider stakeholder group.

- Experience of working with multi-stakeholder initiatives and engaging deeply with government, NGOs, and/or Private sector.

- Proven ability to establish strong relationships and build rapport with stakeholders.

- Strong data management, analytical and interpersonal skills.

- Ability to understand and communicate effectively with all stakeholders.

- Knowledge of donor policies, global international development trends, development finance, de-risking, and value chain financing.

- The role will be that off an individual contributor, therefore experience in project management and matrix\ leadership of teams is a requirement.

- Willingness to travel atleast 25-30% of the time.

- Strong and proven data and information management knowledge and skills

- Proven data analysis skills.

- Able to work independently and show initiative to influence changes.

- Fluent in English and Hindi (oral and written)

Preferred Qualities:

- Experience with geodata management and GIS software is an advantage.

- Experience with statistical analysis and software such as SAS, SPSS, R or Python is desired.

- Affinity with sustainability, landscapes and international trade and development is an advantage but not an exclusion criterion.

What we offer:

- Organization offers a challenging position with opportunities for growth within an enthusiastic and passionate team.

- As an Organization team member, you can contribute to positive global change.

- This is a contractual position for a period of 2 years.

- This role is based in Gurgaon, India and all candidates must be willing to travel extensively to Madhya Pradesh.