Research Triangle Institute (RTI) has over 30 years’ experience assisting governments, communities, and the private sector in managing their environment and natural resources. We have delivered innovative, breakthrough solutions in key development sectors, including countering wildlife crime, forestry, protected area management, climate change, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), economic livelihood development, community engagement, and institutional capacity building.

Project Description

The USAID Tuhifadhi Maliasili activity aims to address dynamics that threaten habitat connectivity and the long-term persistence of biodiversity in Tanzania in a manner that: i) increases private sector engagement in conservation and natural resource management (NRM); ii) builds the capacity of the public sector and civil society; iii) strengthen the policy and regulatory framework for conservation and NRM; and iv) enhances knowledge management across sectors. This is an anticipated 5-year project.

Position Description

RTI is seeking a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) and GIS officer to join the USAID Tuhifadhi Maliasili activity. The candidate will provide assistance on tools, frameworks, and data collection methods and support GIS data collection to include the location of implementation activities, infrastructure, and environmental features and data from the applied Political Economic Analysis (PEA) and Land Use Plans (LUPs). The MEL and GIS officer will report to the M&E Specialist.

Responsibilities

Supports the development, implementation, refinement, and harmonization of project’s MEL system; develops and operationalizes indicators, sets targets, and monitors progress; ensures they are informed by and feed into program decisions.
Supports all project activities to capture data on indicators and to identify best practices and lessons learned as required by USAID.
Supports the collection, analysis, and reporting on performance indicators by other team members and project counterparts.
Works closely with partners and grantees to comply with mandatory data collection requirements and supports MERLA capacity building activities.
Works with technical staff to support tools for data collection, storage, and analysis and guide data collection, management, and analysis in a consistent, standardized, and disciplined manner.
Analyze satellite imagery for data variables such as forest cover, vegetative cover, and habitat fragmentation.
Supports the team on identifying Learning Questions, knowledge gaps and puts the mechanisms in place to respond to these questions/gaps.
As part of a comprehensive learning agenda, designs needs-based operations research studies and protocols to generate evidence for which innovations work, which do not work, and why.
Proactively reviews/analyzes project activities and their outputs and outcomes to continuously learn from and adapt ongoing project implementation; provides feedback to the technical team on where to improve.
Ensures appropriate disaggregation of project data to understand risks and benefits for actions based on demographics (e.g., youth, gender).
Ensures gender, youth, and social inclusion considerations are mainstreamed across all activities.
Ensures methodological rigor of research undertaken.
Other activities as assigned

Qualifications

Masters degree in education, social sciences, statistics, or related field and/or Bachelor’s degree with minimum of 1 year of experience designing and implementing M&E systems for international donor-funded projects, including USAID-funded projects.
Knowledge of reporting procedures, best practices, guidelines, methods, and approaches for MEL.
Excellent management, communication, and organizational skills (attention to detail is required); flexibility and capacity to multi-task.
Familiarity and experience with indicators relevant to natural resources management, biodiversity and conservation, wildlife trafficking, and/or climate change adaptation.
Ability to articulate and apply CLA principles.
Demonstrated experience in analytical skills and data visualization.
Computer literacy, with ability to analyse and interpret data using Excel, online reporting tools, and statistical packages.
Experience working with ArcGIS.
Experience working with PowerBI and Tableau is desirable.
Experience with MEL that measures and promotes gender and social inclusion.
Ability to work effectively, responsively, and collaboratively with government counterparts, development and private sector partners, civil society organizations (CSOs), and academic/research institutions.
Experience building capacity of or mentoring CSOs, NGOs, small businesses, or associations is desirable.
Great communication and interpersonal skills in English.
Ability to travel and work throughout Tanzania