Afghanistan: Afghanistan ACE II: Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist

Scope of Work: Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Specialist, ACE II LTTA Position: Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist

Project: Agriculture Credit Enhancement (ACE) II

Background:
The Agriculture Credit Enhancement (ACE) II program is the follow-on project to the predecessor, ACE I. ACE II, a USAID funded project, has the primary purpose of providing technical advice and support to the Agricultural Development Fund (ADF) in three fundamental areas: a) integrating a larger number of financial institutions as intermediaries of ADF funds, b) strengthening the governance structure of the ADF, while also assisting the institution in raising additional capital, and c) enhancing the ADF’s ability to design and implement thorough impact research, interpret data, and share and document lessons learned.

Justification:
The ADF’s success will lie in its ability to evaluate its own performance as a financial institution, monitor what is happening in the Afghan context, and extrapolate from both to determine next steps. Under Component Three, led by the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, the ADF and ACE II will collaborate to sharpen the focus of M&E and analytic work conducted to date in order to drive home the importance of agricultural financing to agricultural growth. The M&E Specialist, along with the ADF’s M&E team, will build the case for the ADF as a game-changing institution for agriculture and as a purveyor of needed evidence for continued innovation and reforms in agricultural financing.

The M&E Specialist will be responsible for conceptualizing and managing ACE II’s M&E and knowledge management strategies and systems; ensuring data quality control; overseeing coverage of agricultural financing issues; ensuring dissemination of knowledge in Afghanistan; collaborating with Grants Manager on fora and dialogues.

Specific Purpose and Tasks:
Objectives & Duties:
The M&E Specialist will be responsible for leading Component Three – Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, and Advocacy. Select activities under Component Three will include:

• Developing and sustaining robust M&E systems for monitoring and impact assessments and emphasizing expanding the skills of the ADF staff in using these systems to analyze data or conducting broader economic analysis.
• Assisting the ADF’s M&E team to conduct thorough impact surveys, undertake sound statistical analyses, and interpret and present data frame within economic principles, allowing the ADF to measure impact and to share lessons learned through research reports, white papers, and ad hoc studies.
• Evaluating financial products/services and their use, utility, and impact based on the raw data housed at the ADF, accessible to the ADF as a result of on-lending, or available from institutions that are awarded grant funds.
• Support the creation of an Agricultural Credit Technical Working Group composed of representatives and specialists from the Afghan Bankers Association, Afghanistan Microfinance Associate, Ministry of Agriculture Irrigation and Livestock, Ministry of Commerce and Industries, and the Afghan Chamber of Commerce. The Working Group will meet quarterly and, once a year, ACE II and the ADF will convoke the Working Group to prioritize relevant issues that it can have a hand in resolving and create an action plan based on this exercise.
• Review the Working Group’s list of priority issues and define research priorities for the ADF/ACE II. The M&E Specialist and the COP will define what can be done in-house and what requires hiring qualified short-term technical advisors and outside specialists who can produce white papers and research documents to attract the interest of decision makers and to promote the expansion of access to agricultural credit.
• Lead the ADF and ACE II in collaborating on packaging and circulating information via existing channels such as TV/radio talk shows, specialized fairs, donor events, and Working Group deliberations. The information and the way it is packaged will differ by audience and mode of transmission and may involve market segment/product profiles, policy/innovation briefers, impact studies, videos, and expert presentations. This expanded communication support to ADF will focus on improving knowledge of the ADF, its innovations and its results.
• Develop and manage an intern program for short term assignments for recent university graduates and graduate students. This program will both provide additional resources to the project and serve to increase the number of qualified researchers on agricultural credit issues.
• Support the preparation of monthly, quarterly and annual reports of ACE II, as well as annual revisions to the M&E plan. Ensure that these documents and their USAID approvals are properly documented and stored in the project database (TAMIS).
• Use the project database (TAMIS) to track deliverables, meeting notes, and other outputs against the approved Work Plan, and track progress for each of the indicators in the M&E plan.
• Work with the ADF to identify subjects for USAID success stories to illustrate ADF’s contributions to agricultural credit.

Reporting Supervisor:
The M&E Specialist will report directly to the Chief of Party.