Sector Jobs

Senior Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Manager – NEFCO

Background

Nefco is an international financial institution that finances green solutions on international markets. Founded in 1990 by the five Nordic countries to take concrete actions to accelerate the green transition aligned with the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, the Paris Agreement, the EU Green Deal and the Nordic Vision 2030.

The Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa (BGFA) Programme is an innovative financing programme managed by Nefco. BGFA provides results-based financing to companies to establish themselves or scale-up their services in Sub-Saharan markets and enable them to sell more affordable and sustainable off-grid energy services to customers. The BGFA was established by Nefco in 2019 on Sida’s initiative and is now a EUR 126 million programme funded by Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Norway. https://beyondthegrid.africa.

The Modern Cooking Facility for Africa (MCFA) supports access to and scale-up of higher-tier clean cooking solutions, currently in six Sub-Saharan African countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The overall aim of the MCFA programme is to enable the distribution of at least 750,000 clean cookstoves and associated fuels, providing access to clean cooking solutions for approximately 3 million Africans. The MCFA is managed by Nefco and is now a EUR 45 million programme funded by Sweden and the EU. https://www.moderncooking.africa/

The Senior MEL manager will lead the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) and learning activities of the Special Funds unit in Nefco, which currently works with energy access, clean cooking, principally with private sector actors in Africa. The unit also works on off-grid energy access in Haiti, carbon finance and improvement of the Baltic Sea marine environment.

The Senior MEL Manager will report directly to the Head of the Department, based in Helsinki and work closely with Programme/Project Managers as well as external consultants. The position will be at the beginning 2-years fixed-term, with the possibility to extend.

Both the BGFA and the MCFA programmes provide results-based financing to private companies in the project countries against deployed energy services. The services, as well as other aspects related to the funded projects are subject to rigorous monitoring and verification activities. In addition, the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) frameworks include monitoring of various climate, environmental, gender and other social impacts based using agreed methodologies and monitoring tools. Nefco uses digital tools for progress and impact monitoring. In the future, the progress and impact monitoring will develop towards near real-time automation and the MEL manager is expected to lead this development work. In addition, the BGFA and MCFA programmes have developed learning and knowledge management strategies and the MEL expert will be responsible for the implementation and further development of these strategies. The main task of the Senior MEL Manager will be to provide technical leadership and support in relation to the MRV and learning activities of the programmes managed by the Unit:

1. Development and execution of long-term strategic plans, partnerships and implementation of activities related to MRV requirements of Nefco’s and donors’ results frameworks;
2. Lead monitoring, evaluation and learning activities of the Unit against stated results and strategies for knowledge management for the BGFA and MCFA and other relevant Special Funds activities;
3. Oversight the work of external service providers such as the monitoring consultants and independent verification agents;
4. Oversight, development, and implementation of the MRV and data analytics work and related tools;
5. In coordination with Programme/Project Managers, collate and provide analysis of project results and impact data and information, producing analytical and informative reports such as the annual Impact Reports to meet donor requirements; and
6. Provide ongoing technical support and mentoring on new monitoring, evaluation and verification methodologies, providing training to Programme/Project Managers, other Nefco staff, service providers and facilitating learning sessions for other stakeholder
7. The selected candidate has the opportunity to assume responsibility also for other related tasks depending on the qualifications and interests.

Qualifications

• A minimum of a Master’s degree in a science, engineering, environmental sciences or data management or development-related field, i.e. International Relations, Statistics, Economics, Finance, Social Sciences or Public Administration;
• A minimum of 10 years directly applicable MEL experience, of which at least 7 is at the international level, in providing hands-on experience of monitoring, evaluation and verification tools at the programme level in developing country contexts;
• Significant experience working with results frameworks and project implementation, performance and impact monitoring including energy and climate related indicators;
• Proven experience with standard ICT tools, statistical applications and data analysis; familiarity with both qualitative and in particular with quantitative information analysis methodologies and tools;
• Experience from private sector renewable energy projects in developing countries;
• Willingness to travel;
• Fluency in both written and spoken English. Knowledge of French would be an asset.

In addition, we value:

• Experience in working with international financial institutions, or significant experience working in collaboration with donor programmes, particularly with a private sector focus;
• Experience from gender and social inclusion;
• Experience from marine- and freshwater related projects and programmes;
• Carbon Finance experience
• Excellent interpersonal, consensus building and negotiating skills;
• Ability to advocate and provide advice;
• Strong knowledge of Africa: the political, cultural and socio-economic context
• Ability to focus on impact and result for the donors and responds positively to feedback; and
• A proactive approach to work, good follow-up and follow-through.

Nefco provides relocation and accommodation assistance for foreign staff moving to Finland for the purpose of taking up this appointment.

For more information about the position, you can contact Heli Sinkko, Programme Manager, Green Transition Special Funds: heli.sinkko@nefco.int or +358 10 6180 659 on June 19, at 14-16 or June 27 at 10-12.

To apply for the position, please fill the application form (Apply) https://www.nefco.int/contact-us/job-opportunities/. The deadline for submitting your application is July 14, 2023.

We review the applications during July. Candidates will be contacted, and the interviews will be conducted in August.

To learn more and apply, click here.