- Role: Program Evaluation Specialist
- Venture: EWB Canada, Monitoring & Evaluation Team
- Location: Accra, Ghana
About EWB Canada Monitoring & Evaluation Team
Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Team is responsible for measuring the outcomes of key areas of the organization’s work, especially the outcomes of our Volunteer Cooperation Program (VCP) project with Global Affairs Canada and our social impact investments. As a seed-stage investor, we are working to determine the best fit for purpose when it comes to evaluation. Currently we are piloting a transformative “Africa-made” evaluation in partnership with the African Evaluation Association, Donna Mertens, and venture partner M-Shule to determine ways to deepen beneficiary voice in our social impact measurement process. The VCP project evaluation includes the measurement of the results of our volunteer sending programs, venture development and venture-driven innovation, sector-based innovations, leadership skills development (Kumvana Fellows), and mobilization of Canadians around international development.
EWB is a learning organization where program evaluation is highly valued for its use in data-driven decision making, program improvement, and accountability to ultimate beneficiaries.
EWB’s overall approach to evaluation typically involves mixed methods, triangulation of data, and retrospective and longitudinal data collection. We are currently in the process of developing core evaluation principles to guide evaluation work across the organization.
About You
The VCP project funded by Global Affairs Canada is a critical part of EWB’s theory of change. The volunteer-sending activities of the project are intended to increase the capacity of developing country partners to deliver sustainable development results, in response to local needs, by making use of the skills and expertise of qualified Canadian volunteers. These developing country partners span diverse sectors, business and organizational models, locations, sizes, and internal capacity for program evaluation. Importantly, though evaluative data is valuable for all of our developing country partners, many have limited evaluation expertise and/or resources, leading to underinvestment in data collection and data-driven decision-making.
It is in this context that EWB is seeking to hire a Program Evaluation Specialist to directly support our VCP developing country partners to develop and improve their program evaluation processes, and to support the overall evaluation of the VCP project. As the first Fellow in this position, you will have the autonomy to design a process for reviewing and improving partner evaluation capacity. You will also be responsible for some direct beneficiary data collection and managing a summer intern to support you with fieldwork.
Responsibilities
As a Program Evaluation Specialist on the EWB M&E Team, your responsibilities will include:
- Review existing partner evaluation capacity
- Develop a plan for harmonizing VCP partner reporting requirements with other EWB partner reporting
- Prioritize partner support based on determined need
- Work with highest priority partners to develop evaluation plans that are right-sized for partner capacity and resources
- Monitor and follow up with partners to ensure sustainability of evaluation implementation
- Provide limited VCP evaluation support to other Long-Term Fellows
- Design and conduct data collection activities for program evaluation of beneficiary impact for a sample of partners
- Manage and mentor a summer intern to support with beneficiary data collection
- Support EWB Impact Evaluation & Learning Manager to use beneficiary data appropriately in EWB’s internal evaluation processes and VCP reporting
- Contribute to VCP annual reporting
- Support with the design of a new partner evaluation process to ensure maximum partner evaluation support in future VCP grant cycles
- Other related duties assigned
Sound exciting? Here’s who we are looking for.
Skills & Qualifications
Required
- Passion for evaluation and commitment to alleviating poverty;
- 2+ years of professional experience in program evaluation, impact evaluation or social impact measurement; or university education in evaluation methods, economics, public health, education research, sociology, research methods or similar social science;
- Demonstrated experience designing an evaluation plan;
- Some analytical and quantitative skills, such as descriptive statistics;
- Some qualitative data collection and analysis skills, such as interviews;
- Familiarity with mixed methods research;
- Demonstrated ability to work autonomously;
- Comfort being managed remotely;
Preferred
- Experience living/working in a developing economy – East or West Africa a big plus;
- Graduate degree;
- Experience with survey design and implementation, interviews, data cleaning and data management;
- Training in monitoring and evaluation;
- Experience managing others;
- Experience with Acumen’s Lean Data
