M&E and Research Advisor At Flemish Association for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance

VVOB is an international NGO with programmes and projects in 10 countries worldwide. Our head office is based in Brussels, Belgium.

When you join VVOB, you become a key player in VVOB’s mission to ensure quality education as a key enabler for achieving the sustainable development goals. We implement our programmes and projects with one shared passion: to ensure the improvement of quality education. Our teams of national and international experts achieve this by providing technical assistance to governmental and other education actors. In doing so, worldwide we ensure capacity building of governmental and other education actors.

Do you share our ambition to ensure that learners around the world can enjoy their fundamental human right to quality education, without exception? Are you convinced as well that quality education guarantees equal opportunities for everyone and is the key to a better world?

We are looking for a Monitoring & Evaluation and Research Advisor who will operate from our headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. Do you want to take on this challenge? Then continue reading!

VVOB in Kenya

VVOB has a long history of working in Kenya and will now restart activities again after almost a decade of absence in the country. We are starting up our first project in Kenya in 2022, and then gradually expand our project portfolio from there. Our first project will support the Ministry of Education (MoE) with the implementation of the new competency based curriculum (CBC) in Kenya, specifically at the junior secondary level. The focus of this project will be on strengthening the instructional leadership skills of school leaders by providing them with new opportunities for their continuous professional development, complementing a traditional cascade training system with innovative app-based learning experiences.

Purpose of the function

As M&E and Research Advisor you contribute to the ambition and values of VVOB by developing and coordinating the implementation of a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) system that facilitates the efficient planning, monitoring and evaluation of the project objectives, results, and activities. Next to this, you develop the research agenda and coordinate and support the implementation of research in Kenya, together with VVOB Education Advisors, Global Strategic Advisors M&E and Research and external partners.

You will:

· You take the lead in monitoring and evaluating project objectives effectively and you ensure lessons are drawn, documented, and disseminated to inform on-going implementation and future programming.

· You provide coordination, technical support, and advice to VVOB Education Advisors and partners in planning of activities.

· You ensure capacity development on M&E of the partners according to the needs of the partner and particular situations and phases of the projects.

· You take part in internal and external working groups, task forces, … related to MEAL.

· You support in data collection and research on the effects and impact of VVOB’s projects within Kenya, in line with the research agenda of VVOB.

· You coordinate the collection and analysis of M&E and research data on the effects and impact of VVOB’s projects within Kenya, in line with the research agenda of VVOB.

If you’re our Advisor M&E and Research, your workweek at the office will include the following highlights:

• You work on a presentation for the Education Evidence for Action (EE4A) Conference in Naivasha, together with the learning partner, which highlights the latest findings of our cost-effectiveness research on school leadership trainings.
• You discuss a set of draft indicators you have developed for a new project proposal together with the strategic education advisors.
• You organise an internal training for VVOB colleagues on systematization of data collection and later that week an external training for partners on the use of digital data eco-systems.
• Lunch! A perfect way to informally check in with field teams on the latest change stories at the level of schools.
• You gather and analyse data in the field through surveys, focus group or other methodologies and instruments defined in the monitoring plans to produce high quality data and reporting, in function of the internal learning needs of the programme and donor requirements.
• In a team meeting with the programme team, you share some interesting research articles on school leadership, as further inspiration for the team.

Your expertise and experience

· Master’s degree in statistics, education, social sciences or other relevant field or equivalent experience

· Experience in international development cooperation, in particular on M&E

· Experience with the development of indicators, the use of M&E tools and implementation of M&E processes, including data collection methodologies, software and analysis.

· Research experience, preferably with quantitative (survey) data in the education sector

· Experience with statistical packages (STATA, Excel, SPSS) is an advantage

· Fluent in English

Nationality: Kenyan national

What we’re offering:

· A full-time contract until 31/12/2026, with the possibility of extension depending on the availability of donor funding

· This position is subject to funding approval

· A dynamic working environment in an international context

· An exciting job in a growing organisation with varied responsibilities and opportunities for professional development

· A competitive salary and benefits package.