FAO mandate in Georgia is to support national efforts to promote food security and sustainable development of agricultural sector. FAO priorities in Georgia reflect the objectives and priorities of the Government set in the strategy papers related to agricultural development. In essence FAO assists the Government in creating and implementing an institutional, legal and regulatory environment. At the same time, FAO supports individuals working in agriculture – farmers, cooperatives, companies etc. by providing technical and financial assistance.
Reporting Lines
The National Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist shall operate under the overall responsibility of FAO Representative in Georgia, direct supervision of the FAO Programme Coordinator and in close collaboration other national and international colleagues of the projects in Georgia, including Abkhazia, as well as with all the staff of the FAO Representation for Georgia.
Technical Focus
The M&E specialist will aim at developing an M&E system for the projects and will assist the projects in reviewing M&E needs and establishing necessary practical procedures and measures in order to operationalize M&E.
Tasks and responsibilities
Lead the Evaluation of the Rural Development Agency’s project “Co-financing of Processing and Storage Enterprises” (Desk research, Preparation of questionnaires, sampling, testing, hiring enumerators, overseeing data collection, finalization of results, data cleaning, analysis of results and drafting reports).
Lead the team involved in monitoring and evaluation of the projects, including direct supervision of M&E team members, enumerators and other support staff for data collection and analysis.
Lead the preparation of Evaluation plan for field visits to monitor and evaluate impact of the project activities directly with the final beneficiaries (trained farmers, beneficiaries of matching grants, etc.) conduct and coordinate monitoring visits.
Support and follow up the baseline data collection from FFS members under GCP/GEO/018/SWI.
Follow-up the interviews of FFS members under GCP/GEO/015/USA that are planned to be conducted in February, April, June and August 2022, during the individual extension visits to FFS farmers.
Support the final external evaluation of UNJP/GEO/013/EC that will be led by UNDP.
Lead the operation of the monitoring system of Zoho software and team members using this system to enable real information flow from the field to the management unit for all projects. Maintain a user-friendly management of the data hub. Create automatic weekly performance reports for the projects in the system.
Be in charge of the repository for all projects that ensures that all project information is correctly collected, stored and analyzed.
Lead an improved coordination within the project components and between the projects by encouraging information sharing framed in a way to enable synergy between different projects/components. Ensure the right communication to have a smoother flow of information between different project components. Make sure all the information is accessible for every project team unless there are any necessary limitations to the access (confidentiality, sensitive data, etc.).
Lead the regular and close monitoring and evaluation of the projects in Georgia, including in Abkhazia, including the preparation/revision of passports for indicators, methodology for monitoring and evaluation, and data collection of baselines and targets, and implementation indicators during the project duration. Make sure all projects have M&E plans that shows clearly defined indicators and how they must be tracked.
Update the monitoring and evaluation programme for all projects, in coherence with adjustments of the new work plan
Lead the monitoring of project activities and progress towards achieving project outputs.
Lead the regular update (bi-monthly) of all workplans, identify and report on delays and discuss with project managers for corrective measures.
Provide suggestions, advise to the Project Management for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the project by identifying bottlenecks in completing project activities and developing plans to minimize or eliminate such bottlenecks
Provide regular feedback on project activities and achievements
Review the progress reports of the projects and maintain necessary standard and consistency considering requirements of FAO and donors.
Perform other related duties as required
Candidates Will Be Assessed Against The Following
Minimum Requirements
Advanced degree in economics, statistics, or related field
At least 3 years of relevant experience
National of Georgia
Working knowledge (level C) of English language and Georgian.
Technical/Functional Skills
Capacity to analyse information and work on policy papers
Good IT skills in terms of use of general and specific software for statistical analysis (PowerBI, Tableau or similar)
