Monitoring & Evaluation, Senior Associate, South America

The Rainforest Alliance is creating a more sustainable world by using social and market forces to protect nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities. To achieve our mission, we partner with diverse allies around the world to drive positive change across global supply chains and in many of our most critically important natural landscapes.

Our alliance spans 70 countries and includes farmers and forest communities, companies, governments, civil society, an millions of individuals. Together we work to protect forests and biodiversity, take action on climate, and promote the rights and improve the livelihoods of rural people.

As an international nonprofit organization with more than 30 years of experience in sustainability transformation, we understand that the social and economic well-being of rural communities is tightly connected to ecosystem health. This knowledge has shaped our rigorous programs to advance sustainable land-use and commodity production.

At the Rainforest Alliance we combat climate change, protect forests and biodiversity, promote human rights, and improve livelihoods. The enormity of the social and environmental challenges we are facing requires working together in a broad alliance. This is why we bring farmers, forest communities, companies, and consumers together to change the way the world produces, sources, and consumes.

The Rainforest Alliance’s Core Values are Impact, Change, Collaboration, Openness and Trust and as such they form the basis of the behaviours we demonstrate.

Why

To protect nature and improve lives it’s becoming increasingly urgent that we approach the way we use our land and produce food and other products in more sustainable ways. For this to succeed we need to fundamentally change the way that businesses operate and source, and the choices we all make as consumers.

How

Our growing global alliance aims to transform our relationship with our natural resources and each other, to create a better future for people and nature together.

The Rainforest Alliance encourages diversity and inclusion across the global organization. With this commitment to diversity, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ages, disability and any other protected group.

Position summary:

The Monitoring Evaluation Senior Associate, South America is responsible for establishing and coordinating the regionwide monitoring, evaluation and learning processes required to ensure that Rainforest Alliance in the region: 1) credibly and consistently tracks and communicates progress; 2) conducts agile adaptive management; and 3) evolves our programming based on key lessons learned under major initiatives. S/he will provide advisory/coaching to locally based Monitoring Evaluation (MA) staff; provide “surge capacity” for country teams at critical junctures; lead regionwide internal institutional performance planning and reporting; and innovate new monitoring tools and metrics. S/he will provide dedicated cradle-to-grave ME support to at least 1 strategic grant per year. In performing these tasks, s/he will coordinate extensively with regional and global counterparts and country directors.

Responsibilities:

• 
  The Rainforest Alliance’s Core Values are Impact, Change, Collaboration, Openness and Trust and as such they form the basis of the behaviours we demonstrate;

Data-driven Strategic Advisory (10%)

• Build on, provide advice, and support the use of RA´s Project Management Platform (PMP), establish processes for, and conduct quarterly reviews of, technical implementation progress on annual and LOP basis on a country-by-country basis;
• Identify opportunities to build learnings into future proposals and/or bring them to other country programs and connect the dots amongst teams to enable this to happen; and
• As per above, maintain a dialogue with Country and Regional Directors on key issues/decisions and opportunities to ensure we stay on track and increase impact through transferring learnings.

Regional Performance Management (50%)

• Standardize performance metrics to ensure consistency across the project, regional and global portfolios – including certification related metrics;
• Contribute to creation and implementation of integrated performance reviews for countries drive excellence amongst RA’s 4 country offices in the Region on all technical activities and follow up to effectively resolve correction actions identified;
• In close collaboration with Finance, GIC and other regional technical staff, innovate, test and roll out new performance monitoring metrics;
• Backstop and support all ME staff and project managers to ensure timely and high-quality completion of all grant-based RA internal reporting requirements, application of best practices in ME systems, etc;
• Collaborate with country leaders during the design of the regional strategies for South America and its indicators, aligning them with the 2023 global strategy; and
• Lead development of performance target establishment and monitoring as part of regional annual work-planning process and periodic strategic planning processes.

Grant-based ME support (20%)

• Deliver key “surge capacity” to support new initiatives, including leadership in authoring MEL plans, support creating workplans, or other such key functions; and
• Provide sustained ongoing support/execution of ME functions in at least 1 strategic initiative per year.

Fundraising and business development (20%)

• Contribute/lead key inputs to strategic fundraising proposals, with special focus on creation of theories of change, conceptual models, logframes and proposal ME systems, ensuring ME systems are well described and budgeted for;
• Monitor and advise new projects to ensure that their corresponding ME systems are designed and implemented, staff are trained on ME responsibilities, so that they stay aligned to long-term impact delivery targets in country and regional strategies; and
• Other responsibilities as assigned.

Qualifications:

• A minimum of 5 years of proven experience in monitoring and evaluation;
• Demonstrated abilities and experience in Power BI, strong data analysis skills, with an emphasis in SQL databases, statistics and geographic information systems;
• Demonstrated abilities and experience in natural resources and climate change monitoring and evaluation analysis and reporting with international organizations, project´s design and monitoring;
• Strong computer skills (MS Office Suite, analysis software);
• Ability to support development and maintenance data management systems, including providing training, materials/tools, and ongoing guidance to project data providers;
• Ability to support and train staff on the use of the PMP, and to view and use the PMP not only as a reporting framework, but as a dynamic project management tool for adaptively managing and communicating progress and challenges back to the consortium;
• Excellent written, oral and graphic communication skills in both English and Spanish;
• Strong interpersonal communication and teamwork skills and skills to work with an interdisciplinary team; and
• Ability and willingness to travel at least 40% of the time, nationally and internationally.

Salary: Level 4A

Salary: Commensurate with experience.

Deadline: December 18, 2022

Notes: Only candidates authorized to work in Colombia, Peru or Brazil will be considered.

If you have any questions about the job vacancy, please contact the HR department: recruitment@ra.org