Rwanda: Impact and Learning Manager

Location: Rwanda
Start Date: Fall 2018

Organization Overview:

For nearly ten years, Gardens for Health International (GHI) has implemented nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs to combat childhood malnutrition in rural Rwanda. Our organization seeks to fundamentally change the clinical treatment of malnutrition by supporting families to establish nutritious kitchen gardens at their homes, while also equipping them with the nutrition and health knowledge they need to keep their children healthy in the long-term. GHI’s core program works in collaboration with district-level health officials and local health centers to identify and support rural families struggling with malnutrition.

In addition to this core program, GHI is scaling its impact by engaging with a variety of governmental and non-governmental partners to bring our expertise to new settings and new populations, such as primary schools and refugee camps. Current partners include the World Food Programme, the U.S. Department of State, Save the Children, and Rwanda’s Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugees. GHI is seeking new partnerships to continue to advance our mission and expand our scope.

GHI has a dedicated staff of approximately 70 in Rwanda. Our headquarters are located just outside of Kigali, where we operate a 5-acre demonstration and production farm. We also maintain a small fundraising and operations office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We are an impact-driven organization with a deep commitment to ensuring that every program we design meets and responds to the unique needs of the communities we serve. Our team is flexible, innovative, and passionate about sparking lasting change.

Position Overview:

The Impact and Learning Manager is responsible for designing and implementing innovative ways to measure GHI’s overall impact on malnutrition and agricultural outcomes across our portfolio of projects. In addition, they are responsible for strengthening GHI’s routine monitoring procedures to ensure program teams are able to efficiently manage programmatic work. The Impact and Learning Manager initiates and prepares reports summarizing GHI’s progress, collaborating with program teams, communications and development staff, and the Board. The Impact and Learning Manager serves as the key contact for research and evaluation partnerships, and will also seek out new partnerships.

The Impact and Learning Manager reports to the Executive Director and manages the M&E team, which consists of two permanent staff, a Global Health Corps fellow, and seven field agents. In addition, the Impact and Learning Manager will develop an Advisory Board of relevant, technical experts to provide feedback and help identify research and partnership opportunities.

Job Duties:

Develop efficient and effective internal M&E systems

● Strengthen GHI’s existing M&E systems in order to more effectively collect, analyze, and use data to understand program impact

● Identify new indicators and analysis methods that highlight impact and support continuous program improvement

● Develop frameworks to evaluate GHI’s impact across different projects, from short-term trainings to longer-term programs running in various locations across Rwanda

● Troubleshoot existing M&E tools (e.g. CommCare) and introduce new tools as needed

● Develop mechanisms to regularly check the quality and accuracy of data

Provide learning and research leadership

● Support continual learning, reflection, and adaptive program planning and management across GHI leadership and staff

● Design exercises to improve evidence-based program planning and implementation

● Keep GHI leadership, program teams, and Board members apprised of key developments in relevant research and literature

● Build and steward an Advisory Board of technical experts

● Identify and manage external evaluation and research opportunities

Communicate our impact

● Strengthen systems for disseminating findings and communicating impact across a variety of audiences, including Board members, donors, and external partners

● Manage the production of learning and research reports, thought papers, and blog posts that effectively showcase GHI’s work

● Serve as the lead for research and evaluation proposals and generally support proposal development

● Represent the organization in a variety of forums, particularly those that focus on the technical aspects of our work

Qualifications:

● Postgraduate degree in a relevant field

● At least 3 years of experience developing and implementing M&E systems at the program level, including developing M&E plans, indicator tables, data collection tools, and building capacity of M&E staff

● Strong qualitative and quantitative skills required; prior experience with CommCare is a plus

● Experience in writing, editing, and preparing technical reports

● Demonstrated experience with fostering a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning culture

● Up-to-date knowledge of best practices in learning, evaluation, and impact assessment

● Experience in one or more of the relevant sectors (nutrition, agriculture, early childhood development etc.) preferred

● Demonstrated ability to mentor a multicultural team preferred

To Apply:

Send resume and cover letter to applyimpact@gardensforhealth.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Send resume and cover letter to applyimpact@gardensforhealth.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.