Team: USAID/Nigeria MEL Support Activity

Project: Election Portfolio Performance Evaluation USAID/Nigeria

Location: Federal Capital Territory – Abuja, Nigeria

Reporting to: Assessment and Evaluation Advisor

Employment Type: Independent Contractor / Short-Term Technical Assistance (STTA)

Period of Performance: October 2023 – May 2024

Number of Positions: 1

Navanti supports a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Support Activity program that assists USAID/Nigeria in advancing its broader organizational learning and development efforts. This program strengthens the Mission’s capacity and performance in programmatic monitoring, evaluation, learning, collaborating, and adapting. The MEL Support Activity closely aligns with USAID/Nigeria’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) and provides a broad range of specialized technical assistance, training, data gathering and analysis, field-based monitoring, evaluations and assessments, facilitation of organizational learning and adaptation initiatives, and short-term technical assistance.

Performance Evaluation Objectives:

USAID/Nigeria has engaged the MEL Support Activity to conduct a performance evaluation of the election portfolio. The purpose of the performance evaluation under DO3 IR 3.3 (Enhanced Credibility of Elections) is two-fold:

1. To assess the extent to which the Sustaining Electoral Engagement for Democracy (SEED) and Responsive Political Party Program (RPPP) activities contributed to enhancing the credibility of elections
2. To inform activity design for future election-related activities

This evaluation will be used primarily by USAID Nigeria’s Peace and Democratic Governance (PDG) team to inform activity design for future election-related activities. However, PDG will share the evaluation report with the broader USAID audiences, including USAID/Washington to help agencies better understand the electoral context of Nigeria and, most importantly, the efficacy of support to political parties, voter education via radio, and other channels.

The estimated start date will be November 13, 2023. The evaluation is expected to last until May 2024, and the estimated LOE will be 52 days, maximum.

Candidates are advised to submit applications early.

Position Description:

Navanti is seeking a Nigeria Democracy and Election Specialist to provide technical support for the evaluation in areas assessing electoral process strengthening and Nigerian democracy, including knowledge of the relationship between civil society and government, and strengths and challenges around democracy in Nigeria. Under the technical leadership of the MEL Support Activity, The Nigeria democracy and election specialist will be working alongside four evaluation team members.

Locations:

1. Abuja, Federal Capital Territory
2. Adamawa State
3. Anambra State
4. Bauchi State
5. Bayelsa State
6. Benue State
7. Ebonyi State
8. Ekiti State
9. Osun State
10. Kaduna State
11. Sokoto State

Responsibilities:

The Nigeria democracy and election specialist is expected to:

1. Conduct desk review of the portfolio and support Nigeria's election and democracy contextual understanding of the evaluation.
2. Coordinate with the team leader and other team members to develop an evaluation work plan, identify key stakeholders, and conduct interviews.
3. Work with the team leader to perform desk review and identify additional information about Nigeria's electoral processes required for analysis.
4. Work with the evaluation specialist to design the data collection instruments and ensure it addresses all evaluation objectives.
5. Work with the team leader in planning, developing, coordinating, and administering research tools.
6. Perform quality assurance reviews of both quantitative and qualitative data.
7. Interpret and analyze qualitative and quantitative data.
8. Work with the team leader and other team members in preparing reports of research findings.
9. Support the team leader in writing or editing technical reports and summaries of findings.
10. Work with the Team Leader in preparation and presentation of the In-brief and Out-brief to USAID/Nigeria and other stakeholders as requested.
11. Support the team leader to develop the draft Evaluation report with support from the team members, taking into consideration feedback from the Out-brief presentation.
12. Work with the team leader to respond to USAID comments on the draft report, incorporate USAID/Nigeria staff comments into the final version of the report, and finalize the report.
13. Work collaboratively with team members throughout design, implementation, analysis, and report writing to complement each other's areas of expertise.

Qualifications:

The candidate is expected to have the following qualifications:

• A minimum of 8 years of professional experience in Nigerian democracy and/or elections.
• Advanced graduate degree in a relevant field: political science measurement and evaluation, international development, or related fields.
• Contextual experience working in the Nigerian civil society or political science sector is required, work outside the Nigerian context will be an added advantage.
• Excellent ability to communicate in English, both verbally and in writing
• Previous experience as an election and/or governance specialist on election/governance evaluations, assessments, and research studies.
• Understanding of USAID evaluation experience is strongly preferred

Only selected candidates will be contacted for an interview. Please, no phone calls.