SAOSO is a NATIONAL non-profit organisation consisting of individuals, groups, and organisations of people throughout Mzanzi, who identify with the aims of SAOSO.SAOSO has launched a set of South African Organic standards, that are supported by key stakeholders within the Organic sector.The standards will allow for consolidation of the Organic sector in South Africa and furthermore, will allow for ethical access by farmers to the marketplace.
South African Organic Sector Organisation (SAOSO) seeks to appoint a Knowledge and Monitoring and Evaluation (KME) Officer to be based in South Africa.
Report to: The KH SA Country Project Manager (SAOSO) and KH SA Knowledge and Monitoring and Evaluation (KME) Manager based at the Sustainability Institute
Contract terms: Role is 40% time; fixed-term contract from April 2021 to October 2021 (7 months), renewal optional (based on extension of KH activities) and performance-based. Additionally, there is a possible of increase in scope and time of this role.
Remuneration: Market-related
The incumbent will be the technical officer responsible the monitoring evaluation, learning, and reporting components of the project. S/he will execute in-country activity efforts to strengthen research, monitoring and evaluation, and performance reporting within the geographic area of South Africa. The incumbent will work under the leadership and guidance of the Knowledge and M&E Manager (based at the Sustainability Institute) where s/he will receive technical training and strategic and technical direction. This will also include feedback on results and submitted documents for analysis. S/he will report to the in- country Project Manager and to the KH SA Knowledge and M&E Manager. The Knowledge and M&E Officer will also liaise with members of the regional data/information verification committee responsible for country specific M&E, research and knowledge management tasks.
Responsibilities:
M&E component
Finalize the in-country project M&E plan, ensuring alignment with the regional Results matrix and log frame, for approval by the KME Manager;
Co-design, administer, collate and analyse results from all the surveys sent out under the KH SA programme (stakeholder mapping, needs assessments, baseline study, evaluation of training programme, etc);
Maintain a database of farmers within PGS groups in South Africa, as per the templates provided.
Support the project manager with maintaining a database of the KH SA pollinators’ deliverables,
and tracking progress against these deliverables as part of their training programme; 2
With the support of the programme manager, carry out a regular quality assessment checking the content of the Portfolio of Evidence (PoE) elements submitted and identify and log best and innovative PGS practice, challenges faced by the KH SA PGS pollinators, and potential collaborations, partnerships and networks;
Assist with regular check-ins with pollinators, assessing their needs and opportunities to take their work forward and escalating the need for support to the programme manager;
Manage a database of digital farm assessments and other outputs PGS groups will generate using the SAOSO app (when developed);
Compile quarterly monitoring report of KH SA project activities, including updating the results framework;
Compile annual and project end reports;
The KME officer will develop her/his own work plan with guidance from the KME Manager, based
on the key KH SA M&E objectives;
Liaise weekly with the regional KME team to review progress against the KH SA Results Matrix.
Research/Knowledge component:
A strong research component should be derived from the monitoring of these activities to capture key lessons and also guide PGS SA in its strategy in further supporting PGS groups. Specific knowledge products that the work of the KME officer will contribute to would include:
A practice paper documenting how the different PGS groups have fared since their establishment, possibly organizing into a typology of groups (defined according to market penetration/ value chain development);
A best practice paper looking at how the PGS approach can be used in the context of cooperatives/ groups of farmers farming in communal land tenure regimes (rich with organograms and examples from throughout the country);
Update to the PGS farmer administrator guide (in development) based on innovative practices observed, challenges encountered, etc. (source PGS farm reports, self-evaluation, and interviews).
Requirements:
The KME Officer will be based in South Africa;
Proven experience in monitoring & evaluation including statistics, analytics or a related field is
required. At least a bachelor’s degree in a related field is a pre-requisite (i.e. sustainable
development, Social Development, Anthropology, Sociology);
Familiarity with Agriculture (including livestock) of the sub-region (South Africa and demonstrated working knowledge of ecological organic agriculture in South Africa will be an advantage. Particularly, knowledge around production, processing and marketing, and including training, networking, advocacy and participatory guarantee systems;
Minimum of 2 years of experience working with monitoring and evaluation systems, ensuring data quality, and managing data intensive, performance-based programmes funded by international donors;
Demonstrated ability to utilise appropriate M&E tools and packages; 3
Strong qualitative and quantitative research skills including a demonstrated ability to: – perform data analysis and make recommendations based on findings;
portray data sets in easy to understand formats including visualisations;
Experience and/or knowledge of information systems and monitoring and evaluation processes as they relate to data collection for result based monitoring (RBM) and reporting;
Excellent written, communication and interpersonal organisational skills in English;
Proven ability to work under pressure with multiple concurrent demands;
Dynamic and adaptable;
Willing and flexible to travel if necessary.
The following additional skills would be an advantage:
Command of Afrikaans/ IsiXhosa or isiZulu
Applicants to submit a 2-page CV plus references and motivating cover letter. All applications and queries to be sent to [email protected]
Form more about SAOSO, refer to https://www.saoso.org/