Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager Zantchito

Location: Lilongwe, Malawi
Contract Type: One (1) Year Fixed Term Renewable (Part-time working, 3 days a week in the office)
Pay Grade: 6

Closing date: 31 December 2025 at 20:59 UK Time / 23:59 East African Time

Requirements: You must have the legal right to work in Malawi at the time of application.  We are unable to support with visa sponsorship and relocation.

Role Context – About The Team:

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections, and engendering trust.

We work with over 100 countries in the fields of Arts and culture, English language, and education, contributing to achieving positive change, particularly for young people. Our work includes providing management and technical leadership of complex, multi-stakeholder programmes across the globe, forming trusted partnerships that shape new approaches to tackling profound challenges, informed by global best practice but led by local communities.

In Malawi, our focus is education and skills – enabling young people build the capability to create resilient pathways to better life prospects and more broadly helping to tackle Malawi’s unemployment challenge. These challenges are becoming increasingly acute due to Malawi’s youthful population. There is need for the rapid expansion of work opportunities and the development of skills to attain and create jobs.

The British Council in line with our TEVET focus in Malawi, is leading the design and delivery of the EU-funded Zantchito-Skills for jobs project TA component. The overall objective is to increase employability and self-employment opportunities for young TEVET graduates and entrepreneurs, with special attention to women’s needs.

MEL will play a key role in the daily management of the programme, in its strategic decision-making and priorities. The Project is committed to prioritising MEL as far as management and resources are concerned.

Zantchito requires a rigorous MEL system and a monitoring and evaluation framework to monitor progress across all project activities, to facilitate adaptive management for maximising results and impact.

Role Purpose – The Job:

To lead on the Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning (MEL) and Knowledge Management system for the activities of the Zantchito-Technical Assistance (TA) project implemented by the British Council in Malawi.

The purpose requires a dynamic, competent individual with experience of providing robust advisory as well as rigorous hand-on implementation MEL expertise for succesful delivery of a multi-million GBP, multi-year donor-funded project.

Main Accountabilities:

Support project planning and execution of project plans especially through the use of monitoring data to make continuous improvements,

• Lead on the design as well as systematic data collection and analysis activities for monthly, quarterly and annual client reporting cycles and in the production of progress reports for dissemination of results and impact to stakeholders (Implementation)
• Lead on the conduct of mid-term external reviews and evaluations to identify lessons taken away and successes to be disseminated (Implementation)
• Lead on the management of external or independent monitoring and evaluation exercises and annual performance reviews (Implementation)
• Lead on the conduct of mid-term review, the final evaluation and production of a report to be disseminated at project review and closing events and shared with key stakeholders (Closure)
• Ensure specified MEL activities are accurately planned and costed (in terms of money, human effort and equipment) and that budgets are managed effectively

Robust implementation of the MEL Framework for the programme to ensure a strong evidence base that meets client, corporate and programmatic standards

• Development of the appropriate mixed methods approach and tools for data collection
• Complete internal British Council corporate monitoring and evaluation tools (i.e. the SCALE and other evaluation methods) and help the implementation team plan, monitor and present results on performance using the REF and in this way help embed a culture of effective operational performance measurement and evaluation across.
• Support the Team Lead to manage external evaluations and assessments and disseminate the findings to key stakeholders and audience groups.

High quality and delivery of MEL activity across the project providing technical guidance, tools and capacity support along with relevant training for staff and partners

• Identification of capacity-building needs of the project team in the use of data collection tools
• Provide leadership for the development and delivery of MEL and Knowledge Management (KM) capacity building initiatives for staff and partners so that KM and dissemination processes and products including lessons learned from results and challenges are understood and used effectively.
• Embed formal and informal process of learning and reflection
• As needed, quality assure M&E specification within grant contracts to ensure synergies between project and partner results reporting
• As needed, provision of timely and effective MEL support to grant application development and grant selection panels

Requirements Of The Role:

Minimum/essential

• A postgraduate degree (Masters Degree or PhD) or equivalent professional experience in the sciences, social sciences or MEL is required.
• At least five years’ experience as a MEL specialist working in the NGO or donor funded context
• Experience of designing and delivering a MEL system for the entire duration of a project lifecycle

Desirable:

• Professional qualifications in MEL, Membership in an Evaluation Society or VOPE
• Prior experience delivering MEL support on a TVET, skills, Technical Assistance or training project in Malawi or similar context.

Role-specific skills 

• A thorough understanding of monitoring and evaluation priorities for the EU and other bilateral or multilateral donors, including the design and use of results frameworks, and experience of MEL reporting
• A thorough understanding of research methodologies
• Skill in monitoring the implementation of projects using data collection and collation tools
• Excellent data management skills with capacity to set up and maintain data management systems
• Strong expertise in analysing quantitative data and excellent knowledge of data analysis software e.g. SPSS, NVIVO – capacity to review data and identify cause and effect
• Strong report writing and presentation skills including preparing sound academic reports, the use of multi-media and other presentation tools as well as direct experience of preparing and presenting a range of concise and timely programme highlight reports for mixed audience groups including clients, partners, senior managers and corporate stakeholders
• Demonstrable ability to build MEL capacity within the civil society / NGO sector
• Project and Contract Management
• Financial Planning and Management

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from all sections of the community as we believe that a diverse workforce gives added depth to our work. The British Council is a Disability Confident Employer. The Disability Confident scheme helps challenge attitudes, increase understanding of disability and ensure staff are drawn from the widest possible pool of talent. We guarantee an interview for disabled applicants who meet the minimum role requirements. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.

Safeguarding Statement

The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with. We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989. Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.

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