Agroforestry MEL Lead

About One Acre Fund

Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund supplies 1 million smallholder farmers with the agricultural services they need to make their farms vastly more productive. Our 8,000+ team is drawn from diverse backgrounds and professions. With operations across six core countries in Africa, we make farmers more prosperous by providing quality farm supplies on credit, delivered within walking distance of farmers’ homes, and agricultural training to improve harvests. On average, our farmers harvest 50 percent more food after working with One Acre Fund. 

To learn more about our work, take a look at our Why Work Here blog for more information.

About the Role

In the last 3 years we've dramatically scaled up our agroforestry work: we've planted more than 40 million trees in this period and we now have agroforestry projects in most of our country programs. We are exploring even more impactful opportunities including new distribution channels and payments to farmers for ecosystem services. Our goal is to help farmers plant more than 1 billion trees in the next decade.

We are looking for an expert in Monitoring and Evaluation of Agroforestry projects to improve our measurement of the impact - both financial and environmental - of these programs. You should be able to manage complex projects across many different geographies, as you will need to improve our evaluation protocols and roll them out with field teams across nine different country programs. We are also looking for someone interested in innovating in the agroforestry evaluation space by, for example, supporting the development of remote-sensing applications to dramatically improve the scale, granularity, and efficiency of measurement.

You will be in the Global Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) department, and will report to the Global MEL Director.

Responsibilities

Study Design & Methodology

• Assess and improve One Acre Fund's existing impact methodology for agroforestry work, paying special attention to opportunities to improve rigor and efficiency.
• Advise program teams on design and methodology for planned impact evaluations.
• Create new methodologies for robust Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification of carbon projects.
• Continually improve and help develop new methods or technologies that dramatically improve smallholder access to carbon markets.

Coordination of Impact Assessments

• Agree on plans for tree impact evaluations for each season with country program teams.
• Conduct regular touch points to ensure smooth execution of surveys and protocols. Conduct trainings to improve coordination and good implementation.
• Quality check impact evaluations to ensure they meet global standards for study design and implementation.
• Ensure outstanding monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of carbon projects to meet the highest global standards for CER certification.

Analysis & Reporting

• Enable teams to conduct analysis more efficiently by creating clear guidance for conducting analysis, standardizing templates, and revising reporting structures.
• Provide oversight for teams conducting analysis of tree impact evaluations and ensure teams are meeting appropriate standards for rigor.
• Help analyze tree impact evaluations when necessary because of bandwidth or capacity constraints.
• Coordinate with teams to finalize annual impact calculations for every agroforestry program.

Career Growth and Development

We have a strong culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people. You’ll have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance. We hold career reviews every six months, and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals. You’ll have the opportunity to shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.

Qualifications

Across all roles, these are the general qualifications we look for. For this role specifically, you will have:

Technical background

• 3+ years academic or professional experience in field-based MEL or data collection, designing and implementing evaluations or research, and analyzing findings.
• Academic or professional experience in agroforestry or a closely related field.
• Strong quantitative skills with experience with statistical software (Stata preferred, R).
• Experience with carbon project monitoring, reporting, and verification preferred.

Leadership & collaboration

• Exceptional coordination skills, including ability to keep many different work streams on track.
• Demonstrated leadership experience and an enthusiasm for learning and growth.
• Experience building staff capacity.
• Strong verbal and written communication across a wide range of audiences - from non-technically-trained colleagues to external experts.
• Fluent English required. Working knowledge of Swahili, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Chichewa, Amharic, or French preferred

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Kigali, Rwanda

Benefits

Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

Eligibility 

One Acre Fund can support a work permit for this role. However, nationals of (or those with an extensive professional background and work history in) our countries of operation are preferred.

Application Deadline

We hire on a rolling basis which means that applications are reviewed and processed on a continuous basis until a hire is made.

One Acre Fund never asks candidates to pay any money or pay for tests at any stage of the interview process. Official One Acre Fund emails will always arrive from an @oneacrefund.org address. Please report any suspicious communication here (globalhotline@oneacrefund.org), but do not send applications or application materials to this email address.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and anti-racism are deeply connected to our organization’s mission and purpose. One Acre Fund aspires to build a culture where all staff feel consistently valued, represented, and connected – so that our team can thrive as professionals, and achieve exceptional impact for the farmers we serve.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.