Maliasili is looking for a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) specialist to lead on delivering MEL organizational development (OD) support to partners. Maliasili is a dynamic and innovative organization that is taking a different approach to driving locally-led conservation impact in Africa. We find the best local conservation organizations and make them better by strengthening their organizational performance, leadership, and resources so that they can achieve greater impact. Our partner portfolio includes outstanding local and national organizations across Africa at the forefront of wildlife conservation, land restoration, and coastal fisheries. Our partners are pioneering conservation approaches grounded in community and indigenous land rights, generating economic opportunities from nature-based businesses, and restoring ecosystems across many of Africa’s most important landscapes.

Our goals are to build a portfolio of Africa’s best local conservation organizations, help them

collaborate and learn from each other, and scale up their community-based conservation work

and leadership capacity within the conservation field. Since Maliasili was founded over a decade

ago, we’ve shaped a community of 182 conservation leaders across 18 countries and support a

portfolio of roughly 60 partners in 16 countries with a growing set of tools to help improve their

organizational performance. We have helped our partners generate or leverage more than $27.3

million in funding for their work, increasing their impact in the critical landscapes and

ecosystems they work in.

We’re successful at what we do because our team operates on shared values, including putting people first, making the complex simple, and being willing to constantly laugh, learn, and adapt. The Partner MEL Senior Manager we’re looking for will be someone who shares these values and is deeply passionate about ensuring community conservation can demonstrate their impact. We work with cutting-edge management and leadership tools that invite us to be courageous, kind, and independent thinkers who thrive in a team. If this sounds like a work culture that suits you, keep reading below!

Position Summary

At Maliasili, we care about demonstrating impact. This role will focus on ensuring our portfolio partners (60+ local organizations we directly support with organisational strengthening) are able to accurately and efficiently track and share their impact. The objective is to strengthen the capacity of locally-led conservation organisations to monitor and demonstrate conservation, rights, and livelihood gains that result from community-led conservation initiatives. This includes supporting partners to capture evidence on how conservation drives economic benefits for communities—such as increased incomes, improved livelihoods, and greater resilience.

It is important to note that this position will require up to 30% travel regionally within Africa.

Responsibilities

The core part of the Partner MEL Senior Manager’s role will be to support in reviewing, developing, and enhancing the MEL systems of our partner organisations. This will include ensuring the partner’s MEL systems can monitor key conservation, economic, and livelihood outcomes generated for local communities. The role will focus on the following responsibilities:

• Lead on the assessment, analysis, and design of participatory processes that build effective and fit-for-purpose MEL systems for our partners.

• Partner with the portfolio team to deliver participatory and well-facilitated processes that build MEL systems with full understanding and ownership by the organisation.

• Lead in providing customised follow-up support to the portfolio partner on maintaining and successfully implementing their revised MEL system, including addressing challenges, adapting the system, and designing novel solutions when necessary.

• Design and test new methods for how we support partners, including staying abreast of emerging methods in the OD and environmental monitoring space, to improve their MEL systems, enhancing Maliasili’s best practices in OD MEL delivery.

• Develop tools, frameworks, and work processes that can help local organisations independently develop and improve their MEL systems.

• Guide partners to define indicators and outcomes that demonstrate the link between conservation activities and tangible improvements in household income, and promote integration of livelihoods and income metrics into conservation-focused MEL systems in a way that aligns with each partner’s culture and priorities.

• Cultivate a community of best practices for MEL practitioners within our partner community.

• Support the development of the Maliasili team, with particular focus on the portfolio team, in their MEL competencies.

• Support partners in developing and implementing their own robust data quality assurance protocols and practices.

Promote and facilitate the active use of MEL data by partners for informed decision-making and internal learning.

In addition to the Partner MEL focus of the position, the role will also be expected to contribute to Maliasili’s internal MEL system in the following ways:

• Support MEL systems in the portfolio, especially with a focus on integrating learnings from working with partners.

• Design and implement any new MEL systems, as needed, related to ensuring the effectiveness of the Partner MEL delivery.

• Contribute to organizational learning processes and documentation of best practices as necessary.

Skills and Qualifications

• The role requires a minimum of 7-10 years of relevant experience to be competitive. Relevant degrees in monitoring, evaluation, and learning, statistics, environmental management, conservation, or development are expected.

• Demonstrated experience and strong skills in building fit-for-purpose MEL systems in the context of local organisations, ideally in community-led conservation and/or natural resource-based livelihoods in Africa.

• Knowledge of best practice monitoring and evaluation methods and tools of livelihood monitoring is essential. Ideally, conducting this work within the African context is desired.

• Knowledge of best practice monitoring and evaluation methods and tools in the following (but not necessarily all) areas is desired:

  • Forest Management and Restoration

  • Rangelands Management and Restoration

  • Fisheries Management and Restoration

  • Governance of local institutions

  • Endangered Species Monitoring

• Knowledge in developing clear Theory of Changes (ToC) for organizations, and using ToC to design MEL systems is required.

• Knowledge of participatory approaches to measuring household income and livelihoods in conservation contexts will be considered a strong asset.

• Experience and comfort in designing and facilitating effective meetings.

• Excellent problem-solving ability, capable of diagnosing problems and designing solutions.

• Strong capability to absorb and synthesise data and information, and strong analytical skills and thinking.

• Experience in CRM and data management platforms. Excel required. Salesforce experience is useful. Other database and CRM knowledge is also advantageous.

• Outstanding interpersonal skills for facilitating workshops, engaging in communications, relationship management, and team processes.

• Outstanding ability to manage multiple processes in a dynamic environment, prioritize, multitask, and deal with problems adaptively and with a sense of humor.

• This position requires fluency in working, writing, and delivering all work in English. Proficiency in French is highly desired. Ability to work in Swahili and/or Portuguese is an additional advantage.

• Passion for Maliasili’s mission to contribute to developing organizational excellence and impact in African natural resource management and conservation organizations.

• Strong intellectual curiosity – we are looking for people who are critical thinkers, interested in learning new things, and expanding their knowledge.

• Team player who enjoys engaging with and supporting colleagues but can also work autonomously when necessary.

• Willingness to travel and work across the African continent, sometimes in remote locations with limited services.

Reporting

This position will report to the Director of Impact.

Location

This position is an Africa-based remote work-from-home position in a diverse global and

remote operating team.

Compensation and Benefits

A competitive salary commensurate with experience. Other benefits include a health stipend,

home office stipend, and discretionary paid leave.