Vacancy Announcement Details

The Lead Evaluation Officer, works under the overall supervision and strategic, policy and management guidance of the Director, IOE, as well as the day-to-day supervision of IOE's Deputy Director, 

Job Role

The Lead Evaluation Officer leads Corporate Level Evaluations (CLEs), Thematic Evaluations (TEs) and Country Strategy and Programme Evaluations (CSPEs) with complex operations. Lead Evaluation Officers' accountabilities are:

• Evaluation Management
• CSPEs, TEs, CLEs and other Corporate-level assignments
• Impact Evaluation and Project Performance Evaluations 
• Knowledge Management/Evaluation Capacity Building

Key Functions and Results

EVALUATION MANAGEMENT: The Lead Evaluation Officer substantively contributes to IOE evaluation management activities with a view to ensuring adherence to IOE evaluation policy, quality standards and evaluation manual.  

Major activities include but are not limited to:

1. Substantively contributing to the preparation of IOE's Annual Work Programme, the conduct of internal peer reviews and the periodical review of IFAD's evaluation methodology and processes;
2. Contributing to the development of evaluation methodology; and
3. Leading, training and motivating international/national experts in the conduct of project evaluation.

1. COUNTRY PROGRAMME EVALUATION, THEMATIC EVALUATION AND CORPORATE-LEVEL EVALUATION: The Lead Evaluation Officer leads Corporate Level Evaluations (CLE), Thematic Evaluations (TEs), as well as Country Strategy and Programme Evaluation (CSPE) activities, particularly in complex countries with many operations, ensuring independence and accountability.

Major activities include but are not limited to:

1. Leading the entire evaluation process for CLEs, TEs and CSPEs including building teams of evaluation experts, production of the Approach Paper, organization of the evaluation mission, leading and being responsible for the country mission(s), main report writing and finalization, organization of evaluation workshops and facilitation of the agreement at completion point on the evaluation findings and recommendations among the IFAD management and concerned governments;
2. Participating in internal peer reviews of CLEs, TEs and CSPEs;
3. Preparing concise, reader-friendly and yet analytically rigorous evaluation reports and presenting them in-house and to the EB's Evaluation Committee;
4. Undertaking or contributing, as requested, to Evaluation Syntheses, and
5. Undertaking other corporate-level work such as Independent Reviews, and any new products introduced by IOE.

IMPACT EVALUATION AND PROJECT PERFORMANCE EVALUATION: The Lead Evaluation Officer conducts Impact Evaluations or Project Performance Evaluations. In such case, major activities include:

For both Project Performance Evaluations and Impact Evaluations 

• Managing the entire evaluation process (developing the Approach Paper, desk reviews, organizing the evaluation mission and liaising with IFAD's Management, Government officials and other key stakeholders); leading the main mission and preparation of the evaluation report.

For Impact Evaluations 

• Customizing statistical methods and data collection tools to the specific project design and area context as well as identifying relevant impact domains and sampling areas. Overseeing the collection and analysis of primary impact data to establish evidence and illustrate the project's contribution to the observed results.

1. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT/EVALUATION CAPACITY BUILDING: The Lead Evaluation Officer participates as requested in project development teams and policy fora to ensure that lessons learned from IFAD's experience are incorporated in the proposed project programme design / IFAD's policy. The incumbent uses evaluation as a source of knowledge on rural development issues to be communicated and disseminated to partners and develops customized communication products, as require. The incumbent may also be requested to lead evaluation capacity development efforts in developing countries, on a case-by-case basis.  The incumbent will be involved in peer review, quality assurance and methodological development activities.
2. MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS:  The Lead Evaluation Officer is accountable for integrity, transparency, and equity in the management of IFAD resources. This includes accountability for human resources, both staff and national/international experts, financial and material resources and related processes including contracting as required.  The Lead Evaluation Officer may also coordinate an internal IOE team overseeing the conduct of the related work programme, supporting and assessing team members technically and organizationally. The incumbent will participate in divisional level management meetings.

Full details available on the IFAD website. Application deadline 11 December.