Location: Canada (remote)
Commitment: One year (part-time: 22.5 hours/week)
Compensation: $37 per hour
Start Date: April 2021

About Youth Challenge International (YCI)

Youth Challenge International (YCI) is a leading global youth development organization that promotes youth innovation to drive positive change. Together with our partners, we create market-ready solutions that catapult youth around the world to succeed and prosper; we are driven by youth and their potential to affect positive change in the world. Our solutions are focused – always keeping the young people we are designing for and with at the centre of the conversation. Our approach is rooted in creativity and constantly evolving to respond to changing needs and market realities.  YCI is an organization where diversity and talent come together to shape a better future for youth around the world.

HerStart: Innovate the Future
HerStart Innovate the Future is a seven-year program developed by Youth Challenge International, and funded by Global Affairs Canada, that targets the development of young entrepreneurs, primarily women, to foster and create innovative solutions for a more equitable and prosperous economy within Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda.

The program delivers training and support for aspiring entrepreneurs in social enterprise, gender-responsive business planning, social impact measurement, and access to finance through the HerStart Catalyst Fund. Volunteers in fellowship placements from Canada and each program country will be engaged in providing human capital support for activities by supporting the design and delivery of the program and capacity building initiatives with partner organizations in each country. This initiative will provide programmatic support for organizations to more effectively deliver environmental and gender-responsive activities that drive innovative, sustainable and equitable business ventures. The entrepreneurial ecosystem in each country will be further catalyzed to identify and reduce gendered barriers, which will foster more enabling environments, including access to finance, for young women entrepreneurs.

HerStart Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
HerStart places a strong focus on learning across the program. YCI has partnered with Salanga to develop a community-based Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) system, and to ensure a feedback loop that contributes to ongoing adaptation and improvement. With an emphasis on the sustainability of project activities, the strategy for learning and related activities are informed by the needs of partners, staff, project participants and current trends in each context.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Lead
Reporting to the Director of Programs, the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Lead will drive HerStart’s learning agenda, ensuring the overall success of the project and effective support to teams and partners on monitoring, evaluation and learning. Working in collaboration with Salanga, the MEL Lead will oversee the implementation of strategic, creative and participatory solutions for learning, reporting and sharing with internal and with external stakeholders.

Responsibilities will include:

• Technical Support: Provide technical expertise to maintain a robust MEL strategy that informs ongoing program design, data analysis, strategic planning, work plans, and other critical project components. Support partners, fellows and staff, with the resources, training and skills needed to effectively implement HerStart’s MEL approach across project countries.
• Evaluation: Support ongoing evaluations and lead activities to enhance understanding of the impact and gaps of project activities and outcomes.
• Strategy and Learning: Support strategic implementation required to sustain vibrant and effective Partnership Sustainability Plans and corresponding Communities of Practice that contribute to the achievement of the project’s learning objectives. Contribute to YCI’s thought leadership in the youth engagement, economic inclusion, climate action and gender equality spaces.

Skills and Experience:

You are a self-starter with 5+ years of experience in monitoring, evaluation and learning with an international lens; you have a demonstrated track record of designing and implementing successful MEL initiatives, including innovative, cutting-edge participatory and gender-sensitive approaches; you have excellent qualitative and quantitative data analysis skillsets; you have the proven ability to develop and implement appropriate activities to promote organizational learning and change; you hold extensive knowledge of organizational learning theory and practice; you are aware of the approach of Global Affairs Canada to capacity building and MEL; you have experience in design thinking and are passionate about learning strategies and facilitation; you have strong attention to detail and are also able to think and plan strategically; you have experience working with young women and sustainable livelihood development; you work respectfully and inclusively with diverse stakeholders; you are willing and able to travel internationally (once travel restrictions are lifted); you are an effective communicator with excellent written and verbal English proficiency.

Deadline to apply: February 25, 2021
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis as they are received. Please submit your CV as a single PDF document, maximum 3 pages, saved in the following format: “First Name Last Name_ MEL Lead”.

[button size=” style=” text=’APPLY NOW’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’https://airtable.com/shrxUiCnPg0rgyGfj’ target=’_blank’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=” margin=”]

We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.