Employer: Aktis Strategy
Location & Travel: Choice of: London, Beirut, Gaziantep or Nairobi with significant travel to other offices noted, as well as to Tunisia and other Fragile and Conflict Affected States (FCAS).
Closing date: 27 Nov 2015
Contract Type: Permanent Position
Time Commitment: Full time, with start date negotiable
Focus of work: M&E technical advisory support, conflict analysis consulting
Language requirement: Essential- English (full fluent professional proficiency), Advantage- Arabic (minimum fluent conversational proficiency); French (minimum fluent conversational proficiency)
Remuneration package: A competitive remuneration package will be offered to the successful applicant, commensurate with experience and capability for the relevant position
Nationality/visa requirements: European passport for existing visa to work in UK ideal but not essential. Applicant must be able to travel freely in UK, Europe, Middle East, North and East Africa.
The organisation
Aktis Strategy is an organisation led by some of the world’s foremost consultant practitioners in problem-solving for fragile and conflict-affected countries. With knowledge and expertise across the spectrum of security sector reform and transitions, political governance and justice/rule of law, Aktis specialises in devising, managing and evaluating complex programmes to address challenging political and institutional problems. From organisational change projects with the security forces in fragile states, complex governance reform and transition programmes, to advanced analytical programmes, Aktis personnel have demonstrated their excellence at delivering innovative management consultancy support in some of the most challenging situations. Recent field operations have been conducted in Afghanistan, Colombia, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Somalia, Turkey and Tunisia. More information is available at the Aktis website, www.aktisstrategy.com.
Summary of responsibilities
The M&E and Conflict Adviser position is a new role at Aktis that will have a unique mix of responsibilities. It is expected that the successful applicant will take up a leadership role within Aktis’ Conflict Management and Peacebuilding practice area. The applicant will also provide thematic expertise across Aktis projects and regions with regard to innovative and methodologically sound monitoring and evaluation (M&E) approaches, and best practice in how project results may be collected, evidenced and communicated to beneficiaries and donors.
The successful applicant will work across the following four areas:
(1) Technical advisory: technical consulting support will be provided to Aktis project teams at bidding, project design and implementation stages, as well as to clients, beneficiaries and local research partner organisations. Consulting support should draw on capability in the following areas:
M&E:Expertise in a variety of qualitative and quantitative M&E techniques, methodologies, tools, and software. Conflict sensitive and ethical approaches will be a core area of competence for the applicant, with a focus on the practical delivery of project-related M&E in fragile and conflict-affected environments. Experience in remote monitoring, beneficiary-led monitoring and quasi-experimental mixed methods evaluation will be essential. Experience designing and delivering training for field research partners, and managing third-party data collection, would be a major advantage. An understanding of UK government approaches to M&E through the use of theories of change and logical frameworks is critical. The incumbent will consult on the design of appropriate M&E project frameworks in consultation with Aktis teams, beneficiaries, client representatives and stakeholders, and will lead the design and selection of relevant qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The incumbent will also have a lead role in the quality assurance of project M&E frameworks and proposed approaches to evidence collection and analysis.
Results: Having an appreciation for UK government and other donor government requirements for project results and evidence collection, analysis and dissemination, the applicant will draw on their experience of innovative project results reporting ideas to help Aktis project teams design their own projects’ results reporting approach. An important component of this element of the role will be to assist project teams, beneficiaries, client representatives and project stakeholders to identify key results metrics, evidence indicators and appropriate data collection techniques. Experience in the innovative visualisation and representation of results would be an advantage.
Conflict analysis: The successful applicant should have experience in setting up and managing frameworks for the collection of evidence about conflict in a particular region or project location, and in designing the relevant questions to gain an insight to the drivers and evolution of a particular conflict, or overlapping conflicts. The incumbent will work with Aktis project teams, client representatives and project stakeholders to understand how a conflict context may impact on the ability of a project to deliver results, and to design appropriate conflict indicators for routine assessment throughout a project’s lifecycle, to inform decision-making about the project. Generating conflict visualisations through software may form part of the role. The incumbent will design, oversee, manage and deliver their own research and written work concerning conflict assessment and analysis, focused on FCAS.
(2) Product development: The successful applicant will take a lead role in the Aktis Conflict Management and Peacebuilding team’s exploration of new methodologies concerning the integration of conflict analysis with project M&E and agile project delivery. In particular, the incumbent will guide Aktis technology leads in their development of new software tools and technology-based techniques to conduct conflict analysis and project M&E.
(3) Project management: While project management expertise is not a core focus for this position, it is expected that any applicant will understand the basics of how aid and development programmes are implemented in a field context. Strong interpersonal and communication skills will be important to the role. The incumbent will also have a central role advising Aktis project teams on how to manage conflict analysis, results reporting and M&E components of project delivery, including how methodology preparation, data collection, analysis and reporting should be sequenced and quality-assured.
(4) Business development: While business development is not a core focus for this position, it is expected that any applicant will have a demonstrable ability to engage proactively with current and potential future clients to gain an understanding of their current project needs, and to make suggestions about possible solutions that Aktis could support. The incumbent will also have a key role in advising Aktis bid teams on appropriate conflict analysis, results reporting and M&E strategies and methodologies that could be applied to future projects as part of developing a bid approach.
The successful applicant will also be expected to:Proactively problem-solve and adapt Aktis approaches to results reporting, M&E and conflict analysis to deal with client requests, project and context challenges as they arise.
Advise on appropriate risk, safety and security approaches for field research collection teams to consider.
Actively build and maintain broad client, consultant, potential partner, competitor and host government network, including a network of M&E experts.
Take a lead role on the planning, preparation, delivery and quality assuring of written reports, training materials, presentations, submissions and deliverables in English.
Take a lead role in the planning, preparation and delivery of internal Aktis training, and training related to project teams and research partners concerning M&E, results reporting and conflict analysis.
Requirements
1.Preferred Master’s degreein Social Sciences, Psychology, Economics, International Development, Humanities, Politics, Law, Medicine, Science or Engineering gained from a reputable university.
2.Minimum of 5 years’ post-qualification experience (PQE) in a relevant sector, with a strong background in M&E, conducting research programmes and conflict analyses with beneficiaries for UK or other donor government projects in conflict-affected states.
3.English (essential that applicant has fully fluent written and spoken proficiency)
o Advantage but not essential to have Arabic (full conversational fluency)
4.Willingness and ability to travel freely in Europe, and throughout relevant region(s) with travel anticipated to be routine at approximately 25-50% of the time (i.e. for up to two weeks in every month).
Aktis provides all staff travelling outside of the UK with comprehensive travel and medical insurance relevant to their work. Aktis also offers flexible work practices and conditions (i.e. working from home, part time or alternative hours etc.) to suit applicants with different personal circumstances – please enquire if this may be something relevant to your situation.
How To Apply:
Recruitment process: Initial skype or face to face interview, followed by a written exercise and (if required) language tests, then a scenario-based interview with senior Aktis staff, followed by the collection of references.
Please send your CV and cover letter to: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.com