State Service for Management of Agricultural Projects and Credits under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Integrated Rural Development Project

Consulting Services

Loan No. AZ-034/035/036

The Government of Republic of Azerbaijan has received a loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) for the implementation of Integrated Rural Development Project (IRDP) and intends to apply part of the proceeds of this loan to payments under the Contract for Consultancy Service on Monitoring & Evaluation.  Overview of Position: The IFAD and IsDB jointly funded ‘Integrated Rural Development Project’ has four components: i) Rural Infrastructure Development and Support to Water User Associations, ii) Agricultural Productivity and Profitability Enhancement, iii) Rural Finance Services and Enterprise Promotion. These supported by the fourth component - Project Coordination and Management, where the M&E specialist of the IPMU will be responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of project activities. He/she will be part of IPMU team based in Baku and report to the IPMU Project Coordinator.

Duties and Responsibilities: The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Specialist will have the lead responsibility for guiding the overall M&E strategy in the project, enhancing and operating the existing IPMU’s M&E system, building up and maintaining the data base necessary for the IPMU to do its work efficiently and effectively and providing timely and relevant information to project stakeholders. S/he will also work closely with the M&E specialist in the RPMU office in the field as well as working closely with IPMU and RPMU technical staff and relevant partners and stakeholders.

Required Qualifications:

Knowledge and skills

· Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Statistics, Economics, Management and/ or closely related field University degree in economics, agriculture, social sciences or closely related discipline. Master’s Degree in one of these fields would be a strong asset;

· Knowledge of participatory project implementation methodologies;

· Excellent IT skills in particular Excel and knowledge of other M&E applications/statistical software packages (SPSS or STATA) would be an asset;

· Proven communication and organization skills;

· Knowledge of gender issues, targeting of interventions;

· Expected to have a creative, proactive and pragmatic approach to problem-solving and the ability to think in terms of socio-economic and administrative systems;

· Excellent analytical, report writing and presentation skills.

Experience

· Strong professional qualification in Monitoring & Evaluation;

· Minimum 5 years working experience in M&E preferably with Rural Development Projects and/ or funded by International Organisations.

Languages

Fluent written and spoken English & Azeri languages is a requirement.  Knowledge of Russian is an asset.

Interested candidates are requested to submit, preferably in Word or PDF format, attached to an e-mail message: a letter of interest specifying particular suitability for the position, a current resume (CV) and the names, email and business addresses of at least 3 references.

Send materials via e-mail to [email protected] specifying the Job Title in the subject line. Only shortlisted candidates for the interview shall be contacted.

The expressions of interest in English language shall be delivered to the e-mail address given below not later than April 03, 2015.