Global MEL Senior Associate

About One Acre Fund

Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund equips 5.5 million smallholder farmers to make their farms more productive. Across nine countries that together are home to two-thirds of Africa's farmers, the organization provides high-quality farm supplies, tree seedlings, accessible credit, modern agronomic training, and a wide range of agricultural services. On average, this model enables farmers to increase their income and assets on supported land by more than 35 percent while improving long-term resilience.

One Acre Fund operates through a diverse team of more than 9,000 full-time staff across multiple countries in Africa.

About the Role

One Acre Fund is looking for a strong analyst to provide technical guidance, analytical support, and quality assurance across a portfolio of 2–3 country programs within One Acre Fund’s growth country portfolio. Countries of operation currently include Tanzania, DRC, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and Burundi.

Country MEL Leads are responsible for day-to-day MEL operations in their respective programs. The Global MEL Senior Associate complements this by bringing technical depth and cross-country perspective through reviewing and strengthening analytical approaches, advising on evaluation methodology, building tools and frameworks, and surfacing learnings across the portfolio.

The role also contributes to selected Global MEL initiatives including the design and rollout of team trainings, development of shared tools and templates, and cross-program methodology work. Depending on the candidate’s profile, the portfolio may also include analytical support for One Acre Fund’s Agroforestry program.

The Global MEL Senior Associate will report to a Senior Manager on the Global MEL Team.

Key Responsibilities

Country Portfolio Support

• Serve as the primary technical resource for country MEL Leads in assigned portfolios.
• Provide structured guidance, review, and feedback throughout the program cycle.
• Review and strengthen survey instruments and data collection approaches.
• Support questionnaire design and programming in CommCare or equivalent systems.
• Assess and improve data quality backcheck processes and validation pipelines.
• Review and advise on country-level data analysis using Stata and related analytical tools.
• Ensure analytical integrity, reproducibility, and appropriate interpretation of results.
• Quality-control MEL deliverables including reports, dashboards, and presentations.
• Translate evaluation findings into clear, decision-relevant insights for leadership and program teams.
• Identify and share learnings across multiple country programs.

Evaluation Design & Methodology

• Advise on evaluation design and review methodologies across assigned programs.
• Apply quasi-experimental approaches including propensity score matching, difference-in-differences, and randomized controlled trials.
• Identify methodological gaps and risks in ongoing evaluations.
• Contribute to the development of global MEL standards and shared analytical frameworks.
• Support the development of shared tools and methodological guidance documents.

Global MEL Initiatives

• Contribute to the design and rollout of MEL trainings and capacity-building programs.
• Develop practical learning materials for country MEL teams.
• Support cross-program methodology projects and strategic MEL initiatives.
• Provide analytical support to the Agroforestry portfolio when applicable.
• Collaborate with Agroforestry teams and MEL leadership on evidence-building activities.
• Peer review cross-country workstreams and provide quality assurance support.

Career Growth and Development

One Acre Fund maintains a strong culture of continuous learning and staff development. Employees receive mentorship, training opportunities, regular feedback, and career reviews every six months, with opportunities to shape a growing organization and build a long-term career.

Job Requirements

• Education: Master’s Degree in Economics, Applied Statistics, Agricultural Economics, or closely related fields.

• Experience: Minimum of 3 years of professional experience in monitoring, evaluation, applied research, or related areas, preferably within international development.

Analytical Excellence:

• Advanced quantitative skills with strong proficiency in Stata.
• Knowledge of R is a strong advantage.
• Experience with impact evaluation methods including PSM, DiD, and RCTs.
• Strong analytical rigor, attention to detail, and reproducibility standards.

Survey & Data Systems:

• Experience designing and programming surveys for mobile data collection.
• CommCare experience is preferred.
• Experience improving data quality assurance and validation processes.
• Ability to design back-check surveys and automated validation systems.

Domain Knowledge:

• Background in agriculture is required.
• Familiarity with agricultural MEL frameworks and indicators is advantageous.
• Experience with agroforestry, tree planting, or ecosystem measurement is strongly preferred.

Communication & Collaboration:

• Professional fluency in English is required.
• Professional fluency in French is a significant advantage.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to communicate technical findings to non-technical audiences.
• Collaborative working style with coaching and mentoring capability.
• Willingness to travel within the region approximately 10–25% of the time.

Preferred Start Date: As soon as possible

Job Location: Flexible within Countries of Operation

Benefits: Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits package.

Contract Duration: 2 Years

Eligibility: One Acre Fund can support a work permit for this role. Nationals of, or candidates with extensive professional experience in, countries of operation are preferred.

Skills Required:

• Economics / Statistics