Jordan Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Activity

Makanati Rapid Mid-term Evaluation

About The Kaizen Company

The Kaizen Company, a Tetra Tech Company, is an international development consulting firm and an incubator for innovative, scalable solutions that address emerging market challenges and opportunities. Our proven solutions catalyze locally driven organizational and institutional performance improvements and establish communities of practice that facilitate peer-to-peer learning and the achievement of shared goals. We aspire to transform the nature and impact of development assistance and work to strengthen organizations and institutions through innovative approaches to organizational development, reform, and change.

Jordan Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Activity (MELA) Overview

MELA is designed to ensure USAID’s activities in Jordan achieve their intended results through monitoring and evaluation, strategic assessments, and USAID’s Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting approach (CLA). Kaizen will help USAID/Jordan create a dynamic learning environment among development actors, focused on innovation, quality, and knowledge sharing. Through the Kaizen Accelerator, a rapid procurement mechanism, a cohort of Jordanian firms will work with Kaizen's MELA team to successfully deliver activities while simultaneously strengthening their management and compliance systems. The Kaizen approach will provide USAID with high-quality MEL services across its portfolio, build the capacity of local MEL institutions, and ensure programs meaningfully incorporate local participation. The MELA team will ensure program sustainability by building the technical and institutional capacity of one or more local firms that can manage the follow-on MEL Activity in the future.  

Makanati Rapid Mid-Term Evaluation

• BACKGROUND

  Jordan ranks near the bottom of all surveyed countries―138 out of 153 nations – on measures of gender disparities. According to the 2020 Global Gender Gap Index, female labor market participation is 14 percent, making it among the lowest in the world. Jordanian women’s lives are constrained by gender-related bias and discrimination, restrictive social norms, and a discriminatory legal and business environment. To address these barriers, the USAID Women’s Economic Empowerment and Leadership Activity (Makanati) will incorporate an inclusive, market-driven approach to prepare and connect women to the labor market, promote widespread mindset change, and improve workplace environments to allow women to fully participate in the economy.

  The overall purpose of Makanati is to strengthen the enabling environment to increase women’s waged employment in the private sector and leadership in both the public and private sectors. Makanati will initially target the tourism sector, transport and logistics, media and creative industries, in addition to the industry sector, where there is a need and an opportunity for women to access an enabled environment labor market.

  Makanati contributes to change in vast, complex, interlinked, mutually-reinforcing spheres—job market, workforce environment, and sociocultural norms—to increase women’s access to waged employment in the private sector and leadership opportunities in both the private and public sectors.

• OBJECTIVE

  As Makanati has entered its third year of implementation, the Mission has requested the USAID/Jordan Monitoring. Evaluation, and Learning Activity (MELA) to conduct a midterm performance evaluation of Makanati to inform their year four and five workplan. The purpose of this evaluation is to provide recommendations for USAID and guide Makanati’s workplan development and implementation for the remainder of the Activity.

  The USAID Mission is recruiting an expert consultant to be the Subject Matter Expert – Workforce Development Specialist who will support in conducting the evaluation.     

  Responsibilities and Tasks

  The Subject Matter Expert – Workforce Development Specialist will be responsible for:

• Conducting desk research by gathering, analyzing, and synthesizing detailed information and key data sources relevant to Makanati.

• Contribute to the evaluation design and methodology and prepare the interview guides.

• Conduct qualitative and quantitative data collection related to workforce development outcomes.

• Analyze data to identify gender-specific trends, barriers, and opportunities within the workforce development sector.

• Supporting in the analysis phase to bring together the desk research, findings from the interviews, and specific actionable recommendations. 

• Draft sections of the evaluation report that pertain to gender findings and recommendations.

• Provide insights on the effectiveness and impact of Makanati’s approach and interventions.

• Participate in briefings and presentations.

       Qualifications

Required:

• Advanced degree in workforce development, education, economics, sociology, or a related field.

• At least eight years of experience working with programs in workforce development, employment services, or related sectors.

• Strong understanding of workforce development principles, including skills training, job placement, and decent work standards.

• Proven experience in designing and conducting evaluations in the context of workforce development.

• Excellent analytical, writing, and communication skills.

• Ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary team and engage with diverse stakeholders.

• Proficiency in data analysis software and tools.

• Fluency in English.

Preferred:

• Proven experience working with governmental entities at national and sub-national levels.

• Experience working in or expertise in Jordan.

• Fluency in Arabic.

  Kaizen a Tetra Tech company is a progressive Equal Opportunity Employer. We promote, celebrate, and support a diverse and inclusive organizational culture and workforce. We are committed to providing all of our employees with an environment free from discrimination and harassment, where all are treated with dignity and respect. Our continuing commitment to the principle of Equal Opportunity Employment for all means all employment decisions are based only on the job requirements, the candidate’s qualifications, and the needs of Kaizen as a business—not on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, belief, sex (including pregnancy and related medical conditions), gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability status, veteran status, genetic information, family/marital/parental status, or any other status protected by the laws and regulations in the jurisdictions where we work.

   

  For candidates applying for positions based in Kaizen's office in Washington, DC, we utilize career.place to mitigate bias in the recruitment process. Upon submitting an application, candidates will receive an email from career.place, prompting them to go through the anonymous screening. In order to be considered for a role, candidates must respond to career.place and proceed with the application. We do not currently use career.place for project positions outside of the United States.

  At Kaizen, A Tetra Tech Company, we find strength in our diversity. We are committed to creating and sustaining an inclusive working environment in which everyone has an equal opportunity to fulfill their potential. We know that we can only do development differently if we are open to and inclusive of new and unique perspectives. We encourage candidates of all abilities, ages, gender identities and expressions, national origins, races and ethnicities, religious beliefs, and sexual orientations to apply. Further, we urge parents and non-parents, married and unmarried, those from different or non-traditional educational backgrounds, and persons of all other diverse identities or experiences to apply. Kaizen is an equal opportunity employer.

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