The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a CGIAR Research Center is seeking an innovative & multi skilled candidate to join its team, as a Consultant – Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL).
Jordan is facing increasing climate risks, making resilience-building a national priority. The country’s national adaptation plan and climate change policies reflect the Government of Jordan’s (GoJ) commitment to addressing these challenges. However, resilience-building is complicated by the presence of substantial refugee populations, which account for over a third of Jordan’s population. These refugees and their host communities are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Therefore, the GoJ recognizes the urgent need to act on disaster risk management, the protection of vulnerable populations, and the development of long-term strategies in water management, agriculture, and urban planning to ensure sustainability.
In response to these needs, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) is supporting Jordan’s “Climate-Refugee Nexus Initiative,” launched by King Abdullah II at COP27. This initiative is part of a broader package of solutions linked to the COP28 Declaration on Climate, Relief, Recovery, and Peace. The 3–5-year JAHEZ (READY) project, delivered by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the UK Met Office, aims to build resilience for both refugees and their host communities. It will focus on climate change adaptation and anticipatory action, piloting solutions to mitigate the effects of extreme heat, drought, flooding, groundwater depletion, and agricultural land degradation. Through a combination of nature-based solutions (NbS) and disaster risk reduction measures, the project seeks to rehabilitate watersheds, improve agricultural productivity, and protect vulnerable populations.
The JAHEZ project requires a robust Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) strategy to guide the implementation, track progress, and generate evidence of the project's impact. As part of the start-up process of JAHEZ, a MERL Specialist is required to lead the development of the MERL strategy, processes, and tools.
The MERL Specialist will support the development of appropriate targets and indicators to measure program quality, effectiveness, and impact in interventions related to nature-based solutions, climate change adaptation, agricultural water management, gender-transformational change, and fragile, conflict-affected, and human migration settings. This will examine both household and community impacts as well as the functionality and institutional capacity of government and other service providers to deliver critical services to communities. The MERL Specialist will support the relevant teams by leading the development and implementation of MERL systems in line with donor requirements and will contribute to project impact evaluation objectives. S/he will manage relevant partner relationships and address MERL questions from the IWMI team as well as implementing agencies and partners. The MERL Specialist is expected to be a strong team player who can carry out daily M&E tasks, communicate with local partners and project stakeholders in line with relevant cultural contexts, and ensure quality delivery of various knowledge products in a timely manner.