MSI Evaluation of the USAID / Kenya’s Electoral Assistance to Kenya, Elections Specialist Job Vacancy October 2013
Evaluation of the USAID / Kenya’s Electoral Assistance to Kenya, Elections Specialist
Company Profile: MSI is a Washington, D.C.-based international development firm providing specialized short- and long-term technical assistance.
Since its 1981 founding, MSI has grown in size and technical scope, now implementing and managing more than 70 projects worldwide.
More than 30 are long-term, many in conflict-prone or fragile states that include Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Today, our range of technical expertise includes analytical and field projects in democracy and governance, economic growth, strategic planning, organizational capacity building, health and the justice sector.
MSI focuses on helping our local partners foster progress, manage change and improve the effectiveness of development assistance.
We expanded our global footprint in 2008 by becoming part of Coffey International Development, a leading development firm that is part of Coffey International Limited, a publicly traded company on the Australia Stock Exchange.
Alongside Coffey, MSI has corporate offices in 17 countries. Together, MSI and Coffey International Development employ more than 1,400 professionals worldwide.
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Project / Proposal Summary:
The Development Objective of USAID/ Kenya’s Office of Democracy, Rights and Governance is to advance a democratic and inclusive reform agenda in Kenya.
In the short-term, USAID anticipated that an independent, efficient, and effective electoral management body – coupled with an informed and active civil society – would provide a stable environment for conducting free, fair, and peaceful elections in 2013.
In the long-term, it was expected that Kenya‘s electoral framework and institutions – namely, the electoral commission, political parties, and a domestic monitoring network – would be able to deliver transparent and accountable future elections for the Kenyan people.
Thus, USAID/Kenya focused on a range of activities, implemented through ten mechanisms, to ensure that free, fair, credible and peaceful elections were held in 2013.
USAID / Kenya would now like to determine the extent to which these activities contributed to free, fair and peaceful elections.
Position Summary:
Under this task order, the candidate will support the Team Leader to conduct an Evaluation of USAID/Kenya’s Electoral Assistance to Kenya.
Findings and recommendations will inform USAID / Kenya’s future elections and political processes assistance, particularly on electoral reforms, administration and management; support to civic and voter education; election observation; electoral-related conflict prevention; support to electoral dispute resolution; strengthening of political parties and coalitions; training on electoral security and support to media for objective coverage of election activities.
The period of performance of this task order will start a/o mid October 2013.
The evaluation will take place in Kenya.
Responsibilities:
The Team Member, under the stewardship of the Team Leader, will be responsible for conducting a high quality and rigorous evaluation.
This evaluation’s main purpose is to determine the extent to which USAID’s elections assistance, as provided by ten partner organizations, contributed to free, fair and peaceful 2013 elections.
The full responsibilities will be detailed in the Scope of Work for the position.
Qualifications:
- Master’s Degree in Governance, Political Science or related field; PhD is a plus;
- 8+ years experience in designing, implementing, managing and/or evaluating democracy and governance programs, with at least one election support program;
- Proven experience in conducting evaluations of elections and governance programs;
- In-depth understanding of electoral administration, especially on the use of technology;
- Knowledge of and expertise in electoral and democratization processes in Kenya or the East Africa region;
- Proven experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods (including focus group discussion, key informant interviews, survey design and statistical analysis, etc.);
- Demonstrated written communication skills, especially in drafting evaluations, assessments and reports, required;
- Fluency in English and is required.
Only candidates who have been selected for an interview will be contacted.
No phone calls, please.
To apply, please visit our website: www.msiworldwide.com