Monitoring and Evaluation Expert

About the Organization

The ECOTRADE Project is a four-year initiative (2025–2029) funded by the European Union and implemented by Expertise France. It supports Ethiopia's implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), with a focus on strengthening institutional capacity, promoting private-sector-led regional value chains, and supporting knowledge systems.

The rationale behind the Project and its focus on supporting the implementation of the AfCFTA in Ethiopia with a focus on the private-led value chain development (VCD) approach is based on the following elements:

• Ethiopia, with the fastest-growing youth population, stands to benefit the most if the country implements trade facilitation measures that cuts red tape and simplifies customs procedures for the private sector. Nevertheless, it requires expertise in various areas to guide policymakers and chain actors in the implementation of the AfCFTA.
• In countries such as Ethiopia, which are affected by fragility and conflict, the private sector plays a critical role in providing jobs, income, and stability. Hence, providing technical support to private sector players to build their internal capacity to start trading across borders, or increase their trade volumes, or/and geographical coverage is paramount and must take center stage.
• The Private Sector will need to be capacitated to increase their readiness across various strategic sectors to take advantage of new opportunities unfolding under the new single market that the AfCFTA creates.
• The promotion of value chains is a complex challenge within the realm of private sector development and beyond; therefore, the potential of such interventions for local economic development and poverty reduction through trade in value added and RVCs is significant.
• Promoting value chain development is increasingly being recognized as a promising approach to address not only economic development, decent job creation, equitable and inclusive growth, but a wider range of social and environmental development issues, thus able to legitimise stronger efforts to support private sector development.
• Increasing openness to AfCFTA will lead to higher competitive pressure on regional but also on Ethiopian domestic markets. This regional integration, where production and trade relationships are nowadays much more coordinated, leaves less space for individual firms and small enterprises to design, produce, and market on their own. Thus, it is important to understand how to integrate in value chains in a way that allows for incorporation of a growing number of the workforce and increasing levels of productivity and incomes for SMEs and women-led businesses.

The Project currently has five (5) Strategic Objectives (SOs).

• Specific Objective 1: The private sector is actively engaged alongside the government to support the AfCFTA's successful implementation
• Specific Objective 2: Regional value chains are integrated, and trade/transport connectivity is facilitated with a focus on increasing women's participation in commercial and logistics processes
• Specific Objective 3: Relevant authorities in the implementation of the AfCFTA are supported
• Specific Objective 4: Academic institutions and research institutions are supported
• Specific Objective 5: Enhance Ethiopia's readiness to implement the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol

Job Summary

In line with the above, the ECOTRADE Project is seeking to engage the services of Monitoring and Evaluation Expert within a Framework Agreement to support with the design, the establishment and management of the monitoring and evaluation system for the ECOTRADE project in Ethiopia.

Project or context description

1) General objective

To obtain independent, high-level monitoring, evaluation and learning expertise through clearly bounded assignments that produce defined technical deliverables for ECOTRADE.

2) Specific objectives

Each purchase order shall select one or more of the following categories and state the exact outputs required:

Project monitoring and evaluation system

• As and when requested produce reports that monitor project activities and progress.

Data collection and analysis

• Collect, organize and analyse relevant data to assess project progress against objectives.
• Use quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the data collected and identify project trends, successes and challenges.
• Apply appropriate verification controls and statistical techniques to ensure the quality of data collected.

Evaluation and learning

• Organize and participate in external evaluations to assess relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability.
• Recommend corrective actions and improvements based on evaluation results to optimize project performance.
• Facilitate and facilitate knowledge sharing and learning between internal and external project stakeholders

Accountability and capacity building

• Prepare and present regular reports on project progress, results and performance indicators.
• Support grant recipients in the development and implementation of their monitoring and evaluation framework for the project/activities being funded.
• Respond to information requests and reporting requirements from funders and partners.

Coordination and collaboration

• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, including project beneficiaries, partners and external experts, to share information and results of monitoring and evaluation

Reporting

• Produce MEAL reports as and when requested

Description of the assignment

1) Designated expert and independence

• Expertise France will select one named natural person, who personally performs every assignment. Substitution is prohibited; prolonged unavailability requires cancellation and selection of a new expert.
• The expert acts independently, without subordination, and organises the work needed to meet the agreed deliverables and deadlines.
• The expert shall not represent Expertise France or take decisions or make commitments on its behalf.
• ECOTRADE's focal point provides inputs, clarifies the mission, consolidates comments and validates deliverables; the focal point does not supervise the expert's methods or daily hours.
• If a legal entity invoices on the expert's behalf, both the entity and the designated expert shall be identified in the contract; personal performance by the designated expert remains mandatory.

The service provider must provide this service in line with the agreed procedure and timelines of Expertise France:

2) Methodology and Tasks

• Review relevant project documents (to be shared once contracted)
• Participate in an Inception Meeting with the ECOTRADE team to define expectations
• Ensure consistency with Expertise France and EU implementation guidelines.
• Hold intermittent meetings with ECOTRADE, where required, to track progress of work

Required Qualifications

1) Number of expert positions per assignment: 1 Individual Consultant.

2) Profile of the designated expert(s) responsible for contract execution

• Advanced university degree (Master's or equivalent) in Development Economics, International Trade, Statistics, Social Sciences, Project Management, or a related field. (Specialized certifications in MEAL, e.g., MEAL DPro, are a plus).
• Minimum 5 years' experience in progressively responsible experience in designing, implementing, and managing complex MEAL systems within international development projects.
• Proven experience navigating the European Commission's OPSYS platform for corporate monitoring, result chains, logical frameworks, and corporate indicator tracking (Required)
• Ability to align project-level log frames and indicators with the Global Europe Results Framework (GERF), EU Core Indicators, and Gender Action Plan (GAP) III standards and evaluating trade-related indicators (e.g., export diversification, trade facilitation benchmarks, customs efficiency, SME market access, AfCFTA alignment).
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and report writing skills.

Required Skills and Competencies

Selection criteria for applications

The selection process for candidates will be based on the following criteria:

• Candidate's training/skills/experience
• Candidate's training/diplomas related to the expert assignment
• Candidate's skills linked with the expert mission
• Candidate's experiences linked with the expert mission
• Candidate's expected linguistic understanding
• Assessment of the candidate's skills in the sought-after domain
• Candidate's knowledges related to local context (country or region intervention)
• Candidate's understanding of cooperation project stakes
• Candidate's understanding of the mission's role in the cooperation project

How to Apply

Applicants are requested to carefully review the attached Terms of Reference (ToR) for the detailed scope of work and deliverables.

Shortlisted candidates may be invited for an interview. Financial terms will be negotiated with the highest-ranked candidate(s) following the technical evaluation.

Expertise France intends to contract directly with individuals holding the required license. Where a selected candidate does not hold such a license, the appropriate contracting arrangement will be discussed at the contracting stage.

Deadline for application: 2026/09/30 10:29