Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Associate

Industry: Nonprofit/International Development/Social Entrepreneurship

Employer: Village Enterprise

Job Title: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL ) Associate

Department: Country Programs

Position Type: Full-time.

Reports to: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Officer.

Direct Reports: Enumerators.

Location: Busia, Isiolo, Kisumu, Kakuma (Assigned duty station; extensive travel to data collection sites)

About Village Enterprise

Village Enterprise Kenya is a leading economic inclusion organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty through entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, and access to markets. Village Enterprise is implementing ASCEND - Advancing Scalable, Cost-Effective Entrepreneurship through Digital Innovation - a three-year, multi-country initiative across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

ASCEND will scale Village Enterprise's digitally enabled approach to poverty graduation, combining entrepreneurship and livelihood development with digital learning, savings, coaching, financial inclusion and market access. The project will use technology and data to increase the reach, quality and cost-effectiveness of delivery while maintaining strong participant engagement and programme quality.

The project will support 21,600 businesses and 64,800 households, reaching an estimated 388,800 lives across the four countries. At least 80% of direct participants will be women.

ASCEND is both a major delivery initiative and an important opportunity for Village Enterprise to demonstrate how digitally enabled Graduation programming can achieve quality, scale and cost-effectiveness across diverse operating contexts.

Project and Position Overview:

Village Enterprise is implementing ASCEND - Advancing Scalable, Cost-Effective Entrepreneurship through Digital Innovation - a three-year, multi-country initiative across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

ASCEND will scale Village Enterprise's digitally enabled approach to poverty graduation, combining entrepreneurship and livelihood development with digital learning, savings, coaching, financial inclusion and market access. The project will use technology and data to increase the reach, quality and cost-effectiveness of delivery while maintaining strong participant engagement and programme quality.

The project will support 21,600 businesses and 64,800 households, reaching an estimated 388,800 lives across the four countries. At least 80% of direct participants will be women.

ASCEND is both a major delivery initiative and an important opportunity for Village Enterprise to demonstrate how digitally enabled Graduation programming can achieve quality, scale and cost-effectiveness across diverse operating contexts.

Position Summary

The MEL Associate is the frontline lead for field data collection and quality assurance across one or more assigned Village Enterprise projects. Functioning as a MEL Associate, the role organizes and supervises part-time enumerators, coordinates field assignments, conducts verification and spot checks, and ensures accurate, ethical and timely submission of monitoring and survey data. Documents field observations and develops report for both field learnings and activity.

Reporting to the MEL Officer, the MEL Associate translates approved data collection plans into daily field activities, coaches enumerators, troubleshoots Taro Works data capture and synchronization, performs basic data checks and Stata-supported analysis, and promptly escalates quality, safeguarding, security and research-protocol concerns. The role does not independently change sampling, survey instruments, indicators or approved research protocols.