Monitoring, Eval and Risk Program Analyst

Position description

Welcome to Universal Strategy Group Inc (USGI)! USGI is a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business. USGI was founded in 2007 with the single focus of preserving and promoting American security. Our mission is to provide the best-in-class personnel who provide tailored analytical, operational, and technical solutions to our Nation's most complex national security challenges while exceeding customer expectations.
  
USGI is committed to recruiting, nurturing, and retaining top talent that set us apart from our competition. USGI is an experienced, team-oriented, dynamic, and expanding company that values exceptional performance! USGI understands that well-cared for and motivated personnel are the key to the successful accomplishment of any mission, and toward that end, USGI takes exceptional care of our team.

USGI is seeking a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Risk Program Analyst who will work closely with the INL program officers and management in INL/AME to bring them into compliance with 18 FAM 301.4 requirements. This is a key mission area of INL, which is being undertaken to ensure the Bureau’s compliance with the newly revised FAM. In addition, the analyst will perform his/her work ensuring that each country program is aligned with INL’s strategic direction on enterprise risk management. The analyst will perform all of the duties and have all of the responsibilities listed in the below section.

BACKGROUND

The U.S. Department of State is the lead institution for the conduct of American diplomacy and the Secretary of State is the President’s principal foreign policy advisor. The Department of State’s mission is to advance U.S. national security interests, fight terrorism, protect U.S. interests abroad, and implement foreign policy initiatives that build a freer, prosperous, and secure world. 

The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) keeps Americans safe at home by countering international crime, illegal drugs, and instability abroad. INL helps countries deliver justice and fairness by strengthening their police, courts, and corrections systems. These efforts reduce the amount of crime and illegal drugs reaching U.S. shores. 

Under this BPA call, the monitoring, evaluation, and risk management program analyst will provide services ensuring that INL programs in the Office of Africa and Middle East Affairs (AME) programs are compliant with 18 FAM 301.4 requirements and are aligned with INL’s strategic direction on enterprise risk management. 

The goal of this contract is to provide dedicated support for AME programs to ensure that they are compliant with the standards set forth in 18 FAM 301.4 and have sound metrics at the country program or operating unit1 and on each foreign assistance award2 that are mutually reinforcing. The dedicated support to AME will also ensure that each country program and foreign assistance award aligns to the INL Functional Bureau Strategy (FBS) goals and objectives and is collecting data on the appropriate indicators. Furthermore, the dedicated support will produce a report on those metrics on a quarterly basis in a way in which INL can utilize the performance data for the enterprise risk management (ERM) system. Along with those specific requirements, the contractor will provide services to AME that cover all aspects of monitoring, evaluations, and risk management support at the direction of AME management. In addition, the contractor will seek to empower INL leadership with the capability to leverage enterprise risk and performance data in order to make data driven decisions at the country and Bureau levels in compliance with the new FAM. The intent will be to accomplish said goal through socializing the approach to FAM compliance with the regional program office, by updating and/or creating INL programs documentation with SMART3 performance metrics for each operating units’ activities, including but not limited to theories of change, logic models, and monitoring plans; gathering data on each program; and enabling INL to import data into an approved INL ERM data system. 

Beyond ensuring that AME programs are compliant with the FAM requirements and have increased data gathering capabilities, INL expects an approach to said compliance that is intuitive to non-experts in the field of M&E and ERM. This approach must be adaptable to the culture, business practices, and existing systems that INL has in place with a focus on change management that must occur in order to bring all INL programs into compliance. INL recognizes that, due to the number of countries it operates in and the difference in one country program compared to another, that a one size fits all approach will not work. Therefore, it is important that the approach to accomplishing FAM compliance be flexible with the goal of the program being the driving force behind this initiative. 

The selected candidate will be located in the INL/AME program office and coordinate all work with the program officers through the INL/AME Africa and Middle East team leaders.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Support program reviews, in coordination with the relevant program officer and team leader, to ensure that stated goals and objectives connect to identified problems or needs of the host nation. 
• Ensure that each program plan clearly identifies which INL Functional Bureau Strategy (FBS) goals and objectives it supports based on the most up to date INL FBS. 
• Help the program officer identify which capabilities the program is trying to bolster, based on the data present in the INL Enterprise Risk Management system, in the host nation through activity of the chosen implementer on the program.
  1. Based on the above analysis, work with the program officer to develop a logic model/country plan for each country program which demonstrates how the various parts of the programs and projects connect to support what INL is trying to accomplish in said country. 
• Help the program officer develop performance indicators that measure actual results that can be compared to established performance targets for each part of the country program, including but not limited to any interagency agreements, grants, and contracts. 
• Assist the program officer with creating monitoring plans for each country program that clearly identify the performance indicators, include monitoring data collection frequency for each indicator, and the methodology behind checking the data for accuracy and quality. 
• In consultation with the program officer, collect data for each program that has been altered to meet FAM compliance, which includes the creation of a logic model, monitoring plans, and performance metrics to ensure that data being collected informs decisions and will be useful for conducting program reviews, formal evaluations, and for risk management analysis. 
• In consultation with and support of the program officer, consolidate quarterly reports submitted from the field and perform trends analysis and reporting to executives using INL approved software. The reports will include, but are not limited to executive summaries, trend analysis, dashboard indicators, and supervisory level programmatic summaries. 
• Develop relationships with INL regional and functional program offices to foster improved monitoring, evaluation, and utilization of country data across the domestic INL offices. 
• Assist in coordinating and delivering training to domestic and overseas INL staff on proper monitoring, evaluation, and risk management practices. 
• Interact positively and work cooperatively with team members and points of contact to accomplish assigned work in a timely and efficient manner. 
• Take proactive measures to improve the working environment and cultivate teamwork. 
• Comply with all internal controls and procedures to protect organizational integrity and prevent unauthorized use or misappropriation of all classified and sensitive (but unclassified) material and equipment in assigned areas. Report security violations/problems to the appropriate authority. 

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS 

• U.S. Citizenship. 
• A Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution. 
• Six to ten years’ experience in relevant field. 
• Demonstrated knowledge of specific country issues, including specialized knowledge of international narcotics and law enforcement, or similar type programs sufficient to ensure project work is in compliance with management policies and procedures and in conformance with the Foreign Assistance Act and other regulatory procedures and guidelines. 
• Proven knowledge of Federal policies and procedures including methods of providing assistance and the Federal budget process. 
• Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, with a wide range of players.
• Demonstrated ability to provide advice, guidance, and consultation with regard to the interpretation and application of analysis.
• Experience drafting US government reports and documents, such as the INCSR, embassy cables, and other documents.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS 

• Master’s degree from an accredited institution in the area of social science, program development, monitoring and evaluation. 
• Demonstrated ability to understand complex business processes to support new initiatives within the existing culture of an organization. 
• Demonstrated skills in providing comprehensive and routine reports for various audiences related to Key Performance Indicators; tracking and evaluation; organizational assessments; monitoring and evaluation, data utilization and risk assessments. 
• Demonstrated ability to clearly and consistently organize, manage, and present complex information. 
• Combined five (05) years of experience between implementing foreign assistance programs and projects and performing monitoring and evaluation (M&E) on foreign assistance programs. 

Application instructions

Please be sure to indicate you saw this position on Globaljobs.org