- GENERAL BACKGROUND
African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS) is a Continental body that brings National Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services (AEAS) stakeholders under one umbrella. The AFAAS’ goal is to enhance utilization of improved knowledge and innovations by agricultural value chain actors for improving productivity oriented towards their individual and national development objectives. AFAAS 2018-2027 strategy focuses on three pillars namely: (i) strengthening and expanding network and knowledge management capacities. (ii) developing capacities for scaling out technologies and innovations (iii) facilitating advancement of AEAS. AFAAS aspires to champion thought leadership in AEAS in Africa.
The European Union (EU) launched a program on the Development of Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA) designed to link agricultural research and innovation with development initiatives using more effective mechanisms for boosting the transformation of innovation in agriculture and food systems in ways that are more resilient to climate change and responsive to development demands. The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme EX Pillar 4 (CAADP-XP4) Project under the DeSIRA program is financed by the European Union and managed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will be implemented for a period of four (4) years (2019-2023).
In 2020, AFAAS contracted a firm to develop a web and mobile applications as part of the Result Oriented Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (ROMEL) system of AFAAS. The applications are used for data collection, processing and retrieval of reports. The ICT applications have been developed based on two frameworks; the Strategic AFAAS framework and the CAADP XP4 frameworks, and the system is due for transfer to AFAAS. The application was developed in JAVA with a MySQL database and is actually hosted on a cloud server on Linux environment. It is intended to be used intensely in the coming months and years.
However, the applications will require some functionalities enhancement including integrating other modules and forms, and linking the system to other complementary systems through development Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Secondly, the ROMEL system requires constant maintenance at the backend, and it needs to be populated with the appropriate data.
It is therefore critical that AFAAS acquires some level of inhouse capacity to support these undertakings, but it is limited in terms of financial and human resources. AFAAS wishes to recruit an intern/Volunteer to support these undertakings, and in turn develop complementary skills in ICT system development for monitoring and evaluation, guided by the training and capacity development strategy of AFAAS.
- OBJECTIVE
The objective is to maintain a dynamic AFAAS ROMEL system while offering real business-life experience in M&E and software development to young graduates.
- SCOPE OF WORK
- Test, configure and operationalise the ROMEL system
- Enhance the system with new modules and forms for periodical data capture
- Integrate and automatise M&E tools with the most appropriate survey engines (using for example Kobo Collect, Survey CTO among others)
- Participate and support in real-time data collection with Secretariat and Country For a members
- Ensure migration and maintenance relevant to M&E data from other sources into the AFAAS ROMEL system
- Ensure linkage and synchronisation of data from different tools to the web-based Management Information System
- Ensure regular improvement of the ROMEL system by integrate other AFAAS projects, modules and fields based on the identified need
- Test and enhance the analytics and dashboards of the ROMEL system
- Study the possibility of interoperability of the ROMEL system with the Knowledge Management and the CAADP XP4 MEL systems and propose technical solutions
- Ensure the smooth running of the ROMEL system
- Support the Secretariat and other stakeholders (Country Fora) in the collection, input, storage and processing of data within the ROMEL system
- The collection, migration and maintenance all relevant M&E data to the databases in the AFAAS ROMEL system.
- DELIVERABLES
- A tested, configured and operational ROMEL system with:
- Enhanced modules and forms for additional data entry
- At least two (2) new M&E tools automated data collection modules/forms linked or integrated to the core ROMEL systems
- Useful, attractive integrated analytics and dashboards (work done 60%)
- Application Programming Interfaces (APIs that can enable the ROMEL system to interoperating with other CAADXP4 MEL systems
- ROMEL databases populated andupdated with M&E data
- REPORTING
The Intern/Volunteer will be recruited in support to and shall technically report to the M&E Lead Specialist.
- DURATION OF INTERNSHIP
The Internship shall be for a duration of nine (9) months, from April to December 2023, renewable based on availability of funds and performance.
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