Open any Kenyan job site today and search “Monitoring and Evaluation.” You won’t get one or two results. You’ll get pages of them, MEAL Officer, MERL Officer, M&E Assistant, MEL Advisor, M&E Director. Different titles, same core skill underneath.
Why there are so many of these roles right now
Every project that gets funded, by a donor, a government partner, a foundation, now comes with a requirement attached: prove it worked. That proof doesn’t write itself. It comes from someone who can design a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework, track it properly while the project runs, and report back with real evidence, not guesswork.
With funding harder to win and easier to lose, organizations have become far less willing to fund projects they can’t measure. That single shift is a big part of why M&E roles keep multiplying across job boards, government agencies, and private companies alike.
It’s not just “M&E”, three skills, one job
Job descriptions in this space rarely ask for just one thing. Look closely and you’ll usually see three skills bundled together:
Project management. Being able to plan a project properly, timelines, resources, budgets, and progress tracking, usually with a tool like Microsoft Project.
Monitoring & Evaluation frameworks. Designing the system that tracks whether a project is actually achieving what it set out to do, not after the fact, but as it happens.
Terms of Reference (ToR) development. Writing the document that defines exactly what a project is, what it will deliver, and how success will be judged, often the very first thing a funder reads.
Most people learn one of these somewhat by accident, on the job. Fewer people are trained in all three together, which is exactly what makes someone who has all three stand out.
A trend worth watching: AI is entering the M&E conversation
One thing that’s changed recently in this field is how openly it’s talking about AI. Evaluation organizations have started publishing formal principles for using AI responsibly in monitoring and evaluation work, treating it as a tool that should support human judgment, not replace it.
That’s a useful signal. It tells you the skill isn’t becoming less relevant because of new technology, it’s evolving alongside it. The people designing M&E systems today are increasingly expected to understand both the traditional frameworks and how new tools fit into them responsibly.
Who this is actually useful for
This isn’t a narrow, specialist skill. It’s genuinely useful for:
NGO and development professionals, where M&E is often listed as a core requirement, not an extra.
Project managers, who need to plan and track work properly, in any sector.
Consultants and researchers, who are regularly asked to write ToRs or design evaluation frameworks for clients.
Job seekers, who keep seeing “M&E experience” or “Microsoft Project” listed as a requirement and want it to stop being the reason they don’t apply.
Building the full skill set, not just part of it
The gap between someone who’s “heard of M&E” and someone an organization actually trusts to run it usually comes down to practice, building a real logframe, writing a real ToR, tracking a real project plan, not just reading about how it’s done.
Our Project Management, Monitoring & Evaluation, and ToR Development course is built around exactly that combination, hands-on training in Microsoft Project, practical M&E framework design, and real ToR writing, so you leave able to do the job job boards keep asking for, not just describe it.
Tired of watching M&E roles pass you by because the requirements feel out of reach? Explore Our Project Management, M&E and ToR course and build the exact skill set employers keep listing.