Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Manager

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Manager

Tento inzerát je neaktivní.

Location: Erbil, with frequent travel to other field offices

Duration: 6 months with possibility of extension

Reports To: Head of Programs (CD until HoP onboards)

Line Manages: MEAL Team

People in Need is an international, non-profit organization established in early 1990s in the Czech Republic. Since then, PIN has grown to be the biggest organization of its kind in post-communist Europe and currently provides humanitarian and development assistance in over 20 countries worldwide.

PIN draws on extensive past experiences and lessons learned across many emergency and post emergency contexts to design, implement and monitor quality programming; and has been active in Iraq since 2003, most recently across Education, Shelter/ NFI, WASH and Cash assistance. Current and past donors include ECHO, IHF, GIZ, EC, UNESCO, UNICEF, Czech and Slovak MFA. Pin currently has over 100 employees and offices in Erbil, Mosul and Salahuddin.

About the role

At a time when PIN’s Iraq mission is growing in both complexity and scale, PIN is seeking an experienced MEAL specialist to supervise the implementation of a robust MEAL system for the mission. The selected candidate will oversee the management and capacity development of a national team of MEAL staff across three offices and two provinces. S/he will ensure strong coordination between MEAL and Programme teams, taking an active leadership role in the Iraqi mission Senior Management Team (SMT). S/he will be the overall lead for supervising the implementation and development of a MEAL strategy which promotes a culture of learning, accountability, and quality programming for the most vulnerable in the communities’ that PIN serves.

Main responsibilities:

Planning and Development of MEAL processes:

  • Develops assessment tool and supports programmes with the planning of surveys and assessments to inform proposals and programme activities
  • Supports Programme Managers (PMs) in developing and maintaining updated project-specific MEAL Plans, tools and frameworks in line with programmatic needs. Support PMs to ensure that MEAL activities are part of team’s project work plans
  • Supports PMs in preparation of monthly evaluation and planning meetings (between MEAL and program)
  • Ensures that MEAL reporting and data sets are in line with mission-wide reporting requirements, are good quality and are compliant with reporting timelines. Ensure that MEAL activities are applied across all projects, and in line with what is stipulated in the MEAL Plans, including (but not limited to):
    • Verification – ensure verifications include baseline data for project requirements, oversee analysis and cleaning of all verification data sets
    • Implementation monitoring – oversee reporting and feedback for distribution monitoring across all offices and follow up on lessons learned
    • Post-distribution monitoring – ensure post-distribution monitoring data sets include baseline statistics, and prepare project-level PDM reports
    • Results-based monitoring – lead on conducting baseline, midline and endline data collections, or other data collections as described in the overall project MEAL Plan
    • Conducts internal evaluations
    • Provides technical input on MEAL to project proposals, including inputs for MEAL budgeting
    • Ensures that appropriate data protection measures are at place

Human resources management

  • Manages MEAL Team across all offices, directly line managing MEAL Coordinator to effectively coordinate tasks and activities
  • Identifies MEAL capacity gaps among PI and partner staff and develop capacity building plans to address those gaps
  • Builds the capacity of programme and MEAL staff in technical skills and understanding of the value of MEAL, especially planning and implementing MEAL activities in projects – LFA and indicators, MEAL plans, Results-based Monitoring (RBM)
  • Supports MEAL Officers with developing their capacities to: create and edit forms on Kobo collect software, Extract and clean Kobo data sets, and analyse key project indicators and survey results
  • Provides new staff with MEAL induction training

Accountability, knowledge sharing and organisational learning

  • Supervises development and implementation of the Complaints Response Mechanism, including visibility and information sharing, receipt and logging of complaints, and provision of appropriate responses to beneficiaries and community level stakeholders; actively seeks beneficiary feedback on appropriateness and effectiveness of CRM
  • Engages with programme teams in preparing and implementing other beneficiary feedback mechanisms (feedback on program design, targeting strategy, implementation quality and achievements, staff conduct)Manages and maintains regional institutional knowledge on Third Party Monitors (TPM), including seeking feedback on performance, and feeds back to Accountability Manager and CMT as appropriate.
  • Works closely with Project team and HoP to ensure documentation of lessons learnt and case studies
  • In close coordination and cooperation with the HoP, leads preparation and organization of learning and information sharing workshops between MEAL and Program teams
  • In close coordination and cooperation with HoP, promotes the use of PIN strategic indicators in projects and ensures standardized data collection
  • Supervises logging and follow up on M&E related feedback in Program Feedback Tracker
  • Contributes to mapping and collecting relevant M&E resources
  • Engages with programme teams and HoP to support preparation of briefs and presentations for dissemination of project lessons, best practice, achievements and evaluation results

Data Management & Reporting

  • In close coordination and cooperation with the HoP, contributes towards review, revision and development of data collection tools, methodologies, and standardized reporting templates for use at mission-wide level.
  • Performs data quality checks/verification to all data received with an aim of ensuring that project data received is reliable and accurate.
  • Overseas uploads of M&E documentation to ELO and ensures the collected data are completed in line with key donor requirements for Iraq
  • Supervises M&E teams in the cleaning and analysis of M&E data for the Iraq mission.
  • Develops analytical reports from M&E data for review by the project team and to feed into mission-wide reporting and analysis.
  • Ensures that M&E reports are submitted to PMs and Grants Focal Points in standardised formats for preparation of mission-wide reports (data collation).
  • Consortium MEAL
    • Carry out field-level liaison with consortium partners M&E focal points to coordinate peer monitoring and any joint assessments
    • Provide Reporting Officers with disaggregated data sets for all projects across the Consortium at each quarterly reporting period, feeding into the overall mission reporting.

Suitable candidates for this position should possess:

  • At least 3-years’ experience of working within a humanitarian and/or development organization;
  • Demonstrated experience in leading the M&E development and roll-out for large-scale, multi-sector programming in complex emergencies;
  • Familiarity with M&E and Accountability requirements of key institutional donors, including ECHO/EC, WFP, Unicef, UNESCO, UNOCHA is an advantage;
  • Demonstrated experience in leading monitoring and evaluations for core donors outlined above;
  • Strong grasp of all stages of programme cycle management and quality standards in humanitarian programming, safeguarding and accountability management;
  • Strong organizational, critical analysis and problem solving skills;
  • Excellent communication skills, including fluent spoken and written English, including exceptional report writing and editing skills.
  • Familiarity with the humanitarian context in Iraq is an advantage.

People in Need offers:

  • Working environment in a well-established and growing humanitarian organization;
  • Salary according to PIN salary scale and HR policies
  • Accommodation in PIN guesthouse on PIN expense;
  • Shared access to a car for travel within Erbil;
  • 25 days of paid leave annually;
  • Reimbursement of travel expenses with travel to the country of residence once per every 6 months of completed work;
  • Reimbursement of costs of visas and vaccinations; assistance with visa application procedure;
  • Travel benefits in the form of two regional flight tickets per year;
  • Free medical helpdesk and psychological consultation available on line; travel health insurance;
  • Travel medical insurance
  • Are you interested in this position? Send us your resume and motivation letter in English via following link (for this vacancy we are not accepting any other application).