MEAL Coordinator (Head of Unit) - Beirut

Job Description

The Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Coordinator will provide the leadership necessary to ensure that the IRC Lebanon country program develops and meets its monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning commitments, as set out in IRC’s Strategy and partnerships with donors. Core to this will be providing strategic direction to, oversight, and harmonization of MEAL efforts in Lebanon. The MEAL Coordinator will be responsible for managing the MEAL, Accountability, and Technology for Programs functions in country. In addition the MEAL Coordinator will contribute to ensuring evidence-based program design and continuous improvements of program quality based on data and learning.

Major Responsibilities****:

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning

- Building on existing practices, establish a coherent Lebanon MEAL system (approaches, procedures, structures) depending on the needs of each program. - Lead the operationalization of the SAP strategic objectives, in terms of Use of Data and measurement for decision-making. - Ensure that high quality M&E systems are implemented within IRC Lebanon programs or through partners. - Ensure the country program meets IRC’s global monitoring standards (“MEAL Handbook”) for improved monitoring practices, data quality and use of data within the organization. As part of this, champion an organizational culture shift from a focus on data being primarily for donor reporting or indicator calculation purposes to using data for learning, programmatic course corrections, advocacy, and other decisions. - Ensure proper M&E support and capacity building is provided to partners (especially local partners) on their M&E systems, as well as ensuring adequate M&E human resources are either budgeted for in partners’ budgets or within IRC’s budgets to support partners. - Sign off and review the MEAL inputs into the design stages of program proposals, budgets, theories of change, logframes, beneficiary counts, and M&E plans. Ensure that the Indicator Selection Tool is used in new proposals as much as possible. - Sign off and review the MEAL inputs into donor reporting, including logframes, beneficiary counts, client feedback and M&E plans. - Ensure continued generation of accurate information about beneficiary reach, as per regional requirements. - Support or coordinate planning and managing internal, regional, or external program evaluations and/or research initiatives as needed. - Develop systems and procedures that measure country program-wide performance and achievements towards outcomes (using the Outcomes & Evidence Framework core indicators and other methods as appropriate) and strategic and organizational commitments. - Ensure that main M&E findings and client feedback is appropriately presented in Project Cycle Meetings, SAP reporting, donor reporting, or any other external or internal communication. - Facilitate, provide guidance, and/or participate in learning meetings to discuss main beneficiary feedback and progress against targets, in order to develop learnings and recommendations for program improvements. - Ensure that the MEAL system is appropriately resourced in alignment with donor’s requirements and IRC’s global and regional requirements. - Manage the centralization of the MEAL structure across the seven programs consisting of 20 to 25 M&E staff, that includes financial, administrative and human resources management.

Feedback and Response Mechanism

- Develop and/or update (as needed) a Lebanon Feedback and Response Mechanism (FARM) policy, system and structure. - Oversee and lead the Lebanon FARM system, ensure that it is effectively implemented across all areas of implementation and programs, and continuously enhance it as per the learnings generated. - Lead the operationalization of the SAP strategic objectives, in terms of Client Responsiveness. - Consult with partners on their FARM mechanism and ensure that appropriate support and capacity building from IRC is provided to partners according to their capacities and needs. - Oversee the Complaint Review Committee and ensure that it is used as a platform to discuss emerging findings, improving the FARM system, and adapting the programs. - Ensure that the FARM system is fully functional and adequately resourced to respond to clients’ feedback and complaints. - Manage the centralization of the FARM structure across the seven programs consisting of 3-4 staff, that includes financial, administrative and human resources management.

Technology for Programs

- Oversee the Technology for Programs (T4P) team to ensure that the country program has innovative and technology-driven appropriate MEAL and programmatic systems and tools, according to the needs. - In coordination with the T4P team, ensure that beneficiary tracking tools and beneficiary databases are developed according to disaggregation of data required by donor agreements, regional M&E guidelines, global annual statistics, and Activity Info. - Ensure that systems and softwares continue to be properly managed and automated for more efficient and effective reporting (such as JIRA, CommCare, PowerBI, ONA, ClassBook, RIMS, etc.) - Ensure that relevant dashboards and maps are being produced for utilization by programs and departments for decision making, communication and reporting purposes. - Oversee the RIMS implementation across IRC Lebanon programs and integration within IRC’s JIRA system. - Manage the centralization of the T4P structure across the seven programs consisting of 3 staff, that includes financial, administrative and human resources management.

Internal and External Coordination:

- Actively contribute and liaise with regional and global counterparts to continuously learn and keep up with MEAL best practices and share learning with the team accordingly. - Serve as Country Focal point for regional MEAL initiatives. - Maintain working relationships with MEAL counterparts in other relevant International and Local NGOs in Lebanon.

Staff Management and Development

- Supervise, and mentor MEAL, FARM and T4P direct report staff including communicating clear expectations, setting performance objectives, providing regular and timely performance feedback, and providing documented semi-annual performance reviews. - Ensure that Capacity Building is an integral part of the direct reports’ plans along with ongoing mentoring and support, provide professional development guidance, and ensure that knowledge is exchanged within the team. - Promote and monitor staff care and well-being; approve and manage all leave requests to ensure adequate coverage. - Develop spending plans and operating budgets for the MEAL unit.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Senior Program Support Coordinator.

Position directly supervises: 1 Senior Research and MEAL Manager, 2 MEAL Managers, Accountability Manager, and Technology for Program Manager.

Portfolio size under this position: This position is expected to people manage as well as technically, financially, and administratively oversee 20-25 M&E staff under the MEAL structure, 3-4 staff under the FARM structure, and 3 staff under the T4P structure.

Internal: All staff and departments within the Lebanon Country Program (primarily the DDP and Program, Partnerships and Grant teams), Regional M&E unit, HQ/Regional Technical Units (Technical Assistants and M&E specialists), HQ Research Evaluation & Learning Unit.

External: Partner organizations, other humanitarian actors.

Qualifications

- A relevant postgraduate university degree. - At least 7 years of experience within the development / humanitarian sector, several of which was at senior management level (some international experience preferred). - Excellent technical understanding of contemporary MEAL methods and practices, with hands-on experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. - Comprehensive knowledge of humanitarian accountability principles and their translation into practice. - Strong experience with multi-sectoral and multi-donor funded programs. - Previous experience with remote management (preferred). - An appropriate balance of strategic thinking and doing skills. - Strong methodical planning and organizational skills. - Strong leadership, interpersonal and communications skills. - Strong analytical, presentation, and reporting skills. - Strong IT skills in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and specialized data management software. - Excellent written and verbal English language abilities; Arabic is a strong added advantage. - Strong commitment to IRC’s mission, purpose and values.

This position is based in Beirut with some travel to field locations.