MEAL Officer

Programme & Policy

Overview

Lead MEAL functions for Education & Child Protection project; work with communities.

You have:

• Minimum 3 years’ MEAL experience in development, humanitarian context working for non-government organizations or UN agencies.
• BSc/MSc degree in International Development, Humanitarian Response or related field.
• Fluency in English, both verbal and written is preferred.
• Excellent skills and experience in using Microsoft Access, Excel, and other databases.
• Willingness to travel to project site and work in difficult environments according to travel requirements.

The Organization We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard. We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

· No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday · All children learn from a quality basic education and that, · Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children.We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

Application Information: Please apply using a cover letter and up-to-date CV as a single document. Please also include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations. A copy of the full role profile can be found at www.savethechildren.net/jobs We need to keep children safe so our selection process reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

TITLE: MEAL Officer

TEAM/PROGRAMME: MEAL

LOCATION: Sittwe, Rakhine Area Office

Number of Position: 1

GRADE: NAT 4

CONTRACT LENGTH: Fixed Term

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:

The MEAL Officer, with support from Country Office MEAL, under the direct supervision of Project Manager will lead MEAL functions in the Education & Child Protection integreated project funded by ECHO. She/he is the key frontline MEAL staff interfacing with communities by spending at least 25% of work time in the field with communities. She/he will work closely with the program staff and partners to support the performance and quality of the project. The MEAL Officer will also be instrumental in establishing a robust accountability mechanism with targeted communities by the project. Within each of her/his jurisdiction area the MEAL Officer will be investing nearly 75% of time for implementing the M&E Plan, archiving and managing database with support from the country office MEAL team.

The Senior MEAL Officer will closely work with partners/external stakeholders for supporting MEAL thematic area interventions. The post holder is expected to dedicate an important amount of her/his time with the team including partners’ team in the areas of intervention, to support and monitor the overall implementation of the projects.

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

The MEAL Officer will be the key frontline staff outreaching MEAL functions to partner organization and communities. Hence, the scope of operation ranges from interfacing with partner organizations and communities and engaging in key project activities to conducting and coordinating quality and accountability functions with program staff. The MEAL Officer also functions as the repository of activity and output data and manages database at his/her area level for the project. Experience of the MEAL Officer on using MEAL tools provides key inputs for lessons to improve MEAL functions.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Direct Report to: Project Manager (Edu/CP))

Technical Report to: Senior MEAL Officer

Staff reporting to this post: NA

Budget Responsibilities: No financial approval

Travel: Frequent (over 4 to 6 days per month)

Role Dimensions: The role is expected to foster relations with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders from the assigned area. The role is also expected to engage with internal technical working groups and communities of practice. Interpersonal contact regular and varied, ivolved negotiation, influencing skills, and representation at District/State level and donor / press visits.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Monitoring and Evaluation (30%)

• Work closely with program field staff and Program Manager to plan, coordinate and priorities for preparing quality data reports for both internal and external purpose.

• Collect data from source (usually partners or communities) on a regular frequency (usually monthly and quarterly) for supporting data quality assurance.

• Lead program staffs in data entry, data check and compilation.

• Support programme team in development and management of databases for occasional surveys, need assessment and program expansion.

• Ensure data collection forms/necessary materials are present.

• Responsible to ensure the Education and Children Protection related data (hard and soft) are kept in confidential.

• Maintain database for total reach, both direct and indirect, at the work area level by disaggregated data (gender, age, ethnicity and disability).

• Conduct constant dialogue with program staff for enhancing the effectiveness of M&E tools.

• Monitor the status of child participation in the project using the Child Participation Indicator tool on a quarterly basis.

• Support collection of data and information for internal studies like operation research, internal baselines and end lines, which are assigned by the country level MEAL team and Program Team.

• Contribute to Total Reach annual planning and reporting processes, consistent with SCI operational requirement

• Develop and use the process level quality benchmarks as reference to undertake field monitoring visits, focusing on programme quality aspects, discuss with relevant staff and share reports with relevant colleagues

• Assist to Project Manager in donor report preparation.

• Coordinate with Area MEAL Focal Points in developing quality M&E reports on monthly basis.

Quality Monitoring (10%)

• Develop plans for quality monitoring in coordination with the Project Manager, Project Coordinators and Project Officers to prioritize project activities for quality monitoring.

• Conduct quality monitoring using checklists developed by the MEAL team on a regular frequency by conducting field visits.

• Share findings from quality monitoring with relevant project staffs and facilitate the preparation of action plan to fill gaps from quality monitoring.

• Share action plan from quality monitoring with Program Manager.

• Conduct follow-up monitoring visits to support implementation of action plans.

• Make and manage database from quality monitoring for wider organisation wise sharing and access.

Information Systems Managements (10%)

• Perform regular field visits to ensure the quality of data collected by programme staff and to verify the accuracy of reported data

• Support programme team to collect data from source (usually partners or communities) on a regular frequencies outline in the MEAL Plan

• Conduct quality audits for reports and data submitted by partners on a monthly basis.

• Assist the project MEAL Focal Point to maintain database for total reach, both direct and indirect, at for the ECHO project by disaggregated data (gender, age, ethnicity and disability).

Evaluations Baselines/Assessments, dissemination and learning (10%)

• Work closely with the program team and Program/Project Managers to support internal and external program/project evaluations, baseline and end-line assessments and final evaluations.

• Support programme team in development and management of databases for occasional surveys, need assessment and program expansion.

• Support dissemination of baselines/assessments/evaluations and effectively track recommendations and lessons learned from monitoring processes including program review meetings, assessments, surveys and evaluations and ensure they are incorporated in project planning and future programming by leading on the dissemination of findings to the project teams in close coordination with all relevant colleagues.

Accountability (15%)

• Ensure that communities are well oriented and know about and how to use Feedback and Response Mechanism.

• Ensure that all program standards are exhibited in selected sites in the project area.

• Establish an effective functional system for feedback handling and response mechanisms at community level with the support from Area MEAL Coordinator and Country Office MEAL Team.

• Guide program team in conducting monthly/quarterly discussions with communities targeting different sub-groups to collect feedbacks for improving project service delivery.

• To categorize the feedbacks collected by program staffs and reach out to Program Manager if there is any feedback that needs to response ASAP.

• Collect data for bi-annual response satisfaction survey under the supervision of Country Office MEAL

Learning (5%)

• Lead and facilitate ongoing data collection and analysis that supports data driven learning process that effectiveness and efficiency in project delivery

• Set up a practical learning mechanism within and across all programs in the Region to ensure and promote the integration and use of learnings from all MEAL processes into project planning and future programming.

• Participate in project design and proposal discussions to ensure lessons learnt from current programs are taken into considerations and project indicators are developed in a way, which are adapted and suitable for the context.

Capacity building (5%)

• Provide the training for partners staffs and project staff on MEAL and data collection tools.

• Ensure common understanding of SCI MEAL framework within the project team.

Partnership (10%)

• Coordinate with MEAL focal person from each partner and track their activities are in line or not

• Conduct MEAL knowledge sharing session to partner staffs in collaboration with Area MEAL Coordinator

• Assist Project Manager in analyzing partner reports, check target vs achievement and identify which areas need to be improved.

Safeguarding and Counter Fraud Responsibilities

• Lead the process of piloting and scaling up local level beneficiary complaints’ mechanisms in relation to staff conduct, with an emphasis on the Child Safeguarding Policy and measure to prevent sexual exploitation of women and children.

• All MEAL frameworks include at minimum an indicator to monitor beneficiary feedback (men, women, children) about a) staff conduct towards in relation to SEA and the Child Safeguarding Policy, and b) broader programming interventions that might be putting children and women at risk of abuse, exploitation or harm.

Others

• Responsible to undertake the project related tasks assigned by line manager.

• Work as a positive team member and contribute to objectives of SCI.

• Other activities as required by the project time to time.

• The candidate must have the flexibility of responsibility according to the project’s needs.

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values

• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same

• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others

• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters

• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength

• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions

• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

• Always acts in the best interests of children

QUALIFICATIONS

• BSc/MSc degree in International Development, Humanitarian Response or related field.

• Fluency in local language is preferable

• Fluency in English, both verbal and written is preferred.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential

• Minimum 3 years’ MEAL experience in development, humanitarian context working for non-government organizations or UN agencies.

• Excellent skills and experience in using Microsoft Access, Excel, and other databases.

• Experience and knowledge in MEAL concepts; leading/conducting baselines and evaluations; Considerable knowledge of developing/reviewing programme frameworks and log-frames, data collection and storage methodologies, methods of analysis and interpretation.

• Experience working with KoBo, PowerBI and SPSS.

• Willingness to travel to project site and work in difficult environments according to travel requirements.

• English communication skills, both written and verbal.

• Excellent personal organizational skills, including time management, and ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure.

• Able to self-manage time effectively and execute plans independently.

• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues across the organization developing effective working relationships.

• Commitment to and understanding of Save the Children’s aims, values and principles.

• Willingness and capability to comply with all relevant Save the Children policies and procedures with respect to health and safety, security, equal opportunities and other relevant policies, including the Child Safeguarding Policy.

Desirable

• Experience or knowledge of working and living in relevant region/context.

• Experience of promoting quality and impact through at least one crosscutting area: gender equality and inclusion, adaptive and safer programming; child rights; disability; migration and displacement.

• Experience and knowledge of Save the Children’s structure, mandate and child focus.

• Demonstrable MEAL experiences in different projects and program from different donors funding

• Experience in conducting assessments/Evaluations and an understanding of MEAL systems

• Proven capacity to supervise, train, and coach staff

• Demonstrate ability at report writing and excellent communication skills

• Computer literacy with data analysis skills

General:

• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues across the organisation developing effective working relationships to deliver outstanding results for children

• Commitment to and understanding of Save the Children’s aims, values and principles.

• Willingness and capability to comply with all relevant Save the Children policies and procedures with respect to health and safety, security, equal opportunities and other relevant policies, including the Child Safeguarding Policy

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Child Safeguarding

• Promote a culture of accountability, transparency, and continuous improvement in safeguarding and counter fraud practices within MEAL teams

• Ensure that child safeguarding and child protection mainstreaming are integrated into all MEAL frameworks through measurable output and outcome indicators;

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

All staff has an obligation and a responsibility to:

• Ensure they fully understand the provisions of the Child Safeguarding Policy, the Code of Conduct and Local/Country Procedures.

• Conduct themselves in accordance with the rules of the Child Safeguarding Policy, in their personal and professional lives – which includes reporting suspicions of child abuse.

• Ensure the way they are carrying out their work is not putting children at risk (or further risk) – this means constantly scrutinizing their work through a child safeguarding lens and talking to children about possible design/implementation “flaws”.

• Promote the message of child safeguarding to colleagues in other organizations and government ministries, children in their own and beneficiary families, and community members in general.

• Be vigilant about observing possible child abuse/harm in their personal and professional lives.

All managers have the above responsibilities as well as ensuring

• Their staff are doing the above.

• That child safeguarding is integrated and given a “voice” in all management processes including recruitment, induction, performance management, team meetings, annual planning processes, field level monitoring, etc.

Safeguarding our Staff:

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy.

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.

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Potential interview questions

Added 19 days ago - Updated 13 days ago - Source: savethechildren.net