Senior MEAL Officer

The role of the Senior MEAL Officer is vital to ACTED, a French humanitarian NGO supporting vulnerable populations globally. This position is responsible for the development and implementation of appropriate and viable Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) systems that align with ACTED’s global MEAL procedures, ensuring that ACTED’s projects and programs perform as planned and contribute to breaking the poverty cycle.

Appraisal, Monitoring and Evaluation Systems

Technical and Systems Development

• Contribute to the development and updating of the country MEAL strategy, the consolidated MEAL work plan, and MEAL frameworks for all ongoing projects.
• Ensure that MEAL findings are reflected and their recommendations are incorporated in future concept notes, proposals, and implementation plans.
• Implement the MEAL policies and procedures as described in the ACTED MEAL standard guidelines and ensure that the tools are followed as applicable.
• Contribute to an effective roll-out of M&E collection and reporting systems to all staff and partners through training, site visits, manuals, and other technical support as needed.

MEAL Implementation and Management

• Develop the Terms of Reference (ToRs) and mission plans and carry out assessments, monitoring, and evaluations (baselines, mid-terms, endlines) as reflected in the ToR and mission plan.
• Develop and oversee the implementation of appropriate data collection and analysis instruments, methodologies (e.g. survey questionnaires, focus group discussions, key-informant interviews), and data/information dissemination/utilization plans.
• Closely supervise data collection activities and ensure that data collection teams are organized and resourced as needed, and that they deliver as per field mission plans and according to data quality standards.
• Maintain electronic and/or paper-based Management Information Systems (MIS) for tracking and reporting all quantitative data and information, including reporting on ACTED’s 16 global strategic program indicators.
• Analyze MEAL data and produce reports, factsheets with useful statistical analysis and presentation (charts, tables, histograms, box plots) as necessary in a timely manner.
• Measure and report on qualitative and quantitative input, process, output, outcome, impact, objective, and goal-level performance indicators for all projects.
• Provide data to the Project Development Team for use in preparation of reports to donors and other stakeholders, as required.
• Contribute to donor proposals and fundraising efforts (particularly logical-framework designs, formulation of SMART indicators and MEAL budgets) and reports.
• Provide MEAL related capacity building and awareness to implementing partners and other institutions supported by ACTED as appropriate.
• Represent ACTED in different forums on MEAL related issues when required.

Learning

• Contribute to proactive dissemination and use of knowledge gained through MEAL activities among Project Managers, Technical Coordinators, and Project Development Manager/Officers.
• Contribute to organizing and facilitating learning events to capture best practices and lessons learnt when a project closes or as required.
• Document and share the lessons learnt and best practices on time and ensure that the knowledge gained contributes to the improvement of projects and influences the strategic development of future projects and activities.
• Support project implementation and improvement by providing timely information around project successes to be scaled up, as well as challenges to allow ‘course correction’ throughout the life of the program.

Beneficiary Complaints and Response Mechanism

• Contribute to the implementation of the beneficiary Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM) for the country mission in line with ACTED standard beneficiary CRM procedures.
• Contribute to the proper management of the project CRM central database.
• Build capacity and understanding among ACTED staff, partners, and contractors on beneficiary accountability and CRM.

MEAL Team Management

• Ensure that staff under direct responsibility understand and are able to perform their roles and responsibilities.
• Manage MEAL Officers, Assistants, CRM Monitors, MEAL Interns & Enumerators, delineating their responsibilities and following up on work plans and day-to-day activities.
• Ensure a positive working environment and good team dynamics.
• Manage interpersonal conflicts among team members.
• Undertake regular appraisals of relevant staff.
• Identify the MEAL training needs of team members and discuss plans with the Coordination for both internal and external trainings.
• Coach, train, and mentor MEAL Officer, Assistants, CRM Monitors, MEAL Interns, and Enumerators with the aim of strengthening their technical capacity, exchanging knowledge within the MEAL team.

Other

• Provide regular and timely updates on progress and challenges to supervisors and other team members.
• Participate in MEAL-related conferences and workshops when possible and stay up to date on best practices and new knowledge created in the field of MEAL.
• Perform any other related activities as assigned by the immediate supervisor.

Requirements

• At least a Bachelor’s Degree in Statistics, Economics, Monitoring and Evaluation, Development Studies or a closely related field; a Master’s Degree or professional certification in M&E is an added advantage.
• At least 4 years of work experience in MEAL; experience with humanitarian organizations is an asset.
• Proficient understanding of Monitoring and Evaluation, including the ability to work effectively with tight timelines, high quality standards, and demanding, potentially overlapping priorities.
• Experience in quantitative and qualitative social research methods to conduct monitoring and evaluation for humanitarian and development initiatives/interventions.
• Strong report writing skills coupled with excellent analytical skills in order to interpret qualitative and quantitative data and discern useful recommendations for programme implementation and development.
• Strong statistical analysis and IT skills, including use of SPSS, Stata, and Excel for data analysis.
• Knowledge in designing and deployment of mobile-based data collection tools (ODK) is an added advantage.
• Excellent English communications skills (both oral and written); knowledge of Swahili and local languages is an asset.
• Strong team player of high integrity, pleasant personality, ability to work under least supervision and meet strict deadlines.