Head of MEAL at Welthungerhilfe

Position’s objective: The main purpose of this role is to lead on enhancing the quality and accountability of our work, bringing immediate and lasting changes in the lives of people we support.

The Head of MEAL will bring significant experience and fresh ideas to strengthen the response’s MEAL system, ensuring it is institutionalized, and that staff have the capacity required to implement it.

S/he will ensure that all projects in the Country Program are continually monitored for their effectiveness and appropriateness and that lessons are documented and communicated to inform on-going implementation and future programming.

S/he will guide teams in achieving outcome/impact focused projects and accountability to beneficiaries in line with welthungerhilfe’s policies and practices.

The Head of MEAL will lead on building capacities of MEAL staff and partners for accountability and participation.

Head of MEAL will be responsible for ensuring the Country Program:

• is informed on the extent to which our interventions are affecting the lives of the targeted populations;
• have evidence-based knowledge on the positive and negative impact that our interventions are having over the communities where we work;
• receives regular, timely and context-specific, MEAL ningful feedback from our staff, partners, programme participants and that feedback effectively informs and signals areas where strategic attention is required.

Duties and areas of responsibilities:

• Designing a MEAL strategy and action plan for the Country Program,
• Managing the MEAL-department in the Country Office and supervision of MEAL staff
• Implementing the actions and objectives as defined in the MEAL Department strategy and action plan
• Collaborate with and advise MEAL Project Officers in field locations in order to mainstream M&E in project implementation and program development
• Oversee and manage all overarching MEAL systems/processes such as the monthly internal reporting, monthly activity updates (ProMIS), organizational projects overview database, WHH Kenya assessments, evaluations and reporting, MEAL tool-kit, etc.
• Manage WHH Kenya key accountability mechanisms and reporting systems including the external Feedback and Complaints Response Mechanism (F-CRM) and policy; ensure all complaints/referrals/queries are followed up in a timely manner and sensitive cases acted upon immediately; ensure consistent and quality monthly F-CRM, PDM and onsite accountability reporting of the MEAL Department for all projects
• Approve and advise on appropriate research methodologies for MEAL assessments and evaluations; provide technical support to MEAL Officers regarding database management, data collection, analysis and reporting
• Design and oversee the implementation of the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) organizational self-assessment to improve institutional accountability and transparency
• Review and support concept notes, log frames, theory of change, impact matrix, feasibility, and baseline studies for new projects and evaluations
• Provide technical guidance to MEAL staff on the development of MEAL plans and corresponding tools and approaches to enhance the quality of WHH Kenya programming
• Advocate for the human rights and interests of vulnerable groups and principles of do no harm – through proposal development and design, M&E indicators and assessment tools, expansion of service mapping, attendance at key M&E networks and clusters.
• Oversee and ensure the roll-out of the WHH Kenya internal Feedback and Grievance Policy and Procedure to mitigate fraud and corruption as well as manage allegations of bullying, discrimination and harassment; support the actions of the WHH Kenya Staff Representative Committee; confidentially manage, monitor and follow-up all internal feedback and complaints
• Manage, induct and train M&E/Project Officers and enumerators as required on gender and protection mainstreaming, CHS, qualitative and quantitative research, data collection, development of log frames, indicators and MEAL plans
• Consolidate and document lessons learned and best practices and share with relevant stakeholders pertaining to accountability, gender and social inclusion
• Represent Welthungerhilfe and report towards partners and other stakeholders as required
• Prepare evidence-based cases and learning to contribute to knowledge development
• Maintain organised and labelled high quality photograph data base. Support in video and photo documentation
• Review capacity assessments of existing partners, develop capacity strengthening plans adapted to organizational needs and support M&E of partner-implemented projects

To qualify as a Head of MEAL, the candidate must possess the following:

• Master’s degree preferably in Applied Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation or other relevant advanced educational degree from a recognized institution
• Minimum of 5 – 7 years of progressive experience in designing, implementing and overseeing monitoring and evaluation/assessment tasks including rigorous surveys, studies, and analysis in an INGO set up
• Certification in Project Management (desirable)
• Should have strong experience using of statistical tools, analytical, and report writing skills and knowledge extracting skills.
• Demonstrated experience in mobile based data collection system using any software like Akvo Flow, ONA or Kobo.
• Extensive experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis
• Good understanding on Project Cycle Management, Theory of Change and other MEAL approaches, requirements and systems
• Solid understanding of development concepts and approaches as well as local development.
• Written and verbal proficiency in English
• Good interpersonal skills, good communication, organizational and analytical skills and ability to work well in a team.