MEAL Coordinator, HoA Child Wasting Initiative at Concern Worldwide

Job Summary

• The person in this role will be a key part in supporting the implementation of the Horn of Africa Child Wasting Initiative (HoA CWI) in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
• The Child Wasting Initiative aims to i) address drivers and implications of wasting through a multi-sectoral programming approach; ii) support innovation in programming and partnerships, to prevent wasting; and iii) engage in active learning, contextual programme adaptation, and advocacy, to inform more effective local, national, and global wasting prevention strategies.
• As part of the programme management unit, the MEAL Coordinator will closely liaise with the other Advisers in the unit as well as senior advisors in the Strategy, Advocacy and Learning unit at HQ. The Coordinator’s primary responsibility is establish appropriate systems and tools to effectively monitor and evaluate the programme as well set the learning agenda. S/he will be expected to provide strategic and technical MEAL support to Concern’s work across the 3 countries implementing the Child Wasting Initiative—with a special focus on the inclusion of those living in extreme poverty. S/he also contributes to organizational learning through documentation of best practices and development of tools/ resources designed for Concern programme staff in the field and internal and external dissemination and advocacy.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Support programme planning and design of the M&E system across all CWI implementation countries:

• Support country teams (including local partners) to develop log frames and M&E plans that optimise use of Concern standard indicators, are aligned across the three CWI countries and reflect the activities and implementation timelines planned as well as seasonality.
• Ensure standardisation of M&E systems across all CWI country programmes, particularly ensuring the M&E systems of the three local partners link functionally with Concern’s standard M&E system, under the direction of the CWI Programme Management Unit Coordinator and in collaboration with the HQ M&E Advisers.
• Lead the development and maintenance of digital M&E dashboards using Concern internal systems and ensuring they are accessible to local partners, in collaboration with relevant colleagues.
• Support in-country planning for assessments and tool development/ harmonisation across countries, including market assessments, conflict analysis, environmental risk analysis, equality analysis, among others).
• Support country teams to plan and strengthen qualitative data collection, analysis and write up for assessments and alongside quantitative data collection.
• Any other tasks as directed to ensure effective delivery of the programme

Capacity Building on M&E processes

• Continuous capacity building of CWI Programme country teams (including the 3 partners) on M&E processes through field visits, induction sessions, webinars and eLearning modules.

Support to data collection throughout the Programme Cycle

• Compile and, where needed, support the development of standardised data collection tools focusing on efficient and accurate ways to collect required data, ensuring alignment where possible to existing tools and sharing learning on new tools across the organisation.
• Work with the Digital Data Gathering team within PALU to develop digital versions of key tools, ensuring key steps are followed, including contextualisation, translation, testing, revision.
• Ensure integration of the M&E data collection with the programme’s research needs (research to be conducted by an external research institution)
• Provide specific support to baseline data collection (at a minimum training and likely on-site supervision) for the CWI Programme including appropriate sampling methodologies.
• Support routine data collection, ensuring data collected is useful, accessible and used in timely manner.
• Quality control of all data collected

Support to Results Based Management

• Support the CWI country programme teams and local partners to have timely access to accurate information from data collected via dashboards and other means, ensuring they have capacity to use them.
• Compile, analyse and present key programme data for reporting and for regular meetings at country, regional and global level, identifying key trends and potential implications for programming.
• Review and feedback on all reports related to the programme
• Input into CWI workshops, conferences and other fora

Supporting Evaluations and Promoting Learning

• Develop Terms of Reference for thematic analysis, reviews and evaluations
• Review inception reports on evaluation methodology from consultants to ensure they are of high quality and are methodologically sound
• Review evaluation reports to ensure they are of high quality, in particular that they are evidence based, use appropriate methodologies and offer relevant targeted recommendations
• Support development of Technical briefs and learning papers, and their dissemination where required
• Work closely with Concern’s Knowledge and Learning Adviser to ensure learning is captured from evaluations
• Contribute to the prioritization, design, implementation and dissemination of operational research undertaken within programme – in collaboration with relevant advisers, field teams and research partners

Others

• Adhere to and promote the standards outlined in the Concern Code of Conduct and associated policies to their team, beneficiaries, and be committed to providing a safe working environment
• Participating and contributing towards Concern’s emergency response, as and when necessary
• Take all possible measure to meet Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS)
• Any other duties as assigned by the line manager

Person Specification

Minimum Education, Qualifications & Experience Required:

• Master's degree in relevant field (related to M&E, development, social sciences, data analytics, statistics, etc.)
• At least ten years’ experience in working in developing countries
• Experience of working in integrated, multi-sectoral programmes. Ability to work both as part of a team and independently.
• Adaptable to evolving work priorities and schedules
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and writing skills in English
• Ability to travel internationally, at least 40%, in fragile and conflict affected contexts, sometimes with short notice
• Experience Working on Monitoring and Evaluation
• At least three years working in developing countries or supporting developing country programmes in M&E
• Specific experience working on M&E in Nutrition or Disaster Risk Reduction programmes
• Practical experience of putting in place robust monitoring systems
• Practical experience of conducting or managing evaluations
• Practical experience of working in consortia or other joint venture programming

Data Collection

• Knowledge and practical experience in conducting quantitative data collection, including developing data collection tools, sampling and data analysis
• Knowledge and practical experience in qualitative methodologies including developing data collection tools, sampling and data analysis
• Experience working with Digital Data Gathering systems

Data Use

• High level of analytical capacity and use of data analysis tools
• Demonstrated experience of using data for project/programme management

Capacity Building

• Experience of capacity building of both internal and partner staff in Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation processes and data collection (both quantitative and qualitative)
• Experience in developing practical guidance and templates for field staff

Team Work

• Excellent interpersonal communication skills and ability to operate as part of a team as well as working independently.
• Excellent spoken and written English and French

Competencies required:

Managing yourself

• Awareness of your own abilities and uses abilities to work well with others to achieve your work and Concern’s.

Individual leadership

• Inspire others by clearly articulating and demonstrating the Concern’s values and principles supports others to achieve excellent results.

Communicating and working with others

• Proactively and effectively share information with others. Works effectively with others to achieve best results from.

Delivering results

• Delivers on commitments; uses appropriate techniques to help achieve agreed objectives.

Planning and decision-making

• Systematically work towards achieving objectives; informed and timely decisions (appropriate to role), to achieve work objectives.

Creativity and innovation

• Continual improvement by developing and implementing new ideas for effective and efficient progress towards the agreed objectives

Influence, advocacy and networking

• Engages effectively with others inside and outside the organisation as relevant to achieve agreed objectives