MEAL Officer

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Programme

Development, Quality and Impact

CONTRACT LENGTH:

National Staff – 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 police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:

As a member of the Programme Development, Quality and Impact team, the MEAL Officer provides hands-on support and leads on specific MEAL activities. This includes designing and implementing a robust MEAL system in line with SCI standards and procedures, Accountability and Learning Plans; conducting and supporting evaluation studies (baseline, midterm and end line), designing program monitoring tools, ensuring effective monitoring of program outputs and outcomes; and contributing to SCI annual monitoring and reporting. The position also supports effective accountability systems, including beneficiary complaints and response systems; and will contribute to program and organizational learning processes. In line with SCI Egypt’s MEAL approaches, the MEAL Officer is responsible for ensuring all MEAL processes are gender-sensitive, and participatory, including capturing the voice of children. The role includes providing direct, hands-on support for program MEAL activities; providing MEAL capacity building for staff and partners; forecasting MEAL budgets and engaging in MEAL learning processes. The MEAL Officer is expected to work in close collaboration with MEAL Team members, and with program and partner staff. 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.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: MEAL Manager

Functional relationship: Closely work with MEAL team and relevant programme staff

Staff directly reporting to this post: MEAL Assistant

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

In collaboration with the Programme Development, Quality and Impact team, program staff and field offices:

• Support the development and implementation of quality program monitoring and evaluation systems, frameworks, methodologies, tools, analysis and reporting, in line with donor requirements, SCI standards and procedures and SCI Egypt priorities for specific projects.

• Support quality assessments and evaluations, in collaboration with the Research and Learning Specialist. This includes developing evaluations TORs, supporting the recruitment of external consultants, liaising with consultants during the studies, reviewing reports, and ensuring timely implementation of assessments in accordance with internal system requirements.

• Conduct quality assessments including baseline, designing methodologies relevant to the program indicators, designing tools, training and supervising enumerators, conducting data cleaning and analysis, and writing clear evaluation study reports.

• Continuously update and verify that projects’ logframes and indicators are set on PRIME, in line with SCI guidelines

• Play an active role in maintaining solid data, and support streamlined systems and processes for capturing program data

• Engage with MEAL Manager and MEAL team in compiling and verifying data for CSP and other Country Office reporting.

• Forecast MEAL budgets.

• Lead on the process to develop, use and monitor actions related to project quality benchmarks for specific projects.

• Lead quality accountability mechanisms, processes and practice in line with SCI standards.

• Support analysis and research to inform program planning and design; and to capture evidence

of effectiveness

• Contribute to SCI global monitoring and reporting as required

• Lead on specific project learning processes

• Build program and partner staff capacities on MEAL

• Promote the participation of children in project monitoring, evaluation, research and learning processes

• Contribute to donor proposals with MEAL related inputs on evidence, logical frameworks, indicators etc.

• Ensure gender sensitive, inclusive and participatory processes across MEAL components

• Any other tasks as required by the line manager within the MEAL function

• The job holder will be required to complete all mandatory training within the first 3 months of joining
  

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
  

QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor’s degree in social science, economics, or relevant fields; post graduate level qualification in social science is preferred

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential:

• 3-5 years of monitoring and evaluation experience development contexts with NGOs. Experience with INGOs is preferred.

• Experience with research methods and data management and analysis in development programming

• Experience with child rights programming and/or one of priority areas of Save the Children: education, child protection, child poverty, health.

• Experience in evaluation design and management

• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills, including excellent internal consultation and liaison skills; facilitation and coaching skills

• Excellent analytical and creative abilities with strong results orientation

• Fluency in English and Arabic (spoken and written) is required
  

• Commitment to Save the Children values
  

Desirable:

• Experience in developing tools and methodologies to and with children
  

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.

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.

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.