Posted on: Wed 10-11-2021

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

We are recruiting to fill the position of:

Job Title: MEAL Coordinator

Requisition ID: req22238

Location: Maiduguri, Borno

Employment Type: Full-Time

Employment Category: Fixed Term

Sector: Program Administration

Open to Expatriates: Flexible

Job Overview

• This a strategic role in IRC Nigeria that works closely with the country program teams to improve program quality, providing technical leadership, coordination and strategic support to program design, planning, monitoring, evaluation, accountability, learning and partnership commitments in line with Strategy 100 impact goal and data ambition.
• Core responsibilities includes ensuring IRC Nigeria and its partners has a strong MEAL system in place, implemented as intended and reported to support program technical coordinators, managers and implementing partners to deliver desired outcomes and impacts.

Major Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Partnership:

• Establish and drive common strategies and approaches to the country’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning processes that reflect and contextualize Strategy 100 and the Country Strategic Action Plan and ensure that the MEAL structure is fit for this purpose.
• Lead all aspects of MEAL (including client feedback mechanisms) functions across multiple sectors and multiple geographical areas/ large portfolio and or complex environment.

Technical Oversight:

• Technically support IRC Nigeria to meet impact goal and data ambition set out in Strategic Action Plan (SAP 2022 - 2024 and IRC’s global Measurement and Client Responsiveness Units’ standards and practices for improving monitoring practice and use of data within the organization.
• Technical oversight for development of rigorous MEAL systems and processes and ensure periodic and systematic learning in informing program design and adaptation for IRC and partners.

Strengthening program designs, Outcome, and Planning:

• Provide support, guidance and work closely with sector leads, grants teams and partners to ensure that project design in proposals is logically sound, beneficiary focused and contextually appropriate, based on learning from previous projects and technical best practice, and includes a Theory of Change and SMART log frame (with IRC core indicators and enabling assessment of project progress, quality, outcomes, and if relevant impact).
• Support sectors leads in ensuring that detailed and feasible project specific monitoring plans are developed that: i) provide an indicator matrix, ii) map MEAL roles and responsibilities of project and support staff, iii) consider ethical and safe collection and storage of data, iv) consider data quality audits, v) consider storing, protecting, and sharing project documents, and vi) consider the end of project learning review.
• Support and guide sector leads to determine which monitoring activities will take place and which data collection methods will be used to ensure their adequacy and appropriateness.
• Work with sector leads and SPCs to ensure that monitoring activities are adequately resourced, with sufficient project and support staff and adequate budget.

Project Cycle Meetings and Learning:

• To support project teams on project management work occurring in and around these meetings as it relates to MEAL. Specifically, key responsibilities here (largely in line with current MEAL responsibilities) include:
• Joining meetings as directed in the Project Cycle Meetings Guidance – participates in every PDM, POM, PIM, and PCM.
• Supporting project teams on key MEAL-related tasks – specifically, MEAL staff in Project Cycle Meetings will support MEAL plan development as well as data collection and interpretation
• Providing MEAL inputs into decisions across all areas of project management
• Lead and support in development and implementation of country knowledge and learnings agenda.
• Acting as an enabler by supporting program coordinators to achieve desired outcomes/impact while learning from evidence
• Assist in conducting and documenting end of project learning reviews, and sharing lessons learned and best practices, incorporating these into new project designs.
• Assist in identifying, documenting, storing, and sharing lessons learned that have implications for refinement of best programmatic practice.

Strengthening Country Program MEAL:

• Provide technical leadership and coordination for data compilation at overall country and project level, including the presentation of data for cross-cutting strategic objectives (safety and power)
• Responsible for establishing overall country program core indicator tracking sheets &/or dashboards.
• Responsible for establishing cross-sectorial approaches to monitoring (for example for activities being undertaken by more than one sector, or beneficiary counting).
• Assist in completing quarterly Monitoring for Action project assessments and identifying projects in need of targeted support.
• Responsible for Identification of MEAL capacity gaps in the country program and design and deliver strategies to fill identified gaps. Also create an atmosphere of individual and collective learning that supports professional development while meeting organizational expectations.

HR and Staff Management:

• Promote the growth and development of others in IRC teams and partners: Assess proficiencies; develop and lead targeted learning and training strategy. Coach, mentor and support M&E/MEAL staff, provide vital tools and resources, as well as on the job training.

Job Requirements

Education:

A University Degree in a relevant subject area (Statistics, Monitoring & Data Management, Social Science, Public Health, Economic Development, or a related field) – a technical Degree together with additional relevant work experience may substitute for education.

Work Experience:

• Minimum four (4) years of international MEAL experience within the development / humanitarian sector, at least 2 of which are at management level preferably in Africa.
• For national applicant experience of not less than 7 years in MEAL function management.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• A minimum 5 years of working experience within Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and learning-related functions.
• Leadership experience and proven technical skills in setting up quality M&E/MEAL system that leads to evidence-based decision-making for multi-sectorial and multi-donor funded programs.

Language Skills:

• English is a must.
• Knowledge of languages spoken in northeast Nigeria is an advantage.

Working Environment:

• The position will be based in Maiduguri, Borno, Nigeria with 50% field travel throughout the sites where IRC has a presence in Nigeria.
• The security situation in Northeast Nigeria continues to be volatile with security level at 3 (orange); candidates should be prepared to implement programming in insecure environments.
• This is a non-accompanied position, and the MEAL Coordinator will live in shared housing with good internet connectivity, electricity mostly powered by generator and other basic services available.

Application Closing Date

Not Specified.

Method of Application

Interested and qualified candidates should:

Click here to apply online

Note

• For successful national applicant the position will be inline with the national recruitment policy and renumeration.
• The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct.  These are Integrity, Egality, Service, and Accountability.
• In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

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