MEAL Officer At Catholic Relief Services

About CRS

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

CRS Philippines, established in 1945, is the longest running, continuous CRS country program in the world with extensive programming in peacebuilding, emergency response and recovery, and disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. The Philippines country program has over 110 staff members in Manila, Davao and Cotabato City offices. CRS Philippines is committed to collaborate with our strong network of church partners, national and subnational government agencies and secular NGOs throughout the country, strategically advancing local leadership to achieve sustainable development goals in the Philippines.

Job Summary:

Working in close coordination with the MEAL Lead and other programming staff, and with implementing partners and community members, you will assist in operationalizing monitoring, evaluation accountability and learning (MEAL) systems in support of CRS’s work to serve the poor and vulnerable. You will help ensure that relevant data are collected, documented, managed, and made accessible to project stakeholders, as appropriate. You will support MEAL-related capacity building efforts for CRS and implementing partner staff, as needed.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Support the coordination and implementation of all assigned project MEAL activities as outlined in the Detailed Implementation Plan in line with CRS program quality principles, standards and MEAL practices; donor MEAL requirements; and industry good practices.
• Monitor and report any MEAL-related challenges and gaps identified to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules. Assist partners in their efforts to reflect on project experiences.
• Lead the roll-out and implementation of the project’s feedback, response and complaint mechanism (FCRM). Support actively seeking and responding to feedback from all members of targeted communities and other stakeholders as defined by the FCRM.
• Support field-level project M&E activities (including digital data collection) and assisting partners in their efforts to collect and ensure timely evidence-based analysis of project data per specified mechanisms and tools. Collaborate with local partner(s) to prepare MEAL-related aspects of reports per established reporting schedule.
• Collect information on staff MEAL capacity needs and technical assistance needs of partner organizations and monitor MEAL-related capacity-building and technical support activities to ensure effective impact.
• Complete project documentation for assigned MEAL activities. Assist with identifying information for case studies and reports on promising practices.
• Support program learning and decision-making by posing thoughtful questions, engaging with project data, reflecting upon and sharing with project management the information gathered from community members and partners.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree required.
• Minimum of 4 years of work experience in project support.
• Experience in the field of MEAL and for an NGO would be a plus.
• Additional education may substitute for some experience.
• Experience in participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Experience monitoring projects and collecting relevant data preferred.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

Personal Skills

• Observation, active listening and analysis skills with ability to make sound judgement.
• Good relationship management skills and the ability to work closely with local partners and community members.
• Attention to details, accuracy, and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities.
• Proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented

Required Languages

• Fluency in spoken and written English and Filipino is required

Travel Required

• Must be willing and able to travel up to 50%

Key Working Relationships:

*Supervisory:*MEAL Assistant/s

Internal: MEAL Manager, TY Odette MEAL Lead, Program Manager Area Team Leader, and program staff

*External:*Partner MEAL Officers, Project Coordinator and project staff, other local stakeholders

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• Integrity
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Builds Relationships
• Develops Talent
• Strategic Mindset
• Accountability & Stewardship

Competencies Relevant for Specific Position

1. MEAL Competency 1 – MEAL in Design: Developing project-level Theories of change, results frameworks, Proframes, related MEAL system tools and competencies, and accompanying – Introductory (Level of Competency Required)

2. MEAL Competency 2 – Monitoring: Implementing monitoring activities, including the timely collection of quality data, set up and maintenance of databases, facilitation of participatory reflection on monitoring results, and submission of timely progress reports- Basic (Level of Competency Required)

3. MEAL Competency 3 – Evaluation: Supporting project and program evaluations and reviews by ensuring the quality of evaluation methods, tools, and data and facilitating the use of evaluation results to inform decision making and enhance learning.- Basic (Level of Competency Required)

4. MEAL Competency 4 – Accountability: Improving our accountability to a range of stakeholders through increased participation, transparent communication, responsive feedback mechanisms, and adherence to internal and external quality standards and requirements – Solid (Level of Competency Required)

5. MEAL Competency 5 – Learning: Promoting excellent knowledge management and collaborative learning processes at the project, program and institutional levels, generating robust evidence for project and programmatic learning that leads to action, decision-making and influence – Introductory (Level of Competency Required)

6. MEAL Competency 6- Analysis & Critical Thinking: Engaging with data, challenging biases and assumptions, posing thoughtful questions, pursuing deeper understanding of evidence through reflection and perspective-taking, and making informed programming decisions. – Basic (Level of Competency Required)

7. MEAL Competency 7- ICT for MEAL: Applying knowledge on information and communication technologies (ICT), both hardware and software, for opportune and accurate data collection, database management, conducting analyses, and making information easily accessible – Introductory (Level of Competency Required)

8. MEAL Competency 8- MEAL in Management: Managing financial and human resources in a way that optimizes the quality, effectiveness, and utility of MEAL systems – Basic (Level of Competency Required)