MEAL Officer (Feedback, Complaints and Response) for National citizens only At Danish Refugee Council

Danish Refugee Council, one of the world’s leading humanitarian NGOs, is currently looking for a highly qualified a MEAL Officer (F-CRM)

MEAL Officer will be based in Mariupol.

About your role:

• Oversee and ensure effective complaints handling and administration of DRC’s Feedback and Complaints and Response Mechanism (F-CRM) that allows communities to voice their concerns enabling programs to be more appropriate, well-targeted, and meeting the needs and satisfaction of beneficiaries. The position will work with MEAL staff/ and programme staff across all projects in DRC Ukraine offices (all locations) to manage feedback, complaints and referrals.
• Liaise with other relevant internal and external stakeholders to refer feedback in a timely manner ensuring that DRC’s programmes maintain high standards of accountability to beneficiaries in line with DRC and international humanitarian standards, including the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS).
• Provide technical support to DRC programmes regarding participation – to ensure that, as much as possible, everyone regardless of their background, ethnicity, disability status or other stigmatized markers have improved opportunities to participate in decisions and programs (where feasible) which affect their lives through community meetings, needs assessments, monitoring and evaluation activities, etc..
• Support Programme staff with M&E activities inclusive of monitoring field visits, conducting post-assistance monitoring activities, ensuring gathering data from the field and follow up on activities in order to get feedback on the quality and relevance of the assistance.

Your main duties and responsibilities will be:

Under the direct supervision of the MEAL Manager, the MEAL Officer (CRM) provides efficient and effective project support to DRC projects assigned to them, including:

Position Summary

• Actively promote the F-CRM/CoCRM in the community in coordination with programme teams.
• Ensure the communication and dissemination of complaints handling procedures, policies and tools are appropriate to beneficiaries, project staff and other stakeholders drawing on multiple communication channels.
• Regularly conduct accountability spot-checks to ensure beneficiary complaints are being addressed.
• Provide induction on DRC accountability standards and the F-CRM to new staff during induction.
• Participate in proposal development to ensure accountability activities are included in all programmes as a crosscutting sector.
• Conduct regular training on the DRC F-CRM as well as the Code of Conduct (CoC) mechanism.

Management of internal feedback and complaints

• Ensure to receive, record, process and respond to beneficiary programmatic feedback and complaints pertaining to DRC.
• Provide accurate advice to beneficiaries about DRC programs, activities and services as communities request information through DRC hotlines or other formalized complaints and feedback modalities.
• Coordinate internally with respective staff from across all projects to resolve, document actions taken and mark feedback as closed.
• Ensure timely feedback to beneficiaries (where required) regarding complaints and ensure they are appropriately managed, acknowledged and followed up as per internal workflow processes.
• Maintain an effective centralized tracking/F-CRM database system for all the complaints and feedback ensuring confidentiality and protecting beneficiaries’ identity at all times.
• Ensure adherence to DRC Ukraine overarching F-CRM policies, tools and guidelines – assist with updating these as required.

Overseeing referrals

• For all non-DRC programmatic feedback and complaints, follow-up externally via service mapping lists and refer to relevant NGOs, UN offices and sector leads.
• Respond to pending issues, provide support as needed, and communicate progress back to beneficiaries.
• Ensure that the service mapping list is up to date.

Safeguarding of sensitive complaints

• Ensure immediate referral of protection related concerns and sensitive cases according to the DRC F-CRM workflow.
• Maintain utmost confidentiality of all complaints received and processed.

Reporting

• Design monthly reports of progress on complaints handling (Power Bi dashboards).
• Conduct quality assurance of F-CRM database and flag any errors to MEAL Manager.
• Compile, analyse, produce and share bi-annual F-CRM report with DRC Ukraine staff.

Internal/External Relationships

• Participate in programme meetings on a regular basis and brief project teams on F-CRM progress and work plan.
• As required, participate in Accountability and Learning working groups (OCHA PSEA TF, AAP TF, DRC global MEAL/Accountability networks) to ensure collaboration and coordinate humanitarian accountability approaches.

Participation and Social Inclusion

• Act as a focal point internally and externally to support the integration of the F-CRM, participation, gender and vulnerable groups as a crosscutting issue into DRC program design and all aspects of humanitarian action.
• Conduct regular training and awareness to staff and implementing partners on the F-CRM.
• Support MEAL Manager to provide guidance and support to all DRC Project Managers to better incorporate accountability into their work – including the provision of practical tools, information and resources.
• Assist MEAL Manager to consolidate and document lessons learned and best practices and share with relevant stakeholders pertaining to accountability, participation and social inclusion.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Support in conducting participatory monitoring activities with DRC beneficiaries using a varied suite of tools
• Undertake field monitoring visits and provide verbal and written feedback on field observations and monitoring findings to the MEAL Manager and relevant program staff
• Assist MEAL Manager with data analysis and drafting post-assistance monitoring reports

About you

To be successful in this role we expect you to have minimum two (2) years of experience in social work, community development, non-governmental organizations, or civil society.

Required experience and competencies

• Experience in a relevant position in humanitarian accountability, gender, social inclusion / protection issues and Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) is preferable
• Previous experience in an international NGOs and/or institution is a strong advantage
• Able to work on a high level with Word, Power Point, and Excel
• Excellent analysis and report writing skills
• Excellent communication skills. At least Intermediate level of English. Full proficience in Ukrainian and Russian.
• Experience in use of KOBO preferred
• Knowledge of statistics and experience using statistical packages for analyzing datasets (google spreadsheets, Excel, SPSS, SAS etc.) would be an asset
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work and deal successfully in multi-cultural environment
• Committed, honest and eager to learn
• Ability to plan and manage tasks.

We offer

• An interesting opportunity to work with the International Humanitarian Organization
• Fixed-term Labor Contract
• Medical and Life Insurance**

Contract length: one year with possibility to extend based on available funding, after 3 months of probation period.

Start date: November 2021

In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’ five core competencies:

Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process.

Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback.

Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation.

Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.

Demonstrating integrity: You uphold and promote the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to our values and Code of Conduct, including safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.