Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (Meal) Officer At IsraAID

Reports To:Country Director

Location:Kakuma

Classification: Fulltime

Starting Date: As soon as possible

Duration:1 year with a possibility of extension

BACKGROUND

IsraAID is an Israel-based non-governmental organization that was founded in 2001 and has since its inception worked in emergency and long-term development settings in over 60 countries. Our vision is a world where vulnerable, disaster-affected communities have the strength, support, and opportunities they need to recover from humanitarian crises and build a more resilient future. Toward achieving this, our mission is to support people affected by humanitarian crises worldwide. Our Israeli and international teams deliver leading expertise in protection; public health; water, sanitation, and hygiene; and education. We partner with local communities to provide urgent aid, assist in recovery, and reduce the risk of future disasters. Together, we develop and deliver innovative solutions that meet long-term needs and help prepare for future crises, with emphasis on sustainability and local ownership.

IsraAID Kenya is part of IsraAID Global, IsraAID first delivered programs in Kenya in 2007 and has had a permanent presence in the country since 2012. At IsraAID Kenya, we serve communities in Turkana West Sub County, delivering integrated programs in protection, health, and Water,Sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) that leverage IsraAID’s global experience and local expertise.In our protection progra, we aim to improve access to Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), Child Protection (CP) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) services for children and caregivers, including Persons Of Concern (POC) and the Local Community. We strengthen the community’s capacity to nurture a protective environment, including preventing and responding to protection concerns and bolstering related structures. For WASH programming; we focus on widening sustainable access to safe water and improving community uptake of safe hygiene and sanitation practices. Since November 2022, we have improved access to safe water for more than 27,000 people. In total, our drought recovery program has served 36,690 people. Our health strategy builds on drought recovery to strengthen and sustain community well-being. We support and facilitate community-led projects to address diverse health challenges, particularly those faced by children under five years old. Priorities include raising awareness of healthy nutrition and childcare practices; improving early detection of malnutrition among children and pregnant/lactating women; and strengthening referrals between health structures for timely intervention.

JOB PURPOSE

The main purpose of the MEAL Officer is to:

• Ensure the development, incorporation and adoption of MEAL plans, tools and methodologies across the country program, to ensure their effectiveness and efficiency;
• Initiate and carry out data collection, analysis, learning and reporting activities, ensuring accountability to local communities, and promoting continuous learning and improvement; and
• That donors’ MEAL requirements are met, and that MEAL activities are coordinated and are in accordance with IsraAID’s global MEAL strategy and standards.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. MEAL Plans, Tools, Methodologies and Data Management

• Carry out specific background research providing comprehensive and useful information for the design of new programmes.
• Assist in the elaboration and refinement of Logical Frameworks and theories of change in prioritized projects
• Create MEAL plans to measure and evaluate progress and effects of program implementation, detailing indicators and measures, selection of appropriate data collection tools, types of analysis, learning and reporting procedures.
• Work closely with the project managers and IsraAID international teams to design appropriate data collection tools and methodologies including baseline and end line surveys, interview and focus groups’ protocols and others, and assist when necessary, in translating these tools.
• Contribute to the advancement of IsraAID’s organizational MEAL approach, procedures, methods and templates.
• Review existing data collection tools for the current country programmes
• Incorporate field and technical team feedback to ensure the continuous improvement of data management systems within IsraAID Kenya.
• Timely update and share data on LogAlto and/or any other data management system.

2. Monitoring and Reporting

• Lead transparent, accurate and timely collection of data by administering surveys, conducing desk reviews, and employing diverse and participatory data collection activities while working with relevant staff to collect such data
• Undertake evaluation of programs through field visits, desk studies and a range of data collection methodologies
• Facilitate and carry out quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis
• Train other programmatic staff on data collection tools and reporting.
• Facilitate learning processes to identify gaps and contribute to ongoing improvement of projects, while working closely and communicating results to programme teams and country management.
• Regularly communicate to programmatic staff intermediate findings, to discuss lessons learned and help adapt programs accordingly.
• Support the development of bi-monthly Program Updates for internal and external stakeholders.
• Contribute to the compilation of Project Completion Reports and Interim Reports to donors, as per the guidance and management of the Country Director.
• Prepare weekly/monthly schedules of monitoring and evaluation related activities.
• Support commissioning of short-term, contractual M&E evaluators and experts as required.
• Ensure all grants have updated work-plan and performance management plan (PMPs) in tandem with all approved proposals, regularly reviewing and updating as needed.
• Provide alert to the respective programme officers/ managers/coordinators on corrective actions required to avoid delays in implementation, including flagging operational issues and risks requiring timely actions.

3. Assessments, Surveys and Evaluation

• Liaise with the Country Director, programme staff and the Global MEAL Lead from HQ to ensure that all new and ongoing projects adhere to accountability requirements by initiating baseline surveys for new projects/ programmes and conducting relevant evaluations for ongoing projects to meet IsraAID standards.
• Ensure that IsraAID Kenya office learns from all final evaluations of completed projects for decision making and improvement of project designs.
• Lead and/or coordinate all country assessments, evaluations and performance evaluation tasks including planning and reporting on the same.
• Assist in the development of TOR for external surveys and consultant recruitments/ selection.
• Coordinate the review all survey reports prepared to ensure quality and accurate reporting.
• Timely plan and initiate all pre and post intervention assessments, KAP surveys, After Action Reviews, Post Distribution Monitoring and Real Time Evaluation of any emergency programmes.

4. Learning, Accountability and Capacity Building

• Conduct country monitoring of all programmes that meet laid down standards on a regular basis.
• Provide relevant evidence for learning from projects.
• Share learning and provide constructive comments to colleagues in order to ensure programme quality.
• Build capacity of staff through training to ensure adoption of new data monitoring tools and quality of data collected.
• Keep abreast of new approaches and tools on M&E and provide training to staff as requested or required. Enable staff to monitor and evaluate their own efforts, gather relevant data and produce required progress reports.
• Under the overall responsibility of the Country Director, ensure that IsraAID Kenya maintains and follows an updated Accountability Framework for collecting feedback and inputs from the community.
• Regularly collect data on and analyse the Complaints Reporting and Feedback Mechanism (CRFM) accountability data to the IsraAID Kenya team to facilitate quality improvement
• Facilitate the incorporation of and further development of platforms and methods that promote 2- way communication with local communities – that is, regularly collecting information from and responding and providing feedback to local communities

5. Strategy and Planning

• Ensure effective implementation of the yearly strategic planning for MEAL plans
• Contribute to the strategic planning process of IsraAID Kenya particularly in relation to inclusion and incorporation of MEAL strategies.
• Identify and collect best practices

6. Coordination and Representation

• Develop and maintain effective working relationship with relevant stakeholders including partner agencies, community leaders and service providers, where appropriate and relevant
• Participate and represent IsraAID at inter-agency working groups and coordination mechanisms, in the absence of other staff members and when appropriate
• Serve as a focal point in the field for IsraAID HQ’s MEAL team
• Facilitate learning processes to identify gaps and contribute to ongoing improvement of projects, while working closely and communicating results to programme teams and country management.
• Regularly communicate to programmatic staff intermediate findings, to discuss lessons learned and help adapt programs accordingly.
• Support the development of bi-monthly Program Updates for internal and external stakeholders.
• Contribute to the compilation of Project Completion Reports and Interim Reports to donors, as per the guidance and management of the Country Director.
• Prepare weekly/monthly schedules of monitoring and evaluation related activities.
• Support commissioning of short-term, contractual M&E evaluators and experts as required.
• Ensure all grants have updated work-plan and performance management plan (PMPs) in tandem with all approved proposals, regularly reviewing and updating as needed.
• Provide alert to the respective programme officers/ managers/coordinators on corrective actions required to avoid delays in implementation, including flagging operational issues and risks requiring timely actions.

7. Coordination and Representation

• Develop and maintain effective working relationship with relevant stakeholders including partner agencies, community leaders and service providers, where appropriate and relevant
• Participate and represent IsraAID at inter-agency working groups and coordination mechanisms, in the absence of other staff members and when appropriate
• Serve as a focal point in the field for IsraAID HQ’s MEAL team

REQUIRED EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES:

• Bachelor’s degree in one of the following fields: social sciences, statistics, demographics, international development or a related field;
• Minimum of three (3) years of experience working in the field of MEAL (including indicator selection, target setting, data collection and analysis, facilitating learning processes, reporting, database management, and developing M&E and performance monitoring plans);
• Knowledge of the major evaluation types (process, impact etc.), methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, mixed method) and data collection and analysis methods;
• Experience in developing data collection instruments.
• Planning and managing surveys, developing and refining data collection methods and tools, conducting data quality assessments and oversight – experience and knowledge of participatory MEAL methods.

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AND DEMANDS:

• Typical office environment with field visits demands.
• Ability to work in a fragile context.

Level of Contact with Children:

High contact: Frequent interaction with children.

LANGUAGES

Essential: English and Kiswahili. Local language is an added advantage.

COMPLIANCE & ETHICS

• Promote and encourage a culture of compliance and ethics
• As applicable to the position, maintains a clear understanding donor compliance and ethics standards and adheres to those standards. Conduct work with the highest level of integrity. Communicate these values to staff and to partners and require them to adhere to these values
• Understanding of and commitment to the principles of non-discrimination, local ownership, sustainability, inclusiveness, local partnership, do-no-harm, and apolitical approach; codes of conduct against sexual exploitation and abuse; and against child exploitation and modern slavery.
• Commitment to abide by IsraAID’s and UN’s codes of conducts and principles
• Commitment to humanitarian principles

ETHICAL STANDARDS

IsraAID has zero tolerance towards any acts of misconduct and Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. The recruitment process will include all candidates’ declarations and reference checks focused on misconduct and SEA.