Regional Humanitarian MEAL Advisor, Asia (Homebased) At Save the Children

The Opportunity

This position supports monitoring, evaluation, learning, and accountability (MEAL) for humanitarian programmes in the Asia region. As a member of the Asia Regional Office (ARO) team the postholder provides leadership on MEAL systems and processes and leads training and capacity building for colleagues at SCI country and member offices. This position will also lead country support for engagement with children in humanitarian settings, a strategic priority for the region, to ensure their views and needs are at the centre of our preparedness and responses.

The postholder will provide consistent support to humanitarian programmes in the Asia region on data analysis, indicator development and tracking, target setting, accountability systems, MEAL-related donor deliverables, research, and evaluations. The post holder will work with regional and country programme teams to ensure that the data collected is appropriately used for program improvements and learning, support proposal development and explore innovative uses for technology in MEAL in humanitarian settings. Crucially, the post holder will support Asian country teams to track the outcomes of our humanitarian work.

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the post holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

Key Responsibilities

Support Asia Emergency Response Programs’ MEAL Systems and Processes

• Work with regional and country office humanitarian teams to develop and support MEAL emergency preparedness and response within existing country MEAL frameworks, systems, tools and processes, adhering to the Core Humanitarian Standards, Sphere Charter and Red Cross Code of Conduct.
• Provide MEAL support to assigned multi-sectoral emergency programs.
• Provide backstopping support where needed to Country Programme and Humanitarian teams.
• Support programs and sectoral technical staff in selecting indicators and setting ambitious yet realistic indicator targets to measure program progress and achievements.
• Support program teams with routine data collection and analysis, including through innovative platforms. such as KoBo Toolbox and Power BI. Support the development of program databases as needed.
• Conduct data quality assessments to identify and address data quality problems.
• Ensure children’s consultations are conducted for all humanitarian responses and that SC co-lead an interagency children’s consultation for cat1 and cat 2 level responses.
• Support design and development of research and evaluation tools for baseline studies, final evaluations, post-distribution monitoring surveys, and special studies, in particular to ensure that program outcomes can be tracked.
• Conduct remote and in-person MEAL trainings and capacity building for regional and country staff, promoting cross-fertilization of ideas and information exchanges across programs.
• Provide MEAL guidance and technical support for planning and reporting processes, including assisting country offices to effectively utilise reporting tools to articulate impact.

Donor Reporting and Compliance with MEAL Guidance

• Ensure quality and contribute to MEAL sections for SCUS semi-annual and annual donor reports and ongoing deliverables, as required by donor. Verify the quality and correctness of data included in these reports and contribute advanced analysis of data as needed.
• Ensure program compliance with donor requirements, including (as applicable) USAID’s Open Data Policy (ADS 579), BHA monitoring and evaluation (M&E) policies and guidance, BPRM M&E requirements, and UN agency M&E requirements.

Accountability in humanitarian programs

• Ensure that humanitarian programs have appropriate accountability mechanisms in place.
• Develop and support use of systems that safely and appropriately ensure accountability to children and communities with whom we work by building trusting and collaborative relationships through information sharing and two-way communication, participation, and feedback and reporting mechanisms.

Program Learning and Innovation

• Work with country office colleagues to develop research scopes of work, protocols, research methods, tools, and reports.
• Coordinate the commissioning of internal and external reviews, evaluations, real-time evaluations and lessons learned exercises by supporting the development of Terms of Reference, participating in evaluations, building local participatory evaluation capacity etc.
• Stays abreast of new and innovative MEAL technologies and promote them on programs when useful. Share the new technologies with country offices when relevant and conduct capacity building on them as needed.

Resource Mobilization

• Provide MEAL technical support for project/programme design, humanitarian response planning, and development of results frameworks.
• Responsible for finalizing M&E plans, logical frameworks, and indicator selection for proposals, in collaboration with country office and program teams.
• Ensure proposals are compliant and responsive to donor M&E requirements as well as Save the Children MEAL policies and best practices.

Save the Children Movement-facing

• Actively engage with the MEAL Community of Practice and participate in the MEAL Humanitarian Technical Working Group, relevant Evidence & Learning Technical Working Groups, among others.
• Support country offices with MEAL recruitment processes for humanitarian responses.
• Stay abreast of new and innovative MEAL technologies and promote them with country programs when useful. Share new technologies with country offices when relevant and conduct capacity building on them as needed.

The Organisation

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

Application Information

Please apply using a cover letter and up-to-date CV as a single document. Please also include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations. A copy of the full role profile can be found at www.savethechildren.net/careers

Closing Date for Application: 14 March 2023

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.

All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our global anti-harassment policy.