- Act as the technical advisor and process lead for quality Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) for the project. Provide leadership, management, and technical oversight for the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of the project's MEAL system. Ensure the timely availability and use of high-quality performance, participant feedback and learning information to monitor implementation, measure results, meet donor and CRS requirements, strengthen accountability and support adaptive management.
- Supervise project MEAL staff and work closely with project leadership, technical teams, implementing partners and other stakeholders to strengthen MEAL capacity, promote evidence-based decision-making, and improve program quality.
Roles and Key Responsibilities:
MEAL System Leadership and Performance Management
- Provide technical leadership and management of MEAL activities through the project cycle - start-up, implementation and close-out - in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and industry best practices.
- Lead the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of the project MEAL system in alignment with approved results frameworks.
- Coordinate tracking and analysis of project performance information to support implementation monitoring, adaptive management, and continuous improvement.
- Contribute to needs assessments and support the development of results frameworks, theories of change, Proframes, SMILER (Simple Measurement of Indicators for Learning and Evidence-based Reporting), MEAL plans, indicators, tools and reporting systems appropriate to the project's scope, context and technical requirements.
- Ensure compliance with donor and CRS MEAL requirements through the consistent application of established standards, procedures and quality assurance mechanisms across activities.
Data Management, Digital Systems and Data Quality
- Provide technical oversight for qualitative and quantitative MEAL data collection, management, analysis and reporting systems, including participant registration and commodity and food distribution tracking systems, across community, service-delivery and partner levels.
- Establish and oversee routine data-quality assurance processes, including validation, verification, documentation of findings, and follow-up of corrective actions.
- Oversee the effective use and interoperability, where applicable, of participant registration, monitoring, accountability and performance-reporting systems.
- Ensure confidential, secure and responsible management of participant and project information in accordance with CRS and donor requirements.
Field Monitoring and Implementation Quality
- Coordinate field monitoring and other project-quality review activities and ensure findings, recommendations and agreed corrective actions are documented, communicated and followed up.
- Apply risk-based monitoring approaches to identify implementation challenges, verify performance, and prioritize areas requiring management attention.
- Integrate monitoring evidence into project reflection, planning and decision-making processes to strengthen implementation quality and adaptive management.
Accountability and Participant Feedback
- Provide technical oversight for accessible and responsive project accountability mechanisms, ensuring participant feedback and complaints are systematically recorded, analyzed, responded to, and used to improve project quality.
- Ensure sensitive complaints and allegations are promptly referred through established CRS safeguarding and reporting mechanisms.
- Analyze and communicate significant feedback trends, risks and recurring concerns to project leadership and relevant teams to inform decisions and corrective action.
Partner Coordination and Capacity Strengthening
- Maintain effective working relationships with implementing partners, communities, government counterparts, and other stakeholders on project MEAL priorities.
- Promote harmonized MEAL approaches across implementing partners through consistent use of approved indicators, methodologies, tools, data-quality standards and reporting requirements.
- Assess staff and partner MEAL capacity needs and coordinate targeted training, coaching, technical assistance and follow-up support.
- Monitor the application and effectiveness of capacity-strengthening interventions and adjust support based on identified needs.
Learning, Assessments and Evaluation
- Lead implementation of the project learning activities and coordinate periodic review, reflection, and learning processes that draw on performance data, monitoring findings, evaluations, and participant feedback.
- Identify and document lessons, promising practices and innovations and facilitate their dissemination and application within the project, CRS, and relevant stakeholder forums.
- Provide technical leadership and quality assurance for project assessments, baselines, endlines, evaluations, and other learning studies.
- Ensure assessment and evaluation designs, methodologies, tools, analyses and reports meet applicable technical, ethical and donor standards.
Reporting and Management Information
- Ensure timely consolidation, validation, analysis and reporting of project performance information for internal management, partner and donor requirements.
- Provide project leadership and technical teams with dashboards, performance summaries, and analysis that highlight progress, emerging issues, risks, and areas requiring corrective action.
- Coordinate MEAL inputs to donor reports and facilitate data-informed partner and project reflection meetings.
- Maintain complete, accurate, and accessible supporting documentation for reported results and indicator achievements.
- Coordinate CRS Annual Global Results reporting for the project and ensure required MEAL reports, data and supporting documentation are maintained in designated CRS systems.
Risk, Compliance and Safeguarding
- Synthesize MEAL evidence to identify and communicate material implementation, accountability, safeguarding and data-quality risks and track follow-up of agreed corrective actions.
- Ensure project MEAL activities comply with CRS safeguarding, ethical conduct, accountability, data protection and research requirements.
- Maintain the objectivity and integrity of MEAL findings while providing project teams with evidence to support operational and management decisions.
Staff Management and Resource Stewardship
- Supervise assigned MEAL staff, setting clear objectives and managing performance, workload, professional development and staff well-being.
- Provide coaching and technical guidance and foster a culture of learning, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Develop and monitor project MEAL work plans and budgets and ensure responsible stewardship of MEAL resources.
- Coordinate MEAL staffing, equipment, technology and operational support requirements with project leadership and relevant operations teams.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
- Strong analytical, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret qualitative and quantitative evidence and translate findings into practical recommendations.
- Strong data management, database and data quality assurance skills.
- Strong interpersonal and relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively across program, technical, operations, compliance and partner teams.
- Strong data management, database and data quality assurance skills.
- Excellent facilitation, presentation and written and verbal communication skills in English, including the ability to prepare clear technical and management reports.
- Strong planning and prioritization skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams and deliver high-quality outputs within established timelines.
- Proactive, resourceful, results-focused, and solution-oriented, with strong attention to accuracy, accountability and documentation.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master's degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Statistics, International Development, Public Health, Food Security, Economics or another relevant field.
- Experience with institutional donor-funded programming, preferably including food security, nutrition, resilience or humanitarian assistance.
- Demonstrated experience with commodity and food distribution tracking systems.
- Experience providing MEAL leadership for a large-scale, multi-sectoral, or multi-partner program.
- Bachelor's degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Statistics, International Development, Public Health, Food Security, Economics, Social Sciences or in a related field is required. Additional experience may substitute for some education.
- Minimum of seven years of relevant field-based experience, including progressive responsibility for designing, managing or strengthening MEAL systems for moderately complex donor-funded programs projects, preferably with an international NGO.
- Demonstrated experience managing integrated MEAL systems, including monitoring, evaluation, accountability, learning, data management, and reporting.
- Strong experience in quantitative and qualitative methods, indicator management, data analysis and data-quality assurance.
- Experience with digital data collection, participant registration, management information systems and data-visualization or reporting tools.
- Experience designing or managing assessments, baselines, endlines, evaluations, or other project learning studies.
- Demonstrated experience working with implementing partners and strengthening staff and partner MEAL capacity.
- Experience supervising staff and building collaborative, high-performing teams.
- Experience contributing to project design, donor reporting, and compliance for institutional donor-funded projects.
- Experience engaging communities and implementing participant feedback and complaints mechanisms.
- Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), standard statistical data analysis packages (SPSS, Stata or R), web conferencing applications, and information management systems.