Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL)
Ngo & Social Services Jobs
- Christian Aid
- Expires 21 Jan 2020
- Bulawayo
- Full Time
Job Description
The role works within the International programmes department and the wider programme funding remit. The role is key in providing quality monitoring and evaluation oversight and accountability practice across the UK Aid Connect Programme, ‘Evidence and Collaboration for Inclusive Development’ (UKAC/ECID) in Zimbabwe. Role responsibilities include supporting alignment and adherence to the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS). The role will provide accompaniment and support civil society organisations partners to develop community-based monitoring and evaluation approaches within the Global MEL framework of this programme, document evidence of change brought by the intervention using robust MEAL tools and methodologies. In terms of the accountability, the role will focus on establishing functional community- based feedback and complaints handling mechanisms, ensuring that the feedback loop is closed and the learning generated is disseminated and reflected upon throughout the project, partners and country programme. The role will provide in-country training and support on accountability to country programmes and partners, including maintaining records on accountability. A key delivery area for this role includes providing MEAL capacity building to CA staff and partners across the project and also support project reporting at all levels.
Duties and Responsibilities
Key outcomes
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
Leading on the development of the project MEL systems in country, designing and reviewing
the in-country project level MEL tools (theory of change, log frames, plans, data collection
tools) aligned with global guidance but adapted to country context.
Leading on the Outcome Harvesting exercises at country level – supporting the partners and
communities in harvesting their outcomes and organising and facilitating strategy testing
workshops
Supporting the development of the monitoring tools, partners MEL capacity building and CAID
so the right data is captured during the monitoring visits (and can feed in the different data and
reporting requirements that the project has)
Accountability
Lead on all Accountability and Learning activities of the UK Aid Connect programme,
‘Evidence and Collaboration for Inclusive Development’ in Zimbabwe, including compliance to CHS, feedback and complaints tracking, data analysis, verification, facilitate and capture reporting and reflection.
Delivery of effective community-based complaints and feedback mechanisms across Zimbabwe programmes in coordination with the Christian Aid accountability team.
Compliance with policies and procedures including reporting requirements and contribution made to other team members in the development and implementation of partner capacity building and training.
Role agility
Expected travel per annum Over 75 days On call/unsocial hours Yes
Surge capacity for emergency responses: YES - could be required to travel for more than 75 days
p.a. and for a period of up to 3 months but for no more than 6 months p.a. with no less than one month’s
interval between postings unless in extreme circumstances.
In order to respond to ever changing demands within the environment, Christian Aid operates within an
agile framework (both in workforce and operational) that requires from all employees, a high level of
responsiveness and adaptiveness to processes and structures making flexibility and a project based
working approach the norm. To sustain this system, managers may/will agree further details of specific
tasks and duties as part of the performance agreement. Any reasonable duty may be assigned that is
consistent with the nature of the job and its level of responsibility, and employees may be required to
change the focus of their role from time to time.
Role context
The role will be based in Zimbabwe, within the Zimbabwe team which falls in the International
programmes division. The role is key to ensuring the ECID- UK Aid Connect programme in Zimbabwe
has and operationalises a comprehensive Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning
Framework which is consistent with the Global MEL framework and Christian Aid’s global
Accountability Approach.
This includes providing capacity building to CA partners and staff across these areas of work
including, but not limited to establishing community based feedback mechanisms, documenting and
disseminating lessons learned, managing Community Perception Surveys for the baseline, Midline
and Endline evaluations, defining the parameters of these key M&E moments, complaints database
management and supporting all programme staff to prioritise cross cutting issues such as
safeguarding, gender and inclusion.
The role will play a central role in ensuring compliance with donors and organisational CHS
requirements. This role supports and builds the capacity of other Christian Aid staff in specific CHS
and Accountability requirements. It will also support the Zimbabwe UK Aid Connect programme to
meet programme quality standards and will manage the complaints and feedback databases.
Qualifications and Experience
Relationships
External: Work with partner staff, project district and local stakeholders, target communities, service providers, institutional donors, consortium partners and other civil society organisations.
Internal: The role is line managed by the Senior Programme Officer. In the areas of responsibility, the role holder develops relationships with Senior Programme Officers, Programme Officers, Programme
Finance Officers and Finance Assistants. This role links with the Global Accountability Specialist and the Accountability Officers for their accountability work. They will also link with the Senior Monitoring and
Evaluation Specialist and the other Monitoring and Evaluation roles across the Consortium.
Decision making
Provides support to partners based on frameworks agreed with country team. The post holder decides on the appropriate monitoring and evaluation systems for the ECID programme and they are responsible for the collection of key monitoring data, analysis and timely reporting of DfID.
The post holder leads on community-based accountability approaches and tools for the response and the presentation of information.
Budgetary/savings responsibility Supports the Senior Programme Officer in developing,
operationalising and reviewing programme budgets as required.
.
Analytical skills
The role's primary mandate is to support the ECID- UK Aid Connect programme in Zimbabwe to ensure monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning. Their monitoring, evaluation and learning work is
contingent on adequate analysis of the relevant application of the Global MEL plan to the local level. They will be able to detect any errors in the data collection and be able to make decisions about what to do with this data. They will be able to determine the purpose and function of data, understand the critical data to collect and the modality of that collection. They will be able to confidently analyse the data and use the data to make decisions about adaptation.
Their accountability role includes accountability to affected populations, and using feedback and learning generate to contribute to a quality response. This calls for field observation and accompaniment with
partners, supporting the development of contextually appropriate accountability approaches and critical analysis of partner reports, gathering learning and sharing that learning internally within Zimbabwe and
externally within the CA Accountability team. The role should also demonstrate linkages of the response to other workstreams
Developing self and others
The role is responsible for training team members and partner staff in new Monitoring and Evaluation systems and Accountability to Affected populations and CHS, and needs to keep abreast of evolving
standards and processes within the sector.
Number of Direct reports N/A Overall people management responsibility N/A
Role related checks
Child protection clearance Standard Counter terrorism screening Not required
Person specification
Applied skills/knowledge and expertise
General
Graduate degree in social sciences or equivalent
3 years’ work experience with institutional donor funding
Excellent understanding of the context
Experience of gender and social inclusion sensitivity
Direct experience of partner capacity development
Fluent written and spoken English, Tonga and Ndebele
Excellent report writing skills
Accountability
Knowledge of the Core Humanitarian Standard on quality and accountability (CHS)
Knowledge of accountability methodologies in development work
Experience of establishing community based feedback and complaints handling mechanisms
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
Experience in designing MEL frameworks: including MEL plan and data collection tools
Strong analytical skills and experience of conducting/ overseeing research or evaluation
At least 3 years community-based experience of Monitoring and Evaluation
Knowledge of a range of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods (including
participatory methods).
Strong understanding of working with Theory of Change
Experience using data analysis software such as power BI and other online systems
Experience using Kobo Collect or similar digital data collection tools
Desirable
Understanding of governance, power and rights
A professional qualification in M&E or data analytics is an added advantage
Knowledge of developing and implementing responsible data management systems
Strong understanding ethics of community-based data collection and research
Experience of Outcome Harvesting
Familiarity with MEL on Governance programmes
Good knowledge of donors such as DFID
Experience in managing feedback and complaints databases
Digital/IT competencies required
Word, Excel, PowerPoint Advanced Web content design & development
Basic
Internet based collaboration tools and video calling : Intermediate
Social Media : Intermediate
Data Visualisation : Advanced
