Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Manager, Nigeria at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Req Number: I4523
Location: Borno
Position Status: Regular
Job type: Regular, full time
Department: Nigeria
Reports to: Chief of Party
Required Travel: To field locations in Nigeria

Background

• CRS is preparing for an anticipated multi-million-dollar, multi-year USAID/Nigeria Rural Resilience Program, which will support poverty reduction for vulnerable households in Nigeria. This effort will contribute to CRS' agriculture and livelihoods signature program area and ongoing efforts to promote resilience, recovery and development within Nigeria and neighboring countries around the Lake Chad Basin.

Job Summary

• The MEAL Manager will oversee all MEAL activities across Rural Resilience program that leads to robust evidence for data use and decision making, including assessments /surveys & routine gathering of project implementation information collection; accountability to beneficiaries, donors and other stakeholders; document retention and archival; capacity development of Rural Resilience staff on MEAL; compliance with USAID MEAL requirements; cross-learning among projects; and, CRS and USAID reporting.

Specific Job Responsibilities
Strategic guidance and leadership on MEAL:

• USE SMILER method to lead the development and regular updating of Rural Resilience MEAL tools, approaches, frameworks and databases, these include but not limited to: Theory of Change, Theory of change narrative, Proframe, Logframe, IPTT, DIP, MEL plan, FRM, Data flow, Stake holder analysis, reporting flow map...
• Ensure application of standardized MEAL tools and approaches across the program with respect to the MEAL Policies and Procedures.
• Support the CoP to monitor Rural Resilience implementation progress on a regular basis against USAID and CRS quality standards and international humanitarian principles through monitoring visits, data quality audits, spot check against reports and review of implementation reports.
• Build the capacity of Rural Resilience project staff and implementing partners in collection and analysis of data (method, formats, software, etc.), indicator measurement, feedback and response mechanisms, negative impact analysis, etc.
• Provide technical support to Rural Resilience program staff for the implementation of monitoring and evaluation activities, data management and integration of cross-functional issues.
• Directly lead on project wide assessments and surveys including baseline, midterm and end line evaluative surveys. This might entail leading recruitment, orientation, deployment and management of external consultants.
• Support iterative program development ensuring lessons learnt from implementation / assessments are incorporated into implementation.
• Foster a learning environment, Lead learning and knowledge management within the Rural Resilience project and ensures such best practice is communicated across CRS Nigeria.
• Ensure that project data are protected and shared according to CRS and donor principles.
• Encourage the integration of good ICT solution to ease the process of collecting, management, analyzing and protection

Vertical and horizontal accountability:

• Work closely with CRS and partners' Gender and Accountability Specialists to ensure robust and participatory beneficiary accountability and feedback mechanisms are established, used and reported against.
• Support the CoP in compilation of donors, Government Ministries and Agencies (MDAs) and CRS reports as per the agreed upon reporting schedules.
• Build the capacity of Rural Resilience in international and CRS humanitarian accountability frameworks including 'Do No Harm' and 'Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability' (CHS) (HAP, People in Aid and SPHERE).

Cross-cutting:

• Directly supervise CRS Rural Resilience MEAL Staff.  Serve as contact person for consultants.
• Coordinate consortium partners' MEAL staff attached to the Rural Resilience program.
• Build capacity of CRS and consortium partners' MEAL Coordinators / Managers / Officers to address their job requirements.
• Provide technical review and support across all components of Rural Resilience project.
• Incorporate required and emerging good practices into CRS regional MEAL efforts and ongoing technical support
• Integrate the MEAL community of practices
• Create opportunities for reflection and learning among MEAL advisors and practitioners within the Consortium, Country Programme and the Region.
• Communicate agency approach to MEAL and key findings, to Consortium Partners, Country Programme and Regional colleagues.
• Contribute to regional and agency technical guidance.
• Share MEAL learning and experiences in broader regional and global agency discussions, and with peer organizations.
• Determine and address regional or sub-regional priorities for advancing MEAL.

Key Working Relationships

• Supervisory:ICT4D Data Manager, at least two (2) MEAL Officers.
• Serve as contact person for MEAL consultants.
• Internal: Rural Resilience DCoP, Project Managers and Sectoral Team Leads; Rural Resilience Consortium Partners; CoPs and Project Managers of other CRS projects; MEAL coordinator at the CP level, TA MEAL Support Departments including Operations etc.
• External: Government Ministry Agencies (MDAs); UN agencies; Peer agencies (NGOs) and Community Representatives.

Agency Wide Competences (for all CRS staff):

• These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

Integrity:

• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Builds Relationships
• Develops Talent
• Strategic Mindset
• Accountability & Stewardship

Qualifications and Skills

• Master's degree in International Development or other relevant field.  Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• At least 5 years of international experience in monitoring and evaluation; with preferably at least 2 years on a USAID-funded activity.
• At least 2 years of senior MEAL experience on a similar program (agriculture-based, rural development and / or resilience).
• Prior MEAL experience on USAID-funded projects of a similar size and scope (over US$ 10M) in developing countries; experience in providing MEAL services on multi-sector, multi-year programs is desirable.
• Experience with USAID rules, regulations and requirements is preferred.
• Experience working in similar context (i.e. conflict and harsh environments) in sub-Saharan Africa required. Prior experience in North East Nigeria is preferred
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English. Knowledge of local languages preferred.
• Strong computer literacy with a full knowledge of office applications.