Emergency MEAL Coordinator at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Background/Job Summary

• Now in its ninth year, the Lake Chad Basin crisis has been estimated to affect 10.7 million people in one of the world's poorest, most drought-prone regions.
• As of January 2018, an estimated 5.2 million people are in dire need of emergency food assistance in Northeast Nigeria.
• Despite a scale up in humanitarian assistance, significant gaps remain, as thousands of people affected by the conflict have not been reached with adequate humanitarian support. Communities are in immediate need of food, nutrition, WASH, emergency shelter, and NFIs to save lives and restore dignity.
• Agriculture and livelihood support remain key as the ongoing humanitarian response transitions to support early recovery and resilience. Social Cohesion forms an integral part of the overall response.
• To effectively respond to the crisis, CRS' Northeast Nigeria emergency and early recovery program provides a holistic support package including food assistance, nutrition, NFI, WASH, shelter, agriculture, livelihoods, and social cohesion for both IDPs and host families.
• Where possible, CRS seeks to maximize project impact, efficiency and effectiveness by adopting market based approaches through e-vouchers and empowering targeted communities through participatory approaches.
• The primary roles for Emergency MEAL Coordinator include providing technical and field level support to improving emergency MEAL and information management systems in CRS’ emergency responses in Northeast Nigeria.

Specific Responsibilities
Monitoring & Evaluation:

• Champion and maintain a robust MEAL system for emergency response where MEAL related documents, reports and tools including ICT4D are organized, up-to-date and accessible.
• Lead and ensure that all emergency and early recovery projects follow CRS’ MEAL Policies and Procedures, CRS’ project management standards as they relate to MEAL.
• Ensure that donor’s MEAL and reporting requirements are adequately incorporated in projects’ M&E plans.
• Develop and continually update a MEAL operation manual in line with SMILER (Simple Measurement of Indicators for Learning and Evidence-based Reporting) approach for emergency and early recovery projects.
• Ensure the consistency of tools, indicators and methodologies for data management and analysis across projects as appropriate.
• Lead the implementation of data quality controls and annual data quality assessments to ensure the integrity of project data.
• Coordinate the implementation of program assessments and evaluations including baseline, annual, and end line assessments to recognize results of emergency response.
• Coordinate and lead needs assessments that may be required to inform new or adapted programming.
• Collaborate with the program team and Emergency Coordinator to communicate assessment findings to different stakeholders, tailored to the needs of various audiences.
• Ensure MEAL systems allow for timely and quality reporting both internally and externally and for timely decision making.
• Work closely with emergency state-based MEAL team Abuja-based MEAL Manager, ICT staff and emergency program staff to incorporate and maximize the value and utility of ICT4D initiatives, including ICT4D software, license management and necessary technical support when needed
• Conduct field monitoring visits events frequently with project teams and implementing partners. Document, summarize and report monitoring findings for program quality and decision-making purposes on regular basis.
• Conduct, document and report Post Distribution Monitoring, Real Time Evaluations and On-Site Monitoring using scientific methodologies oriented to emergency context including sampling and analysis.
• Monitor Gateway and coordinate staff for regular updates on critical and time-bound project specific information including annual BSDI updates for all emergency projects.

Learning:

• Coordinate and facilitate After Action Review and reflection events for learning with Project Management and Emergency Coordinators.
• Promote learning and assist response team on documenting and implementing lessons learned and good practices.
• Coordinate and conduct annual MEAL self-assessment of emergency response with Projects and emergency response leads.
• Support the elaboration of success stories and case studies - modify as needed based on intended audience.

Accountability:

• Lead the development and implementation of feedback and response channels to reflect the preferences of community members and beneficiaries.
• Coordinate and support emergency response for accountability specific requirements including accountability needs for distributions interventions
• Support programming staff to incorporate participatory methods into community level M&E systems and tools.
• Orient program staff and partners on the basic principles and practices of beneficiary accountability.
• Guide project managers to ensure that they consult with male and female beneficiaries in one or more communities to define indicators for project success.
• Ensure that beneficiary feedback is adequately analyzed and documented.
• Ensure that all sensitive and not sensitive cases are channeled (including documentation) according to the framework with a high level of confidentiality and neutrality
• Coordinate with Gender and Protection Focal Persons for accountability related cases that involves gender and protection factors

Capacity Building and Supervision:

• Train and providing on job support on MEAL and ICT4D to state-based MEAL leads and their teams.
• Engage direct reports regarding their development plans, determine their professional aspirations, and manage/coach them towards development objectives.
• Provide high quality mentoring and coaching of staff and partners.
• Address poor performance promptly and constructively, ensuring fair treatment of staff by identifying, documenting and providing adequate support to address performance and behavioral issues.
• Promote a work culture in line with CRS values: promotion of international and national talents, collaboration, and uniform adherence to CRS programming principles.

Qualifications

• Master's Degree in a field related to International Development, Research or Social Sciences or equivalent relevant experience and Bachelor's Degree
• Minimum of 3-5 years of work experience in a project management position involving MEAL responsibilities with an international NGO
• Strong knowledge of principles and current approaches to MEAL of development programs using both quantitative and qualitative methods, especially those of USAID
• Knowledge with beneficiary accountability mechanisms and ability to implement these
• Proficiency in database development/management, and skills in analyzing, interpreting and communicating data and information to various stakeholders
• Strong experience in conducting assessments and surveys
• Experience with facilitation, capacity strengthening and partnership building, with the capacity to empower staff through opportunities for growth & development
• Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals
• Supervisory experience and management and team building skills
• Excellent planning and organization skills
• Flexibility to work both in a team and independently
• Excellent communications skills, both oral and written
• Excellent self-motivation skills
• Ability to exercise sound judgment and make decisions independently
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Power BI, Web Conferencing Applications, ICT4D software ad devices, information management systems.
• Experience living and working, preferably in an emergency context
• Willingness to be based in rural North-East Nigeria and travel to field locations
• Familiarity with Red Rose One System preferred

Personal Skills:

• Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment.
• Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with culturally diverse groups.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to write reports
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented
• Cultural sensitivity, patience and flexibility
• Demonstrated personal accountability and driven to serve others
• Required/Desired Foreign Language: English fluency, including excellent oral and written skills, required.