JOB DESCRIPTION
Title: Regional MEAL Manager
Location: Remote โ in any country office of Relief International operations (+/- 2Hr difference with Amman)
Travel: 30 % of Travel to COs
Job Family and Grade: Technical Family, T6
Pre hire checks
This role is classified as requiring standard pre-employment checks /enhanced due diligence
- Scope
Department: Regional Department
Reporting to: Regional Program Director
Direct reports: Dotted line technical management/oversight and support to Country MEAL Managers (or equivalent position) in all Country Offices within the Middle East
Budget responsibility: Not Applicable
Relationship management: MEAL Managers, Regional SMT
2. Context
About Relief International
Relief International (RI) partners with communities impacted by conflict, climate change, and disaster to save lives, build greater resilience and promote long-term health and well being.
Currently, RI is active in 14 countries around the world, including some of the most fragile: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen.
Relief International includes the four corporate members of the RI Alliance: Relief International Inc., Relief International-UK, Relief International-France and Relief International-Europe Under our alliance agreement, we operate with a single, shared management structure.
Middle East Region
RI operates in six countries in the Middle East region: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Yemen, with a focus on the four RI sector pillars: Health, WASH, Education and Economic Opportunity. We employ more than 4,000 staff (direct and indirect) in the Middle East region and implement a range of humanitarian and development programs valued at approximately $70 million USD on an annual basis.
3. Job Profile
As part of the Regional Programs Team within the Regional Support Office (RSO) for RIโs Middle East Region, the Regional MEAL Manager will work closely with the Regional Program Director and the Regional Program Team (Program Manager and Technical Advisors) to provide in-person and remote guidance to RIโs MEAL teams across the five countries of the Middle East region. This position will enhance the MEAL capacity across the countries and ensure that country teams are supported in the design and implementation of a robust MEAL system, high quality analysis and reporting, and the advancement of accountability and community led approach. The Regional MEAL Manager will also work directly with RIโs Global MEAL team and support initiatives that are focused on improving program quality and accountability across the region and organization.
4. Key responsibilities
Accountability and Complexity
- Provides regular and constant feedback with the stakeholders on quality and deliverables
- High analytical elements and will carry out major project work
- Provide leadership and direction for a technical area covering a group of diverse services at different levels.
- Contribute to the development of longer term operational and strategic plans, and translate longer term strategy into departmental work plans.
- Self-initiates projects within technical area and proactively seeks input from colleagues, ideas for collaboration and cooperation across own team, across other depts and external parties, collaborating across different disciplines and driving change.
- Representation in different forms and influences and advises internally and externally
Enhance Country MEAL Systems and Capacities
- Identify MEAL capacity-building needs of country teams and work with the global MEAL team to meet these needs through trainings and other support initiatives
- Through coordination with GSO MEAL staff, work closely with MEAL Country Managers to support and enhance their technical capacities and approaches to implementing MEAL practices within their country programs, serving as technical dotted line to these positions.
- Work with in-country leadership to ensure MEAL structures, systems and processes are fit for purpose
- Work with the global MEAL team to ensure all new country MEAL Managers are adequately on-boarded on RIโs MEAL framework, processes, and resources.
- Foster an organizational culture that recognizes the importance of MEAL, beyond MEAL departments, promoting innovation, evidence-based decision making, and an interest in learning across departments.
- Ensure country teams undertake quality design, implementation, and data analysis for a wide range of MEAL activities and provide support as necessary (e.g. KAP surveys, baseline surveys, post-harvest/planting surveys, post-distribution monitoring, Indicator Tracking Table Analysis etc.)
- Ensure that all country teams have robust Complaints, Feedback and Accountability Mechanisms in place, in adherence to global RI standards, and that regular reporting and learning is generated from the feedback received both at country-level and across the region.
- Work closely with Program Teams to ensure sound program design and implementation, meeting Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) and prioritizing program quality and constant improvement towards a robust community centered approach
- Support the global MEAL team with the roll-out of LogAlto, RIโs web-based monitoring & evaluation software, across the region and provide ongoing support to ensure LogAlto is consistently used (when feasible) to enhance reporting and analysis.
Enhance Proposal Design and Reporting Quality
- Support country offices in program design process along with technical referents - review and advise on logframes and/or results frameworks, theories of change (TOCs) and proposed MEAL activities during program design/proposal development,
- Actively participate in proposal review at RSO level contributing to ensure high quality proposals are submitted for funding opportunities.
- Support country offices during the mobilization phase (baselines), implementation and close-out and reporting phase (e.g. end-lines)
- Work with GSO, RSO Program Team and country teams to adapt data collection tools and methodologies as necessary, for any given project or donor.
- Provide support on data collection exercises, including needs assessments, PDMs, and evaluations for country offices, as well as regional initiatives (i.e. coordinate with GSO MEAL on region-wide data analyses).
- Contribute to the RSO revision of COsโ donor reporting to ensure accuracy of data are reported to the donor as per contractual agreements.
- Support country teams in the preparation for MEAL related exercise (i.e. KAP surveys, evaluation, PDM, etc.) and ensure that reports are of high quality, follow best practices and MEAL standards and support program reporting as per donor contractual requirements.
- Support the country teams with internal reporting to the global MEAL team (e.g. quarterly People Reached data) ensuring timely reporting as well as accuracy and consistency of data reported.
Promote Learning for Improved Program Quality, Strategic Development & Decision Making
- Support Regional Program Director in promoting RI new strategic framework at regional and country office levels,
- Support Regional Program Director with regional analysis of results to tell compelling stories about the quality and impact of RI work in the region and to contribute to learning and program development
- Strengthen and reinforce linkages between GSO led initiatives with the regional and country teams, to support the improvement of MEAL as an organization-wide priority as well as ensure that learning from the region informs RI global evidence and strategic direction.
- Bridge the Global-Country divide by supporting MEAL staff to understand global guidance, learning and evidence, ensure that learning from the region informs our global evidence and strategic direction, and staff at all levels understand that their roles all contribute to our global objectives.
- Work with country teams to capture Lessons Learned from ongoing and previous programs and subsequently capitalize on these Lessons Learned for improved future programming
- Work with country teams to identify and implement proactive Learning Agendas and support RIโs country teams to look beyond the day-to-day implementation and take on initiatives to analyze available program data and/or gather additional external primary data, conduct secondary data reviews to ultimately identify trends and patterns that can be used to design innovative interventions, attract new donors, and overall improve the delivery of future programs for the affected communities.
- Support Country MEAL teams to effectively communicate top level learning / analysis and monitoring data to ensure that country and regional leadership is able to make informed decisions on a timely basis
- Champion knowledge management, in collaboration with the global MEAL team and other TAD colleagues, through sharing of evaluations and lessons learned from country and regional programs and initiatives to inform program decisions and enhance Relief Internationalโs institutional knowledge.
- Ensure that high quality analysis reports are being generated region-wide to illustrate Relief Internationalโs impact in the region and that assessment findings are produced, including evidence of good practice and replicable programs, and that they are communicated via appropriate internal and external channels/platforms.
- Building collegial dynamic across country MEAL leadership in the region in order to support harmonized approaches and learning lessons between country offices.
Other Management Responsibilities
- Serve as technical manager to all Country MEAL Managers (or equivalent position) in the region, leading bi-weekly calls with each.
- Participate in meetings convened by Global Support Office MEAL department and champion new organization initiatives as requested.
- Participate in key recruitment processes for country-level MEAL leadership as technical referent.
- Participate in regional and global initiatives as requested from RPD and/or Global MEAL Director.
- Enhance cross-learning opportunities with counterpart in Africa-Asia
Behavior and conduct
- Ensures that behavior inside and outside of work promotes the values in RIโs code of conduct and safeguarding policies
- Acts with integrity and holds themselves accountable for being respectful, inclusive and professional
- Reports any concerns
Management and leadership
- Ensure the highest standards of behavior inside and outside of work promotes the values in RIโs code of conduct and safeguarding policies
- Be a model for ethical conduct standards for other team members
- Embrace diversity, and model inclusive and equitable behaviour.
- Ensure own actions and the actions of the teamsโ members they manage do not adversely impact the safety of the RI team and the vulnerable communities we serve
- Ensure donors, partners and communities are aware of RI conduct and reporting mechanisms
- Ensure safeguarding is embedded in all the work we do
- Be responsible for ensuring a culture and systems in place for reporting
- Report any concerns
5. Person Specification
Skills, knowledge and expertise required for the role.
Essential criteria
- Bachelorโs Degree required, masterโs degree preferred with relevant specialization in a quantitative field (e.g. Economics, Sociology, Statistics)
- Minimum of 5 years professional working experience in MEAL within the humanitarian and development sector
- Ideally familiarity with integrated Health, WASH, Nutrition, Food Security and Livelihoods, and Protection programming
- Extensive experience in data analysis, program monitoring, including designing monitoring systems, indicators, developing MEAL plans, data quality assessments, survey techniques incl. sampling, qualitative investigation, and statistical analysis.
- Demonstrated ability to coordinate complex activities, meet deadlines, and exercise sound judgment
- Fluency in English and strong English writing skills
- Exceptional analytical skills and proven skills in data management; and statistical analysis using SPSS/ STATA/ CSPro, or any other statistical application.
- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
- Excellent time management skills and resourcefulness with strong attention to detail
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and ability to guide others and build the capacity of diverse teams.
6. RI Values
Guided by the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, as well as โDo No Harm,โ Relief International Values:
- Integrity
- Adaptability
- Collaboration
- Inclusivity
- Sustainability