Job Title: MEAL Officer
Department/Location: Program, Department Quetta
Reports To: Head of Office
Supervises: N/A
Context:
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has been operating continuously in Pakistan since 1954 in disaster preparedness and emergency response, while also facilitating the transition to early recovery and development programs in shelter, water & sanitation and hygiene (WASH), livelihoods, refugee protection, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)/drought mitigation, and primary education. CRS/Pakistan supports programs in three provinces (Sindh, Baluchistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-(KP) of the country through 15 local non-governmental organizations. CRS maintains offices in Islamabad, Quetta, and Tharparkar.
CRS Sub-office Quetta is currently implementing development projects through implementing partners in District Quetta, and Loralai primarily for the benefits of Afghan refugees in the protection area. Information and legal assistance centers, capacity building of law enforcement authorities, education, skill development and protection (GBV) Program in Afghan communities.
CRS Pakistan is committed to ensuring that programs are transparent, effective and accountable to both beneficiaries and donors. Beneficiaries need to be made aware of the humanitarian mandate and have direct lines of communication to CRS. Formal feedback mechanisms need to be set up to complement informal accountability systems and ensure beneficiaries a voice. Effective and efficient M&E systems are necessary to ensure that all projects are on target and that objectives are met within agreed upon deadlines.
Primary Responsibilities:
Monitoring and Evaluation: This person is responsible for maintaining a strategic overview of project impact and outcomes achieved by all CRS Quetta sub-office programs. S/he is responsible for providing M&E support to CRS Quetta program and partner staff and will focus on designing, implementing and evaluating M&E systems including developing monitoring and evaluation tools. Additionally, s/he will work with staff and local partners on collecting and reporting M&E data, visiting field sites as necessary to support partner and staff capacity building related to M&E.
Accountability: This person will ensure humanitarian accountability is incorporated into CRS Pakistan programming in the Quetta sub-office. S/he will adapt feedback mechanisms based on beneficiary preferences for how to provide feedback to CRS and expand these mechanisms to non-emergency programming in Quetta, train and build staff and partner capacity on accountability to beneficiaries and ensure that accountability is incorporated into regular M&E activities, such as assessment, design, monitoring and evaluation and other learning activities such as reflection sessions.
Key Responsibilities:
Design
- Develop project results frameworks, log frames, MEAL plansand detailed implementation plans for MEAL activitiescollaboratively with program staff
- Develop and refine project related MEAL tools collaboratively with program staff.
- Develop MEAL binders through participatory approaches with program and partner staff
Monitoring
- Field test MEAL tools with CRS and partner staff and modify as necessary with close coordination of the relevant program staff.
- Maintain MEAL binders through the project life cycle and update using iterative methods
- Conduct regular MEAL monitoring visits to the field
- Maintain efficient data collection systemswith the help of field and partner staff and assist in preparation of monthly/quarterly reports to donors and CRS management.
- Develop and ensure maintenance of information tracking systems (tracking sheets or databases).
- Develop an Indicator Performance Tracking Table for each project and use regularly with project/partner staff to examine progress towards objectives.
- Analyze data consistenly and share progress, trends, gaps with program staff and develop improvement plans as needed
- Ensure timeliness of MEAL activities
- Promote projects’ compliance with MEAL Policies & Procedures and PQ Guidances
Evaluation/Assessments
- Design methodologies and tools for internal assessments, surveys, and evaluations
- Develop ToRs in collaboration with the programming team for external assessments, evaluations and surveys
- Lead/accompany enumerator trainings, field data collection, analysis and report writing as needed for evaluation/survey/assessment events
Accountability
- Collaboatively develop and adapt feedback mechanisms based on beneficiary preferences for how to provide feedback to partner organizations and CRS
- Train and build staff and partner capacity on accountability to beneficiaries.
- Ensure that accountability is incorporated into regular MEAL activities, such as assessment, design, monitoring and evaluation and other learning activities such as regular reflection sessions.
Learning
- Work to ensure that lessons learned and best practices are identified and incorporated into current programming and new project designs as applicable
- Catalogue lessons learned and achievements in the field for better programmatic design and decision making, and for donor reporting and cultivation
Partnership & Capacity Building
- Orient CRS and partner staff on MEAL tools, roles and responsibilities and ensure compliance
- Develop and conduct trainings for CRS and partner staff on CRS M&E standards/guidance, MEAL Policy, tools, resources etc. as needed.
- In consultation with the program staff develop MEAL action plans on how to strengthen partner PQ skills.
- Coordinate, as needed, with other I/NGOs on MEAL
- Assist the Head of Office and the program team with other program quality initiatives, such as project reflection events, training opportunities, etc.
Reporting
- Assist the project team with report writing and editing as needed.
- Prepare timely MEAL data to support report submission for both the program report and IPTT submissions
- Develop MEAL visuals (charts, graphs, etc) to accompany reports
Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)
These are rooted in the mission, values, and principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and to achieve the desired results.
- Serves with Integrity
- Models Stewardship
- Cultivates Constructive Relationships
- Promotes Learning
MEAL Competencies
Within the agency’s MEAL Competencies Model, these are identified as key MEAL competencies related to the MEAL Officer’s roles and responsibilities.
- Monitoring
- Accountability
- Evaluation
- Learning
- Critcal Thinking
Emergency Response:
As CRS/Pakistan responds to disaster situations, staff may be called upon to support emergency operations. Willingness and flexibility to perform tasks other than described in this job description and work longer hours than normal as necessary to complete critical tasks is required.
Confidentiality:
- Keep all documents and information related to CRS’ program activities, personnel and development plans confidential.
- Adhere to CRS’ principles of confidentiality in relations to staff, partners, vendors and other stakeholders. Report to the management potential irregularities or any misbehavior that occurs.
Key Working Relationships:
Internal: Head of Office, Program Managers, Project Officers, all program staff, other CP MEAL Officiers and DHoP.
External: Partner staff, INGOs , targeted communities and other relevant stakeholders.
Professional Skills:
- Masters degree in development studies, social work, rural development or related field
- Minimum 3-4 years of M&E/MEAL experience in similar position in relief and development organization, preferably in INGO
- Proven experience of capacity building of local NGOs on monitoring, evaluation and accountability
- Proven experience working on data management software and databases such as (MS Access, MS Excel, SPSS, etc)
- Commitment to accountability to beneficiaries
- Training and facilitation experience, including designing training content strongly preferred
- Experience with humanitarian accountability including feedback mechanisms
Personal Skills:
- Computer literate (Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook, Internet)
- Excellent communication and presentation skills
- Proactive and self-motivated approach to work, with an enthusiasm for learning and openness to adapting.
- Strong analytical ability, especially related to problem solving and systems development
- Attention to detail
- Ready to travel to remote areas of Pakistan upon short notice for extended periods
- Fluent in written and spoken English
Preferred:
- Experience with participatory approach to community development
- Knowledge of local languages
- Familiarity with HAP, the Good Enough Guide and Sphere standards
Note: List of responsibilities, professional and personal skills are considered indicative and not exhaustive; actual duties may differ or change depending on office and agency priorities at the time.