MEAL Officer

Important Note: Hiring for this position is contingent to approval by the Donor which is expected by the end of October 2020

Background/IRC Summary:  The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 20 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity, and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

IRC has been working in Pakistan for over 40 years, and manages and delivers large, complex programs to meet the needs in health, education, protection, environmental health, and livelihoods for displaced, poor, and disaster-affected communities. IRC works in partnership with local government and non-governmental organizations and is currently present in 4 provinces including Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the newly Merged Districts of KP – Ex Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

Job Overview/Summary:

The Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences pose significant threats to the wellbeing and dignity of human lives. The pandemic will have far-reaching and long-lasting impacts in unpredictable ways. Therefore, the purpose of the position is to broadly monitor, document, and analyze the situation as a result of Covid-19 and day-to-day management of the program monitoring and evaluation to ensure quality and timely implementation of the project.    

The MEAL Officer will be responsible to extend support in achieving the good and great standards of Client Responsiveness and Core Humanitarian Standard throughout the project cycle. S/he will facilitate the project team to monitor the processes and outputs of the project. S/he will be responsible to align the respective project with IRC’s Monitoring for Action (MfA) standards and action and roll out all MfA Tools as per IRC’s MEL strategy and Client Responsiveness measurement framework.

Utilizing IRC’s M&E guidelines for COVID-19, context-specific support in monitoring and evaluation will be provided to the project. IRC will use a two-pronged M&E approach. IRC will adopt remote monitoring approaches (using channels like telephonic surveys, WhatsApp groups, and video calls among others) to monitor the project interventions, and where possible, physical monitoring will be conducted through implementation/Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEAL) teams.

Major Responsibilities:

Management and supervision

·         Support in conduct of Do not Harm assessment and identification of communication channels to ensure client voices are heard and contribute in programmatic decisions.

·         Promote accountability and ensure compliance with IRCWAY policies, global Humanitarian Standards for Quality and Accountability, including the complaint and response mechanism (CRM), to ensure that affected communities and people are at the center of IRC response.

·         Support proposal development activities related to COVID-19

·         Monitor compliance against MEAL requirements set in priority programs under implementation: regularly update database, keep internal MEAL mapping file up to date and ensure relevant MEAL docs available.

·         Support to Partner COs as required on the program implementation of Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning components.

·         Support on MEAL plans, studies (Quantitative and Qualitative), development of data collection tools and databases as required.

·         Support in preparation of periodic reports along with analysis as and when required.

·         Collect and organize existing internal and key external MEAL tools and resources and share them as needed.

·          Contribute to the development of MEAL/program capacity in the field through field missions, dedicated remote support, training and resource sharing as needed.

·         Will represent program/MEAL during review meetings and other events to share project updates and/or making presentations if required.

·         Maintain proper filing system of monitoring and data related documents in hard as well as in soft.

·         Carry out other such tasks as assigned by line manager.

Key Working Relationships:

·         Position Reports to:                        Senior MEAL Manager

·         Position directly supervises:       None

·         Indirect Reporting:                           M&E Manager/Project Lead  

·         Other Internal and/or external contacts:

• Internal:                                              Program and Program Support
• External:                                              Local Partners, IRC vendors, Program beneficiaries

Job Requirements:

Education

·          Graduate/Master Degree in Social Sciences, Economics, Statistics, Computer Programming or related field

Work experience

·         Significant experience (preferably emergency cash transfer programs) undertaking M&E/MEAL-related roles (at least 3 years)

·         Proven skills in working with both quantitative and qualitative methodologies and analysis

·         Demonstrated strong monitoring and evaluation skills, including planning/participating in evaluations

·         Ability to manage a large and varied workload, work under pressure and meet deadlines

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

·         Excellent report writing, proof reading and formatting  

·         Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to

·         Good communication and presentation skills.

·         Excellent IT skills (Excel, Word, Outlook)

·         Good interpersonal skills

Language Skills:  

·         Good written and spoken English and Urdu skills; local language skills (Baluchi and Pashto) will be a plus.

The IRC Core Values and Commitments

·         The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity Anti-Retaliation and Combating Trafficking in Persons.

·         IRC is committed to ensuring that IRC staff is suitable to work with children and have the knowledge s/he needs to uphold and abide by the IRC’s Child Safeguarding Policy.

o   Level of interaction with children: frequent direct contact with children

·         IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission. As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs. Our organizational policies, procedures and actions demonstrate this commitment.

Women candidates, minorities and persons with disability are highly encouraged to apply.