Job Title: MEAL Coordinator
Organisation: Save the Children International
Duty Station: Wakiso, Uganda
About the Company:
Save the Children International is an international relief organization that was established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic opportunities, as well as providing emergency aid in natural disasters, war, and other conflicts.
Job Summary: The job holder is primarily responsible for taking the overall responsibility of operationalizing the MEAL system and SCI MEAL approach in sponsoring programming both in Development (Wakiso District) and Humanitarian contexts (Kyangwali and Rwamwanja refugee settlement). The post-holder will be expected to lead on MEAL system implementation including monitoring of program quality, rolling out accountability initiatives, supporting program evaluations, leading on area MEAL budgeting and MEAL staff management. Additionally, S/he will be expected to lead MEAL capacity building of all program staff and partners.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
- Together with the MEAL Team and in collaboration with the Program Manager, Project Coordinators and partners, the MEAL Coordinator will be responsible for establishing and promoting the use of MEAL systems to ensure that the Program.
- It is informed on the extent to which both the emergency response and development interventions are affecting the lives of the targeted populations.
- Receives regular, timely and context-specific, meaningful feedback from our community members (who are or are not targeted by our interventions) partners, staff and that feedback effectively informs and signals areas where strategic attention is required.
- There is evidence-based knowledge on the positive and negative impact that both the emergency response and development interventions are having over the communities where SCI works
Program Monitoring, Assessments, Evaluations and Reporting
- Lead roll out of a robust accountability strategy, and MEAL systems and processes to measure achievement and progress towards achieving project objectives/outcomes and results/outputs against indicators (indicator performance tracker tables, quality checklists, etc.).
- Lead monitoring of program quality using quality benchmarks and ensure that findings are shared with relevant stakeholders and explicitly fed back into program decision making, incorporating accountability and learning .
- Ensure implementation and integration of regular monitoring systems in the area program and at various levels of program implementation (monitoring of inputs, outputs, outcomes, etc.).
- Contribute to child-focused and child-led program implementation, by ensuring children’s participation, reporting back to children, and child-led M&E in the area.
- Maintain a tracker of all program improvement actions bringing to the attention of the area SMT key program improvement issues that need action and appropriately sharing them with the Senior MEAL technical Specialist in the country Office.
- Support internal and external program/project evaluations as necessary and ensure establishment of project baseline data for all projects.
- Lead the management of information systems and roll out of mobile data collection.
- Lead compilation of data and reporting on, SCI global indicators and total reach reports
Partner Management
- Contribute to identify the capacity of present and potential partners in quality programming and ensure that MEAL support is provided.
- Ensure that MEAL aspects of programs implemented by existing partners are enforced.
Accountability and Organizational Learning
- Support the MEAL Manager with learning activities. For instance, assist in planning program review workshops and preparing lessons learned reports to foster continuous improvement and knowledge sharing within the organization.
- Facilitate the documentation of best practices and lessons learned from various projects to enhance organizational learning and inform future program design.
- Promote active involvement of beneficiaries and children in monitoring and evaluating Save the Children development and emergency projects and programs. This includes the implementation and management of the Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM) to ensure their voices are heard and their feedback is integrated into project evaluations.
- Ensure accountability systems are established engaging beneficiaries and stakeholders in evaluations, impact assessments and research.
Representation and Advocacy
- Ensure that Save the Children’s work is coordinated with efforts of other agencies and government, and support Interagency Coordination forums, advocating for the specific needs of children. Participate in Interagency coordinated joint MEAL activities (for instance, inter-agency RTEs);
- Contribute to communications and media work as required, including verifying and ensuring the relevancy of case studies and program success stories.
Staff Management, Mentorship, and Development
- Ensure that all staff understand and are able to perform their role in both emergency and development contexts;
- Manage the MEAL Team, define expectations, provide leadership and technical support as needed, and evaluate direct reports regularly;
- Building capacity and knowledge of staff and partners on MEAL systems, strengthening organizational knowledge and understanding of effective programming through networking, experience sharing and searching for innovative ideas.
- Identify training needs of staff in respect to applying monitoring plans/tools; collect, analyze and report on findings periodically and conduct trainings to address the capacity gaps;
- Ensure the recruitment and training of MEAL staff as appropriate and ensure availability of appropriate professional development opportunities for MEAL staff;
- Manage the performance of all staff with the MEAL Team through:
- Effective use of the Performance Management System including the establishment of clear, measureable objectives, ongoing feedback, periodic reviews and fair and unbiased evaluations;
- Coaching, mentoring and other developmental opportunities;
- Recognition and rewards for outstanding performance;
- Documentation of performance that is less than satisfactory, with appropriate performance improvements/workplans
- Documentation of performance that is less than satisfactory, with appropriate performance improvements/work plans
- Support the development of an organizational culture that reflects our dual mandate values, promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation, and frees up our people to deliver outstanding results for children and excellent customer service for our members and donors.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience: To be a strong supporter and advocate for children in this role you will need to have:
- A degree in an area of social development or equivalent.
- Minimum three years practical experience in M&E system coordination/implementation in a large international non-governmental organization or other international relief/development body.
- Demonstrable track-record in data tracking and evaluation, with the ability to support staff and partners on M&E methodology and analyze and disseminate complex information to a range of stakeholder audiences.
- Well-developed research, analytical (qualitative and quantitative), documentation and report-writing and skills, with competence in participatory research methods.
- Ability to write clear and well-argued assessment and project reports. A high level of written and spoken English
- Computer literacy, particularly in Word, Excel, Statistical Packages and PowerPoint.
- Excellent planning, coordination, and reporting skills, with the ability to organize a substantial workload comprised of complex, diverse tasks and responsibilities.
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills in English, with experience working in multicultural, multi-location, values driven teams.
- Ability and willingness to dramatically change work practices and hours, and work with incoming surge teams, in the event of emergencies
- Commitment to and understanding of Save the Children International’s aims, values and principles
- Information Communication Technology literate
How to Apply:
All candidates who wish to join Save the Children should apply online at the link below.
Deadline: 16th May 2025
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