MEAL Advisor for Humanitarian Programmes

Line managed by: Head of MEAL Unit

Expected field work outside the HQ or home-base: minimum 30%

Requested presence at HQ: 1-2 visits per year

Expected direct support to country programmes (in the field and/or remotely): at least 70%

Based in: HQ (Prague), or home-based in Europe, Middle East, Africa or Asia (proximity to PIN’s programmes).

The MEAL Unit belongs to the Knowledge and Learning Department (KLD) of PIN’s Relief and Development Department. The KLD consists of a number of advisors with technical expertize relevant to PIN’s work, as well as programme development and institutional fundraising.

The purpose of the position:

• Update and promote the use of PIN’s MEAL standards and tools for Humanitarian programmes.
• Build capacity of MEAL staff in Country Programmes (CPs) on Humanitarian-specific MEAL.
• Provide on-demand support to CPs.

Main responsibilities:

Planning and Development of MEAL processes (20%)

• Supports formulation of PIN MEAL policies and guidelines for PIN globally (in coordination with the MEAL unit, the Humanitarian unit and the Knowledge and Learning Department).
• Contributes to formulation and update of policies and guidelines applicable specifically to Humanitarian programmes.
• Supports HQ Relief and Development Department (RDD) and CPs that implement Humanitarian programmes in identification of strategic priorities in MEAL and development of frameworks for procedures, processes and tools.

Technical assistance (50%)

• Engages with project / programme teams to support implementation of findings from evaluations and other MEAL activities in projects.
• Provides technical input on MEAL to project proposals.
• Provides support to designing and/or revising procedures for ensuring Accountability to Affected Populations (Community Feedback and Response Mechanisms, participatory needs assessments etc.).
• Supports implementation of PIN’s Humansis (beneficiary management system) in selected CPs from the MEAL perspective

Technical capacity development (20%)

• Supports recruitment of key MEAL staff at country level.
• Builds capacity of MEAL staff at country level.

Knowledge sharing and organisational learning (5%)

• Maps MEAL requirements of major humanitarian donors and shares them with relevant CPs.
• Promotes PIN key crosscutting priorities and use of PIN global indicators in RDD programming;
• Assists with mapping and collecting relevant MEAL resources, contributes to maintaining the MEAL section of PIN’s Knowledge and Learning Center and E-learning content
• Disseminates knowledge and lessons learned from Humanitarian MEAL processes across the organization.

Other tasks (5%)

• Occasionally represents PIN at relevant conferences, working groups etc.
• Coordinates with Communications and Advocacy Department (CAD) for success story content, communication tools, and with Compliance Department regarding accountability topics.
• Coordinates with the Humanitarian Unit and the other members of the Knowledge and Learning Department to ensure integration between their respective agendas, and MEAL.

Qualifications

Education

• BA/BS Degree in international development, social sciences or a related field.

Work Experience

• At least 7 years of experience within the international development / humanitarian sector;
• Minimum of 3 years of experience at senior level (manager, specialist) specifically in MEAL of multi-sectoral programming in emergency or early recovery settings.
• Experience designing and implementing MEAL systems for programmes funded by at least two of the main humanitarian institutional and bilateral donors (ECHO, USAID, UNCHR, UNICEF, GIZ, DFID, GAC, FCDO, SDC and Country-Based Pooled Funds/OCHA etc.).
• Proven experience in designing and delivering capacity-building activities;
• Proven experience with remote capacity building and follow-up is an advantage.

Technical Skills:

• Excellent technical understanding of contemporary MEAL methods and practices, with hands-on experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis;
• Strong written and oral communication skills;
• Comprehensive knowledge of humanitarian accountability principles and their translation into practice;
• Familiarity with methodological approaches such as barrier analysis for behaviour change (BA), knowledge, attitude & practices (KAP), coping strategies index (CSI), individual diet diversity score (IDDS), food consumption score (FCS), minimum acceptable diet for children aged 6-23 months (MAD), vulnerability and capacity assessment (VCA) etc. is an advantage

Languages:

• Professional fluency in spoken and written English is required.
• Familiarity with other languages used in PIN’s Emergency Country Programmes (Arabic, Russian, French, etc) is an advantage.

IT skills:

• Full professional competency in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
• Knowledge and Experience in using Mobile Data Collection Software such as Kobo, Survey CTO etc.
• Statistical and data management software (STATA, SPSS etc.)

People in Need offers:

• A committed, professional and friendly team, in a well-established and growing organization –
• Salary according to PIN salary scale
• 25 days of paid leave annually
• All costs related to visits to country programmes and Prague (in case the advisor is based outside of Prague)
• Medical and psychological support
• Travel insurance
• HEAT Training
• Opportunities for continuous skills development