Consortium MEAL Manager – Education in Emergency project

Job Title: Consortium MEAL Manager – EESDAC Project

Department/Program: Emergency Unit

Location: Garowe with regular travels to Project field sites in Somalia/Somaliland

2. Position Summary:

CARE Somalia in Partnership with Mercy Corps and DBG Somalia is implementing a two-year ECHO funded Education in Emergency Consortium project, named,

Expanded Emergency Education support for Disaster Affected children in Somalia (EESDAC). The project is designed to contribute to increased access to quality and protective learning opportunities for out of school children and improve retention for those at risks of dropping out to impact of various disasters. The project covers seven regions in the country, namely, Sool, Sanaag, Mudug, Bari, Galgadud, Banadir and Nugal.

The Consortium MEAL Manager will be responsible for the overall design and implementation of Monitoring Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) framework and ensure that all aspects of the project MEAL systems are successfully achieved in accordance with project design. More specifically the MEAL Manager will be responsible for designing and implementing effective and efficient monitoring systems for the project by working closely with the other Consortium partners MEAL focal persons and CARE Somalia Emergency program MEAL specialist.

Key responsibilities

2.1. Monitoring and Reporting

• Develop robust monitoring tools and templates, standards and approached for consortium member to enable timely and systematic data collection.

• Create synergy within the consortium MEAL units through harmonisation of tools while providing platform for collaboration and information sharing among consortium partners.

• Cooperate with MEAL officers to guide them project monitoring priorities and provide necessary support accordingly.

• Provide overall technical direction and oversight to program team in different areas for smooth implementation of the project.

• Ensure the project implementation process is of high quality and in accordance with the donor requirement.

• Contribute and consolidate project reports while ensuring the timely and quality submission of

reports to the Emergency Education Consortium Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for onward submission to the Emergency Director and donor.

• Support the consortium M&E units and take lead in conducting project baseline, rapid assessments, Post distribution Monitoring, KAP surveys and other studies.

2.2. Program Data Management

• Take the lead in the collection and analysis of all project data.

• Together with M&E leads, harmonize and standardize data collection, analysis and reporting tools within Education in Emergencies (EiE) project.

• Ensure timely collection of accurate and high-quality data to support project reporting and measurement of achievements

• Validate the quality of collected data sample analysis and take corrective measures to ensure accuracy and validity or program data.

• Perform regular field visits to ensure the quality project data collection to verify the accuracy of reported data.

• Create and maintain a central project database system kept for the project data and accessed by relevant consortium members for easy retrieval of project data.

• Participate in the development of templates and guidelines for data gathering, collation and reporting in liaison with project teams

2.3. Accountability

• In collaboration with Senior Accountability Officer establish a fully functioning Feedback and

Accountability Mechanism-FAM for the project.

• Build the capacity of the consortium members to effectively manage and handle community feedback.

• Working with consortium members MEAL units, develop awareness raising and community capacity building strategy to strengthen community’s understanding and use of the existing Feedback mechanisms.

• Prepare monthly feedback report detailing the effectiveness of the FAM system in terms of receiving community feedback and provision of relevant response to the community and share it with the management team for decision making.

2.4. Learning

• Support learning initiatives through contributing content development, document success

stories and human experiences, lessons learnt, best practices and communicating project impact and outcome in relevant forums.

• Strategically disseminate findings, knowledge, and guidance through various avenues, including but not limited to communities of practice, virtual or on-site workshops, conferences, and webinars etc.

• Identify creative and innovative ways to increase collaboration, learning and project efficiency

• Work with project team from all the consortium members as appropriate to ensure that there is good coordination and quality assurance on all assessments, knowledge management, program reviews and evaluations.

2.5. Coordination & Representation

• Build and maintain productive working relationships with a wide network of Education partners and stakeholders

• Lead regular technical review and planning meetings with the technical teams from partner organizations.

• Liaise with CARE Program Quality Unit (PQU) and other programs in CARE, Mercy Corps and DBG

to ensure cross sharing of information and learning within programs.

2.6. Other duties

• Perform other duties as may be assigned by the supervisor.

3. Key contacts/relationships

Key Internal Contacts: Emergency Director, Humanitarian Coordinator, MEAL Specialist; Sector Specialists/Lead (Health, Nutrition, Protection, WASH); Humanitarian Program Manager; Senior Project Officer, Project Officers and MEAL Officer.

Key External Contacts: Project implementing partners (mainly Mercy Corps, DBG), relevant UN agencies Education cluster, Government Ministry of Education – Federal, Puntland and Somaliland and INGOs working in the region.

4. Required qualifications and competencies:

• A Minimum of Bachelor with preferably a master’s degree in education or other social sciences combined with a minimum 5 years’ Work experiences in MEAL field working with reputable national or international organizations.

• Demonstrable experience and competencies in research, monitoring and evaluation combine with good technical knowledge in data processing and management

• Previous successful experience with Consortium operations will be added advantage

• Excellent verbal and written skills in English

• Proven and high-level statistical skills including design, data analysis and presentation.

• Excellent computer skills, particularly with Microsoft Excel and other statistical packages (i.e SPSS).

• Sound understanding of indicators, data collection methodology, data quality issues; ability to develop indicators and data collection tools and assess data quality.

• Good interpersonal skills as well as networking, flexibility and innovativeness.

• Knowledge of ECHO regulations and experience

5. Working conditions:

The Consortium MEAL Manager will be based in Garowe but will frequently travel to project field locations in Sool, Sanaag, Mudug, Bari, Galgadud, Banadir and Nugal to support all the three consortium members on the implementation of the Project MEAL plan. He / she will be required to comply with and operate within the framework of CARE Somalia/land safety and security protocols.