MEAL ADVISOR

Trócaire works in partnership with local and church organisations, supporting communities in over 20 developing countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East to bring about lasting change. Trócaire envisages a just and peaceful world where; people’s dignity is ensured, and rights are respected; basic needs are met and resources are shared equitably; people have control over their own lives; those in power act for the common good.

The Monitoring, Evaluation Accountability and Learning Advisor role is a replacement role on the Trócaire Sierra Leone team based in Freetown. The MEAL Advisor will be responsible for ensuring a systematic approach to Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) in the Country Programme and will lead the implementation of the country programme M&E system, track outputs and outcomes throughout the project lifespan and manage data effectively, thus contributing to quality reporting, continuous learning, programme adaption, innovation and increased visibility of the impact of Trócaire’s work. The MEAL Advisor will work closely with partners on improving their internal M&E systems, providing coaching and accompaniment to partner staff in MEAL capacities, skills and tasks. The MEAL Advisor will support the country office to increase accountability to project participants, partners, donors and other stakeholders, guided by Trócaire’s Accountability & Programme Quality Framework (APQF), and contribution to embedding the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) benchmarks in the country programme.

For the candidate with the required experience and passion for the role, Trócaire offers a competitive package of salary and benefits.
Reporting to Programme Manager, this is a Fixed Term contract for 1 year with possibility of extension based on funding, based in Freetown, Sierra Leone and is unaccompanied.

Safeguarding Programme Participants-Children & Adults Trócaire is committed to Safeguarding people within our programmes from Exploitation and Abuse and has specific policies on this commitment (including a Global Code of Conduct) which outlines the expected behaviour and responsibility of all staff, consultants and other organisational representatives. Any candidate offered a job with Trócaire will be expected to sign Trócaire’s Safeguarding Policies and Global Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents.

Key Duties & Responsibilities
Technical support
• Provide technical support to the programme team to implement and update the integrated Programme/Projects MEL plans and to design and implement Results Frameworks for new projects
• Provide training and technical advice on monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning to programme staff, including tool selection, data collection, analysis and interpretation including qualitative and quantitative methodologies.
• Provide technical support on the design, updating and reporting on Results Framework for Programmes and Projects especially Irish Aid RFs.
• Provide technical support to the Programme Team on measuring reach including the annual collection and reporting of reach at country level.
• In collaboration with Programme Officers (POs), lead in conducting timely monitoring and learning activities, including oversight and quality assurance of field data collection, data management and analysis that will contribute to quality reporting increased accountability, visibility of programme impact and continual programme improvement.
• Support the programme team and partners in strategic targeting of programme participants in line with organisational standards.
• Advise and support POs to champion gender sensitive data collection and analysis, including the use of practical indicators and monitoring tools and processes
• Advise on the use of Trócaire’s global common indicators, tools and methodologies in programmes
• Lead the development, design and management of programme or project evaluations, baselines or research.
• Support CMT to implement the country’s programme accountability framework, including feedback and complaints mechanisms, to ensure the sharing of monitoring information with programme participants and other stakeholders.
• Support the programme team to use M&E learnings to inform and adapt programme implementation.
• Support CMT to implement key Accountability & Programme Quality Framework (APQF) activities and achieve the CHS benchmarks/ as outlined in the Trócaire Country Programme Strategy.
• Assist in the development of donor reports in close coordination with colleagues and partners.

Strengthening MEAL related partner capacity
• Develop and implement a partner M&E capacity development plan, generating training materials and resources where needed.
• Work with POs to support partner use of results based management and engagement with programme learning and review processes.
• Through training and close accompaniment, support partner staff to develop skills and competencies to gather, manage and analyse quality gender-sensitive data.
• In coordination with the programme manager, conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments and implement relevant action plans with partners.
• Mentor partners in their use of digital data collection and advise on data protection and security.
• Support and mentor partner staff to analyse and interpret data to inform programme quality control, produce quality donor reports, document lessons learned and programme impact and to inform future project development.
• Support partners to implement quality field monitoring in a manner that is sensitive to the different needs of programme participants.
• Support partners in establishing their accountability practices, including safeguarding, complaints and response mechanisms, participation and information sharing mechanisms.

Documenting and dissemination of learning
• Support partners to build internal MEAL capacity and where appropriate adopt Trócaire MEAL approaches.
• Document and share partner M&E tools and training resources at country and organisation level
• Capture lessons from partner capacity building to share at country and organisational level.
• Actively engage with the Global MEAL Team sharing learning from Sierra Leone.
• Learn from other organisational and external documented learning in rolling out new approaches and methods (e.g. digital data monitoring and innovative participatory M&E methods) and explore how to apply these in the Sierra Leonean context.

Other
• Attendance at strategic meetings with donors, consortium members or key stakeholders in Sierra Leone in relation to programming, particularly MEAL.
• Participate in wider organisational planning and review work.
• Any other reasonable duty as may be assigned by the line manager that is consistent with the nature of the job and its level of responsibility.

Behavioural Competencies in Line with Trócaire’s Competency Framework
• Leading: Reflecting our values of Participation & Accountability, acts to inspire and lead others to achieve their potential, demonstrating Trócaire’s values with integrity in order to achieve our organisation’s objectives.
• Communicating: Reflecting our value of Participation, being one organisation, communicating clearly and transparently across, teams, units, divisions, locations and other external organisations. Getting our message across with impact.
• Collaborating: Reflecting our values of Participation & Solidarity, partnering effectively as One Trócaire organisation and, in solidarity, maintains positive relationships built on trust and respect.
• Stewardship of Resources: Reflecting our value of Accountability and decision-making around the best use of resources. Using our resources transparently, sustainably, ethically, fairly & with integrity; acknowledging Trócaire’s reputation in the use of resources.
• Delivering Results: Reflecting our values of Accountability & Perseverance, getting a quality job done through effective performance, planning and decision making.
• Continual Improvement & Learning: Reflecting our values of Participation & Courage, constantly looking to learn and develop self, employees, and partners to better fulfil Trócaire’s’ mission.
• Flexibility & Change: Reflecting our values of Participation & Courage, adapts positively to change and to different ways of doing things; manages or takes part in change processes in a way that is appropriate to role in the organisation.

Person Specification – Essential Requirements
(E) Qualification

• Degree in international development, economics, statistics, social science, or a related field.

(E) Experience

• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in programme implementation including significant experience in monitoring and evaluation, accountability and learning.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in using the results based management approach
• Previous experience report writing for major international donors such as European Union, UN, Irish Aid, UK donors, etc..
• Experience in participatory M&E approaches.
• Previous experience working with local partner organisations.
• Experience working on issues of Gender, Vulnerability and Women’s Empowerment.

(E) Skills

• Technical skills to implement M&E in a gender-sensitive manner, including tool design, sampling, data collection, analysis, participatory rural appraisal and report writing.
• Ability to develop indicators, tools and processes for monitoring Women’s Empowerment and livelihoods interventions are particularly desirable.
• Ability to analyse and synthesize large amounts of data into different formats (e.g., reports, short summaries, presentations).
• Experience leveraging performance monitoring data for improving ongoing project management.
• Facilitation, coordination and communication skills, with an ability to communicate to a variety of audiences in a variety of formats.
• High level of proficiency in Excel, Word, PowerPoint and online data management systems such as KOBO collect or CommCare.
• Excellent spoken and written English.

(E) Qualities

• Commitment to Trócaire’s Vision, Mission and Values and an understanding of a partnership approach to development.
• Sympathetic understanding of the Catholic Church’s role in relief and development.
• Ability to work to deadlines with accuracy and attention to detail.
• Strong team player who can establish solid working relationships with colleagues.

(E) Other

• Willingness to travel frequently in country.
• Able to work irregular hours on an occasional basis.

Person Specification – Desirable
(D) Qualification

• Master’s degree in international development, economics, statistics social science, or a related field.

(D) Experience Experience in feedback and complaints handling

• Knowledge of data protection and accountability in an INGO setting