MEAL Consultant

Background

Save the Children International is one of the leading development organizations working in around 120 countries for children on a global scale. Save the Children started working in Pakistan in 1979 after the influx of Afghan refugees and has maintained ambitious programming in the country. We have reached 14 million children and adults in Pakistan through health & nutrition, education, climate action, child protection, livelihoods and humanitarian response programs. At present, Save the Children is also working together with the Government of Pakistan in ICT, Punjab and Sindh in COVID 19 Emergency Response.

Objective

The consultant will be providing high quality technical guidance and support to innovate, strategically design and implementation of a quality, comprehensive and integrated MEAL System for the Pakistan country office. The consultant oversee the MEAL staff mentorship, and development; strategic and annual planning, internal reporting, proposal development, as well as programme development and MEAL resources.

Deliverables:

• Lead development and use of monitoring frameworks, tools and processes to measure performance and quality. This includes supporting thematic and operation staff to develop and monitor Quality Benchmarks across the country strategic plan 2022-2024 and various thematic strategies
• Work with the Program Development Unit, and PDQ Thematic Sector teams to ensure that all projects have quality assurance mechanisms integrated into their design and implementation.
• Lead and provide technical oversight for proposal development. This includes improving MEAL technical narrative and budgets within proposals, development of logical frameworks, and SMART indicators with technical teams and ensure that quality MEAL mechanisms are in place.
• Support MEAL aspects of donor reporting, including review of baseline, mid-term, endline or any other donor/project specific studies. Ensure accurate data collection and processing for all regular reporting including internal reports such as the Country Annual Report, the Programme Quality KPIs, categorised emergency sit reps, and “Total Reach”.
• Ensure that KPIs related to MEAL activities are regularly met through institutionalisation of robust systems for tracking, reporting and following up improvement actions.
• Ensure that evidence and learning is brought together from various projects and ensure the use of the learning to guide country and thematic strategies and while developing proposals.
• Support the development and implementation of the Country Strategic Plan (CSP) including identifying future opportunities for research and evaluation.
• Foster innovation by identifying opportunities to pilot new approaches or could expand to further areas of programming and to upgrade tools, systems and process based on advances in the aid sector.

Qualifications and Experience:

The selected Consultant will have:

• Master’s degree in relevant field or equivalent field experience
• Minimum of 7 years of programming experience within the aid sector, preferably linked to one of Save the Children’s priority technical sectors (Child Poverty, Child Protection, Child Rights Governance, Education, Health & Nutrition), and with the majority of that time focused on overseeing comprehensive MEAL systems that ensure programme effectiveness and quality.
• Experience adhering to international quality standards (Red Cross Code of Conduct, Sphere, and CHS) or equivalent.
• Experience and knowledge of monitoring systems, evidence generation and learning on what works (and doesn’t work) for children, including designing/commissioning, implementing and applying: needs assessments, baseline studies, evaluations and research, learning workshops and learning agendas.
• Ability to prepare and facilitate technical MEAL trainings and workshops.
• Skilled at communicating and influencing across relevant teams and offices.
• Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mind-sets.
• Experience of solving complex issues through analysis, defining and planning a clear way forward and ensuring buy-in.
• Ability to present complex information in a clear and concise manner.
• Proficiency in relevant data collection and analysis software.
• Proficient in speaking and writing English.