MEAL Manager

General Description of the Programme:

GOAL an International Humanitarian Organisation has had a presence in Turkey since 2013 and has been contributing to the migrant response since 2016 with a focus on responding to needs in health service delivery, social safety nets and the protection of vulnerable and marginalised migrants in southern Turkey.

GOAL has been working in Syria since 2013, responding to the acute needs of conflict-affected communities. GOAL is working in Idleb Governate, both through direct implementation and through partners, delivering food, non-food programming to highly vulnerable populations, and provision of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) through support to Water units, as well as emergency support to recently displaced households.

GOAL has been working in North Aleppo Governate since 2019, through direct implementation and through partners, delivering food, non-food programming to highly vulnerable populations, as well as emergency support for recently displaced household.

GOAL has two projects (ECHO funded LINK and PRM funded GREEN) in Turkey, LINK program targets refugees from nomadic / semi-nomadic backgrounds and those engaged in seasonal agricultural labor. LINK has been designed to address and mitigate protection concerns of the vulnerable / marginalized refugees through provision of critical information and raising their awareness on their rights, obligations and services available in Turkey, by sensitization/advocacy (targeting key stakeholders and service providers, etc.) activities, and Individual Protection Assistance (IPA) services to enable highly vulnerable refugees to access to basic, social and protective services available under the provisions of Temporary and International Protection regulations in Turkey. On the other hand, Green program aims to improve socioeconomic inclusion, resilience and self-sufficiency of highly vulnerable/excluded women and girls from host and refugee communities (Syrians as well as those living in program locations under the international protection regulation) including nomadic communities and seasonal agriculture workers from both communities through integrated and market driven livelihood opportunities and protection services, including language courses and vocational skills training on greenhouse production and agriculture; case management (CM)/coaching services, establishment of a women cooperative, protection outreach, information provision and awareness raising; and provision of special needs and individual protection assistance services.

Job purpose:

The primary responsibility of the MEAL Manager is to support the Program Director (PD) and Program Coordinators (PCs) by ensuring robust and well-structured monitoring databases (including remote data collection, monitoring and management systems and process for GOAL Turkey programs); and on time submission of high quality donor reports. The MEAL Manager will provide leadership and technical expertise to ensure that GT’s MEAL system is implemented effectively. S/he will be the focal point in the program for all aspects of MEAL. Reporting into the PD, the MEAL Manager will assist the PD and PCs in the development of donor proposals; and assist in program implementation, monitoring, and evaluation and donor reporting across all grants. The MEAL Manager is expected to contribute to harmonization of approaches, and countrywide strategies for program implementation. Advocating for accountable programs will be key to this role which should ensure evidence-based programming, internal and donor compliance.

Duties, objectives and competencies

• Leadership and Management of the MEAL Team including (MEL, MIS, and CFM teams)
• Oversee the GT MEAL budget lines, Assist in the development of new budgets for future programs.
• Provide capacity building, technical support and training to the MEAL team based in Turkey on all areas of MEAL
• Work with the Global HQ MIS team to ensure MEAL Management Information Systems (CommCare + Power BI) are effective and used for all MEAL activities.
• Work with GOAL Turkey partners and the MEAL Team Officers to ensure systematic monitoring and evaluation of programmes.
• Coordinate the process of collecting, compiling, and sharing of lessons learnt.
• Maintain and update the MEAL Framework for the country programme, bringing together tools and outlining systems. Develop new tools as required.
• Develop or update MEAL plans, and ensure that routine project monitoring take place on time
• Ensure use of Power BI software to facilitate near real-time analysis for each sector, promote learning, and work with the program team to initiate timely evidence-based corrective action where required
• Work with the PD and the Program Coordinators on keeping updated information for programme mapping and ensure stakeholder analyses are completed from time to time.
• Coordinate, supervise and review all assessments, evaluations and research – Initiate and work with Program Coordinators in designing and conducting programmatic analysis, surveys and evaluations.
• Be an advocate for learning in the programme ensuring that learning is captured and shared effectively, including case studies.
• Follow up with the MIS and program teams to ensure high quality of the collected data.
• Contribute and lead (when relevant) the development of internal data reports (IPTT, SCORE, Monthly HQ Report, Monthly Monitoring Report, Annual Country Plan, … etc).
• Ensure compliance for all participants and beneficiaries in the Turkey programmes in terms of data privacy, informed and signed consent and data protection.
• Liaising with donors and other project stakeholders as required

Proposal Input

• Support the PD and Program Coordinators in the development of strong data collection and monitoring & evaluation plans within each proposal, including work on log-frames and indicators, and ensure that project indicators are regularly and systematically monitored and reported.
• Ensure that all grant proposals and reporting include solid MEL components and work with the Programs team to develop appropriate results frameworks, log frames and indicators.

Accountability

• Oversee the roll-out and development of activities and training within the GOAL Turkey Accountability Framework and update the framework as needed in coordination with HQ focal points and direct supervisor.
• Oversee the activities of the independent beneficiary selection and verification team, ensuring beneficiary verification processes are independent and consistent.
• Ensure effective oversight and smooth running of GT community feedback mechanism.
• Work with CFM staff and ensure a well-functioning and user-friendly community feedback mechanism in place (CFM) and continuously improved including relevant CFM tools, tracking system and promotion materials.
• In cooperation and coordination with program coordinators ensure GT CFM channels and tools known by beneficiaries and used confidently.
• Continue to develop and improve on GOAL’s independent monitoring systems meant to ensure accountability, both to beneficiaries and to donors.
• Oversee the work of the Data Entry/Cleaning team and ensure the Program Database is up-to -date and accessible to relevant departments.
• Participate in and / or co-facilitate grant opening, closing and other management meetings in collaboration with the PD donor finance team, financial controller, respective Program Coordinators and media and comms team.
• Liaise with the PD/CD and donor finance team to highlight and when necessary, troubleshoot problems identified in project reports or data.
• Ensure compliance to donor reporting and proposal requirements. Maintain and update the filing system for donor reports, proposals, and other documentation that will provide secure and back up of all donor related files for ease of access and retrieval whenever needed. Work with Program Coordinators to ensure strong and efficient database for all program activities.

Other Duties

The post holder may be requested to undertake other activities as mutually agreed with the PD/CD.

Requirements (essential)

• Formal qualifications at graduate or postgraduate level in project management, business administration, international development, or another relevant subject.
• A minimum of three (3) years’ practical MEAL work experiences in a managerial capacity with M&E or Accountability activities within a humanitarian program with International NGOs.
• Strong knowledge of and demonstrated practical experience M&E methodology (particularly appropriate quantitative and qualitative/participatory research methods), data analysis and report writing.
• Excellent communication skills, written and spoken strong writing skills in Arabic and English, including previous experiences in proposal development and report writing experience is required.
• Experience working with critical donors and agencies such as ECHO, BPRM, UN agencies and others in proposal development and reporting.
• Good communication, interpersonal and motivational skills and a proven ability to lead a diverse team under challenging field conditions.
• Good team player, flexible and capable of working with and supervising a multinational country team, and capable of working under pressure and in harsh environments.
• Demonstrated experience with staff management, experience in distance management a plus.
• Proven capacity to build the M&E skills of colleagues, partners and community members.
• Confident presentation and facilitation skills, proven record in provision of trainings a plus
• Advanced skills with MS Office (particularly Excel, especially in power query and VBA).
• Experience designing applications/forms with ODK-based digital data collection software (e.g. CommCare, SurveyCTO, ODK, iFormBuilder, Kobo, etc.)
• Understand relational databases models (one to one vs. one to many).
• Advanced Experience working with Power BI preferred.
• Knowledge of statistical software packages, such as SPSS, Stata and/or R preferred.
• Good understand of monitoring and evaluation basics – including tracking progress against objectives, preparation of Log-frames, indicators etc., and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data.
• Knowledge of Sphere and Core Humanitarian Standards.
• Travel up to 40% to other GT program locations.

Requirements (desired)

• Proficiency in English is must. Proficiency in Turkish and/or Arabic is an advantage.
• Proven management skills with the ability to quickly re-prioritise activities to meet the demands of the programme in a rapidly changing context;
• Demonstrated ability to anticipate delays and bottlenecks, analyse risk and pro-actively manage it.
• Commitment to capacity building staff and partner organisations;
• Good team player, flexible and capable of working with a multinational country team, and capable of working under pressure.
• Demonstrated experience with staff management; experience in distance management a plus
• Proven capacity to build the MEAL skills of colleagues, partners and community members.
• Confident presentation and facilitation skills, a proven record in the provision of training a plus.

General terms and conditions

Safeguarding

Children and vulnerable adults a must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury and any other harm. One of the ways that GOAL shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

Accountability within GOAL

Alongside our safeguarding policy, GOAL is an equal opportunities employer and has a set of integrity policies. Any candidate offered a job with GOAL will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with GOAL’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, Code of Conduct, health and safety, data protection and confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behaviour protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behaviour of a GOAL staff or partner.

This Job Description only serves as a guide for the position available. GOAL reserves the right to change this document. Any published closing dates are estimated. Due to the nature of GOAL’s work we aim to fill vacancies as quickly as possible. This means that we will close adverts as soon as we have found the right candidate and this may be before the published closing date. We would therefore advise interested applicants to submit an application as early as possible.

Thank you.