Thematic (MEAL) Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Officer (MEA)

TITLE:  Thematic MEAL Officer
TEAM/PROGRAMME: PQI LOCATION: Cairo Country Office
GRADE: CONTRACT LENGTH: 1 year-National-fixed

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:

The Thematic MEAL Officer will oversee support and capacity-strengthening across SCI Egypt Office to drive up and assure the quality of the data and evidence produced from our work, with a particular emphasis on data and evidence relating to results and impact for children in specific thematic areas.

The Thematic MEAL Officer will be responsible for coordinating all thematic data collection, compilation, analysis and use in coordination with relevant TAs, areas and fields MEAL Teams. The Thematic MEAL officer will be working on two or more of the thematic areas including Health, Child Protection, Education, and Livelihood; taking cross thematic topics into consideration including Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), gender and climate. The role will work closely with the area and field MEAL teams to ensure all programmatic and project data across Save the Children Country Office intervention are adequately collected, and shared with relevant TAs, Project Teams and Partners. The MEAL officer will also contribute to providing evidence and data in proposal development as related to their specific thematic areas. The Thematic MEAL Officer will aim to ensure harmonized and aligned data collection and monitoring to inform decision-making, accountability, reporting and learning in a timely and strategic manner.

The Thematic MEAL Officer will be responsible for routine Continuous Quality Improvement & data quality assessment for his/her respective thematic areas, information briefs, as well as regular sharing of thematic updates.

In addition, the job holder ensures that Quality Benchmarks for his/her respective thematic areas are used during program implementation of activities and puts in place a tailor-made strategy for reports, and best practices and thematic knowledge management. The Thematic MEAL Officer will work closely with the Research and Learning Specialist to cultivate a culture of learning within SCI and ensure that lessons learnt from program interventions are documented and shared with TAs, Project staff, partners, and relevant stakeholders and contribute to learning and research at SCI Egypt CO level.

The position requires a high level of professionalism, judgement, and a capacity to collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders in a very sensitive context.

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the post holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to have flexible working hours accordingly.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: MEAL Manager

Staff reporting to this post: None

KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY:

Program Design and Setting up a Strong thematic MEAL system:

• Assist in program design, planning, and implementation
• Develop Data Quality Assessment Plans and lead in implementing plans.
• Work closely with the program teams and local partners, to ensure effective monitoring, evaluation and reporting of program activities and results.
• Ensure quality control procedures and accuracy of entered data and compare it with the existing data management system to make sure all records are consistent and aligned.
• Provide support in the development of thematic MEAL Plans, tools, survey design, methodology, data analysis, and other services as may be required for program monitoring and evaluation.
• Support Head of MEAL on overall MEAL activities including support on relevant SC M&E procedures and standards, indicator choice/ log frame development, use of digital tools for data collection and analysis and on related work with partners.
• Monitor the use of global indicators in all current and new proposals related to their thematic areas.
• Follow up on global MEAL initiative and identify areas for cross learning and collaboration as relevant to their thematic areas.
• Provide support to area and field MEAL teams on effective approaches to using quality data and evidence in routine MEAL processes.
• Provide technical support to different CO teams and accountability team to generate and use reliable feedback from children and communities.
• Support TA and Head of MEAL in assessing cross thematic area; gender and child participation.

MEAL Capacity Building

• Provide remote and face-to-face training to groups and coaching/mentoring to individuals on SCI’s MEAL systems, tools and processes in accordance with the Quality Framework. 
• Quality assure monitoring and accountability data and evidence used for global reporting and insights (including relevant Program KPIs, ‘Projects on Track’ and Strategy Monitoring)
• Identify, develop and/ or deliver capacity-strengthening initiatives to ensure MEAL staff in country offices and our partners have the necessary competencies to generate and analyze quality monitoring and accountability data and evidence.

Build a Culture of Learning and Knowledge Management

• Work closely with Head of MEAL and Learning and Evidence Specialist to develop, pilot and scale new and innovative MEAL initiatives, such as the Learning Agenda, that facilitate learning, impact and evidence generation in Egypt CO.
• Support the MEAL Manager and Learning and Evidence Specialist with analysis and communications demonstrating the quality and impact of our work, drawing on a variety of evidence sources including PRIME, program evaluations, and Projects on Track (PoT).
• Work closely with the Evidence & Learning specialist to achieve the objective of strengthening our culture of impact and learning, taking shared responsibility for ensuring that quality data and evidence is used in Research and Evaluations, and for insights and learning.
• Establish and maintain a routine for sharing briefs, factsheets, and other reports on their relevant thematic areas.
• Support Head of MEAL, Evidence and Learning Specialist, TA, and external consultants in designing and conducting research studies and assessments.

Country office reporting:

• In close coordination with the MEAL Manager, MEAL team, and Thematic Advisors; support the reporting of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), CSP Milestones reporting, Country Annual Report and the Total Reach for his/her respective thematic areas
• Support in conducting Quality Benchmark field visits where needed and ensure proper documentation and follow up.
• Contribute to report writing including full reports, one pagers, briefs, highlights and other ad hoc reports required.

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

· Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values

· Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

· Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same

· Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others

· Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

· Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters

· Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength

· Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

· Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions

· Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

· Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

· Master’s degree in education, social work, psychology, sociology, demography, operations research, statistics, econometrics, economy, development studies, or related field of social science, with solid skills in research and M&E. 

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• Minimum of 4 years of relevant working experience in monitoring and evaluation design and implementation in both humanitarian and development contexts.
• Minimum 2-4 years of relevant experience in the thematic areas of education, livelihoods, health, child protection, MHPSS.
• Comprehensive knowledge and skills in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.
• Advanced knowledge and skills in statistical and econometric analysis using statistical applications including SPSS, STATA, and/or relevant applications. 
• Excellent statistical report writing skill in English and Arabic
• Abilities to communicate findings from advanced statistical/econometric analysis to general audiences.
• Good knowledge of and skills in M & E methods and practices.
• Knowledge of developing mobile data collection platforms.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office, including MS Excel.
• Strong analysis skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• High ability to function in a diverse and dynamic work environment.
• Strong facilitation and presentation skills will be considered a definite advantage.
• Ability to work with minimum supervision, and solve problems independently
• Excellent oral and communications skills both in English and Arabic.
• Track record of leading or delivering capacity-strengthening initiatives. MEAL training and capacity building experience
• A flexible and initiative-taking, proactive, inspiring attitude with the ability to manage and prioritize an unpredictable workload, including the ability and willingness to change work practices and hours in the event of major emergencies

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Safeguarding our Staff:

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.

JD written by: Malak Badawy, MEAL Manager Date: 18 November 2024
JD agreed by: Yasser Hashem, PQI Director Date: 20 November 2024
Updated By: Date:
Evaluated: Date: