Position: MEAL Assistant

Department: MEAL

Location: Baidoa, Somalia

Contract Duration: 6 months

Direct Hierarchy: MEAL Officer

Starting date: February 2024

Background on ACTED

Created in 1993, ACTED is an international non-governmental organization pursuing a dual mandate of emergency response and development interventions in 40 of some of the world’s most vulnerable countries affected by conflicts, disasters, or socio-economic hardship. With a team of 7,000 national staff and 400 international staff, ACTED implements 500 projects a year to support more than 20 million beneficiaries, notably in hard-to-reach areas.

ACTED goes to the last mile through programs and approaches that look beyond the immediate emergency towards opportunities for longer term livelihood reconstruction and sustainable development. Guided by the motto “Think Local, Act Global” and its 3Zero –Zero Exclusion, Zero Carbon, and Zero Poverty – strategy, ACTED puts local territories at the centre and provides a tailored support to local needs.

ACTED is looking for professionally confident, self-motivated, experienced, and committed team player to fill the MEAL Assistant position in Baidoa, Somalia.

Position Profile:

The Appraisal, Monitoring and Evaluation Assistant supports the Area MEAL Manager/Officer in developing and implementation of appropriate and viable appraisal, monitoring and evaluation systems that are in line with the ACTED’s global MEAL procedures.

Duties and Responsibilities

Monitoring Evaluation Accountability and Learning Systems

Technical and Systems Development

• Support to the development and updating of the country MEAL strategy, the consolidated MEAL work plan and MEAL frameworks for all ongoing projects.
• Support the MEAL Manager/Officer to implement the MEAL policies and procedures as described in the ACTED MEAL standard guidelines and make sure that the tools are followed as applicable.
• Contribute to an effective roll-out of M&E collection and reporting systems to all staff and partners through training, site visits, manuals, and other technical support as needed.MEAL Implementation and Management
• Support the development of ToRs and mission plans for assessments, monitoring and evaluations (baselines, mid-terms, endlines);
• Assist in the development of appropriate data collection and analysis instruments, methodologies (e.g. survey questionnaires, focus group discussions, key-informant interviews) and data/information dissemination/utilization plans;
• Assist with data collection activities and ensure that data collection teams are organized and resourced as needed, and that they deliver as per field mission plans and according to data quality standards.
• In the absence of a dedicated database team, maintain electronic and/or paper-based MIS systems for tracking and reporting all quantitative data and information including reporting on ACTED’s 16 global strategic program indicators.
• Assist in the analysis of MEAL data and help produce reports, factsheets with useful statistical analysis and presentation (charts, tables, histograms, box plots) as necessary in a timely manner.

Learning

• Document and share the lessons learnt and best practices on time and ensure that the knowledge gained contributes to the improvement of projects and influence the strategic development of future projects and activities.
• Support project implementation and improvement by providing timely information around project successes to be scaled up as well as challenges to allow ‘course correction’ throughout life of the program.

Beneficiary Complaints and Response Mechanism

• Assist establish, implement, and monitor the beneficiary Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM) for the country mission in line with ACTED standard beneficiary CRM procedures.
• Support building capacity and understanding among ACTED staff, partners and contractors on beneficiary accountability and CRM.
• Accompany the MEAL and/or project teams to the field to spread awareness about the CRM to beneficiaries, as well as local authorities and stakeholders in ACTED’s areas of implementation, during field visits.
• Support develop CRM IEC materials in a language that can be widely understood (including people with low levels of literacy).
• Regularly assess effectiveness of all information-sharing efforts and incorporate findings into revised approaches.
• Maintain records of CRM awareness raising and promotion activities (including approximate numbers of participants) and submit to Project Managers as required.
• Receive complaints through telephone hotline, in writing and in person.
• Follow up on complaints received by other ACTED staff with the same diligence as complaints received through the CRM directly.
• Treat urgent and/or sensitive complaints with the immediate attention they require and ensure a fast resolution.
• Maintain confidential and detailed records of all complaints in the CRM database and other electronic and hard copy filing systems, as appropriate.

Other

• Provide regular and timely updates on progress and challenges to supervisors and other team members.
• Participate in MEAL-related conferences and workshops when possible and stay up to date with best practices and new knowledge created in the field of MEAL.
• Perform any other related activities as assigned by immediate supervisor.

Qualifications/Skills Required:

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent in statistics, social sciences, or other relevant discipline.
• Prior demonstrated 2 years’ experience in a similar field; former experience with humanitarian organizations is a very strong asset.
• Proficient understanding of MEAL, including the ability to work effectively with tight timelines, high quality standards, and demanding, potentially overlapping priorities.
• Experience of social research methods to conduct monitoring and evaluation for humanitarian and development initiatives/interventions.
• Excellent analytical skills to interpret qualitative and quantitative data and discern useful recommendations for programme implementation and development.
• Proficiency in mobile data collection (design, deployment, and monitoring) is highly desired.
• Basic statistical analysis and IT skills, including use of SPSS/R/Stata and Excel for data analysis.
• Good English communications skills (both oral and written).
• Strong team player of high integrity, pleasant personality, ability to work under least supervision and meet strict deadlines.
• High level of integrity, transparency, and honesty.
• Good numerical, report writing and administration skills.
• Knowledge of local Somali language is a mandatory requirement.