Job title: Monitoring Evaluation Accountability & Learning (MEAL) Manager

Reporting to: Country Director, Somaliland

Responsible for: SHINE Programmes (Mott MacDonald, UNICEF, CHANGE/PSI) and SAHAN Projects

Base: HPA Country Office, Hargeisa, Somaliland

Job purpose: Ensures that a robust MEAL system is in place that produces high quality reporting regarding SHINE and CHANGE programme results and evidence of impact for accountability to stakeholders.

Application deadline: 20th January, 11.59pm

Background:

Health Poverty Action works for health and global justice in partnership with people who have been marginalised and pushed into poverty.

We work with communities to help them demand their right to health, and to challenge the power imbalances that deny them their health rights. Our distinct approach can be summarised as a combination of three areas:

• We approach health as an issue of social justice
Health is a Human Right that many are currently denied. The greatest causes of poor health worldwide are political, social and economic injustices. This is a global scandal which causes unnecessary suffering on a massive scale.

We tackle these complex root causes of social injustice in two ways. Firstly, we work in partnership with communities to help them take back the power to improve their own health. Secondly, we campaign on a national and international level to change policy, and destroy unjust power relations.

• We prioritise those missed out by others
We believe in health for all, without exclusion. Development organisations tend to cluster together, which leaves large populations with almost no support at all. People may be living in hard to reach areas, or are difficult to support for some other reason. We make these most neglected populations our highest priority.

• We address the full range of factors which impact on health
Health is a combination of physical, mental and social wellbeing. As well as strengthening health services we work on areas such as nutrition, water, sanitation, gender discrimination, and income generation. Tackling one cause of poor health in isolation can give the appearance of improving health in the short term, but tackling numerous factors together saves lives.

We are acutely aware of how our own power dynamics as an organisation impact on the people we work with, and we work in partnership with communities to create long term relationships built on trust.

In 2017 we formed a strategic partnership with Find Your Feet. The partnership ensures Find Your Feet’s livelihoods work will continue through Health Poverty Action.

We are also proud to be one of the small number of organisation recognised as being structurally part of the global People’s Health Movement. This quote from the founding document of this movement, the People’s Health Charter, sums up the essence of Health Poverty Action’s values and identity:

“Health is a social, economic and political issues and above all a fundamental human right. Inequality, poverty, exploitation, violence and injustice are at the root of ill-health and the deaths of poor and marginalised people. Health for all means that powerful vested interests have to be challenged, and that political and economic priorities have to be drastically changed. This Charter encourages people to develop their own solutions, and to hold accountable local authorities, national governments, international organisations and corporations.”

JOB DESCRIPTION

Context of the role

HPA been working in Somaliland since 1994 and has broadcast a radio programme from Hargeisa since 1999 using various international and local radio stations. HPA has, over the years, successfully implemented a number of projects supported by the European Commission (EC), UK Department for International Development (DFID/UKAID), UNICEF, WFP, UNFPA, Global Fund and other trusts and foundation. Currently, this includes partnerships/consortia with Population Services International (PSI) for the DFID funded CHANGE Programme; Mott MacDonald for the DFID funded SHINE programme; UNICEF for the DFID funded SHINE Programme and WFP supported nutrition programme in partnership with a number of local NGO partners.

Health Poverty Action (HPA) is seeking a Monitoring, Evaluation Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Specialist to provide technical leadership and strategic direction for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and learning activities for DFID funded Somali Health and Nutrition Programme (SHINE). It is a five-year (2016–21) programme that aims to tackle high levels of preventable maternal and child deaths among Somali women and children. This project is supported by three fund management offices (PSI, Mott MacDonald and UNICEF) and implemented by Health Poverty Action in nine districts of Somaliland.

The MEAL Specialist will provide technical leadership to develop the programme framework, plans and indicators to capture project performance results and provide effective, accurate and timely monitoring, evaluation and reporting of all project activities. The MEAL Specialist will work closely with the MEAL Officers to design, implement and supervise the program’s MEAL activities, ensuring that lessons learned are integrated into program implementation to continuously improve quality of interventions and outcomes. The MEAL Specialist will be responsible for strengthening information management and data quality and improving knowledge sharing and learning across the organisation. The MEAL Specialist is responsible for documenting and disseminating program successes and challenges to HPA, Fund Managers and the Donor. The MEAL Specialist will also be responsible for designing and conducting operations research.