Area MEAL Officer

Founded in 1994, Acted is a non-governmental organization with headquarters in Paris, France. Independent, private and not-for-profit, Acted respects principles of strict neutrality and impartiality in its decisions and operates according to non-discrimination and transparency principles. Acted endeavors to respond to humanitarian crises and build resilience; promote inclusive and sustainable growth; construct effective governance and support the building of civil society worldwide by investing in people and their potential. With a budget of 236 million EUR in 2017, Acted is active in almost 37 countries and implements more than 500 projects a year reaching over 14 million beneficiaries with 300 internal staff and 4,300 national staff worldwide.

 In Pakistan, Acted has been active since 1993 and has provided assistance across all provinces to an estimated 6.9 million people. The assistance has included emergency response to meet the immediate and life-saving needs of natural disasters and complex emergency-affected households, as well as recovery and development support in the form of education and livelihoods promotion and assistance.

Objectives

• Implement solid MEAL systems and mechanisms that are in line with global MEAL procedures and deliver effective research/outputs in a way to informs timely decision-making and the adoption of sound corrective measures.
• Ensure lessons learned and best practices are discussed and documented.
• Contribute to the effective functioning of beneficiary complaints and response mechanisms and enhance the trust and confidence of beneficiaries, identify areas of our work that need to be improved and ensure that  ACTED  learns from the feedback provided through this process. 
• Ensure the operations and delivery of MEAL functions through effective management of MEAL team members in the area of assignment.
• Area MEAL Officer will proactively support the Child Safeguarding function embedded within WASH/Livelihood projects, focusing on supporting and strengthening child safeguarding at every stage of the project in line with ACTED safeguarding policies. 

Duties and Responsibilities 

MEAL Systems

Technical and Systems Development

• Contribute to the development and updating of the country MEAL strategy, the consolidated MEAL work plan and MEAL frameworks for all ongoing projects at area level;
• Ensure that MEAL findings are reflected and their recommendations are incorporated in future concept notes, proposals and implementation plans;
• 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

• Develop the ToRs and mission plans and carry out assessments, monitoring, and evaluations (baselines, mid-terms, landlines) as reflected in the ToR and mission plan;
• Develop and oversee the implementation of appropriate data collection and analysis instruments, methodologies (e.g. survey questionnaires, focus group discussions, key-informant interviews) and data/information dissemination/utilization plans;
• Closely supervise 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;
• 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;
• Analyze MEAL data and produce reports, and factsheets with useful statistical analysis and presentation (charts, tables, histograms, box plots) as necessary in a timely manner;
• Measure and report on qualitative and quantitative input, process, output, outcome, impact, objective, and goal-level performance indicators for all projects;
• Provide data to the Project Development Team for use in preparation of reports to donors and other stakeholders, as required;
• Contribute to donor proposals and fundraising efforts (particularly logical-framework designs, formulation of SMART indicators and MEAL budgets) and reports as and when required;
• Provide MEAL-related capacity building and awareness to implementing partners and other institutions supported by ACTED as appropriate as and when required;
• The candidate shall ensure compliance with ACTED`s safeguarding policies and procedures. He/she is expected to attend all staff and volunteers training on child protection or working with adults at risk (SAFEGUARDING);
• He/she shall ensure that ACTED`s strategic vision related to cross-functional work-streams of safeguarding, gender and inclusiveness are ensured at all levels;
• The candidate will help reduce and manage risk for children, adults and vulnerable populations and for the organization; and
• Represent ACTED in different forums on MEAL-related issues when required.

Learning

• Contribute to proactive dissemination and use of knowledge gained through MEAL activities among Project Managers, Technical Coordinators and Project Development Managers/Officers;
• Contribute to organizing and facilitating learning events in order to capture best practices and lessons learned when a project closes or as required as per assigned;
• Document and share the lessons learnt and best practices on time and ensure that the knowledge gained contributes to the improvement of projects and influences 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

Oversight of the Beneficiary CRM (only applicable in the absence of an MEAL Manager)

• Establish, implement and monitor the  beneficiary ACTED Feedback Mechanism (AFM) for the area office in line with ACTED standard beneficiary AFM procedures;
• Ensure the effective functioning of the beneficiary AFM and that beneficiary complaints/feedback is adequately captured, analyzed, addressed and responded to in a timely manner and utilized by the program and coordination teams;
• Oversee the proper management of the project AFM central database at the area level;
• Build capacity and understanding among ACTED staff, partners and contractors on beneficiary accountability and AFM.

Contribution to the Beneficiary AFM

• Contribution to the strengthening of of Beneficiary ACTED Feedback Mechanism (AFM) through best practices and lessons learned.  

MEAL Team Management

• Ensure that staff under direct responsibility understand and are able to perform their roles and responsibilities;
• Manage MEAL Assistants, Monitors and Enumerators delineating their responsibilities and following the work plans and day-to-day activities;
• Ensure a positive working environment and good team dynamics;
• Manage interpersonal conflicts among team members;
• Undertake regular appraisals of relevant staff;
• Identify the MEAL training needs of team members and discuss plans with the MEAL Manager for both internal and external training;
• Coach, train, and mentor MEAL Assistants, Monitors and Enumerators with the aim of strengthening their technical capacity, and exchanging knowledge within the MEAL team;

Other

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

Key Performance Indicators

• Number of assessments and evaluations conducted over the past 6 months
• Number of monitoring missions conducted over the past 6 months
• The number of monitoring cycles closed with a way forward discussion conducted with the project and coordination teams within the timeline given in ACTED’s MEAL guidelines and over the past 6 months
• Mechanism in place and functional to provide data on project indicators to PDD in a timely manner
• Mechanism in place and functional that allows at least the reporting on ACTED’s 16 global standard indicators
• % of projects with closeout meetings held for the projects closed during past 6 months
• Lessons learned and best practices recorded in the Country Lessons Learnt and Best Practices document according to ACTED’s standard learning procedures and updated in regular and timely manner
• Number of learning events to capture best practices and lessons learned organized/facilitated within the last 6 months
• Beneficiary CRM implemented in the mission as per ACTED standards

% of team members provided with internal/external training during the past 1 year

PSEAH Obligation:

Acted has a zero-tolerance approach on PSEAH matters and as an Acted employee It is my utmost duty to ensure full compliance of PSEAH policies in Acted and outside Acted as well. I will not engage in any PSEAH violations and will ensure team working under my supervision will also follow the same protocols. I shall not be involved in any sexual exploitation or abuse. I shall ensure that comply with the highest standards of moral and ethical conduct. Any incident of SEA shall be reported to Acted. Any failure by my side to take preventive measures against sexual exploitation or abuse, or to investigate allegations or take corrective action, shall constitute grounds for termination of the Agreement.

For the purposes hereof, the following definitions shall be used.

Sexual exploitation means any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another.

Sexual abuse means the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions

 Note: “Acted is committed to protecting beneficiaries and staff within our programs from sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA). Acted has a Code of Conduct and organizational policies, which outline the expected behavior of all staff, consultants and other stakeholders and remind Acted’s zero-tolerance approach. Any candidate offered a job with Acted will sign those documents as part of their work contract and is expected to abide by them.” “Acted is a commitment to zero tolerance to all forms of violence against children, beneficiaries, and staff. Acted is equal opportunity, employers. Females and minorities are encouraged to apply. Candidates with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Final selection will be based on security clearance of the candidate.”