Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Officer at Albarka Health Spring Foundation (AHSF)

Albarka Health Spring Foundation (AHSF) is a non-governmental organization dully registered with Nigerian government through Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC/IT NO: 91613). Existing since October 2016, AHSF focuses on improving the quality of life of vulnerable population across communities in North East Nigeria. AHSF operates both in emergency and developmental context and have its program principally rooted in identifying gaps that affects population or increases vulnerability of population and bridging those gaps through resource base planning and implementation.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Officer

Locations: Kaga, Magumeri & MMC Askira Uba - Borno
Employment Type: Contract
Contract Duration: 2 Months
Expected Start Date: As soon as possible

General Position Summary

• The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Officer is a key member of the Program Performance and Quality (PAQ) Unit and will be responsible for managing and coordinating all MEL and program quality performance processes for AHSF Humanitarian programs.
• S/he will work across all Northeast programs to support data collection, management, and analysis.

Position Summary

• Provide leadership and strategic direction for monitoring and evaluation (MEAL) efforts.
• Develop and operationalize a comprehensive MEAL system, including data collection, performance tracking, and quality assurance.
• Design projects based on needs assessments, results chains, and gender considerations.
• Oversee data collection, employing both qualitative and quantitative techniques.
• Analyze data using statistical software and effectively communicate findings through reports and presentations.
• Build the capacity of MEAL staff through training and mentorship.
• Manage evaluations, coordinating with external consultants and incorporating findings into the MEAL system.
• Collaborate with program managers and stakeholders, ensuring effective implementation of MEAL processes and budget management.

Essential Job Responsibilities
Technical Leadership:

• Provide leadership, training and mentoring in the development of M&E Plans, M&E tools, survey design, methodology, data analysis, and other skills required for assessing the impact of programs.
• Lead and/or collaborate with external evaluators on the design and rollout of the program assessments, baseline and evaluations, while setting up effective systems for learning.
• Ensures programs use the necessary M&E systems and tools, to inform and improve each individual program, as well as feed into the broader National-level M&E system and Country strategy.
• Take the lead in aligning, collecting and reporting on relevant indicators to the organizational-wide M&E systems, and other external systems as relevant.
• Support teams in collecting sex and age-disaggregated data and using gender-sensitive data collection methods in order to understand and respond to program results with diverse participants.
• Participates in the facilitation of country and sector-level strategic planning sessions, assisting program managers and senior management in the development of their annual plans.
• Identify research opportunities and partnerships that respond to priority topics and questions, and which connect to AHSF field emergency response programming and national and regional strategic plans.
• Lead on both internal and external Data Quality Assessment (DQA) Third party.

Information management:

• Works with the program and M&E teams to adopt a holistic country-level M&E system (including Tola Data) that harnesses open-source software and flexible cloud solutions to more accurately collect, monitor and verify program activities and ensure they are aligned with the country strategic and annual plan.
• Provides guidance, recommendations, and leadership to ensure that the M&E systems meet the needs of Programs Managers and Country Leadership and help address shortfalls in M&E and data management that affect program implementation.
• Contributes to program design to ensure adherence to AHSF’ M&E best practices, including the use of standardized indicators, form templates, and documentation methodologies.
• Maintain a comprehensive schedule of private and institutional funding reports for programs and review project/program reports to ensure that reports contain accurate, clear, and high-quality data and are presented in the proper format.
• Develop program and operational reporting templates that facilitate the acquisition, aggregation, and flow of information in programs.

Capacity Building and Mentoring:

• Develops and oversees the implementation of the M&E staff and partner capacity-building strategy that promotes a culture of learning through systematic analysis and reflection of program data.
• Build the capacity of all relevant team members to develop and maintain an excellent M&E system, including regular reflection and analysis of program monitoring data.
• Work closely with Program Managers, Human Resources, and Finance to ensure that M&E skills are incorporated into all program position descriptions and positions are budgeted for.
• Contributes to the knowledge management repository with best practices in M&E and ensures that it is accessible to all staff and partners.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.

Internal and External Coordination:

• Active contributor and collaborator with sector clusters (majorly on joint assessments in Borno State) and regional and National counterparts to promote the use of M&E best practices.
• Strengthen linkages with other internal resources, including the LMS, Digital Library, and Connect, to enhance organizational learning where relevant to M&E.
• Maintain close working relationships with M&E counterparts in other relevant international NGOs and local NGOs and associations in Nigeria.

Organizational Learning:

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit AHSF as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries:

• AHSF team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to national / international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Detail of Responsibilities
Leadership in Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL):

• Develop and communicate a clear and compelling vision and mission for MEAL.
• Manage the development of evidence-based strategic and operational plans, including goals, objectives, risk assessments, and resource implications.
• Design, update, harmonize, and communicate MEAL plans with standardized indicators, data collection procedures and tools, roles and responsibilities, and budgets.
• Foster partnerships with local and international stakeholders involved in the MEAL system.

Development and operationalization of a comprehensive MEAL system:

• Design and implement an MEAL plan, including data collection methods, tools, and indicators.
• Establish an Indicator Performance Tracking Table (IPTT) and a Performance Management Plan (PMP) to track project progress.
• Ensure the integration of cross-cutting objectives such as gender and environment in the MEAL system.
• Develop a data quality assurance plan and implement strategies to improve data quality.
• Create a communication strategy to effectively disseminate MEAL findings.

Project design and planning:

• Conduct needs and capacities assessments to inform project design.
• Utilize a results chain and Theory of Change to guide project planning and implementation.
• Identify relevant performance indicators and develop report formats and schedules.
• Collaborate with gender specialists to conduct gender assessments and integrate gender considerations into project design.
• Conduct market assessments to inform project interventions.

Data collection and management:

• Design sampling strategies and calculate sample sizes for qualitative studies and quantitative surveys.
• Develop data collection instruments and oversee data collection activities.
• Ensure the implementation of data quality management strategies and conduct internal data quality assessments.
• Utilize qualitative techniques, such as key informant interviews and focus group discussions, for monitoring purposes.
• Apply quantitative techniques, including questionnaire design, survey logistics planning, and data analysis using statistical software.

Data analysis and reporting:

• Develop data analysis plans and conduct quantitative and qualitative data analysis.
• Utilize statistical software to analyze quantitative data and derive meaningful insights.
• Synthesize and report qualitative information effectively.
• Prepare narrative reports, executive summaries, and case studies for various stakeholders.
• Present findings through clear and effective oral and PowerPoint presentations.

Capacity building in MEAL:

• Assess the skill gaps of MEAL staff and design training programs to enhance their competencies.
• Provide coaching, mentoring, and on-the-job training to improve staff skills.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of capacity-building initiatives and monitor knowledge change.

Evaluation design and management:

• Design evaluation questions and methods to assess project impact.
• Coordinate with external consultants for baseline and final evaluations.
• Develop terms of reference for evaluations and provide necessary data to evaluators.
• Incorporate evaluation data collection into the MEAL system and ensure adherence to evaluation design.

Collaboration and coordination:

• Collaborate with program managers, technical specialists, and consultants to ensure effective MEAL implementation.
• Coordinate logistics for surveys, qualitative studies, and evaluation processes.
• Manage the MEAL budget in collaboration with headquarters and technical staff.

Requirements

• Bachelors in a relevant field (e.g., Monitoring and Evaluation, Statistics, Development Studies). A Master’s Degree will be an added advantage.
• Minimum five (5) years of experience in monitoring and evaluation, preferably in food security projects.
• Strong understanding of MEAL concepts, project design, and results-based management.
• Proficiency in developing and operationalizing MEAL systems, including the design of data collection tools and indicators.
• Experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques, data analysis, and reporting.
• Familiarity with statistical software such as MS EXCEL, SPSS, STATA, or EpiInfo.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail.
• Ability to train, coach, and build the capacity of MEAL staff.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including report writing and presentation abilities.
• Knowledge of environmental indicators and initial environmental assessments.
• Experience working with international organizations or donor-funded projects is desirable.
• Excellent English language skills. Fluency in Hausa and/or Kanuri is an added advantage.

Knowledge and Experience:

• BA/S Degree in Development Studies, Research Methods, Statistics, Economics, Social Sciences, Monitoring and Evaluation, Project Management or other relevant field required. Postgraduate Degree preferred.
• 3 - 5 years of active M&E work experience in emergency and development programming required with the proven use of program technology.
• Experience with theoretical and practical background in M&E and skilled in participatory qualitative and quantitative M&E methodologies and techniques.
• Excellent quantitative skills and power user with Excel; Experience with Access, and statistical packages including Stata, R or SPSS and GIS tools like QGIS, ArcGIS or Google Earth Pro is preferred.
• Experience with data management including the ability to structure and collate data sets for ease of analysis.
• Demonstrated understanding of intermediate statistics and ability to summarize and make predictions from multiple data sets.
• Experience working on UNAGENCIES programs preferred.
• Previous experience living and working in challenging or insecure environments.
• Fluency in spoken and written English is required.
• Knowledge of Kanuri, Hausa and other local dialects is preferred.

Application Closing Date
3rd November, 2023.