MEAL Director Full Time NEW

The MEAL Director will oversee monitoring and evaluation, information management, accountability, learning and reporting, as well as support resource development for World Vision Ethiopia. The incumbent will integrate information and evidence from all projects and grants to provide whole-of-country contextual analysis of the impact of World Vision’s multi-sector approach. The position-holder will develop, implement and oversee programming standards processes, and accountability systems to equip management and leadership with information for decision support in service of adaptive management and reporting to various stakeholders. The MEAL Director will lead a team of MEAL specialists to support the development of quality and competitive project designs. He/she will lead in engagement with the World Vision partnership, local and international learning institutions and government to generate project and program-level lessons learnt, undertake research, co-create learning products and present findings to position the organization as partner-of-choice. He/she will engage with World Vision partnership for the development, improvement and reporting of key MEAL initiatives, including the national office strategy, annual reports and child impact reports.

Strategic Leadership ​

• Build and regularly update a strong MEAL framework and standard operating procedures in line with WV partnership MEAL standards. ​
• Ensure a strong and appropriate accountability system is in place and maintained adequately which ensures timely follow up of issues raised, builds trust with the children and communities who we serve.
• Lead in determining and undertaking research to deliver WVE evidence and learning agenda as well as positioning WVE as a thought leader and influencer on wider policy and practice around ministry pillars. To that end, oversee the work of the Learning and Knowledge Management Specialist ​
• Accountable for maintaining WVE Information Management Systems, which utilizes, among other Kobo, Horizon, iMPAQ and PowerBI.
• Lead in analyzing data and providing input to the Senior leadership team (SLT) country to inform strategic decision making.
• Support internal and external engagement to position WVE as thought-leader

People Management ​

• Provide leadership to the MEAL team, including strategic vision and direction, team cohesion and team building and an enabling environment where staff can develop to their full potential​
• Provide supportive technical supervision of the field-based MEAL staff through regular contact, field visits and meetings.
• Undertake performance management, including setting of annual goals and quarterly deliverables, undertaking regular reviews, and provision of feedback to ensure delivery of results​
• Adapt the MEAL structure in light of contextual changes and national office portfolio, and ensure the team is moving towards greater gender balance.

MEAL ​Operations

• Ensure effectiveness of the monitoring systems in maintaining and improving the quality of services delivered by WVE.​
• Strengthen efforts to create greater efficiency in MEAL systems by continued harmonization with WV partnership standards and use of digital technologies ​
• Ensure that WVE delivers on all internal and external MEAL requirements in a timely manner and with high-quality information.​
• Strengthen the MEAL systems and processes to assure systematic tracking of achievements and progress towards project objectives and outcomes.​
• Review and advise on consistency, expected results/indicators, and other elements of log-frames/results frameworks to ensure quality ​
• Ensure that data collection methodologies used by project implementation teams are standardized, enabling the specific vulnerabilities of different target groups to be captured and analyzed. ​
• Spearhead the roll out of Our Impact Our Story change process ​
• Guide field-based MEAL staff to address any gaps in program quality assurance and in MEAL frameworks implementation.​
• Track National Office achievements against CSP targets.​
• Ensure that monitoring data is triangulated and analyzed to generate a high-level summary of MEAL systems for senior leadership.
• Present MEAL outcomes (status on program Performance, issues emerging from quality monitoring, issues emerging from accountability systems, research outcomes, lessons learnt) for discussion at leadership level. ​

Learning and Knowledge Management ​

• Maintain regular and proactive dialogue with technical program and grants leads and field teams to identify critical programmatic knowledge gaps, as well as to initiate, adapt or test new practices, approaches or methodologies that will inform WVE Evidence & Learning Agenda with a view of improving the impact of our work​
• Foster a culture of learning in the National Office, including the systematic collection, storage and dissemination of evidence and learning that is used throughout the project cycle by all staff ​
• Undertake meta-analysis and systemic reviews of WVE program evaluations and research to generate sectoral learning on trends, opportunities, risks etc and strengthen analysis and communicate programmatic learning to the wider Country Office team through document sharing, presentations
• Lead in the design, delivery and regular review of the WVE research, evidence & learning agenda ​
• Participate in designing and implementation of studies, assessments and learning in coordination and cooperation with technical program and other program staff.​
• Apply leading-edge thinking and best practice at all stages of the research process to ensure that WVE research and evaluation outputs are delivered to the highest standards, on time and on budget ​
• Engage and maintain new partnerships with INGOs, UN and academic institutions to support the deliver our evidence and learning agenda, including opportunities for information sharing and learning exchanges with external stakeholders​
• Support the MEAL team and the national office team in developing and implementing evidence and learning dissemination and uptake strategies.

Accountability ​

• Contribute to setting up a strong accountability system for WVE ​
• Ensure that all staff at all levels, including senior managers and directors, fully understand and promote accountability in general and to children in particular. ​
• Contribute to improvements in existing policies and procedures to enhance effective accountability mechanisms.​
• Ensure all staff and partners are trained on accountability, core humanitarian standard (CHS), and sphere standards.​
• Develop and report against accountability and participation-related indicators and issues and produce quarterly and annual reports on the accountability and participation work.​
• Ensure that project activities are designed to promote feedback and response mechanisms and include systems to effectively manage complaints.

Required Education, training, license, registration, and certification

• Master’s in international development, business administration, development or relevant studies

Required Professional Experience

• A minimum of 10 years’ experience in humanitarian and development practice
• At least five (5) years designing and managing/implementing evaluations, and analyzing qualitative and/or quantitative data
• Experience with the development of Power BI, Python and other data analysis platforms
• Experience and knowledge of systems for accountability to children and communities, including information sharing, the participation of adults and children, and feedback and reporting mechanisms.
• Proven success in developing staff capacity through training, supervising, coaching, and mentoring.
• Experience in participating in/leading organizational improvement processes.
• Experience in external engagement with NGOs, donors, private sector, etc. with the ability to represent the organization to a variety of stakeholders in a range of forums.
• Excellent oral/written and interpersonal skills.
• Capacity to prioritize and manage a diverse range of staff members, projects and activities.
• Able to work on a cross-cultural environment with a multi-national and multi-agency staff member.
• Ability to solve complex problems and to exercise independent judgment.
• Capable of working independently and with demonstrated experience engaging a wide range of stakeholders.
• Experience working with or in fragile context settings.