United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Advisor

Overview:

War Child works with children who, as a result of conflict, live with a combination of poverty, exclusion and insecurity. These children might include street children, child headed households, children conscripted into armed groups, and children who have been put in prison. Our mission is to support and improve the care and protection of children and young people who live with a combination of insecurity, poverty and exclusion in some of the worse conflict-affected places. We look forward to a world in which the lives of children are no longer torn apart by war. This is a vision that can only be realised through the collective actions of children themselves, communities and their leaders, organisations like War Child, governments and key decision makers.

Purpose of Post:

We are growing as an organisation, expanding our donor base and our range of programmes in some very challenging settings. We are ambitious about programme quality and we need this role to support the team to deliver on it’s on 3 key pillars:

i) Technical advice and support for programmes implemented by War Child staff and partner on child protection), education (formal and informal) and livelihoods;

ii) Accountability and Transparency to all stakeholders, particularly children; and

iii) Learning and knowledge management through research, evaluations and sharing through web-based applications for global reach.

The Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Advisor‘s role is to revise, refresh and oversee the implementation of a comprehensive and logical MEAL system and strategy which includes innovative M&E approaches, tools, apps and training resources, support the development of logframes for funding proposals and document learning from programme implementation, research studies and evaluation.

You will provide critical support and coach field teams in designing, monitoring and evaluating projects that are inclusive, gender- and conflict-sensitive, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies and participatory approaches, in acute and post-conflict settings based on international standards and current good practice. You will contribute to developing concept notes and proposals of all programmes and utilise their experience and learning to inform advocacy and policy development as well as improve knowledge management systems at organizational, national and global level.

You will have experience in supporting rapid emergency assessments, developing indicators for child protection, education and / or livelihoods projects, monitoring, conducting research studies using innovative approaches for child protection, education and/or livelihoods responses in complex humanitarian settings, covering the full humanitarian spectrum from rapid onset emergency to longer term development, considering the immediate and longer term needs of all children. This role is UK-based although the role holder will be expected to travel up to 30% of the time to WCUK’s country offices (subject to security considerations), provide programme monitoring and evaluation support, carry out internal evaluations, organize external evaluations and build the capacity of our staff and partner organisations in MEAL.

A) Job Specification: Task and responsibilites:

1)Planning, Designing, Monitoring and Evaluating Programmes (60% of the time)

• Refresh and implement a comprehensive monitoring system operates across all the country programmes including designing of tools and resources for data collection consistent with project log frames to measure and theories of change
• Work with Programme Quality Officer and M&E Officers in-country to collect age and gender-specific data, maintain quality assurance of data collected, organise and conduct individual project quantitative and qualitative data collection
• Lead on compilation, validation and analysis of data collected with triangulation from other sources of data, analyse, document, share widely to inform programme design
• Revise and oversee the implementation of an Evaluation, Research and Learning Policy, the impact assessment reporting framework with tools and guidance notes
• Support the country teams in planning of external evaluations including the recruitment of external evaluators, JDs and contracts.
• Support the development of management response to evaluation, oversee the extraction of learnings, support the design of the feedback workshops and monitor the time-lines on action-plans
• Advise and support programmes in developing MEAL plans in all donor submissions and reporting by articulating impact, outcomes, targets (outputs), baselines and indicators

2)Knowledge Management, Accountability, Research and Learning (25%)

• Ensuring proper dissemination of information and knowledge management among relevant stakeholders through intranet and e-learning opportunities
• Lead and strengthen MEAL Communities of Practice, discussion fora, learning events for cross team learning and sharing to improve quality of programming
• Ensure the learning from internal and external evaluations is disseminated and incorporated into the development of future projects
• Facilitate cross-organizational sharing of good practices between field teams and WCI
• Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of both current, and newly emerging monitoring, evaluation and accountability methods
• Support the development of child-friendly accountability feedback mechanisms and the analysis and documentation of feedback received from country programmes for learning purposes
• Support the team in the delivery of learning and reflection workshops and other programmatic learning processes and products (e.g. learning papers, evaluation summaries, discussions on online Communities of Practice)
• Enable WCUK to develop its capacity to deliver high quality research projects
• Conceptualise and manage research/studies to support the development of strategic and innovative programmes
• Foster strategic links with academics / academic institutions for the purposes of undertaking research

3)External/Internal Relationships, Collaborating and Partnerships (15%)

• Help identify and develop relevant partnerships and opportunities to build-up MEAL profile
• Represent and co-ordinate relevant MEAL meetings and learning events
• Liaising with all other War Child staff as appropriate
• Undertaking any other reasonable duty and tasks that may from time to time be requested by line manager or programmes team colleagues consistent with the nature of the job and its level of responsibility

B) Person specification – Essential Criteria:

War Child’s office is a lively and fast-paced environment made up of a team of extremely dedicated staff & volunteers. We’re looking for someone who can fit in well and bring their personality, creativity and professionalism to our programmes and the wider charity.

Experience:

· Right to work in the UK, and travel to the countries we work in

· Masters holder in international development, statistics or research methodologies

· Substantial work experience of planning, assessing, designing, monitoring, evaluating and learning in complex or challenging environments

· A thorough understanding of research ethics

· Demonstrable understanding and knowledge of international standards (eg. CHS, IATI, Child Protection Minimum Standards, INEE or other)

· Proven experience of high quality report writing and documentation

· Experience of co-ordinating work remotely through web-based applications

· Willingness to travel 30% of the time, often to insecure places (depending on security)

Technical Skills/Expertise:

· Excellent IT and data management skills, including knowledge of a range of qualitative and quantitative collection methods and participatory approaches

· High quality skills report-writing, documentation and dissemination

· Working experience of knowledge management and sharing of learning through e-learning platforms

· Knowledge or understanding of cross-cutting approaches (e.g. conflict-sensitive programming, inclusive education, gender-sensitivity, child/human rights)

· Ability to identify and prioritise practical solutions and tools to improve programmatic effectiveness

· Excellent writing, editing and presentation and analysing skills

Competencies (Soft Skills):

· Politically and culturally sensitive

· Team-player with qualities of collaboration, patience, tact and diplomacy, flexibility

· Excellent interpersonal skills

· Strong personal commitment to learning and continuous improvement

· Able to process and articulate complexity in a clear and coherent way

· Accurate, systematic, with an eye for detail

· Able to work in a small, dynamic organisation with limited resources

Desirable Criteria:

• Working knowledge of Arabic or French
• PhD holder in international development, statistics or research methodologie

C) Contract Terms

Working Hours: Full time (37.5 hours per week)

Probation: 6 months

Start date: April/May 2017

Travel: 30% of the role, subject to security considerations

Salary: £37,800 - £39,375 per annum (depending upon experience)

Leave: 28 days pa pro-rata, increasing by one day for each year’s service up to a maximum of 5 additional days – for UK

30 days for staff on international contract.

Pension: All eligible employees are automatically enrolled into a Group Personal Pension Plan. Contributions will be made on a salary exchange basis as follows: employees contribute a minimum of 3% of basic monthly salary to receive a contribution of 5% from War Child.

· All applications must reach War Child by 11:59pm on Tuesday 28 February 2017

· Due to limited resources War Child HR will contact only the shortlisted candidates

· First round interviews will be held 6^th– 8^th March 2017

· Any offer made will be conditional on receipt of 3 favourable written references, (from your most recent employer, any other previous employer and a character reference). War Child reserves the right to call the referees, in case clarification is required post the receipt of complete reference forms.

· The successful applicant will be expected to undergo a DBS Police check and/or international police check, a medical check for overseas travel purposes, be compliant and sign up to War Child’s Child Safeguarding Policy prior to a final offer being made.