Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Manager at Street Child Nigeria

Street Child is a UK charity working to protect vulnerable children and improve access to education in some of the poorest communities in the world. We work in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nepal and since November 2016, Street Child has been involved in the Humanitarian response in North East Nigeria.

Street Child works in the fields of education, child protection and livelihoods, working to deliver sustainable solutions and create maximum impact. Our work combines counselling, family mediation, business support, school building, teacher training and child protection. We were a key player in the Ebola crisis and led the global response for children orphaned by Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia. We deliver all our programmes through local partners and, since 2008, together we have built/renovated over 200 schools and are now helping to educate over 40,000 young people.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

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

Location: Maiduguri, with frequent travel within Nigeria as required
Reporting to: Head of Programmes
Hours: Monday – Thursday 8:30 to 17:15; Friday 8:30 to 13:30
Status: Initial one-year contract, with potential extension

Background
Street Child believes that every child deserves the chance to go to school and learn. Our projects focus on a combination of education, child protection and livelihood support to address the social, economic and structural issues that underpin today’s education crisis. We partner with local organisations and communities to deliver our locally rooted programmes, using evidence to drive learning and the refinement and scale-up of programmes to create maximum impact for the most children at the lowest cost. We pride ourselves on being willing to go to the world’s toughest places where others won’t, including remote, hard-to-reach areas and fragile, disaster-affected states across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Since 2008 we have helped over 250,000 children to go to school and learn and supported over 25,000 families to set up businesses so they can afford the cost of educating their children.

Street Child Nigeria: Street Child started in Nigeria in early 2017 and implemented major humanitarian programmes in the North East to respond to the protection and education needs of children affected by the crisis. We have been supporting over 40,000 children to access quality and safe education, formal and non-formal, by providing spaces and building the capacity of teachers and communities. We work with families and government to overcome the barriers that undermine the development and wellbeing of the children, ensuring parents and caregivers have financial resources and livelihoods to sustain their education, health and other needs, and providing child protection services. Street Child in Nigeria has ambitions to expand beyond the North East and is a reliable partner for UNICEF, UNOCHA, GIZ and other institutional donors and a member of the National Education in Emergencies, Child Protection and Early recovery and Livelihood sectors.

Role Purpose

The Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Manager will bring significant experience and fresh ideas to lead on MEAL system implementation, review and evaluations, MEAL budgeting, recruitment, as well as support to proposal writing and log frame development.
The MEAL Manager will work to align programmes objectives and indicators with the Global and Country Impact Framework through M&E Quality Assurance. This will be aligned with best standard indicators for specific clusters.
He/she will be responsible for ensuring that every programme has a clear M&E framework, with SMART indicators, tools and a plan to constantly monitor, collect and analyse data that inform programme managers.
The manager will also be responsible for the creation and roll-out of the organisation’s programme performance plan for effective programme delivery and promote and support a culture of reliable planning, monitoring, evaluation, accountability and reporting.
The MEAL Manager will lead on building the capacity of staff and partners on MEAL but particularly on accountability and participation. He/she is responsible for ensuring that the organization has strong mechanisms for accountability to affected populations, with feedback loop mechanisms and regular consultation with all stakeholder to have reliable information to inform our impact assessment.
He/she will lead on research development based on the context, the opportunities, the gap and be responsible for publication/presentation. He/she is also responsible for overseeing quality donor reporting, supported by Head of Programmes. It will be important for the post-holder to capture lessons learned and communicate this information in various capacities to improve on-going and future programming.
The MEAL Manager will directly manage two officers and two assistants within their team.

Key Responsibilities
Programme Design and Management (60%):

Lead on the development and oversee the roll-out of an organisational MEAL system, ensuring accountability to donors and beneficiaries
Ensure that MEAL is an integral part of the programme design and implementation leading to enhanced quality, accountability.
Identifies and introduces new elements (systems, tools, processes) required under the MEAL system and project manages development
Plan and conduct regular field monitoring and ensuring that reports with clear action plans are included and followed up and decisions are informed.
Support the capacity development of staff and partners on M&E
Lead on planning for and roll-out of new research and consultation, identifying stakeholders and the modality for presentation and information sharing

Internal and external reporting (40%):

Responsible to ensure that the organisation delivers on all internal M&E requirements in a timely manner and with high quality information, including reporting on Street Child global indicators and monthly/quarterly report.
Provide HQ with regular information and case studies to contribute to the communication, fundraising and advocacy strategies
Ensures external accountability to donors through the implementation of timely and quality MEAL activities leading to timely and accurate reporting (including clusters’ reporting)
Ensure that high quality analysis reports to illustrate SC’s impact and assessment findings are produced, including evidence of good practice, and that they are communicated at appropriate events.

Person Specification

Education / Qualifications
Essential:

Educated to Bachelor degree level or higher

Desirable:

Master’s degree in International Development, Human Rights or Statistic

Experience and Knowledge
Essential:

Substantial work experience in programme management and/or MEAL experience in both emergency and development contexts, preferably with solid experience in more than one of Street Child priority sectors: education, protection, livelihood
Strong experience in designing, implementing and managing MEAL systems
Strong experience in data analysis
Staff management experience, including of coaching and mentoring
Experience and abilities in capacity strengthening – developing curricula and facilitating trainings for staff and partners.

Desirable:

Previous experience in North east Nigeria
Experience in designing, planning and completing researches.

Skills and Abilities
Essential:

Excellent spoken and written English skills. Ability to effectively represent the Agency in a variety of public and private forums.
Excellent interpersonal, listening and communication skills;
Ability to positively influence others;
An energetic team player who can effectively collaborate;
Demonstrated ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines.

Desirable: