Job Description

Position title       :               Meal Assistant (3)

Reporting to       :               Senior Meal Officer

Location               :               Burhakaba,Berdale and Qasaxdere

Job summary:

The MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning) Assistant will be part of the country MEAL team and will play a crucial role in supporting the implementation of SOS CV Country MEAL strategy and RBM implementation plan within SOS CV Somalia. The specific role involves contributing to the development and updating of MEAL strategies, frameworks, and plans for ongoing projects. The MEAL Assistant will assist in the planning, implementation, and coordination of monitoring activities, including field visits and data analysis. They will support the Complaint Response Mechanism (CRM) and ensure its functionality and accessibility to project beneficiaries. The MEAL Assistant will also participate in evaluation activities, facilitate learning events, and generate MEAL reports. The role requires strong attention to detail, data management skills, and the ability to collaborate effectively with program teams and stakeholders.

Responsibilities:

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.
• Support the MEAL Management for the implementing the MEAL policies and procedures as described in the SOS CV Somalia 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.

Planning

• Develop project MEAL plan for the project and coordinate with MEAL Officer and Project Coordinator on the implementation approach.
• Ensure the project implement relevant RBM and PRAG templates and tools to necessitate programming in compliance with result based management approach.
• Assist in planning, preparation, implementation, and coordination of monitoring activities
• Work closely with the program teams to document projects inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impacts                    

Monitoring:

• Conduct field-monitoring visits to monitor program activities / interventions against Quality Benchmarks/Quality Checklists and produce & share weekly reports to MEAL Officer who will share with program team as well as Project Coordinator and Program Manager and other sector heads based on quality and accountability findings and incorporate inputs from program team in an agreed action plan.
• Carry out project level field visits and identify challenges and inconsistencies relevant to monitoring exercises
• Regularly review and analyze PDB data to improve quality and be the focal person for PDB2 issue.
• Maintain Monthly Action Plan Tracker to follow up on action points agreed in monitoring reports.
• Assist project staff in extracting graphic reporting information from the database and incorporating it into reports.
• Undertake routine data quality verification and quality program monitoring.
• Ensure implementation of Project MEAL plans with consultation of MEAL Officer.
• With help of MEAL Officer, provide monthly reporting tools to Program Teams that will send back the filled MEAL deliverable reports to MEAL through the Output tracker (OT) and Indicator Performance Tracking Table (IPTT).
• Support MEAL Officer in validating and determining data collected by program team against the performance indicators and targets on periodic basis. 
• Help MEAL Officer in Validate data and information reported in IPTTs/OTs/narrative reports to ensure accuracy
• Monitor implementation of Detailed Implementation Plans (DIPs) by program teams and provide updates on progress with support of MEAL Officer.
• Carry out follow-up monitoring visits to materialize action agreed in action plan also maintain ' Monitoring-Action Plan Tracker' at field level at health facility under project.
• Maintain close coordination with MEAL Officer at Baidoa Field office on Quality and Accountability issues
• Share all information (monitoring reports, CFM database preliminary inquiry reports) with MEAL Officer and  Project Coordinator

Evaluation:

• Maintain and update evaluation tracker – including tracking actions/recommendations from evaluation reports and capturing of best practices on project/program data.
• Provide support to evaluation team while conducting periodic evaluation of project interventions at field level, if required.
• Assist MEAL Officer and Project Coordinator in preparing and conducting Baseline and Endline studies.
• Help MEAL Officer in capturing quality case studies from program team

  Accountability:

• Ensure the Complaint Response Mechanism (CRM) is functional and accessible to project beneficiaries.
• Assist MEAL officer in carrying out preliminary first verification reports in case of serious nature of complaints filed by beneficiaries/communities and support for investigation as per CRM protocol.
• Make sure that agreed action plans from CRMs are followed in timely manner or not by program team.
• Ensure that the CRM guidelines are being followed by all staff
• Support MEAL Officer in facilitating focus groups and other qualitative and qualitative data collection exercises
• Support MEAL Officer, program and field staff to ensure that projects are carried out with participation from all affected communities (including children) and that information is shared with affected communities.
• Receive and maintain records of beneficiaries feedback and complaints in the CRM database
• Follow up on pending complaints with project and management staff
• Produce a monthly analytic CRM report and disseminate widely to the relevant stakeholders.
• Analyze patterns and trends in complaints to help improve programming

  Participate in teams' coordination meetings                                                                                                                 

Learning:

• Participate and lead the implementation of Results-Based Management (RBM) plans and reporting relevant deliverables.
• Assist to MEAL Officer and Project Coordinator to develop quality reports and findings.
• Support project team to generate key learnings from review meetings, field visits, monitoring reports, FCRM and evaluations
• Support the coordination of project learning events and workshops and documents the key lessons from the project cycles.
• Participate in the Review meetings and Closeout meetings in order to highlight cross-project components aimed at replicating good practices and strengthening synergies between projects or programmes.
• Regularly present key MEAL findings to the MEAL Officer and Project Coordinator for further development.
• Support the programme’s aim for further strengthened integrated programming and actively propose ways of achieving this using MEAL findings.
• Perform other duties as directed by the MEAL Officer

Other:

Reporting:

• Produce and share project/program  MEAL monthly, quarterly, bi-annual and annual reports as needed
• Ensure that all the data for reporting and analysis is recorded and updated in a timely manner.
• Coordinate closely with MEAL Officer, the all SOS CV Somalia staffs and report with updated complaints registered, their resolution process, Action plan tracker & other MEAL related issues.
• Assist the MEAL Officer to generate quality MEAL reports.
• Support in conducting any other MEAL related tasks given by MEAL Officer.
• Provide regular and timely updates on progress and challenges to supervisors and other team members.
• Participate in MEAL-related conferences and workshops when possible and stay up to date with best practices and new knowledge created in the field of MEAL.

Experiences and Qualifications

Essential

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent in statistics, M & E, international development, development studies, social studies/sciences or other relevant discipline.
• Prior demonstrated 3 years’ experience in a similar field; former experience with humanitarian organizations is a very strong asset.

• Experience working with International NGO’s, UN agencies, partners and/or local authorities in IDP .or Host settings in complex emergencies.
• At least a minimum of three (03) years previous MEAL relevant experience in designing and implementation of MEAL systems for emergency, recovery and development program under Health, Nutrition, Protection and WASH, such as data collection and analysis, reporting for beneficiaries and community baseline, midline, or Endline KAP Survey, PDM, monthly beneficiary data validation and determination and beneficiary verification
• Clear understanding of Result Based Management approach, Accountability to affected population (AAP) and Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS)

• Proficient understanding of MEAL, including the ability to work effectively with tight timelines, high quality standards, and demanding, potentially overlapping priorities.
• Experience of social research methods to conduct monitoring and evaluation for humanitarian and development initiatives/interventions.
• Excellent analytical skills to interpret qualitative and quantitative data and discern useful recommendations for programme implementation and development.
• Proficiency in mobile data collection (design, deployment, and monitoring) is highly desired.
• Basic statistical analysis and IT skills, including use of SPSS/R/Stata and Excel for data analysis.
• Good English communications skills (both oral and written).
• Strong team player of high integrity, pleasant personality, ability to work under least supervision and meet strict deadlines.
• High level of integrity, transparency, and honesty.
• Good numerical, report writing and administration skills.
• Knowledge of local Somali language and dialect is a mandatory requirement.

Child Safeguarding Policy:

SOS Children’s Villages Somalia holds strict child safeguarding principles and a zero-tolerance policy for conducts of sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse in the workplace and other places where the organization’s activities are rendered. Parallel to technical competence, recruitment, selection and hiring decisions will give due emphasis to assessing candidates’ value congruence and thorough background checks, police clearance reference check processes. SOS Children’s Villages organization is committed to safeguarding the rights of the children and therefore, is expected that every individual who joins with SOS Children’s Villages Somalia understands his/her responsibility in protecting and keeping children always safe

Skills Required

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