MEAL Manager at International Rescue Committee (IRC) November, 2024

Job Overview/Summary

Having secured funding from UKAID, IRC and GREENCODE are jointly implementing the Strengthening Sustainable Nutrition Services and Resilience for Vulnerable Communities in Northeast Nigeria (SSNR) program in Maiduguri, Jere and Monguno LGAs of Borno State.

With IRC as the lead implementing agency, the SSNR program’s goal is to provide children under-5, caregivers/pregnant and lactating women (PLW), with increased access to skilled support for breastfeeding, micronutrient intake, and sustainable quality treatment for acute malnutrition; in addition to participation of community members in community-based problem-solving. This goal aligns with Target 2.2 of the SDGs to “end all forms of malnutrition by 2030, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older person”.

This position is responsible for leading all MEAL related assignments and data management of the SSNR project. The position supports the development and implementation of the programs monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning strategy to ensure quality, timely, and accurate information in support of the implementation of SSNR activities. The incumbent will be responsible for ensuring overall coherence of monitoring and reporting tools, and coordination of data compilation of SSNR activities in Borno state.

S/he will have a strong working relationship with the IRC MEAL team as well as the Nutrition team for additional technical support. S/he will work collaboratively with SSNR program team, Field Coordinators and MEAL Officers at the field level. S/he will be expected to communicate courteously on project performance, capture and document project learnings and maintain positive relationships with program and support teams.

Major Responsibilities

System Development, Design and Promotion of MEAL

• Support development, review, and implementation of project M&E systems/plans, SOPs, guidance, and measurement tools in line with the IRC MEAL Handbook.
• Closely work with the Senior MEAL Manager, SSNR Team lead, and program team to ensure that all program team have tested standard monitoring tools that capture both activity and indicator progress over time.
• Ensure development and localization of Client Responsiveness Mechanism across SSNR sites in Borno state.
• Develop tools that aid in documenting, storing, and sharing lessons learned that have implications for the refinement of best programmatic practice.
• Update and provide data and information to the Senior MEAL Manager and the SSNR Team lead on SSNR project performance indicators.
• Conduct data quality audits of partner data to identify and resolve systemic problems affecting data quality, document findings from data quality audits, and store them in project files to ensure collective and sustainable access.
• Lead in the planning and implementation of project assessments. Facilitate planned surveys and proper engagement of external consultants (where necessary)
• Design survey data collection tools and methodologies to ensure it captures protection mainstreaming issues, Washington disability questions, and IRC client responsiveness.
• Conduct field monitoring visits and document learnings and share lessons

Information management and reporting

• Responsible for SSNR monthly and/or quarterly performance indicator analysis
• Provide M&E inputs for regular analysis and project review meetings to (1) compare data against project milestones, targets, and quality expectations across project sites; (2) identify issues requiring concerned staff attention.
• In liaison with the SSNR Team Lead, contribute to SSNR project internal and donor report compilations and analysis.
• Extract lessons learned from projects, systematically document stories of change across partners, and make them easily accessible.
• Support MEAL Officers to ensure that data is collected and entered into databases and/or tracking sheets, and/or the data platform on a regular basis.
• Organize and facilitate meetings with SSNR partners on M&E progress, challenges, and way forward.
• Coordinate data management, and ensure data is managed according to IRC protocols and best practice

Partnership and Internal Staff Management, Mentorship, and Development

• Responsible for providing consistent, supportive supervision as necessary to meet monitoring objectives and ensure data quality.
• Manage partner and internal MEAL officers, ensuring that workplans and deliverables are clearly documented.
• Support in assessing and bridging of critical training needs of partner and internal MEAL team.

Perform other duties assigned by the supervisor

• Perform other task related assignment proposed by his/her supervisor/s

Key Working Relationships

• Position Reports to:  Senior Nutrition Manager/SSNR Project Team Lead
• Indirect/Technical Reporting: Senior MEAL Manager
• Position directly Supervises: N/A

Key Internal Contacts:

• Country Program: Nutrition Capacity Building Manager, Information Management (IM) Manager, GEDI Manager, Client Responsiveness and Accountability (CRA) Manager, Nutritio MEAL Officer, Monguno MEAL Officer, Senior MEAL Coordinator, Nutrition Coordinator, Field Coordinators, Governance MEAL Officer, Governance Manager, Grants Officers/Managers
• Region/Global: Nutrition MEAL Technical Advisor

Key External Contacts: 

Donor, GREENCODE, Government stakeholders

Job Requirements

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree in (statistics, social science, computer science/information public health, health economics, or related field). Master’s degree added advantage.

Work Experience:

• Minimum 3 years’ experience managing M&E project components, preferably nutrition-related projects.
• Excellent database, data management, and data analysis skills, with experience using at least 2 software applications such as Microsoft Excel, Access, PowerBI, SPSS, and STATA.
• Experience with electronic/mobile data collection (E.g., Kobo Collect, Survey CTO, CommCare) and GIS mapping.
• Experience in consortium M&E work will be an added advantage.

Demonstrated Technical Skills:

• Proven technical skills in monitoring and evaluation, including experience with multi-sectorial and multi-donor-funded programs and experience with qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis.
• Proven abilities to develop monitoring plans, data collection, information management, use of databases, and analysis and performance monitoring.
• Strong analytical, quantitative, and qualitative research skills and M&E skills
• Problem-solving, decision-making, leadership, and good judgment skills. Ability to take initiative and independently respond to situations.
• Ability to communicate effectively with managers, colleagues, partners, and clients.
• Strong commitment to IRC’s mission, purpose, and values.

Demonstrated Managerial/Leadership Competencies:

• Knowledge, skills, and experience in consensus building and partnerships.
• Demonstrated leadership, communication, and facilitation skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to handle a large and dynamic workload, work under pressure and meet deadlines

Languages: 

• Good verbal communication skills in of English.

Ability to Travel: 25% of time if applicable

• Position holder must be willing to travel to other locations to conduct activities.