MEAL Senior Officer

TITLE: Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Senior Officer

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Programme

Development, Quality, and Impact

LOCATION: Assiut

GRADE : G3

CONTRACT LENGTH:

National Staff – Fixed term

Expected Travel: 40%

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

The post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:

Lead operationalization of the project MEAL system under a Results-Based Financing (RBF) approach, ensuring credible, timely, and verifiable data for adaptive management, donor reporting, independent verification, and learning. Provide technical supervision to the MEAL Assistant, enumerators, and household coaches.

Given the nature of RBF projects, data needs to be collected and monitored in real-time. The Senior MEAL Officer will need to have close oversight of enumerators'/household coaches' data submissions, monitoring and verification of micro-enterprise variables, as well as continuous verification of payment metric readiness in "real time" (monthly or more frequently). The Senior MEAL officer will also be supporting for general projects as well, not necessarily RBF, as needed.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: MEAL Manager

Staff reporting to this post: MEAL Assistant

Budget Responsibilities : EUR 22,000 per year

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

1. MEAL system design and setup

• Finalise and operationalise the MEAL Plan, IPTT, SOPs, aligning indicators with payment metrics and verification protocols under the RBF model.

• Finalize and operationalize other MEAL toolkits, such as MEAL PIRS, Action Tracker, Feedback Tracker and Quality Benchmarks

• Develop and update MEAL plan and log frame on PRIME, ensuring indicator progress and means of verification are adequately updated by project teams.

• Lead set-up of database design, digital data collection (Kobo), data management pipelines and Power BI dashboards for near real-time performance monitoring.

• Establish Data Quality Assurance (DQA) procedures, verification sampling frames and traceability processes for payment-linked indicators.

2. Monitoring data quality and verification

• Lead training for coaches and volunteers (such as household coaches on monthly data collection and volunteer enumerators) and learning events organization, in collaboration with REL specialist and MEAL Officers.

• Oversee routine monitoring cycles, ensuring completeness, timeliness and disaggregation (gender, age, disability, enterprise type, revenue and income generated).

• Design and implement DQAs, spot checks, back-checks and independent verification preparations to ensure payment readiness.

• Supervise the MEAL Assistant and enumerator teams and ensure corrective plans for identified data quality gaps are implemented.

• Lead design and execution of baseline, midline (if applicable) and endline studies and oversee selection and supervision of external evaluation consultants.

• Coordinate with the Research and Learning Specialist to develop and manage learning products (quarterly learning briefs, case studies, thematic deep dives) and present findings to PDQ team and other stakeholders.

• Support use of mixed methods (quantitative, qualitative, FGDs, key informant interviews) to assess enterprise growth, household income reinvestment in children, VSLA performance and gender/child well-being outcomes.

• Ensure MEAL processes include safeguarding and confidentiality protections: safe data handling, anonymisation, informed consent, and referral pathways for protection risks.

• Coordinate with the Protection/Gender/Child specialists on monitoring potential negative outcomes (e.g., child labour, GBV risks) and risk mitigation monitoring.

3. Results-Based Financing (RBF) management

• Translate RBF Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) into operational verification checklists and data flows; support the Project Management Unit (PMU) and Finance in preparing verifiable claims for disbursements.

• Coordinate with independent verifiers and donors for verification missions; compile evidence packs and support rapid responses to verification queries.

• Maintain auditable records and ensure systems meet donor compliance standards.

• Coordinate with MEAL experts from SCI member offices on co-design and maintenance of the data architecture, POWER BI Dashboards and verification workflow, among other tasks.

4. Data analysis, reporting and stakeholder engagement.

• Produce monthly performance reports for PMU, quarterly reports as requested and present dashboards during learning workshops and Award Review Meetings (ARM).

• Provide analytical inputs to adaptive management recommendations and support the Project Manager in evidence-based decision-making.

• Ensure timely handover of learning and data tools to local partners and incubators to strengthen sustainability.

5. Accountability

• Coordinate with accountability team in order to ensure that feedback inform adaptive management

6. Qualifications, Experience and Skills

• Education:

• Degree in Monitoring & Evaluation, Statistics, Development Studies, Social Sciences, Economics or related discipline; advanced degree preferred.

• Experience and Skills

• Minimum 5–7 years of progressive MEAL experience in livelihoods, economic empowerment or market systems programs, with at least 2 years in a senior MEAL role managing teams.

• Direct experience managing MEAL for RBF/disbursement-linked projects or other outcome-based financing modalities.
• Proven experience designing and running baseline/endline studies and managing external evaluators.
• Strong practical experience with digital data collection tools (Kobo/ODK), data management systems and dashboarding tools (Power BI or similar).
• Solid understanding of Data Quality Assurance methodologies, sampling, and independent verification processes.
• Experience integrating child protection, safeguarding and gender-sensitive monitoring approaches into MEAL systems.
  Fluency in Arabic (spoken and written) and strong English (written and verbal).

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice )

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values.
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same.
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others.
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters.
• Values diversity sees it as a source of competitive strength.
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions.

• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Safeguarding our Staff:

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.