Senior MEAL Officer - Beirut - National Candidates Only

INTRODUCTION:  

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is among the world’s leading humanitarian relief and development organisations. For 80 years, the IRC has been at the forefront of every major humanitarian initiative to assist people uprooted by war, persecution, or civil conflict. IRC staff go to the toughest places, implement both immediate response and long-lasting programs, and conduct the type of applied research and advocacy the aid community needs to continually push itself to find better solutions for people. In all its country programs, IRC partners with local governments and others to achieve outcomes related to people’s health, education, safety, power and economic well-being. The IRC currently works in 40 countries at with 14,000 employees.

BACKGROUND:  

The August 4, 2020 Port of Beirut explosion compounded Lebanon’s existing economic and social

challenges and disproportionally affected Beirut’s vulnerable populations. Since the explosion the efforts of civil society have been crucial for recovery and rehabilitation efforts. Several obstacles remain that challenge the effectiveness, inclusivity and sustainability of the broader recovery and rehabilitation process, which include coordination challenges between ongoing efforts and the ad hoc or temporary nature of interventions. The situation of Beirut’s population remains precarious and the need for support to recovery and reconstruction efforts urgent.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:  

The project will focus on reducing vulnerabilities that are prevalent amongst three groups affected by the blast in Beirut: (i) survivors of Gender-Based Violence (SGBV); (ii) those suffering from deteriorated psycho-social wellbeing; (iii) and/or those facing limitations related to being a person with disabilities and older persons. Supporting Beirut’s Immediate Social Recovery Services interventions will entail providing grant financing directly to a select number of NGOs, to enable them to provide social services to reduce vulnerabilities in these groups.

This will be achieved by supporting non-government stakeholders that are engaged and have a track record in delivering social recovery services and working with target groups by improving their capacity to participate in the broader social recovery and reconstruction processes.

The World Bank has selected the IRC to act as the Intermediary Implementing Agency (IIA) to implement the Supporting Beirut’s Immediate Social Recovery Services project. The IRC will take on project management, grant provision and/or procurement of services from NGOs, and will be responsible for the fiduciary supervision of the selected NGO partners. The IRC will also provide technical assistance and support for institutional strengthening measures to local NGOs, as well as design and implement communications strategies, undertake citizen engagement initiatives, ensure partners conduct quality monitoring and reporting, and set-up grievance redress mechanisms.

SCOPE OF WORK:

The Senior Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Officer is part of the project with the World Bank and will be the liaison with the partners to ensure quality monitoring and reporting from the partners, as well as provide capacity building to the partners on setting up feedback and complaint systems.

Major Responsibilities:

1. Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Provide support in the M&E sections of the Request for Proposal for partners, as per the need.
• Conduct the M&E capacity assessment of partners and accordingly develop a capacity building plan.
• Ensure that partners have appropriate data collection tools to respond to the results framework set by the World Bank.
• Depending on the capacity building plan of partners, conduct trainings for selected partners on proper and ethical data collection, data cleaning, data analysis, and data reporting.
• Review, provide feedback, and consolidate the quarterly reporting of the partners to ensure accurate data and reporting to the World Bank.
• Ensure that partners consult with beneficiaries on a periodic basis and collect feedback on quality of services provided. Support partners in development of data collection tools to collect feedback from beneficiaries, and if needed, conduct data analysis and draft reports of beneficiary feedback.
• Coordinate with and provide technical support to potential consultants for the baseline, mid-term, and end of project assessments.
• Provide support in any donor reporting or inquiries on M&E as per the need.
• Provide support in conducting learning events with the partners for program learning and improvements.
• Act as focal point for Activity Info and consolidated beneficiary count reporting from partners.

2. Accountability (Feedback & Complaints Mechanism):

• Conduct the feedback and complaints mechanism’s capacity assessment of partners and accordingly develop a capacity building plan.
• Provide direct technical support to partners based on the capacity building plan.
• Ensure that the minimum feedback and complaint mechanism standards and systems are set up or improved within the partner’s structures and systems to receive and resolve grievances and complaints from the project’s beneficiaries.
• Ensure that severe and critical complaints are captured by the partners and channeled to IRC’s project management team for handling and setting up corrective actions with the partners.
• Provide support to the partners in developing outreach communication materials as well as feedback and complaints channels about their feedback and complaints mechanisms, while ensuring cultural, age, gender, diversity and inclusion appropriateness and considerations.
• Coordinate with the partners to recruit and/or assign and train dedicated focal points sitting in the partners’ organizations to receive feedback and complaints from partners’ beneficiaries.
• Work with the partners to develop a contextualized database for the partners to log, monitor and refer feedback and complaints.
• Work with the partners to set up a timeframe for each complaint category and priority that suits the partners and is contextualized to their existing systems and capacities.
• Work with the partners to set up an escalation matrix system for beneficiaries who might appeal the proposed complaint resolution.
• Train and support the partners in conducting data analysis, report writing, and dissemination of main complaints findings and trends to the senior management.
• Provide support in any donor reporting or inquiries on accountability (feedback and complaints mechanisms) as per the need.
• Conduct learning events with the partners for learning and improving the feedback and complaints mechanisms.

3. Other

• Ensure all activities are child and gender sensitive and follow IRC Child Safeguarding Policy.
• Apply Do No Harm standards to ensure activities do not have detrimental effects on vulnerable communities.
• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to reinforce the acceptance of IRC in the community.
• Flexibility on other duties as assigned for program or professional development.
• Participate in relevant internal or external meetings as per the need.
• All IRC staff is required to adhere to THE IRC Way Standards for Professional Conduct and the IRC country employment policies.

Key Working Relationships:

• Position Reports to: Project Lead
• Position Technically Reports to: MEAL Manager and Accountability Manager
• Position directly supervises: N/A
• Position works with: Partners under the World Bank project, World Bank project team, MEAL Coordinator, Protection Coordinators, Health Coordinator, Partnerships team, Grants team, T4P team, etc.

Job Requirements, Work Experience, and Demonstrated Skills:

• Bachelor of Arts or Science in Social Science, Economics, Statistics, Computer Science, Public Health, International Relief and Development, or related field
• 3-4 years of experience developing and maintaining M&E and feedback and complaints systems.
• Experience working with and building capacities of partners is essential.
• Experience working with consultancies is preferred.
• Excellent technical skills in contemporary accountability, humanitarian standards or relevant M&E methods and practices, with hands-on experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis.
• Proven ability to design and lead training engagements with staff and partners to enhance skills and adapt systems.
• Demonstrated experience and capacity in conducting field-level data collection.
• Strong computer literacy, including proficiency in Microsoft Office.
• Demonstrated experience working with ICT tools to collect and analyze data, such as ODK/Kobo Toolkit, PowerBi, Tableau, GIS, etc.
• Strong English reporting skills.
• Previous experience in mentoring and coaching partners is strongly preferred.
• Strong ability to work independently, organize work, meet deadlines, maintain composure, prioritize work under pressure, coordinate multiple tasks and maintain attention to detail.
• Excellent interpersonal, problem-solving skills, creativity and flexibility.
• Excellent relationship-building, interpersonal skills and the ability to effectively work with partner colleagues and beneficiaries.
• Positive attitude to work, self-reflective, motivated, inspired, collegial.
• INGO experience preferred.
• Works well in and promotes teamwork, a good attitude, comfortable in a multi-cultural environment.
• Fluency in English and Arabic required.

WORK ENVIRNOMENT:

Travel and other requirements: Staff will be based in Beirut, with limited travel required between the partners’ program implementation sites.