MEAL Officer

TEAM PURPOSE: Oxfam in Lebanon is increasingly working at local, national and international levels to “ensure that women and men are protected and empowered to enjoy their basic rights and access services enabling them to live in dignity, within a more equitable society.” To achieve this vision, Oxfam in Lebanon implements activities under two main programmatic pillars: A Humanitarian Pillar and a Governance and Economic Justice Pillar.

JOB PURPOSE: Under the guidance of the Oxfam Lebanon Program Coordinator (North/Beirut), provide technical support and tools to Oxfam Lebanon’s programmes, ensuring effective, coordinated MEAL systems to drive programme quality and implementation. The MEAL Officer will support the development and implementation of a systematic approach to MEAL, ensuring that Oxfam and partner teams are able to effectively track outputs and outcomes and manage data effectively for reporting and learning purposes, as well as ensure programmes are in line with Oxfam minimum standards, and are learning from program evidence.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES (Technical, Leadership, People and Resource management)

MEAL system development and implementation:

• Provide support to the PMEAL Advisor and programme teams with assessments, project design and proposal development;
• Lead on the updating of relevant MEAL frameworks, working closely with relevant programme staff and partners, the PMEAL Advisor and Technical Coordinators;
• Work with the field project team in implementing MEAL plans, processes and tools, ensuring quality and consistency with Oxfam standards.

Programme monitoring, information management and reporting:

• Develop/improve/update tools for data collection, processing and analysis;
• Supervise enumerators working to collect data, and train them as appropriate;

• Conduct field visits to Oxfam and partners’ implementation sites, and draft reports with feedback to program teams;

• Perform analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, draft reports presenting the results of the analysis, and share the findings in an appropriate format;
• Report to and alert the project team on a regular basis regarding any anticipated project issues, risks and any emerging opportunities and threats relating to project implementation;
• Ensure all MEAL-related data and files are properly organized and stored in secure locations, as per corporate standards.

Accountability:

• Monitor and strengthen the implementation of the complaints and feedback mechanism for the programme through the “Your Word Counts” accountability platform.
• Accept feedback and complaints from beneficiaries and share them with field teams and track follow-up.

Capacity building for Oxfam and partner staff:

• Work closely with partner MEAL staff or focal points and provide technical assistance to partners and programme teams to implement MEAL, and improve the quality of reporting;
• Undertake periodic monitoring and technical support visits to partners to assess progress against agreed MEAL systems, and recommend corrective actions as appropriate;
• Provide training to partners on accountability to affected populations, and provide support in strengthening complaints and feedback mechanisms.

Evaluation, review, and learning:

• Share relevant MEAL findings with projects teams in an appropriate format and follow-up on their implementation;
• Support evaluations through the coordination of field-based data collection activities, sharing of evaluation findings and recommendations with intended audiences;
• Support the implementation of evaluation recommendations at a field level;
• Assist the programme team and partners in documenting lessons learned from programming;
• Organize/support field-based reviews and learning events.

Coordination and Networking:

• Participate in and contribute to relevant inter-agency efforts to agree and develop coordinated / joint M&E and accountability frameworks and mechanisms, as relevant;
• Deliver any other responsibility related to MEAL, assigned by the line manager.

CORE DIMENSIONS

• Work pattern is a mixture of reactive and project work

• Short, medium and long term planning is required in the context of changing priorities

• Required to make sound judgements regularly within agreed processes, using a good understanding of the programmatic requirements and the abilities of the team

• Work patterns are not routine and often high pressure

• Problems vary and include a combination of routine and some complex
• Requires the ability to analyse and communicate complex information to a wide range of stakeholders

ESSENTIAL

• Self-Awareness
• Listening
• Mutual accountability

In addition:

• At least 2 years of relevant professional experience working in monitoring and evaluation
• Experience working with vulnerable communities (Lebanese, Syrian or Palestinian)
• Demonstrable experience of gathering, analysing and presenting quantitative and qualitative data
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Arabic
• Proven ability to work effectively with others and demonstrate sensitivity to gender issues

Experience with computerised systems (such as Survey CTO, Power BI or others); high degree of computer literacy particularly with Microsoft Office and with Excel