Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is an international non-governmental organization supporting relief and development work in over 99 countries around the world. CRS programs assist persons on the basis of need, regardless of creed, ethnicity or nationality and works through local church and non-church partners to implement its programs

Job Summary

As a member of the CRS Kenya Country Program Monitoring Evaluation Accountability and Learning (MEAL) team, you will provide MEAL technical support to a range of project design and implementation issues,  ensuring data is readily available to be used as a foundation for programmatic adjustments and evidence-based decision-making, in line with CRS program quality principles, standards and policies and procedures, donor requirements, and industry best practices, to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your MEAL knowledge and service-oriented approach will contribute to how effective, adaptive, and innovative CRS Kenya programming is towards improving the impact of its benefits to those we serve.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

• Manage and implement all MEAL activities throughout relevant project cycles- project design, start-up, implementation, and close-out- as outlined in the project Detailed Implementation Plan to ensure efficient and effective implementation in line with CRS program quality principles and standards and MEAL policies, procedures and practices, donor MEAL requirements, and industry good practices.
• Lead the development and implementation of project MEAL systems and practices while advancing the use of ICT4MEAL, that effectively engage partners, donors, and other stakeholders and are compliant with CRS and donor MEAL requirements.
• Lead field level monitoring and evaluation activities (including digital data collection), ensuring quality data collection and data management activities and guiding staff and partners on timely analysis and reflection on project data and experiences for evidence-based decision making and adaptive management. Monitor and report any MEAL-related challenges and gaps identified to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules.
• Contribute to evaluation and research events through the development and/ or review of terms of reference that include a balance of qualitative and quantitative methods, and the necessary level of technical rigor.
• Lead the roll-out and implementation of the project’s Feedback Complaints and Response Mechanism (FCRM). Support actively seeking and responding to feedback from all members of targeted communities and other stakeholders as defined by the FCRM.
• Promote documentation and application of learning to improve program quality and to strengthen agency influence. Assist with identifying information for case studies and reports on promising practices.
• Collaborate with local partner(s) to prepare MEAL-related aspects of reports per established reporting schedule. Support CP, regional and agency level reporting.
• Serve as a resource person for MEAL in project design and proposal development, supporting the design of project-level theories of change, results frameworks, Proframes (logical frameworks), MEAL plans and budgets.
• Build MEAL capacity of CRS project and partner staff to ensure assigned project MEAL activities are implemented per project guidelines and standards, optimizing partner participation and capacity development.
• Foster respectful relationships with community members and stakeholders and serve as the liaison between them and the project team on MEAL activities.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities 

• Observation, active listening, and analysis skills with ability to make sound judgment.
• Good relationship management skills and the ability to work closely with local partners and community members.
• Attention to details, accuracy, and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities.
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented.
• Demonstrated commitment to respect, equity, diversity and inclusion including gender equality

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in ICT4MEAL, Knowledge Management, Learning, Gender integration in MEAL and Proposal Development will be an added advantage.

Required Languages

Excellent verbal and written communication in English, with ability to write reports.

Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 60%.

Key Working Relationships 

Internal: Senior Project Officer Knowledge Management and Learning, Project MEAL Officers and Managers, Project Managers, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Manager and Officers, Regional Technical Advisors MEAL, and ICT.

External: Local Implementing Partner (LIP) and Consortium Partner staff, Peer agencies’ staff, Donors, Community members.

QUALIFICATIONS

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in International Development, International Relations, Demography, Social Sciences, Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation, or other MEAL related field is required.
• Minimum of three years’ NGO experience setting up and implementing MEAL systems for projects (preferably in Early Child Development/ Health Systems Strengthening sectors) funded by different public donors, including USAID.
• Experience monitoring projects, collecting, analyzing, and sharing relevant data, using mobile data collection and management applications (e.g., Commcare, GIS, YouTrack, PowerBi).
• Experience conducting project surveys and evaluations, including supporting data analysis using SPSS or other data analysis software, writing reports, and facilitating use of findings for adaptive project management.
• Experience working with partners, participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.