MEAL Coordinator Dnipro

Location: Dnipro with travel to other CARE Ukraine Office locations and sub-antenna offices 

Reporting line manager:  Area Programme Manager 

Duration: 12 months renewable

Conditions: Employment contract, gross monthly salary starting from Euro 2,971 depending on proven relevant experience for the post. CARE Ukraine will also provide.

One time Moving allowance to Dnipro if you have to relocate to take this job and Monthly Risk Allowance. 

Annual leave of 28 days per calendar year. 

 Starting date: As Soon As Possible

CARE INTERNATIONAL

CARE International (CI) is among the world’s largest international non-governmental humanitarian relief and development confederations. Drawing on more than 75 years of experience, through its 21 Members, as both a practitioner and thought leader, CI’s work reaches over 100 countries worldwide to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice.

CARE’s vision is to seek a world of hope, inclusion, and social justice; where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. CARE focuses heavily on women and girls, and the areas of gender equality, diversity, and inclusion are at the center of our work because we know that we cannot overcome poverty and social injustice until all people have equal rights and opportunities. We recognize that power relations between people and within systems and structures are unequal and that these are entrenched in our broader systems, structures, and institutions.

At the core of the CI Confederation is a globally distributed Secretariat, which provides coordination and support to its members in areas including governance, strategic planning, communications, membership development and accountability, advocacy, humanitarian response, and program development. In addition, the Secretariat represents the CI Confederation at the United Nations and the European Union, and with other external stakeholders.

CONTEXT IN UKRAINE 

On 24th February 2022, the invasion of Ukraine marked a significant escalation to the conflict that started in 2014. It continues to profoundly impact the lives of people across the country at various levels. The front line is continuously shifting and there are areas under Russian military control, as well as cities under siege. Attacks on military installations and critical civilian infrastructures are conducted in the whole territory of Ukraine, often resulting in collateral civilian casualties. The conflict has caused the largest population movement in Europe since World War II, with over 5 million currently displaced within Ukraine and 6 million refugees across Europe. OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) had counted 17.6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

At least one-third of the country’s energy infrastructure is damaged, leaving millions without heating and access to water. In October 2022, the Russian Federation claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian oblasts, further increasing the challenge of access to these areas. Therefore, an ongoing priority for the international humanitarian response is to reach newly accessible areas in the East and South, and to provide aid to previously unreachable and particularly hard-hit areas of Ukraine.

CARE UKRAINE

CARE prioritizes a locally led response and is partnering primarily with Civil-Society Organizations (CSOs), National NGOs (Non-Government Organization), local authorities, and when needed, INGOs (International Non-Governmental Organizations) with a longstanding presence in the country and access to hard-to-reach areas. CARE Ukraine deliberately and strategically prioritizes partnerships with local and national Women Led and Women Rights organizations (WLO’s/ WRO’s), further strengthening the Gender in Emergencies (GiE) principle and the Women Lead in Emergencies (WLiE) approach.

In the first few weeks after the escalation of the war, virtually all humanitarian aid inside Ukraine was organized and implemented by local actors. These groups (together with local authorities) remain the principal aid providers but are quickly being exhausted of funds, fuel, and physical energy. Thereby, a considerable proportion of CARE’s resources is dedicated to strengthening and supporting the capacities of local partners.

As of October 2023, CARE Ukraine has established partnerships with over twenty local/national organizations (incl. WLO’s/WRO’s). From the more than 45 million that have been raised for Ukraine thus far, more than half is allocated to local/national partners. Through the activities that have been implemented so far, CARE Ukraine has been able to reach more than 800,000 people, including IDPs and affected populations in hard-to-reach areas.

While CARE Ukraine’s country office is currently located in Lviv, we also have a coordination office in Kyiv as well as area offices in Dnipro and Odesa, covering both the East and South of the country.

Role Objectives: 

The purpose of the MEAL Coordinator position is to ensure the MEAL requirements per project are fulfilled with a strong focus on outcomes monitoring, quality standards and impact evaluations. 

One important component of the role is institutional learning to contribute to adaptative management with the goal of improving the quality of programs and of assistance delivered to project participants.   Due to the locally led nature of CARE humanitarian response in Ukraine, the role includes a strong focus on building the capacities of implementing partners while recognizing their extensive knowledge and experience on the local context. 

The MEAL Coordinator is working under the supervision of the Area Program Manager. In this role, the postholder will supervise MEAL officers in the respective area office. 

The position holder will be essentially responsible for:

1. MEAL Systems and Processes

• Support the MEAL Manager in the country office in developing, and maintaining master logframe, MEAL plan/framework, and IM/MEAL budget.
• Develop the M&E workplan for each grant and trace the implementation in close coordination and collaboration with CO MEAL officers.
• Lead, develop and maintain the M&E tracker to document and trace the findings of M&E monitoring visits.
• Support the CO MEAL team in developing ITTs and ensuring the quality and accuracy of reported figures.
• Ensure that MEAL activities are aligned with project objectives and donor requirements.
• Provide technical support on M&E and evidence-based recommendations to the relevant project staff and partners.
• Provide technical support and build the team capacity of MEAL partners.
• Ensure quality of data collected by partners and field teams.
• Work with CO MEAL team during the kick-off meeting for new projects to ensure implementing teams (CARE and partners) understand the MEAL requirements before the start of the project’s implementation.
• Under the supervision of APM and in coordination with ERM, ensure proper monitoring field visits are conducted for each project and participate in relevant field visits regularly.
• Under the guidance of the Area Program Manager, oversee the planning, development, and management of Needs Assessments (NAs), market assessments, etc. within the designated area office.
• Support IM coordinator in the country office in mentoring and implementing the action plans which are generated from the data quality assessment exercises.   
• Lead, develop, and manage beneficiary verification, distribution and PDM processes for CARE and partners.

1. MEAL Tools and Activities

• Support in the development and/or review of all required MEAL tools for new projects (including but not limited to baseline surveys, assessment tools, registration tools, distribution lists, surveys tools for PDM or PAM, focus group discussion, onsite quality checklist, etc.) for CARE and partners.
• Work with CO MEAL team to ensure outcome monitoring tools and quality checklists are available, updated and used with a specific focus on ensuring that adequate gender and power analysis has taken place.
• Support in review and document progress under gender markers, resilience markers and governance markers in line with the standards and methodologies promoted by CARE International.
• Support conducting the different studies, evaluations, and research at area level that are designed to be implemented internally.
• Support in developing TORs for TPMs/Evaluations and ensuring that evaluations pay particular attention to gender and women’s empowerment and the potential negative consequences of CARE’s action.

1. Reporting

• Ensure the monthly reporting requirements and schedules are met by working closely with MEAL staff from CARE and partners to ensure timely and quality data, collection, analysis, and reporting (monthly requirements include narrative, 5Ws, and indicators tracking tables).
• Review all MEAL reports produced by partners, ensure constructive feedback is given to partner staff with relevant follow and support provided.
• Combine and produce MEAL reports from the conducted MEAL activities by AO MEAL team and partners.
• Participate in regular progress review meetings organized by grant managers for all active projects to provide updates about MEAL activities and progress.

1. Accountability and Learning

• Review monthly reports received from partners to generate learning and contribute to adaptative management, facilitate decision making and inform program design.
• Promote organizational learning and ensure timely documentation, publication and sharing of lessons learned and successful approaches from program implementation and finding of evaluations, research, and studies with various stakeholders internally and externally.
• Lead on organizing cross-sector learning events such mid-term review workshops for active projects with partners after 6 months of implementation to review progress and promote adaptative management based on ongoing learning and conclusion from accountability mechanisms.
• Ensure all required documentation is collected and archived where CARE staff and partners can easily access findings and lessons learned (including on CARE evaluation library).
• Work closely with the accountability officer to ensure the different channels of feedback and accountability mechanisms are being promoted and used by CARE and partners’ staff to share information with and collect information from local communities.
• Support in establishing and communicating clear reporting mechanisms for safeguarding concerns within the area team.
• Encourage a culture of reporting and ensure that team members know how to report safeguarding issues promptly.
• Collaborate with other departments, such as Human Resources and safeguarding units, to address safeguarding issues holistically.
• Contribute to investigations into safeguarding incidents promptly and impartially.

1. Capacity building and Management

• Provide sufficient support and guidance to AO MEAL team to achieve the tasks/objectives in the best quality possible while ensuring an open and engaging environment focused on supportive supervision, constructive feedback, recognition of effort and respect of work/life balance.
• Assess the MEAL capacities of implementing partners and develop capacity building plan for each partner in coordination with the MEAL Manager to ensure that staff and partners fully understand the function of MEAL in quality assurance and strengthen a culture of open reflection and improvement.
• Organize and/or conduct capacity building sessions for the MEAL staff of CARE and partners through mentoring, coaching and trainings to address the capacity gaps identified in running the MEAL system and activities and using the different MEAL tools.

Essential criteria:

Mandatory:

• University degree or/and master’s degree in social sciences, development, program evaluation, data science, economic policy, econometrics and operations research, or a related field.
• Minimum 2 years of experience working in monitoring, evaluation, and research for NGOs in the humanitarian or development sectors.
• Strong written and oral Ukrainian and English skills.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct rigorous quantitative and qualitative analysis using appropriate analytical methods; design and implement quantitative and qualitative rapid appraisals, etc.
• Strong ability and interest in working with local partners and building their capacities.
• Experience in team management.

Expected:

• Strong skills in Excel and experience with Power BI or other data management and visualization software.
• Experience with mobile data collection tools (Kobo, or others)
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to work independently, manage time and execute tasks.
• Ability to work as part of a team and culturally sensitive and able to work in multi-cultural team.
• Unquestionable personal code of ethics, integrity, diversity, and trust.
• Strong belief in human rights and gender equality.
• Strong confidentiality ethic, demonstrate flexibility, and versatility in adjusting to changing environments and requirements as necessary.

Accountability: 

A commitment to CARE values and CARE’s integrity framework is critical to working with CARE. Any candidate offered a job with CARE will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability: 

• Comply with CARE’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, code of conduct, health and safety, confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behaviour protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area. 
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behaviour of a CARE staff or partner.

Safeguarding:

Children and vulnerable adults who come into contact with CARE as a result of CARE activities must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury, and any other harm. One of the ways that CARE shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates. 

Gender equality:

CARE is committed to meeting the standards of the CARE International Gender Policy (2019). Through this policy, CARE seeks to promote the equal realization of dignity and human rights for girls, women, boys and men in all diversities, and the elimination of poverty and injustice. Specifically, this policy seeks to improve the explicit incorporation of gender in programmatic and organizational practices. 

How to Apply:

CARE values equal opportunities and diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability.

Please send your CV (in pdf format max. 4 pages) and a cover letter in English to < Отправить резюме >, by the latest 17th of April 2024.   Please name your documents Surname_CV, Surname_Cover Letter. Put MEAL Coordinator – Dnipro as the subject title of your email.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.