MEAL Manager, Mayi and Mwana Project

About CRS

Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identify is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as part of our staff and as partner’s people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and commitment to serving those in need. Since 2000 CRS Zambia has been implementing a number of programmes to support vulnerable communities in Zambian. Recent programming areas include: nutrition, agriculture, food security, HIV/AIDS, WASH, financial inclusion, and early child development.

Background

CRS Zambia will be implementing the 3-year Mayi & Mwana Project in target districts to improve antenatal and postnatal health services in health facilities, improve health seeking practices by women and improve coordination among district and provincial teams within the MoH, thereby reducing the incidence of maternal and newborn mortality in target districts. Mayi & Mwana will address barriers to positive health outcomes for mothers and newborns in Petauke, Sinda, and Katete districts in Eastern Province utilizing a district health system strengthening approach, to improve timely access to high quality care for pregnant women and newborns. CRS will tailor the program to specific community needs and will address supply and demand side barriers to women’s access to quality emergency obstetric and newborn care.

Position Summary

Based in Petauke, the MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning) Manager provides overall guidance and implementation of MEAL requirements for the Mayi and Mwana project, ensuring compliance to the Country Office MEAL Policies and Procedures and industry best practices. S/he will work closely with program staff to ensure that the project has user-friendly and robust MEAL systems that promote efficient capturing and management of high-quality data related to project activities and outcomes and provide timely and relevant information for reporting to donors, for managing results internally, learning, showcasing impact and meeting the needs of other stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversees the implementation of a robust MEAL system that systematically and efficiently collects, analyses and reports on project results that meet CRS and donor MEAL requirements
• Ensures quality data collection with the use of digital platforms
• Oversees the collection, management, aggregation, reporting of quality data and sharing of information and knowledge with key stakeholders and beneficiaries throughout the life of the project
• In collaboration with local partners designs and deploys participatory processes to strengthen accountability and learning mechanisms
• Supervise activity and outcome monitoring for the project
• Participate in periodical data quality audits at all levels of the data flow
• Coordinate the timely analysis of qualitative and quantitative performance data and support report writing as required
• Ensure deliverables are accurate, complete, and submitted to the donor in a timely manner
• Facilitate review of progress on a quarterly basis, supporting problem solving processes and development of remedial actions ensuring any disparity between planned and actual outputs are addressed
• Work with internal and external teams in the design and implementation of surveys, assessments, studies, and evaluations
• Meet with field staff frequently to jointly analyze and reflect on project monitoring data in order to produce action items with assigned responsibilities
• Conduct regular visits to project sites with partners to provide relevant, clear, high-quality, and timely onsite technical support and mentoring
• Perform periodic data quality audits to ensure that partners are capturing and recording data correctly and in line with donor requirements and CRS standards.
• Organize and facilitate learning meetings to review yearly targets and benchmarks and to promote learning
• Foster active knowledge management and organizational learning based on MEAL findings
• Coordinate with CRS program staff, MEAL staff and local partner organizations to produce human interest stories, articles, working papers, lessons learned, and other publications for internal and external circulation
• Orient program staff on the basic principles and practices of MEAL system, policies and procedures related to the project
• Perform any other function assigned to him/her by the Project Director.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years’ relevant work experience
• Grade 12 certificate
• Degree in Social Sciences, Statistics or Economics or other related fields
• Postgraduate certificate in Monitoring and Evaluation
• Strong English writing skills
• Experience working with web-based data collection platforms (e.g CommCare, ODK, KoboToolBox, iFormBuilder)

Personal Skills

• Good relationship management skills with ability to work collaboratively as part of a multidisciplinary and multicultural teams
• Strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking capacity and skills
• Good writing skills
• Strong data collection and research skills and ability to interpret and analyze data

Travel Required: 50%

Key Working Relationships
Supervisory: None
Internal: Project Director, MEAL Coordinator, Head of Programs
External: Midwives association of Zambia, health facilities, field officers, donor, host country government agencies (including Provincial and District health offices), international and national non-governmental organizations working in the field of food security and nutrition

Agency-wide Competencies: These are rooted in the mission, values, and principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and to achieve the desired results.

• Trusting Relationships
• Professional Growth
• Partnership
• Accountability

CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

Important Note: By applying to this job, I understand and acknowledge that CRS requires its staff to treat all people with dignity and respect and to actively prevent harassment, abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking. Further, I understand that if I am a successful candidate, I will be subject to a comprehensive background check, and my personal/professional references will be asked to evaluate my behaviors related to the above safeguarding-related topics.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Applicant Instructions: Please email a cover letter, and curriculum vitae which should include three references to: [email protected]. Please include the position you are applying for in the subject line.

The closing date for applications is 21st November 2020. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview.