MEAL Specialist

Back ground

World Vision Uganda (WVU) is a Christian relief, development and advocacy non-government organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. We currently work in 43 districts and have 48 Area Programmes implementing projects in health & nutrition, water, sanitation & hygiene (WASH), livelihoods & resilience, education and child protection. World Vision (WV) is committed to the protection of children and adult beneficiaries from exploitation and abuse and will not employ people whose background is not suitable for working with these beneficiaries. All employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of all applicable background checks, including criminal record checks where possible.

Due to expansion in scope of our programmes, we are now seeking for a qualified and passionate individual willing to share in our vision and join the team in the following role.

Position: MEAL Specialist

Report to: MEAL Manager

Location: Kampala National Office

 

Purpose of the position:

To plan, develop and manage program performance monitoring & evaluation systems, research for World Vision Uganda Programmes in line with the National Office Strategy and establish a knowledge base through using M&E data/information as evidence for accountability and informing decision-making for management purposes, course adjustments, and future designs.

 

Key Outputs/Responsibilities.

Capacity building of staff and stakeholders

• Build capacity of DME, Program Managers and Sector Specialists through on and off job-mentorship, identify learning opportunities for staff, and hold learning forums particularly in area of design, monitoring, reporting and evaluation. This shall be achieved through collaborating with different divisions, technical program leads, sector specialists, WV-EARO and Global center, partners, ministries and local governments to continuous build capacity of staff capacity in LEAP/DPA, design, monitoring and evaluation, research, technologies for MEAL
• Train and build M&E capacity of program staff, beneficiaries and other stakeholders according to World Vision Uganda Strategy, MEAL framework and Donor Guidelines.
• Spear head roll out of partnership initiatives from WV-EARO and Global center in relation to Design Monitoring and Evaluation
• Develop a capacity building and mentorship program for the national MEAL team aimed at enhancing their capacity and skills to assume increased MEAL and programming responsibilities.
• Guide staff in preparing progress reports in accordance with approved LEAP reporting formats and ensure their timely submission. This includes monthly reports, quarterly progress reports, annual project reports, inception reports

Research and Documentation

• Promote evidence based learning through undertaking operations research and documentation at National Office and program level through undertaking research, engaging programs in research, initiating topics or themes for research.
• Support programs to generate Most Significant Change evidence in form text i.e. magazines, or digital videos.
• Support the National Office to roll out research initiatives or products being piloted by the National Office, Support Offices, Global Center or National structures
• Support programs in documenting and disseminating innovations and new research findings related to MEAL
• Synthesize and summarize trends in AP monitoring data and data generated from evaluations that can be used to inform national level programming
• Promote and facilitate processes for identifying, documenting and disseminating good MEAL practices at a National Level
• Design and implement a system to identify, analyze, document and disseminate lessons learned.

Assessments and evaluations

• Assure that baselines and evaluations are conducted in accordance to partnership/donor guidelines and standards, participate in development and review of Terms of References, provide technical backstopping to baselines, assessments and evaluations, collaborate with consultants, support offices or partners.
• Provide technical guidance in conducting assessments in line with established LEAP or donor related guidelines at a National level. In addition, identify the need and draw up the Terms of Reference for specific studies; Recruit, guide and supervise consultants to implement special surveys and studies required for evaluating programs effects and impacts.
• Support and strengthen adoption and use of Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) methodology using Open Data Kit (ODK) or any emerging recommended software for annual monitoring of program outcomes, assessments, evaluations or baseline surveys.
• Build and foster relationships with Government of Uganda counterparts, non-governmental organizations, academic and research institution, and work with them to advance M&E methodology, in close coordination with the MEAL Manager
• Contribute to all program development, research and needs assessments by monitoring the changing needs of target communities, identifying opportunities in line with WV Uganda mission & strategy and monitoring international best practices and development trends.
• Monitor and follow up on utilization of recommendations from evaluation surveys across programmes
• Conduct meta evaluation of all completed program evaluations to establish key learning and recommendations to inform future evaluations

Quality assurance in MEAL work products

• As part of the Quality assurance team at National level, hold periodic National level reviews to review reports, performance of programs and provide timely feedback to programs.
• Assure quality of data by enforcing data quality through routine data and M&E system quality audits at program level, in grants, WV partners and sub grantees.
• Provide technical support to national office and field program staff and partners on integration of the strategy standard indicators into ongoing or new programs/projects.
• Plan for and implement program planning and review meetings in line with the national strategy detailed implementation plan/National Annual Operating Plan
• Track timely implementation and reporting of programs plans
• Support the regional team in reviewing management reports as well as other M&E reports to ensure validated M&E data and M&E compliance with recommended guidelines, formats and standards.
• Compile graded summary reports on quality and develop summary reports key findings and learning

Information Systems Management

• Provide leadership to the national MIS systems (Horizon, GIS, OVC databases, WASH MIS, Automated Database) and build capacity of MEAL and Programme staff on the utilization and Management of MIS system management
• Develop/ rollout and manage WV Uganda’s integrated M&E database aligned to the National Strategy 2016-2020 standard indicators and cascade the Database to programs, divisions, partners, grants/emergency projects to track statistics contributing to the National Office Strategy and Child Well-Being Targets.
• Roll out partnership initiatives from the EARO and Global Centre such as Horizon and any other databases and ensure that these are rolled out to all programmes at a national level
• Provide meaningful data summaries and visualization to demonstrate result to the NO and clusters on the contribution each of the program in regions is performing
• In addition, support application of software for results based monitoring and evaluation such as SPSS, EPIDATA, EPIINFO, STATA, GIS

Programme Monitoring and Reporting

• Analyze program data and periodic reports from different technical projects into periodic management reports usable for demonstrating evidence towards progress on National Office Strategy, for Technical Project Managers, senior management, Senior Leadership and other WV partnership offices.
• Support all programs/projects in World Vision Uganda including grants to undertake activity tracking and results based monitoring of outputs and outcomes using standardized reporting templates/ formats, protocols, guides, dashboards and databases ensuring contribution to the National Office Strategy
• Collaborate with Regional Specialists, Grants MEAL Specialists, Cluster MEAL Officer’s and division to ensure quality and timely submission of bi-annual and annual reports.
• Ensure timely availability of quality synthesized statistics at National Level for annual Child Well-Being reporting after a thorough/ rigorous validation process of data from technical projects and grants inclusive of emergency responses
• Promote utilization of data/information at program, sector and division level through regional meetings, at management meetings, at conferences, or partnership strengthened
• Develop/adapt and coordinate administration of monitoring tools to track program performance based on the strategy standard indicators and WVI partnership targets
• Compile progress reports for management purposes in line with the detail strategy implementation plan, MEAL framework and Donor Guidelines.
• Provide data to inform the development of concept papers, publication, and program reports in line with the WV Uganda Strategy, MEAL framework; for dissemination, internally to WVU and to external audiences including target communities, government bodies/agencies, Support Offices, Donors, professional communities as necessary.
• Consolidate all annual program reports and prepare the national office progress report on the WV International partnership targets
• Oversee and execute M&E activities included in the Annual Work Plan, with particular focus on results and impacts as well as in lesson learning.
• Prepare consolidation progress reports for project management including identification of problems, causes of potential bottlenecks in the project implementation, and providing specific recommendations.
• Undertake regular visits to the field to support implementation of M&E and to identify where adaptations might be needed.

 

Qualifications: Education/Knowledge/Technical Skills and Experience.

• A Master’s degree in Monitoring & Evaluation, Statistics, Public health, Demography, Biostatistics, or a related field is required.
• Minimum of five years of work experience in managing data intensive programs in designing, monitoring, and evaluation methodologies is highly desirable.
• Experience in proposal writing and development, grants management, Report writing, research, monitoring and evaluation skills
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative M&E data collection and analysis methods, including tracking outcome indicators, is desirable.
• Knowledge of designing and managing M&E systems at a national level for effective generation of monitoring data used in tracking Programme and improved service delivery and support related to development programming
• Experience in designing M&E methodologies and tools, and the ability to coach and train others in their use is desirable.
• Excellent command of MS Excel, and working knowledge of at least two statistical data management packages/software’s (quantitative & qualitative) e.g., SPSS, Nvivo/Nudist, EPIINFO, STATA etc
• Demonstrated experience in analyzing, interpreting, and reporting on M&E results so that lessons can be learned and incorporated into programming is desirable.
• Ability to work with inter-disciplinary teams and a wide range of program/project activities
• Proactive personality, self-driven and strongly motivated
• Capacity/potential in leadership, relationship management/networking, and coordination.
• Spiritual maturity, interfaith knowledge and a biblical worldview – ability to articulate and model our Christian identity and mission in an inclusive way.
• Good interpersonal skills, team player, facilitation skills and strong communication skills, both verbal and written
• Proven conceptual & analytical skills, ability to take an evidence-based approach to programming
• Strong report writing and communication skills

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