SENIOR MEAL ADVISOR

Job Description

JOB SUMMARY:

CARE is seeking an experienced and creative monitoring, evaluation, adaptation and learning specialist to join the management team of a for an11M digital impact program focused on advancing meaningful digital adoption and use of the internet for women and girls, strengthening lives and livelihoods while influencing digital ecosystems through evidence and learning. Employing a strong localization approach, the program will create opportunities for organizations and businesses across Sub-Saharan Africa to advance effective and replicable approaches to digital inclusion for women while generating insights and lessons for others to adopt and implement.

About the role: As the Senior MEAL Advisor for this effort, you will champion and operationalize the learning agenda developed by the donors and CARE. You will be the MEAL specialist in a small team characterized by passion for locally-focused digital development, impactful partnerships, and great data. You will be responsible for defining the measurement tools and systems we will deploy across all program investments to monitor performance and generate data that supports both the learning agenda and emerging lessons. You will make sure the program honors the theory of change and evaluation frameworks that promote sense-making and communicate impact. You will build partnerships with sub-awardees and manage vendors to support the consistent collection, management, and analysis of data from across the program’s investment portfolio. You will coordinate the consolidation of program results, performance and lessons for a wide range of audiences, and create opportunities for cross-program/sub-awardee information sharing.

About you: The position requires exceptional skills working across cultures to support innovative program design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and learning; development of sound tools and operating procedures to assure quality implementation and measurement of achievement; proven methods to enhance data use for decision making; excellent communication and presentations skills, including proven diplomacy with high-level stakeholders; and sound written and oral skills. Successful candidates will bring a clear track record of building creative, cost-effective, multi-country measurement and learning systems that support decision making and performance monitoring. You will have experience with complex gender and social norms programming and an understanding of effective tools or tactics for measuring change in these domains. We want a team player who is ready to jump into a small, quickly-moving team and make it work

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Develop and Manage MEAL Systems

• Lead the development and management of the program MEAL System for a 3.5 year program in line with the program theory of change and learning priorities
• Develop and/or define key performance indicators and impact metrics, drawing on existing indicators and tested tools as much as possible
• Develop data collection instruments and systems to support responsible data management and timely reporting between sub-awardees, CARE, and donors
• Manage and/or generate routine reports, drawing on MEAL system to assess program progress, identify emerging lessons and illustrate opportunities for improvement

Manage data collection approaches and data management vendors

• Recruit and manage regional MEAL consultants and/or firms to support the delivery of the program MEAL system
• Help articulate an evidence base that supporting the learning agenda
• Extract insights from previous programming to inform impact assessments
• Connect with KM colleagues across CARE and the larger public to share data and finding

Training, capacity building, and sharing learnings

• Create excellent rapport with sub-awardees and provide technical assistance across MEAL activities
• Deliver capacity building and training support to program sub-grantees as needed
• Create opportunity for cross-regional “sharing and learning” events - online, in person as possible, etc.
• Willingness to travel up to 35% of the time

Represent program with internal and external audiences

• Generating and/or supporting others to generate program reports and presentations
• Presenting program updates to internal stakeholders and donors
• Representing the program in external events and conferences

Preferred Qualifications:

- Master’s degree in development-related methods, data science, science and technology or other relevant
field, or the equivalent combination of education and work experience.
- Experience or familiarity with the digital impact, economic empowerment and/or financial inclusion data and
tools
- Experience measuring gender norms and/or change gender-focused programming
- Grounded in local approaches through participatory action research and other empowerment-based
approaches
- Commitment to gender equality, localization and decolonization of aid
- Exemplary critical thinking and reasoning skills to break down complex problems and find practical solutions

Required Qualifications:

- Bachelor’s degree and least 10 years of relevant experience with international development/financial
inclusion/social impact organizations
- Creative and impact-driven ideas about MEAL in the context of digital inclusion
- Ability to take the lead/self-start based on the needs of the larger program
- Confidence to bring a greater voice to MEAL and make substantive program recommendations
- Mixed-method expertise, with depth in participatory and emancipatory MEAL approaches
- Strong cross-cultural communication skills, including experience working with globally distributed teams
- International work and lived experience, preferable in Sub-Saharan Africa
- An entrepreneurial mindset, comfort with ambiguity and a commitment to going beyond the status quo
- Excellent measurement tool development/use across large-scale multi-country research
- Experience delivering MEAL capacity building to support others to execute monitoring and evaluation tasks
- Direct line management and/or consultant management experience
- Fluent English speaker and writer: effective communicator, able to convert complex data and information into engaging reports, analysis, and insights
- Knowledge/use of digital data collection services - ODK, Kobo, and participant-facing data/reporting/feedback systems

About the Organization

CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. We place special focus on working alongside poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. Women are at the heart of CARE's community-based efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives. Our Mission Our mission is to serve individuals and families in the poorest communities in the world. Drawing strength from our global diversity, resources and experience, we promote innovative solutions and are advocates for global responsibility. We facilitate lasting change by: * Strengthening capacity for self-help * Providing economic opportunity * Delivering relief in emergencies * Influencing policy decisions at all levels * Addressing discrimination in all its forms Guided by the aspirations of local communities, we pursue our mission with both excellence and compassion because the people whom we serve deserve nothing less.