Sudan: MEAL Adviser - Rep of Sudan

MEAL Advisor - Republic of Sudan

About the role: This is a 24 months, replacement with new responsibilities with unaccompanied terms based in El Geneina, capital of West Darfur State with frequent travel to other field locations in West Darfur, West and South Kordofan states. The position is with a salary Band of 4 ranging from €35,981- €39,979.

You will report to the Country Director with dotted line to PDs and will technically line manage National MEAL Advisors and mainstreaming and partnership Advisors in West Darfur and Kordofan states.

You will be supervised by Programme Directors while in Darfur and Kordofan States, regularly liaise and work with Country Financial Controller, Programme Accountant, Area Managers, BRICS Consortium Coordination Unit, Desk Officer and MEAL Technical Advisors based in Dublin.

Your purpose: You will ensure high quality programme planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning across the Sudan country programme by establishing relevant M&E systems to keep track and report on programme progress and by providing training and capacity building to programme staff at all levels. You will also provide high quality technical support during project design and implementation. You will take a lead on research activities, liaising with external consultants and Dublin technical experts. You will be the focal person for all mainstreaming and accountability issues, both internally and as part of our programme activities. You will also ensure that appropriate programme documentation, reporting and filing processes are in place.

You will be responsible for:

Programme Development:

• Support Programme Directors in developing quality programme proposals by providing technical support in situational analyses for programme development and reviewing secondary data relevant to the programme, in developing theory of change, log frames, M&E plan, mainstreaming analysis tools, communication and visibility protocols.

• Conduct partners and other stakeholder’s consultative meetings and guiding Concern staff and partners involved in programme development process. Provides technical inputs based on the consultative meetings with partners, staff and stakeholders in the areas of surveys, assessments, data base, documentation and knowledge management, theory of change, log frame and results framework .

• Participate in proposal writing in line with donor and Concern guidelines relating to MEAL stream line

• Lead in ensuring adherence to the Concern Programme Cycle Management Systems (PCMS) approach in all programme development processes.

• Work together with Senior Managers in Sudan Country Programme and technically contribute to country wide plan for new developments including strategic planning processes, sector strategies, and Preparing for Effective Emergency Response (PEER) action plans by providing technical inputs, analysis, feedbacks, documenting processes and lessons learnt

Programme implementation and monitoring:

• Contribute to the overall programme quality assurance in line with the relevant program commitments and organizational policies.

• Lead in reviewing contextual analyses and other assessments to contribute to data required for programme design and proposal writing.

• Continually monitor the external environment and internal developments to see what is changing, both internally and externally and propose adjustments to programme plans or new interventions as necessary based on its impacts in achieving committed targets.

• Encourage innovation and learning and help ensure that lessons learned are documented and shared and applied where appropriate (within and outside of Concern)

• Support the program teams in the States in producing and reviewing annual, quarterly and monthly work plans and budgets based on log and result frameworks and respond to indicators as per the planning and budgeting cycles to improve performance against targets.

• In consultation with the Programme Directors and Dublin based MEAL technical Advisors lead the development of a systematic M&E system and tools, for all programmes in working with all stakeholders to ensure the availability of timely, accurate, disaggregated information on impact of Concern’s and its partners work in West Darfur, West and South Kordofan States..

Mainstreaming and Learning Management

• Support the Programme Directors in mainstreaming Equality, gender, Disaster Risk Response (DRR), climate change and HIV & AIDS across the Sudan programmes. Also contribute to ensuring the integration of accountability throughout the programme and workplace and the Preparation of Effective Emergency Response (PEER) action plans.

• Take lead and contribute to the design and use of necessary tools to ensure compliance with international humanitarian standards (e.g. CHS, SPHERE, Do No Harm) and responding to mainstreaming critical cross cutting issues required by donors, Concern WW and the government to deliver quality service across all our programmes and program areas.

• Lead and support teams in meeting accountability commitments and best practice especially in relation to Complaints Response Mechanism (CRM)

• Support in fostering a culture of learning from programme implementation and incorporate learning elements guide and refine programme design, implementation strategy and detail plans.

• Support program teams in producing quality and timely narrative reports that are submitted to donors, Concern HQ and HAC/Sudan government/ based on commitments and targets in the M&E plan.

• Lead in the development of key communication documents such as case studies, flyers and study reports ensuring quality products and contribution to learning and dissemination to stakeholders and wider humanitarian community.

• Encourage program teams in all locations to document and share success stories and innovations in Concern’s work in Sudan with Dublin, Concern US Office, Concern UK Office and Donors using appropriate communication channels, policies (including protection of information), conformity to consent and hierarchy of communication and regulatory protocols.

• Lead in design and direction and implementation of evaluations (external and internal) in line with accountability commitments and programme plans.

• Coordinating and taking part in donor visits to programme areas.

Concern Representation:

• Participate in coordination meetings and give formal and informal presentations about Concern’s work in West Darfur, West and South Kordofan States in consultation with the PDs and CD

• Present a professional image of the organisation at all times through effective and professional communication with stakeholders, ensuring high quality of documentations that are shared with stakeholders including letters portraying both ethical and professional conducts at all times.

• Undertaking any other related duties as may be assigned by the PDs and CD.

Your skills and experience will include:

Education & Qualifications:

Essential:

Third Level qualification in a relevant discipline (Development Management, International Development, Rural Development, Community Development, Engineering, Agriculture, Health, Education, etc.)

Desirable:

High level qualification in monitoring & evaluation, project design and management, or relevant discipline

Experience:

Essential:

• At least 2 years overseas experience worked with a NGO, in a resilience, early-recovery or development context

• Strong skills in, and ability to advise on and build capacity in MEAL aspects of programming and proposal development

• Strong planning, monitoring and learning skills

• Experience in designing and conducting assessments, post-distribution monitoring (PDM), surveys and evaluations based on set quality methods, international humanitarian quality standards, and donor’s compliance mechanisms

• Strong skills in monitoring programme performance and able to advise, support and adjust to reach set goals, objectives and strategic aims

• Good knowledge of project cycle management, Equality, HIV and AIDS, and Mainstreaming approaches, preferably in protracted humanitarian and early-recovery context

• Knowledge of key institutional donors and their MEAL requirements (eg DFID, EU, ECHO, OFDA, UN)

• Knowledge and experience in a range of participatory and gender sensitive approaches and their application in MEAL processes

• Strong skills and knowledge in data analysis processes and interpretation, linking to technical adjustments to improve program performance and quality.

• Experience in proposal development related to indicator design, development of MEAL tools and technical methods and excellent proposal and report writing skills, with close attention to detail

• Excellent communication, networking and persuasion skills, very good mentoring and capacity building experience.

• Strong understanding of budgeting, monitoring, and reporting expenditure with the use of management accounts and other tools, to support teams to develop proposals and adjust planning for full expenditure.

Desirable:

• Experience of working in an emergency and/or post conflict environment, particularly in Africa.

• Previous overseas Concern experience

• Experience of working with partners

• Experience working in Sudan

Special Skills, Aptitude or Personality Requirements

• Cross cultural awareness and sensitivity.

• Empathy with Concern’s goals

• Good communication, training, facilitation and capacity building skills.

• Good organisation and advisory skills (programme planning, M&E)

• Knowledge of computer applications i.e. Microsoft word, Excel, including data analysis programs e.g. SPSS)

• Willingness to live in and contribution to a team accommodation setting

Any Other Special Requirements

• Familiarity with the principles of humanitarian action (international code of conduct and humanitarian charter), familiar with recovery and resilience programming

• Familiarity with Sphere guidelines and people in aid, code of best practice

• Knowledge of the Core Humanitarian Standard for Accountability

All applications should be submitted through our website at https://jobs.concern.net by closing date. CV’s should be no more than 4 pages in length.

Due to the urgency of this position, applications will be short listed on a regular basis and we may offer posts before the closing date.

Concern Worldwide is an Irish-based non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries.