Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Officer

The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) is a membership Union composed of both government and civil society organizations. IUCN’s mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature, and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable. With over 75 years of experience, it harnesses the experience, resources and reach of its more than 1,400 Member organizations and the input of more than 15,000 experts. IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. The IUCN Secretariat has offices located all around the world and is headquartered in Gland, Switzerland.

Every four years, the IUCN membership adopts a quadrennial Programme that guides the work of the Union, especially that of the IUCN Secretariat. The Secretariat implements the IUCN Programme through a growing portfolio of over 400 projects across the world that are designed to respond to country, donor, and IUCN priorities.

The MEAL Officer will be focused on identifying data sources and updating tools, verifying, and validating data collected according to its different tools and approaches, issuing reports, and making presentations. In the case of the water programme, it is expected that the specialist will be responsible for managing the whole MEAL strategy ensuring that all tools are fit for purpose, generating, and analysing data and presenting the results gathered in a consistent way.

Job Description

The roles and responsibilities of the MEAL Officer are as follows:

Design And Planning:

• Through technical expertise and operational guidance, support the Programme Manager on designing and planning, in particular leading on the theory of change, results framework, and monitoring and evaluation plan.
• Ensure alignment of the intervention results and indicators with IUCN strategic goals and priorities (global, regional, national and thematic) and with the principles laid out in the One Programme Charter.
• Lead the design and development of monitoring tools, including quantitative and qualitative indicators, and MEAL processes.
• mulation of baseline measures and targets during proposal writing, project inception, and throughout project implementation.

Programme Implementation:

• Ensure consistent application of monitoring tools as guided by IUCN and frameworks.
• Lead the collection and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative programme data and regularly share the result of these analysis with the programme team to help them ensure that the programme is on track to deliver on its results.
• Undertake interviews and surveys with relevant stakeholders.
• Work together with Programme Assistants and Communication Officer to ensure a good flow of information and data for MEAL.
• Ensure that outcomes and impacts of the programme are well captured and packaged in a way they can be broadly communicated.
• Ensure that the information flow between the various stakeholders engaged in the program.
• Contribute to gather lessons learned and facilitate their sharing through the organization of learning events.
• Elaborate annual MEAL reports and support the conduction of the Program’s final external evaluation.
• Liaise frequently with IUCN MEAL team at the regional office.
• Provide technical advisory, operational guidance and capacity building to the project team(s) and project manager(s) on performance and accountability to support implementation and adaptive management, including on appropriate monitoring and data collection methods and tools.
• Advocate for and facilitate the proactive use of performance and results information in decision-making and adaptive management across the project through the preparation of technical inputs from monitoring data and as a subject-matter expert on performance dashboards.
• Prepare technical inputs and/or contribute to drafting reports, and other evidence-based communications on progress internally and to the donor, by coordinating, controlling quality and synthesizing monitoring and reporting data.
• Identify and contribute to mitigation of risks, supporting the Project Manager(s) in the development of risk management tools and ensure project risk register is regularly monitored and updated.

Evaluation And Learning:

• Support and provide inputs to supervision missions, including providing analyses or reports of progress against indicators. May be occasionally requested to participate in supervision missions of other projects.
• Advocate for and facilitate the proactive use of monitoring and evaluation information to support data-driven project management at all stages of the project cycle (promoting adaptive management and learning).
• Promote project, programme and institutional learning through the design and facilitation of internal evaluative work, learning events or other mechanisms that capture, synthesize and share lessons and best-practices.
• Contribute to communications with information stemming from the monitoring, evaluation and learning system.

Representation:

• Network and liaise with partners and potential partners, developing and maintaining partnerships and strong relationships across all sectors (including the private sector);
• When required, represent IUCN and maintain good working relationships among the international and local NGO community in the basins, among community leadership structures and community-based organizations.
• Co-investment and developing new proposals.
• Play a role in identifying funding opportunities and the development of concept papers and proposals.

Requirements

 Education And Work Experience

• At least 8 years of previous work experience with monitoring, evaluation and learning for projects or programmes, preferably in the conservation, development or socio-environmental sectors.
• Bachelor’s degree or higher in environmental studies, biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, planning, management or social sciences, economics, public policy, business administration, or a related subject matter. Relevant knowledge in Natural resource management, economics, and/or forest management, economic development preferred.
• Demonstrated experience designing, implementing and managing complex, monitoring and evaluation for multi-country, multi-partner or multi-sector projects in conservation, development or other relevant sectors in the region.
• Practical experience of using and updating data management systems.
• Proven experience in undertaking interviews and surveys with different stakeholders.
• Demonstrated capacity to work well under pressure and successfully manage multiple deadlines and competing demands (must be very organized).
• Excellent ability to collate, analyse and synthesize information to deliver clear reports to facilitate adaptive management and decision-making.
• Proficiency with data management and/or project management software and tools (e.g. Smartsheet, Kobo toolbox, PowerBI, Tableau, SQL, and other related tools) is highly desirable.
• Experience in group facilitation skills and capacity building in application of monitoring and evaluation methodologies.
• Relevant IT skills, familiarity with Microsoft office, PowerPoint and excel programs and proficiency in data management and analysis, with strong statistical skills using applications such as NVivo, SPSS, STATA, R etc. for quantitative and qualitative data analysis.
• Ability to rapidly research, analyze and integrate diverse information from varied sources.
• Ability to deal with sensitive information.
• Ability to deal with very diverse audience and publics from high management to community-based teams.
• Hands-on mentality, result driven, team player and ability to work in a multicultural environment.
• Knowledge of the application of environmental and social safeguards, working experience in this area is a plus

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English and Portuguese, both written and verbal. Fluency in local languages an added advantage.
• Knowledge of at least one other local language in Mozambique is desirable.

Source: https://hrms.iucn.org/iresy/index.cfm?event=vac.show&vacId=10849&lang=en