Catholic Relief Services a Development Organization is seeking a qualified, experienced, and highly motivated MEAL Manager, to provide leadership within the Advancing Local Leadership in the Right Way (ALLRight) Project in Cameroon, which seeks to support the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC) to become a leading organization for humanitarian and development programming in Cameroon. You will work closely with the Program Manager to strengthen organizational and staff capacity to design and implement effective monitoring, evaluation, learning, and accountability systems and provide technical assistance to NECC to ensure that the organization has robust MEAL policies, systems, and staff competencies that facilitate effective program decision-making, donor reporting, learning, and adaptive management and ensure that the ALLRight project delivers high-quality programming and continuously works towards improving the impact of its programming that advance NECC’s work in serving the poor and vulnerable.

The position is based in based in Yaoundé

Primary Responsibilities:

• Manage and implement all MEAL activities throughout relevant project cycles – project design, start-up, implementation and close-out – to ensure efficient and effective implementation in line with CRS program quality principles and standards and MEAL policies, procedures and practices, donor MEAL requirements, and industry good practices. Ensure project team and partner staff use the appropriate MEAL systems and tools.
• Coordinate the identification of MEAL-related staff capacity and technical assistance needs of NECC and capacity strengthening and required interventions to support quality project implementation. Optimize NECC participation and capacity development in the implementation of MEAL systems.
• Support NECC in the development and roll-out of project-level MEAL systems, including Performance Monitoring Plans or Performance Indicator Reference Sheets, Indicator Performance Tracking Tables, data collection instruments, Feedback and Response Mechanisms, and Detailed Implementation Plans which are appropriate to the scope and context of the projects.
• Support NECC to implement monitoring and accountability activities and processes (including ICT4MEAL) according to the Detailed Implementation Plan and MEAL system; and to ensure the quality of monitoring data through annual data quality assessments. Support active seeking and responding to feedback from all members of targeted communities and other stakeholders.
• Support NECC to lead evaluation events, including building their capacity in the development of terms of reference that include a balance of qualitative and quantitative methods, and the necessary level of technical rigor. Assure the quality of evaluation data through good data management. As required, support the identification, recruitment, and management of external evaluators to ensure high quality evaluation and learning.
• Support NECC in MEAL for project design and proposal development, as needed. Support the design of project-level theories of change, results frameworks, Proframes (logical frameworks), and MEAL narratives, including the identification of key indicators of change and appropriate methods for data collection and use.
• Champion learning with project staff and partner teams. Analyze and evaluate project performance data following MEAL policy and industry good practices, including use of differential and inferential statistics (quantitative data), and content and trends analysis (qualitative data). Proactively identify issues and concerns and use participatory processes to overcome implementation obstacles, encouraging reflection on key issues, assumptions, and themes to identify and address gaps in learning. Promote the application of learning to improve program quality and to strengthen agency influence among external stakeholders.
• Coordinate and monitor financial and material resources relevant to project MEAL needs. Through planning and oversight ensure efficient use of project resources for MEAL.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Master’s Degree in International Development, International Relations, Statistics, or in the field of MEAL required. Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant field-based experience in coordinating or managing light to moderately complex projects required, preferably with an international NGO with Minimum of 3 years MEAL-related experience required.
• Experience in data collection, including survey design and training enumerators.
• Understanding and experience with data management, including database design.
• Strong experience analyzing data, including both qualitative and quantitative methods, and experience with appropriate software.
• Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals and evaluation reports.
• Extensive experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.
• Understanding of donor expectations and trends for MEAL, especially by key donors, particularly US government donors.
• Experience engaging with partner organizations and working with stakeholders at various levels and strengthening community partnerships a plus

Required Languages

• Strong written and spoken French and English required.

Personal Skills

• Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment.
• Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with culturally diverse groups.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to write reports.
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented.
• Attention to details, accuracy and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities.

Required Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 20% of the time.

Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.