The MEAL Officer is tasked with overseeing the monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning functions at the field office. The person in charge performs these responsibilities in close coordination with managers, coordinators, and the program team. The activities may encompass contributing to project design, ensuring the project team possesses suitable monitoring and reporting formats, conducting field visits to generate alert messages and document successful practices, leading project review meetings to assess progress against targets, ensuring the implementation and reporting of established accountability mechanisms, providing training to enhance the capacity of CARE and partner staff regarding the MEAL function, and actively participating in coordinating evaluations, initiating research, and gathering, documenting, and disseminating lessons learned and best practices.    

1- Monitoring function and evaluation of Projects’ activities, outputs and outcomes (40 %) 

1. Ensure that all projects possess a MEAL plan. 
2. Ensure the necessary monitoring tool is implemented and utilized for the collection of data across all sectors and various types of interventions. 
3. Lead or participate in programs that monitor monthly, quarterly, and annual events, capturing essential data and information from the meetings. 
4. Conduct scheduled and random field visits to assess the progress of project plans and the quality commitments of organizational programs, including participation, inclusion of marginalized groups, equitable targeting, gender considerations, and others. 
5. Facilitate and guarantee the implementation of participatory monitoring and evaluation (M&E) involving communities, ensuring they possess the necessary capacity and accessible tools to engage effectively in planning, execution, monitoring, and evaluation.  
6. Ensure timely conducting of verification of beneficiary registration and Post Distribution Monitoring for various projects.

2- Surveys Studies and Evaluation function (15%) 

1. Ensure that all necessary research, surveys, and assessments are properly planned and executed timely for all projects.
2. Supervise or assist with evaluation initiatives for projects.
3. Offer insights on evaluation Terms of Reference, considering the project's context, community, and state. 
4. Ensure the selection of suitable CARE personnel, government officials, and other stakeholders for evaluation participation. 

Deliver training to project staff regarding the significance of evaluation, encompassing ongoing and participatory evaluation concepts. 

1. provides the required support and Ordination to conduct multi-sectoral needs assessments annually and as required.

3- Accountability function (10%):

      1. Ensure that; the Feedback and Accountability Mechanism is on place and functioning for all projects and covering all targeted communities.

      2. Consult each community groups and individual women, men, youth, children, people with disability on their preferred feedback and complaint mechanisms and update the field office tools.

      3.Conduct regular orientation on Feedback and Accountability Mechanism (FAM) CARE employs to implementing staff and community groups.

      4.Assess the functionality of each system and analyze how to ensure best use of the tools by different gender groups

      5. Provide monthly update on the FAM to staff in the field office and the CO.

      6. Ensure the FAM database is filled, analyzed, and communicated including the monitoring of the responses 

      7. Ensure complainants have received appropriate response on time.

     8.Conduct satisfaction survey to identify potential improvement areas.

     9.Select and provide training to community FAM focal persons and other leaders

    10. Support any other FAM related functions in the CO.

4- Learning function (10%):

1. Create the required level of understanding on the relevance of learning and how to capture learnings.
2.  Ensure every monitoring visit, project review meeting and other events have rooms to extract learnings and good practices.
3.  Develop a checklist to help staff identify learnings from their daily interaction with women, men, youth, children and people with disabilities, government experts, national NGOs and others.
4. Produce quarterly one pager on key learnings and lessons learnt.
5. Organize and lead annual learning events for including all sectors.
6. Ensure two-way learning is promoted among staff, with NNGOs and government ministries and communities.
7. Insure capturing of learnings from project reviews/evaluation and share it with respective staff for improvement.

5- Data Management and Analysis (10 % time):

1. Assists with data collection, entry, cleaning, and reporting. 
2. Develops testing procedures for assessing quality. 
3. Provides inputs, information and statistics for quarterly, annual and other reports.
4. Ensure quality of data collected by partners.
5. Support the Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator in preparing data for internal and external reports as required.
6. Ensure data are stored online as well as in hard copies accessible by all.
7. Ensure all project have indicators trackers and used in reporting.

6- Contribute to the Success of CIS Partnership Approach (10%):

1. Periodically review capacity of M&E functions of the Partner agencies and facilitate partner staff skills and capacity.
2. Support, accompany and coach selected partners in M&E functions.
3. Provide regular training and on the nob training to national [partners and CBOs on MEAL related skills.

7- Uphold CARE Values and contribute to CIS shared priorities 5%:

1. Be aware of the CIS Safety and Security Management Plan (SSMP) and comply with it at all times
2. Be aware of CARE’s commitments to Gender and Diversity, and strive to uphold them
3. Always promote CARE’s core values
4. Other priority tasks as required by management, for overall benefit of CIS
5. Perform other assigned duties. 

Budgetary responsibility: Prepare of M&E required budget for different M&E activities and ensure that it is included in the different project designs.

Responsible to pull all budgets allocated for MEAL function by each project in matrix format and share to other MEAL team and managers plan to use them on time

Contacts and Key Relationships:

The M&E Officer is expected to establish and maintain good relations with program coordinators, advisors, managers and officers, heads of offices, and members of the Program Team in Khartoum. S/he will build relationships with partners, counterpart NGOs and NGOs.

Internal Communication:

·        Line Managers: High level of Communication to report, seek approvals, sharing views to strengthen the program areas and to ensure continues support for the program.

·        Project team (manager/officers/coordinators:  High level of communication to support and provide hand holding support to understand the model, keep project on track, timely reporting and to respond to queries

·        Regular communication with program department in CO to share work progress and updates and technical follow up.

External Communication:

-   Partners – high level of communication to share and understand progress of the program.

-  Donors, National offices, Advisory\steering Committee – Low level of communication in form of sharing program outcomes on regular basis.

Working Conditions:

-        As stated in the terms of contract and the CARE International Sudan HR manual

-        The position will be based in Kassala with at least 50% travel requirement.

-        Darfur is a security sensitive area and the officer shall comply with, and be facilitated to operate within, the framework of the CARE International Sudan safety protocols.

Required Qualifications and Competencies:
 

-        INGO/ NGO experience – 3 years in programme monitoring and evaluation

-        A BSc Degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Agricultural Science and other discipline relevant to rural development.

-        Competencies:

-             Action oriented.

-             A solid understanding of the management of cross cutting issues, with a focus on participatory processes, integrated programming and gender issues.

-             Supportive attitude towards processes of strengthening staff capacity.

-             Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, multi-tasking environment.

-             Strong organizational skills.

-        Arabic and English- fluent written and spoken

-        Ability and willingness to travel to locations outside Kassala and live in sometime basic conditions.

Desirable qualifications and Competencies

• Qualifications- preferably specialized training in MEAL related subject.
• Good level of proficiency in Windows Excel and quantitative analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to train and build capacity of others.