MEAL Coordinator

Position type: Full time, permanent, 37.5 hours per week

Location: Truro, Cornwall orRemote working (UK only)

Travel: Work away from home, this may be UK or overseas training or an in-country deployment. You may be required to deploy for up to 50% of your time in any calendar year.

Role purpose

The MEAL Coordinator will travel with the emergency response team to deliver emergency shelter responses, to enhance programme quality and embed a culture of organisational learning and accountability. Sitting within the Programme Quality team, the MEAL Coordinator will play a significant role to strengthen participant voice and accountability, enable data driven decision making and help to identify best practice and innovative shelter solutions allowing people to recover and rebuild their lives.

The MEAL Coordinator will lead/support key processes that enhance programme/project delivery. They will liaise with programme managers/emergency coordinators and partner organisations to provide technical support and ensure that programmes/projects adhere to agreed processes, namely needs assessments, log frame development, robust and transparent community feedback mechanisms and the development of the MEAL plan. They will also provide technical input on data collection exercises (both quantitative and qualitative) data analysis for routine monitoring exercises as well as designing/coordinating review /evaluation processes.

The MEAL Coordinator will play an important role in promoting organisational learning and embedding a culture of reflection, analysis, and learning. Working together with Programme Managers & Emergency field coordinators, they will ensure learning frameworks are in place so that lessons are learned (both positive and negative) are captured, responded to, and shared with peers. They will work closely with the Programme Delivery Team and Technical Specialists to identify and/or support the establishment of Action Research projects that will contribute to improvements and innovations within the shelter sector.

There is significant travel with this role (up to 50% FTE), and the post holder must be prepared to travel at short notice for up to two months at a time. The MEAL Coordinators may also be asked to contribute to the development of organisational policy papers on mainstreaming or technical areas such as cash programming.

This role will be joining a fast-paced organisation realigning itself for further growth in the face of mounting humanitarian needs. We look forward to welcoming candidates who share our passion and teamwork to achieve this.

Duties will include but not be limited to:

Project Support (70% FTE):

The MEAL coordinator is a core member of the project team and will work closely with the project lead to ensure project quality and accountability. They will lead processes or liaise with partners (depending on implementation model) to ensure ShelterBox standards are adhered to. Specifically, they will:

• Advise/Carry out needs assessments to inform project design
• Facilitate technical MEAL component of Organizational Capacity Assessments and support with the development of capacity strengthening plans for potential partners
• As relevant, support the delivery of Capacity Building Action Plans, through the development of appropriate resources/ providing in-person and remote training /mentoring on MEAL concepts and practice. This will also involve reviewing training courses/modules, developing resources, and providing training.
• Collaborate with partners and implementing teams to, support project/log frame development with clear outcomes/outputs and SMART indicators, in line with organizational reporting requirements
• Ensure robust MEAL plans are in place, and that SADD distribution data is robust
• Ensure robust and transparent community feedback mechanisms are functioning and support safeguarding processes
• Provide technical input/Lead data collection exercises (both quantitative and qualitative)
• Liaise with partners and implementing teams to ensure the MEAL Plans are operationalized and that the data/reports provided by partners are robust, verifiable and with the appropriate degree of objectivity.
• Ensure project documentation is up to date
• Support data analysis and the facilitation of learning and reflection based on findings that result in data-led decision making
• Coordinate/Facilitate/carry out end of project evaluation processes in line with DAC criteria.
• Ensure all projects/programmes are contributing to organisational KPI reporting. Develop and populate Information Management systems as appropriate.
• Liaise with the Grant Management team to ensure that all projects MEAL systems and processes are in line with donor requirements, and support programme managers to submit quality narrative reports in a timely fashion.

Knowledge creation and sharing (20% FTE):

• Ensure that each Project logframe, MEAL plan and Learning and Accountability Framework are up-to-date and facilitate continuous and conscious reflection and learning.
• Utilising M&E data, evaluation findings and wider sector understanding, develop thematic discussions to strengthen understanding within ShelterBox and in relevant Communities of Practice.

Infrastructure development (10% FTE):

• Contribute to the development of policies, SOPs and processes that strengthen project delivery and accountability.
• Ensure ShelterBox is abreast of new technological developments supporting information gathering and analysis, particularly methodologies that empower affected populations to communicate with ShelterBox and to share their insights enhancing participation.

Working Requirements: This role will support the design and implementation of rapid response emergency project that will demand prolonged travel (up to two months) at very short notice. For remote workers: travel to Truro HQ for collaboration weeks approx. 3 times a year, and additional meetings as requested.