New job at Job at Save the Children: MEAL Officer

TITLE: Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning Officer (MEAL Officer)

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Programme Operations

LOCATION: Full time based in Dodoma Region, Tanzania

GRADE: Grade 4

CONTRACT LENGTH: 1 year, renewable

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3: √ the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work on country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

He/she will support the established child safeguarding systems, promote a culture of keeping children safe, and ensure that potential harm to children (by our own staff and/or as a result of how we do our work) is identified and addressed on an ongoing basis. The post holder should report and respond to interventions as determined by position related responsibilities identified in the Child

The transition to becoming a parent for the first time is a time of major life changes. At the same time that young mothers are removed from family, school, and social support networks, they must navigate caring for their own health while learning to care for a newborn. Young mothers (ages 15-24) are vulnerable to poor health outcomes and are also less likely than older women to access reproductive and maternal health services, including family planning. In Tanzania, the youngest mothers have the lowest use of modern postpartum family planning (FP) and the shortest intervals between births. Low use of effective methods of FP makes young mothers vulnerable to unintended pregnancies and rapid repeat pregnancies. Both younger age at first birth and closely spaced pregnancies contribute to increased risk for maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. Yet this transition to becoming a parent for the first time offers opportunities to improve life-long health and wellbeing for young parents and their families

In September 2019, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded the Connecting young parents to Post-partum Family Planning (PPFP) through diverse platforms (Connect) project to Save the Children. Connect will complement the USAID-funded Lishe Endelevu project led by Save the Children, whose goal is improve nutritional status of women of reproductive age (specifically lactating and pregnant mothers and adolescent girls) and children under five. Over 4.5 years, Connect will develop and test additional activities (called “program enhancements”) to enhance Lishe Endelevu’s reach of young parents, and increase young parents’ use of FP. In Tanzania, the project will be implemented in two phases. Phase One will entail formative research, followed by development and testing of the program enhancement at a small scale over 18 months. In Phase Two, Connect will expand implementation to additional regions and districts. Throughout, Connect will document and share results and implementation challenges and lessons learned for adaptive management.

Connect seeks a dynamic Dodoma-based Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) Officer to lead two areas of focus: (1) monitoring of project implementation that include data collection, processing and management and (2) documenting evidence (cases studies, significant change stories etc) for reporting, learning and adaptive management. The Officer will work under the guidance of the Connect Project Coordinator, Health and Nutrition Specialist and Lishe Endelevu Regional Manager in Tanzania. This position will be responsible for implementation of Connect monitoring, evaluation and learning system that include tracking progress towards targets, documentation and management of project results data, and lessons learned. S/he will collaborate with Lishe Endelevu staff to integrate Connect monitoring and evaluation with Lishe Endelevu systems as relevant, and will develop monitoring systems as needed. S/he will track progress toward performance indicators, analyze monthly performance and review data, contribute to development of donor reports, and document Connect’s lessons and challenges. Ensure that the project utilizes data to conduct “pause and reflection”.

SCOPE OF ROLE:
Save the Children has been operational in Tanzania since 1986 with an initial presence in Zanzibar then extended to the Mainland with multi-sector programming. Currently, the Country Program is implementing development and humanitarian programming in 11 regions within the thematic areas of: child rights governance, child protection, education and health & nutrition.
Reports to: Project Coordinator
Staff directly reporting to this post: None

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:
Technical Leadership

• Provide leadership, training and mentoring to develop or adapt M&E Plans, M&E tools, survey design, methodology, and data analysis to assess program impact.
• Conduct routine data quality assessments.
• Collect and compile activities reports from the field on a routine basis.
• Develop or adapt and maintain systems to collect and analyze information on inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impact of the program.
• Effectively rollout data collection and reporting systems through training, site visits, manuals, and other technical support as needed.
• Ensure indicators are aligned to program activities and strategies and reasonable targets are set for the project to achieve.
• Contribute to documentation of promising practices, challenges, and success stories.
• Support all project monitoring and evaluation activities, including coordinating formative research studies with local research organizations and contributing to the quantitative impact evaluation led by an external research partner.
• Contribute to analysis and interpretation of qualitative and quantitative data.
• Oversee formative assessments as well we other key studies planned by the project to inform learning and adaptation

Project Management

• Contribute to the development of annual work plans and budgets, training plans, quarterly reports and other deliverables as needed.
• Contribute to excellent collaborative relations with the MOHSW counterparts at the district and ward levels.
• Contribute to a functional working relationship with district and regional Lishe Endelevu teams and other partners.
• Participate in joint supervisory visits with the regional/district level managers
• Contribute to monitoring of partner CSOs’ performance and provide necessary support and technical guidance for achieving results.
• Support Project Coordinator in carrying out review and reflection sessions on a quarterly and annual basis
• Participate in meetings, trainings, seminars, and workshops as per need of the program.
• Any other task assigned by the supervisor.

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:
holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values;
holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved;
Ambition:
sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same;
widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale;
Collaboration:
builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters;
values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength;
approachable, good listener, easy to talk to;
Creativity:
develops and encourages new and innovative solutions;
willing to take disciplined risks;
Integrity:
honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity;

QUALIFICATIONS

• Flexible, innovative, creative, adaptable, and open to new ideas, comfortable with change and uncertainty
• Personal and professional commitment to adolescent sexual and reproductive health and family planning
• Bachelor-level degree in Public Health, Development, Social Science, Communication, or other relevant field;
• 4-6 years of professional experience working with communities and health facilities to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes among young people;
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with regional and district MOHSW staff;
• Familiarity and relevant work experience with evidence-based reproductive, maternal, and newborn health interventions and best practices, specifically for adolescents and youth;
• Strong organizational and interpersonal skills and ability to work in a large team-oriented setting;
• Strong experience with Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English required;
• Highly organized and able to work successfully in a team that is geographically dispersed;
• Ability to travel to Dar es Salaam and to other project regions as needed for meetings and support for activities.

Additional job responsibilities
The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities
The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures;
Child Safeguarding:
We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.
Safeguarding our Staff:
The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy
Health and Safety
The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.

Date advertised: 23 Oct 2019
Closing date: 7 Nov 2019 - 23:59 EAT
Location: Dodoma, Tanzania, United Republic of
Department: Programme Operations
Type: Fixed-term contractSchedule: Full-time

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