Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning (MEAL) Officer
The MEAL Officer will provide technical and operational support in the design, implementation, coordination, and continuous strengthening of an integrated Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning system for the FIYMA Programme. The role will serve as a critical link between strategic MEL leadership and operational execution by ensuring consistent application of robust MEAL systems, tools, standards and partner staff capacity across assigned partners organizations. The MEAL Officer will ensure that high-quality, reliable, and timely data flows from field operations into centralized systems to support evidence-based decision-making, donor compliance performance and adaptive management.
Key Responsibilities
- MEAL System Development and Management:
- Participate in the design and operationalization of the FIYMA MEAL system development, result framework, tools, and SOPs across assigned programme staff and partners.
- Support in the design and maintenance of core MEAL documents, including results frameworks, MEAL plan, data quality assurance mechanisms, database management system, tools and reporting schedule.
- Facilitate harmonization of MEAL approaches, tools, and methodologies across all programmes implementing partners and staff.
- Ensure adherence to consortium-wide MEAL standards, operating procedures, data-sharing agreements, and reporting protocols.
- Programme Monitoring, Evaluations and performance management:
- Plan, coordinate, and participate in routine monitoring missions, joint field visits, and implementation reviews.
- Ensure systematic tracking of programme outputs and outcomes related to youth financial inclusion, MSME growth, and agricultural enterprise performance.
- Analyze programme monitoring data to assess progress against targets, identify implementation bottlenecks, and inform corrective actions.
- Prepare periodic performance briefs, dashboards, and management summaries to support strategic decision-making.
- Initiate the planning and coordination of programme evaluations, including baseline, midline, endline, and thematic evaluations.
- Ensure availability of high-quality datasets and documentation for evaluation purposes.
- Support synthesis, dissemination, and utilization of evaluation findings for programme improvement and accountability.
- Data Management, Quality Assurance and Compliance:
- Support in deployment, and management of a centralized, secure, and scalable FIYMA programme database.
- Maintain accurate and up-to-date databases for programme beneficiaries and outputs.
- Monitor adherence to standardized procedures for data collection, cleaning, validation, storage, and backup across programme partners.
- Strengthen digital data collection and reporting tools to support real-time monitoring and analysis across programme partners.
- Support implementation of a comprehensive Data Quality Assurance (DQA) framework for the FIYMA Programme.
- Conduct routine data quality checks, verification exercises, and spot audits to ensure data accuracy, completeness, consistency, and timeliness.
- Identify data quality risks and support partners to implement corrective action plans.
- Ensure compliance with data protection, confidentiality, ethical data use, and donor reporting standards.
Knowledge, Experience & Skills
- Minimum of 2 years of progressive MEAL experience in donor-funded development programmes.
- Demonstrable experience in designing and implementation of monitoring systems, survey techniques incl. qualitative investigation, and statistical analysis for community development programmes.
- Strong experience in conducting baseline, evaluations, and /or thematic studies especially for programmes working on youth, MSME, financial inclusion, or Agri-enterprise development programmes
- Extensive experience in managing database for large scale / complex programmes using digital applications/ systems.
- Demonstrated expertise in statistical analysis of large data sets using statistical packages and applications such as SPSS, R, Power BI etc.
- Demonstrated Experience using digital data collection tools (Kobo Toolbox, ODK, TARO works).
- Practical experience in data management, quality assurance, and reporting.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- High level skills and experience in training & capacity building in MEAL
- Excellent coordination, supervision, and mentoring abilities.
- Strong presentation, report writing and communication skills.