PMEAL (Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning ) Coordinator

Shaping a stronger Oxfam for people living in poverty.

About Oxfam

Oxfam is a global community who believe poverty isn’t inevitable. It’s an injustice that can be overcome. We are shop volunteers, women’s right activists, marathon runners, aid workers, coffee farmers, street fundraisers, goat herders, policy experts, campaigners, water engineers and more. And we won’t stop until everyone can live life without poverty for good.

Oxfam GB is a member of the international confederation Oxfam.

Our Team

The Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) team in Lebanon provides Oxfam and partner teams with timely and high-quality support to ensure Oxfam’s programmes contribute to sustainable transformative change at scale to address root causes of suffering and inequality in Lebanon. The team promotes programme learning and continuous improvement of programme quality and effectiveness, strengthened accountability, and ensures that evidence from programmes drives effective advocacy and campaigns.

Job Purpose

The PMEAL Coordinator will lead in providing technical support/expertise and tools to Oxfam Lebanon’s programmes, ensuring strong programme and project design and effective, coordinated MEAL systems to drive programme quality and implementation.  The PMEAL Coordinator will lead the development and implementation of a systematic approach to PMEAL, ensuring that Oxfam and partner teams are able to effectively track outputs and outcomes and manage data effectively for reporting and learning purposes, as well as ensure programmes are in line with Oxfam minimum standards and donor requirements. In addition, the PMEAL Coordinator will build the capacity of Oxfam and partner teams, providing specialist support to institutionalize approaches and techniques that ensure high quality programme/project design, planning, and MEAL. In line with Oxfam’s ‘one programme approach’, this role works across the spectrum of development, humanitarian and influencing interventions in close coordination with technical advisers and programme managers.

Core Details

Location: Beirut, Lebanon

Internal Grade:C1

Job Family: Programme

Contract type: Fixed Term

This role reports to: Deputy Country Director - Programmes, with technical support of the Regional Programme Quality Adviser. 

Staff reporting to this post: MEAL Officer(s), IM Officer(s)

Annual budget for the post: Technical sign off

Key relationships/interactions: Technical Coordinators/ Project Managers

Screening checks: All successful candidates will be screened through Refinitiv World-Check One to comply with counter terrorism and financial sanctions regulations.

Key Responsibilities

Dimensions:

• Diverse and complex problem-solving, requiring professional knowledge, field experience and an understanding of multi-sectoral humanitarian, development and influencing work
• Decision-making requires significant levels of judgement based on technical expertise and management experience, generally actively supported within line management or the programme team.
• The role is variable with broad targets and/or minimum standards and is both proactive and reactive
• Requires the ability to analyse and communicate complex information to a wide audience to promote and influence 
• Short, medium and long-term planning is required in the context of changing priorities
• Work patterns are not routine and often high pressure.
• Communication is both with internal and external contacts. Represents Oxfam in relevant coordination meetings and external relationships with partners and other stakeholders.
• Capture and document programme learning to the teams, lead reflection meetings and disseminate lessons learned

Programme design and planning:

• Provide high quality technical input into inclusive programme and project development processes, particularly on logic of intervention (Theory of Change, logical frameworks and MEAL plans), with an emphasis on ensuring sound understanding of how changes happen and sound programme logic and objective setting that is informed by contextual information
• Provide guidance to and support Programme Managers in ensuring that programme quality is embedded in new programmes and projects and that Oxfam quality standards are met.
• Support Oxfam and partner teams on quality information gathering and analysis at community, local and national level to facilitate informed and evidence-based programme and project design.
• Support research activities, including advising on methodology, sampling and tool development for relevant activities with Oxfam’s Policy and project teams.

Programme and project Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL):

• Develop and implement MEAL strategies and systems - including the definition of specific processes, methodologies and tools– and provide technical advice and support to Oxfam and partner teams in implementation.
• Identify, test and roll out innovative MEAL approaches and methods.
• Provide technical leadership and oversight to ensure the overall quality of Oxfam and partner teams’ field data collection, data management, and analysis processes.
• Oversee information management to ensure the appropriate information is collected by project teams and managed centrally; including information on beneficiary data and site profiles, services received and progress on indicators. This includes the continued investment in database solutions.
• Ensure that the Lebanon Country Programme is compliant with internal reporting requirements
• Contribute to timely and quality reporting with MEAL findings on Oxfam’s programmes and projects in Lebanon, demonstrating accountability and learning.
• Overseeing and quality assurance of feedback and complaint mechanisms and sharing of accountability findings with programme teams and senior management.
• Lead on the Oxfam Common Approach to Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Social Accountability (CAMSA) roll out in the Lebanon office including support on the implementation of improvement plans.
• Support the programme teams and partners in extracting lessons learnt and good practises, and documenting case studies which demonstrate qualitative and quantitative changes.
• Promote and support the organisation of programme/ project learning events and periodical reviews.
• Lead / support on the design and management of evaluations in compliance with Oxfam’s evaluation policy.
• Support programme and project managers to design and monitor MEAL budgets and spending in line with donor requirements.
• Support Oxfam’s Policy team to better understand the effects of policy work and activities, including helping to articulate and report these effects internally and externally (e.g. to donors).

Oxfam and partner staff capacity development and management:

• Facilitate identification of needs, planning, and implementation for country team capacity building in PMEAL areas, and build capacity of Oxfam and partner staff on high quality PMEAL, including through induction, training, coaching and day-to-day support. This includes mobilizing of internal and external resources as relevant in close coordination with the regional programme quality adviser.
• Manage the PMEAL team and ensure that they receive adequate training, mentoring and coaching.
• Act as focal point for Oxfam’s Programme, Accountability and Learning system (OPAL) for managing information and programs including providing technical support and training staff on OPAL.

Internal and external coordination, representation and networking:

• Promote and facilitate the identification of learning from PQ practices by Oxfam and partners, ensure that knowledge and learning is shared internally and externally, and promote replication of good practices across the country programme.
• Ensure that Oxfam’s MEAL system is linked to wider inter-agency M&E initiatives and developments, and liaise with technical teams to ensure coordination with sectoral working groups and processes.
• Represent Oxfam in various consortium technical working groups, ensuring that Oxfam’s positions and interests are clearly communicated in these settings.
• Contribute to and support implementation of regional and global Oxfam PQ strategies, processes, policies, and initiatives. This includes contributing to effective corporate processes and reporting (e.g. Output reporting, indicative outcome areas, Program Quality Reviews etc).

Your commitment to Oxfam

• Required to adhere to Oxfam’s principles and values as well as the promotion of gender justice and women's rights
• Understanding of and commitment to adhere to equity, diversity, gender, child safety and staff health and wellbeing principles

Person specification   

 Note to candidates: Shortlisted candidates will be assessed on our organisational values and attributes at the interview stage. The successful candidate(s) will be expected to adhere to our code of conduct. We encourage candidates to read and understand our code of conduct.

Key Organisational Attributes                                                                                 

• Ability to demonstrate sensitivity to cultural differences and gender issues, as well as the commitment to equal opportunities.
• Ability to demonstrate an openness and willingness to learn about the application of gender/gender mainstreaming, women’s rights, and diversity for all aspects of development work.
• Commitment to undertake Oxfam’s safeguarding training and adherence of relevant policies to ensure all people who come into contact with Oxfam are as safe as possible

Organisational Values                                                                                                             

• Accountability – Our purpose-driven, results-focused approach means we take responsibility for our actions and hold ourselves accountable. We believe that others should also be held accountable for their actions
• Empowerment – Our approach means that everyone involved with Oxfam, from our staff and supporters to people living in poverty, should feel they can make change happen
• Inclusiveness – We are open to everyone and embrace diversity. We believe everyone has a contribution to make, regardless of visible and invisible differences

Oxfam Leadership Competencies

• Systems Thinking: We view problems as parts of an overall system and in their relation to the whole system, rather than reacting to a specific part, outcome or event in isolation. We focus on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect. By consistently practicing systems thinking we are aware of and manage well unintended consequences of organizational decisions and actions.
• Enabling: We all work to effectively empower and enable others to deliver the organizations goals through creating conditions of success. We passionately invest in others by developing their careers, not only their skills for the job.  We provide freedom; demonstrate belief and trust provide appropriate support. We give more freedom and demonstrate belief and trust, underpinned with appropriate support.
•  Influencing: We have the ability to engage with diverse stakeholders in a way that leads to increased impact for the organization We spot opportunities to influence effectively and where there are no opportunities we have the ability to create them in a respectful and impactful manner.

Essential - Experience, Knowledge, Qualifications & Competencies                                     

• At least 5 years’ experience of work in humanitarian and/or development context programmes
• Proven ability to support the design and development of programs and projects, including Theory of Change and proposal development
• Proven ability to advise, coach and lead others on the development and implementation of MEAL strategies, plans, and systems in humanitarian and development programmes
• Strong technical competence and experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods, data analysis, reporting and understanding of contemporary trends and innovations in MEAL        
• Excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills with demonstrable ability to lead, influence, and motivate others in a diversity of contexts and functions
• Excellent communication skills and fluency in English (verbal and written)     

Desirable                                                                                                                                                   

• Master’s degree in relevant area (e.g. social sciences, statistics) from a recognised university.
• Experience in managing, advising, training, and coaching others on PMEAL            
• Practical experience of mainstreaming gender in development, influencing, or humanitarian work                                                                                                                                        
• Experience with statistical packages (e.g. SPSS)                                                              
• Familiarity with IT applications to support MEAL and information management (e.g. Survey CTO, ODK tools)                                                                                                                     
• Experience working on the development and/or management of databases                    
• Excellent communication skills and fluency in Arabic (verbal and written)  

Oxfam is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour at work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct; and committed to promoting the welfare of children, young people, adults and beneficiaries with whom Oxfam GB engages. Oxfam expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment through our code of conduct. We place a high priority on ensuring that only those who share and demonstrate our values are recruited to work for us.

The post holder will undertake the appropriate level of training and is responsible for ensuring that they understand and work within the safeguarding policies of the organisation.

All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks. Oxfam GB also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme.  In line with this Scheme, we will request information from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms his/her understanding of these recruitment procedures.

We are committed to ensuring diversity and gender equality within our organisation and encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply.