HIAS is a global humanitarian organization that provides protection, legal aid, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), and economic inclusion services to refugees, asylum seekers, and other forcibly displaced people. HIAS has maintained a continuous operational presence in Greece since 2016, with offices and multidisciplinary teams in Athens and Mytilene (Lesvos).

HIAS Greece delivers specialized legal counseling and representation, strategic litigation and quasi-litigation, legal and policy advocacy, human rights monitoring and documentation, and individualized MHPSS services.

Background and Rationale for the Consultancy

HIAS Greece is entering a new phase of a multi-year project implemented in partnership with Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA), with the goal of protecting the rights, dignity, and wellbeing of asylum seekers and refugees in Greece. The project is structured around four objectives:

1. Ensure access to justice and protection for asylum seekers, refugees, and human rights defenders;
2. Address systemic human rights violations through strategic litigation ;
3. Improve protection through targeted legal and policy advocacy ;
4. Improve psychosocial wellbeing and resilience among refugees and asylum seekers.

HIAS Greece currently monitors its work through a Case Management System (CMS), Microsoft Excel trackers, monthly staff reports to the Country Manager, and quarterly reporting to HIAS headquarters. No external evaluation is budgeted for this project. The MEAL function is therefore fully internal, and its quality depends on the strength of the tools, protocols, and staff capacity that underpin it.

Three features of the new logframe require MEAL capacity that does not yet exist in a systematized form:

• ? structured client perception survey using a five-point Likert scale, administered at intake and at case closure, measuring understanding of legal rights, ability to access legal help, and sense of safety. This tool does not yet exist.
• ?dministration of the WHO-5 Wellbeing Index at intake and exit/follow-up, with “improvement” defined as a rise of at least 10 points on the 0–100 scale. A standardized administration, scoring, and ethical-use protocol does not yet exist.
• Documentation of instances in which a named policymaker, institution, or accountability mechanism references or acts upon a specific advocacy output, evidenced by an official document, written record, or public statement. This is an outcome-harvesting-type indicator that requires a defined verification and evidence-retention protocol.

In addition, the project’s rightsholder counting must follow the donor’s methodology, under which rightsholders are counted every quarter in which they receive services, with a separate adjusted figure for unique cumulative rightsholders that is overwritten with each quarterly submission. Given that many clients receive both legal and MHPSS services over multi-year case timelines, a robust and documented de-duplication protocol is essential.

HIAS Greece, therefore, seeks a MEAL Consultant to establish a practical, proportionate, and GDPR-compliant MEAL system that project staff can operate independently after the consultancy ends.

Overall objective: To establish a functional, ethical, and staff-owned MEAL system for the HIAS Greece project, enabling accurate, timely, and verifiable measurement of progress against the approved logframe, and strengthening accountability to rightsholders.

Specific objectives:

1. Assess current MEAL practices, systems, and data flows at HIAS Greece and identify gaps against the requirements of the approved logframe and IRUSA reporting obligations.
2. Develop a project MEAL Plan, Performance Indicator Reference Sheets (PIRS), and a documented data flow and roles matrix.
3. Design and pilot the data collection tools required by the logframe, including the client perception survey and the WHO-5 administration package, in English.
4. Develop written protocols governing data collection, quality assurance, de-duplication and unique-rightsholder counting, informed consent, data protection, ethical administration of wellbeing measures, and rightsholder feedback and complaints.
5. Build the capacity of HIAS Greece legal, MHPSS, advocacy, and management staff in Athens and Lesvos to operate the system independently.
6. Hand over a complete, indexed MEAL package with a clear transition and coaching plan.

The consultancy is organized in five phases. The tasks below are indicative of the required standard; consultants are expected to propose their own methodology and may sequence or consolidate tasks, provided all deliverables in Section 5 are produced.

Phase 1 — Inception and MEAL System Assessment

Task 1.1 — Inception. Hold a kick-off meeting with the HIAS Greece Country Manager and project focal points. Review the project proposal, logframe, donor’s reporting templates and monitoring instructions, HIAS global MEAL and Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) frameworks, existing trackers, and the CMS structure. Agree on the work plan, communication protocol, and access arrangements.

Task 1.3 — Rapid assessment. Produce a concise assessment with prioritized, feasible recommendations, explicitly flagging any recommendation that falls outside the resources of this consultancy so that HIAS can plan for it separately.

Phase 2 — MEAL Workplan, Indicator Definitions, and Data Architecture

Task 2.1 — MEAL Workplan. Develop a project MEAL Workplan covering monitoring methods, data sources, frequency, responsibilities, reporting calendar aligned to IRUSA’s quarterly cycle, data quality assurance, learning routines, and accountability mechanisms.

Task 2.2 — Performance Indicator Reference Sheets. Develop a PIRS for each of the 14 indicators in the approved logframe. Each PIRS must specify: precise indicator definition; unit of measure; disaggregation (at minimum gender, age band, nationality, and location and vulnerability categories where ethically appropriate); numerator and denominator where applicable; inclusion and exclusion rules; data source and means of verification; responsible staff member; collection and reporting frequency; known limitations and bias risks; and a worked example.

Task 2.3 — Data flow and roles matrix. Produce a one-page visual data flow diagram and a RACI-style responsibility matrix covering every indicator, from point of collection to submission to IRUSA, including named roles for data entry, verification, aggregation, and sign-off.

Phase 3 — Tool Development and Piloting

All tools must be produced in English, be trauma-informed, be usable by non-specialist staff, and be accompanied by short administration guidance. The consultant should specify which tools require translation into principal client languages (Arabic, Dari/Farsi, French, and Sorani are indicative) and provide translation-ready versions; HIAS interpreters will support administration.

Task 3.1 — Client perception survey. Design a structured survey using a five-point Likert scale across the three dimensions specified in the logframe: understanding of legal rights, ability to access legal help, and sense of safety. Deliver an intake version and a case-closure version, an administration protocol (who administers, when, through interpreters, with what consent language), a scoring rule that operationalizes “increased access to justice and protection” against the 75% target, and guidance on handling clients lost to follow-up, clients in detention, and clients whose cases close unfavorably. The tool must be short enough to administer without displacing legal consultation time, and must not be administered by the lawyer whose performance it partly reflects, where reasonably avoidable.

Task 3.2 — WHO-5 administration package (Outcome 4). Develop a complete package for use of the WHO-5 Wellbeing Index at intake and at exit/follow-up, including: the validated Greek version and guidance on obtaining validated versions in client languages; scoring instructions (raw 0–25 multiplied by 4 to yield 0–100); the operational definition of improvement (a rise of at least 10 points); an ethical protocol addressing informed consent, the risk of re-traumatization, what staff do if a very low score or item-level indication of risk emerges, and the boundary between a monitoring instrument and a clinical assessment; and a rule set for clients receiving non-time-limited services who have no fixed discharge point, including a defined follow-up window for measurement.

Task 3.3 — Activity and output trackers. Refine templates for the Legal Activity Tracker, Advocacy Activity Tracker, MHPSS Activity Tracker, community-based organization partnership and referral log, and training attendance sheets and feedback forms.

Task 3.4 — Advocacy uptake log. Design a simple evidence log for advocacy activity, enabling staff to record and file the source document each time an advocacy output is referenced or acted upon, with fields for the actor, the output referenced, the date, the evidence type, and a link to the archived file.

Phase 4 — Protocols

Task 4.1 — Data quality assurance protocol, including monthly verification steps, spot-check procedures, a data quality checklist for the Country Manager’s sign-off, and a simple correction and version-control procedure.

Task 4.2 — De-duplication and unique rightsholder protocol, operationalizing the IRUSA methodology, including the use of a consistent client identifier across legal and MHPSS records, rules for counting family members and indirect rightsholders, treatment of clients served across both teams and across Athens and Lesvos, and the quarterly procedure for producing the overwritten unique cumulative figure.

Task 4.4 — Accountability and feedback protocol, strengthening the existing AAP framework by formalizing the complaint boxes and dedicated communication channels referenced in the project design. This must cover intake, categorization, response timeframes, escalation of sensitive complaints (including safeguarding and PSEA allegations) to the appropriate channel outside the programme line, closing the loop with the person who raised the issue, and a quarterly analysis routine that feeds feedback into programme adaptation.

Task 4.5 — Learning protocol, defining a light-touch quarterly reflection routine that captures lessons from casework, litigation outcomes, and rightsholder feedback, and links them to documented programme adjustments.

Phase 5 — Training and Handover

Task 5.1 — Training needs identification. Confirm training needs across the legal, MHPSS, advocacy, administrative, and management teams, and adapt content by role.

Task 5.2 — Training delivery. Deliver a minimum of three training sessions (indicatively 3–4 hours each, in Greek with English materials, or as agreed) covering:

• Session A — MEAL fundamentals, the project logframe and indicator definitions, and each team’s role in the data flow;
• Session B — practical use of the tools, with hands-on exercises on the client perception survey, the WHO-5 package, and the trackers;
• Session C — data protection, de-duplication, quarterly reporting, and the accountability and feedback protocol.

Sessions must be accessible to the Lesvos team, whether through a dedicated online session.

Task 5.3 — Training materials and self-study pack. Deliver an editable training pack (slides, exercises, quick-reference job aids, and a short “how to run this training” facilitator guide) so that HIAS can repeat the training for new staff without external support.

Task 5.4 — Quarterly reporting template. Deliver a completed-format quarterly reporting template aligned to the logframe and IRUSA’s monitoring and reporting instructions, populated with worked dummy data to demonstrate correct use, including the direct, indirect, total, and unique cumulative rightsholder figures.

• Duration: three months from contract signature.
• Modality: hybrid. Remote work is expected for the majority of tasks. In-person presence in Athens is required for the kick-off, at least one training session, and the handover. Engagement with the Lesvos team may be remote unless the consultant proposes otherwise within budget.
• Reporting line: the consultant reports to the HIAS Greece Country Manager, with technical input from HIAS regional or headquarters MEAL staff where available.
• HIAS will provide: the project proposal and logframe, IRUSA monitoring and reporting instructions, existing trackers and templates (anonymized as required), CMS documentation, HIAS MEAL and AAP framework documents, meeting space in Athens, staff time for interviews and training, and interpretation support for any client-facing piloting.
• The consultant will provide their own equipment, software, and workspace.

Essential

• Advanced degree in social sciences, international development, public health, law, statistics, economics, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and demonstrated experience.
• Minimum three to five (3-5) years of professional experience in monitoring and evaluation for humanitarian, protection, or human rights programmes.
• Demonstrated experience designing MEAL systems, indicator reference sheets, and data collection tools for donor-funded projects, with at least two comparable assignments completed.
• Working knowledge of the Greek asylum, reception, and protection context and of the operating environment for civil society organizations in Greece.
• Demonstrated understanding of GDPR and Greek data protection requirements as applied to sensitive personal data of asylum seekers and refugees.
• Proven facilitation and adult-training experience with mixed technical and non-technical staff.
• Professional fluency in English and Greek (written and spoken).
• Ability to complete the assignment within the stated period and budget.

Desirable

• Experience measuring legal aid, access-to-justice, or strategic litigation programmes, including familiarity with the difficulty of setting and interpreting targets for outcomes determined by courts.
• Experience with MHPSS monitoring and with standardized wellbeing or distress measures, in particular the WHO-5 Wellbeing Index.
• Familiarity with outcome harvesting, contribution analysis, or comparable approaches to measuring advocacy influence.
• Experience with case management systems and with designing Excel-based tools that include validation and automated aggregation.
• Familiarity with the reporting requirements of US-based INGO and foundation donors.
• Knowledge of protection principles, safeguarding, PSEA, and accountability to affected populations standards (CHS).
• Additional language skills relevant to the client population.

Eligibility. Individual consultants and firms may apply. Consultants must be legally entitled to invoice for services in Greece, or to provide other legal documentation in accordance with Greek law or their country of registration, and are solely responsible for their own taxes, social insurance, and any professional insurance.