Partnerships MEAL Manager

Job Title: Partnerships MEAL Manager
Band/Level/Grade: 7B
Department/Location: Dnipro, Ukraine with travel in Ukraine
Unrestricted

Responding to the world’s worst humanitarian crises in a great variety of roles, the International Rescue Committee’s staff is a force for humanity and hope. If you’re skilled and passionate, we’d like to add your energy to ours.
We are one of the world’s largest humanitarian agencies, provide relief, rehabilitation and post-conflict reconstruction support to victims of natural disaster, oppression and violent conflict in 42 countries. We are committed to innovation and creative partnerships.
Active in public health, education, livelihoods, women's empowerment, youth development, and protection and promotion of rights, we assist people from harm to home.


COUNTRY BACKGROUND:

Between February 7-23, 2022, an IRC team undertook a scoping mission covering Poland and Ukraine to better understand the context, humanitarian and civil society landscape, and anticipated service gaps in the event of an escalation of conflict in Ukraine. As of February 24th, the IRC has pivoted to an emergency response, and have identified partner agencies in Ukraine and Poland to facilitate immediate assistance that can be used where it is the most needed. Simultaneously, the IRC is establishing operations across Ukraine  to complement partner response services either in breadth or scale. 

JOB OVERVIEW:
The Partnerships Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEAL) Manager is a key position for the Ukraine Country Program and supports the quality preparation and implementation of IRC’s partner programs across the country. The Partnerships MEAL Manager will support the Partnerships Unit and the MEAL Coordinator to review sub-awardee proposals, participate in pre-award due diligence processes (including review or partner M&E systems), lead reviews of report data and verification, and provide guidance and training related to MEAL/Client Responsiveness and Accountability (CRA) to sub-awardees in order to strengthen their capacity, as required. This position reports dually to the Partnerships Coordinator and the MEAL Coordinator.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
Program Delivery
Participate in the Partner's Project Capacity Review (PPCR) of potential partners as appropriate and contribute to efforts to collaboratively analyze and manage material risks identified.
Work collaboratively and considerately with Partnerships Managers and partners to develop and finalize proposal documents including proposals, budgets, logframes, indicators, and tools.
Participate in Partnership Project Opening, Review and Closure Meetings, including to review successes and challenges with the partner, and capture effective MEAL/CRA practices for future partnerships.
Collaborate with partners to ensure completeness, correctness, and accuracy of beneficiary reach data and ensure databases and up to date and accurate.
Review partner narrative reports, ITTs, and supporting documents to ensure compliance with the partnership agreement, donor regulations and IRC policy, and provide feedback to the partner as appropriate.
Participate in effective program review and reflection (monitoring), identifying appropriate follow up actions, and providing completed reports to Partnership Corodinator.
Work with partners to ensure appropriate Client Feedback Mechanisms (CFM) are established and functioning.
Work with technical teams to review partner MEAL documents and provide appropriate feedback, along with input into IRC prime award reports.
Assist in the close-out of partnership agreements, as required.
Participate in the review of the performance of the partner, of the IRC, and of the partnership, including successes, challenges and lessons learned.

Program Support & Capacity Sharing
Provide MEAL/CRA training and mentoring support to partners, in accordance with partner project support plans, with a focus on supporting the partner to strengthen CFMs and approach capacities that are responsive to the needs of the partner (rather than replicating IRC’s systems and policies). This will be done in close coordination with the Partnerships Managers.

Team Management
No direct line management responsibilities, yet the Partnerships MEAL Manager is expected to coach, train, and mentor staff with the aim of strengthening their technical capacity, exchanging knowledge within the team and providing professional development guidance.

Other
Any other duties as assigned by the Partnerships Coordinator

Position Reports to: Partnerships Coordinator with a technical line to the MEAL Coordinator
Position directly co-supervises: N/A

Other Internal and/or external contacts: the position regularly corresponds and attends meetings with external and internal audiences, thus a strong ability to communicate and maintain positive working relationships is highly desirable for this position.
Internal: Technical Coordinators, Partnerships Unit Staff, Finance team, Supply Chain team, MEAL team
External: Partner staff – primarily MEAL focal points and technical coordinators

REQUIREMENTS
Fluency in Ukrainian and English, Russian a plus.
BA degree or equivalent in International Development or Affairs, Social Science, Business or related field; Advanced degree a plus – or relevant work experience.
Minimum of 3 years’ work experience with INGOs or NGOs or a related field.
Demonstrated technical skills in monitoring and evaluation at the field level.
Experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis.
Strong data interpretation skills, reporting writing, and presentation skills.
Experience in training, capacity building, and mentoring NGOs/CBOs staff.
Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to present to groups of all sizes.
Self-starter with ability to work independently and part of a team.
Demonstrated ability to work effectively under pressure and handle multiple simultaneous tasks and demands coming from multiple sources.
Hard-working, sharp and detailed oriented.
Exceptional interpersonal skills; tact, patience, diplomacy, and appropriate assertiveness.
Proficiency in MS Office software suite – including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook and experience working with databases and/or other tracking systems.

Standards of Professional Conduct: The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Harassment-Free Workplace, Fiscal Integrity, Anti-Retaliation, Combating Trafficking in Persons and several others.

Gender Equality: IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances.

At IRC - we are committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, respectful and safe work environment where all persons are treated fairly, with dignity and respect. In keeping with our core values of Integrity, Service, Accountability and Equality, IRC strives to maintain a work environment built on mutual respect in which all individuals treat each other professionally, and free of bias, prejudice, and harassment. 
We acknowledge and honor the fundamental value and dignity of all individuals. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and consider all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other human demographic.