WORK CONTEXT

CESVI is an independent Italian humanitarian organisation, founded in Bergamo in 1985. CESVI operates worldwide to support the most vulnerable populations in promoting human rights and achieving their ambitions, for sustainable development.

The MEAL Technical Advisor (TA) is part of CESVI’s Technical Advisory Services Unit (TAS-U).

The TAS-U was established beginning of 2024 with the aim of strengthening the coordination and unified management of technical and thematic experts and key functions for the creation, preservation and dissemination of knowledge in the organisation. Its main objective is to provide substantial technical support to the programmes.

TAS-U serves as the central entry point for requests for advice and technical assistance (in proposal writing and implementation, and in strategic programming) related to:

• MEAL, including M&E, information management, community engagement and accountability, diversity and inclusion;
• strategically relevant thematic areas such as:

o Protection

o Disaster Risk Management (Anticipatory action and Disaster risk reduction)

o Partnership and Localisation

o Environment and Climate Change Adaptation

o Private Sector Development and Involvement

o Cash assistance (and similar devices)

TAS-U also includes the function related to the implementation, support and monitoring of the organisational Safeguarding system, in line with CESVI’s Child Safeguarding Policy and PSEA Policy.

In addition to the MEAL TA, the TAS-U includes the Protection and Safeguarding Senior Specialist, the TAS Unit Assistant and the Unit Manager.

COORDINATION AND REPORTING

The MEAL TA refers to the TAS Unit Manager.

The MEAL TA keep strong coordination with colleagues from National and International Programmes departments at headquarters, Regional and Country level, and with the Project Development Unit.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The MEAL TA is responsible for establishing and maintaining a robust approaches to MEAL in programs, at all stage of PCM. Therefore, she/he shall coordinate with relevant teams to provide tailored technical support as needed.

The MEAL TA will be in charge of the following activities under four areas of responsibility:

• Technical Backstopping to country offices and programs
• Programme/project development support
• Thought and practice leadership
• System’s strengthening
• Technical backstopping

-provides on demand support to country teams to perform key MEAL activities in ongoing projects, as for example development of M&E system and of data collection tools; data analysis; review of M&E reports;

-supports Country staff during the recruitment of MEAL staff;

-realizes in country visits.

• Programme/project development support

-Supports country teams and HQ staff during proposal development phases, e.g. with the creation and/or analysis of assessment forms and assessment reports, identification of LF/ToC/result chains indicators, and integration of appropriate M&E activities into project proposals with associated budgets;

• Thought and practice leadership

-Builds capacities of staff and partners’ staff through regular or ad hoc training and the development of training resources;

-performs internal evaluation and supports pilots/systematization and evaluations on existing projects;

-promotes or supports learning exchanges, for MEAL or other thematic priorities in collaboration with the other TAs and thematic focal points.

• System’s strengthening

-Develops technical guidelines/manuals and tools;

-Supports the development of sector-specific core indicators framework.

REQUIREMENTS

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in relevant field such as Economics, statistics, Political sciences;

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• At least 5 years of experience as an expert in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&V) or equivalent function – with emphasis on Information Management and data analysis – in the humanitarian and development cooperation field and in projects funded by institutional donors;
• Previous experience in NGO sector, in both humanitarian and development settings.

ESSENTIAL COMPETENCES

• Advanced level of written and spoken English, comparable to CERF C2 English proficiency level;
• Technical competences in statistics and data analysis
• Advanced Excel skills;
• Robust experience in the management of key M&E activities in the project cycle (development of M&E plans and ITT tables, definition of indicators in the logical framework, implementation of baseline and final assessments and surveys, evaluations, etc.);
• Proven familiarity with data analysis and visualisation, both with ad-hoc visualisations and in dashboards, created with Excel, PowerBI and similar;
• Proven familiarity with data collection and data aggregation softwares – KoBo Toolbox, CommCARE, RedRose etc;
• Experience in the application of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methodologies;
• Experience in the field of evaluation, preferably impact evaluation and its methodologies;
• Deep knowledge of standards and design practices according to the different approaches of the logical framework and theory of change;
• Deep knowledge of standard indicators and related (multi-sectoral) literature;
• Full awareness of data protection and confidentiality issues applied in M&E;
• Familiarity in conducting training and capacity building (face-to-face and remote);

SKILLS

MEAL technical advisor (TA) is not just a technical figure: the advisor plays a pivotal role in nurturing and build capacities of colleagues and partners from different professional and cultural backgrounds. Thus, personal skills are as important as the technical ones. Researched person shall have high social intelligence.

Other required skills are:

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills;
• Autonomy, ability to take initiative and work independently;
• Strong attention to details
• Systemic approach to solving specific problems (e.g. when identifying a recurrent problem, propose a systemic solution while fixing it).

DESIRABLES

• Familiarity with Statistics Softwares as SPSS and STATA
• Familiarity with PowerBI
• Other languages, preferably French, Arabic and Spanish;
• Technical or thematic expertise in one or more of CESVI’s areas of intervention (e.g.: humanitarian assistance, livelihoods, agriculture & value chains, protection, etc.)

SAFEGUARDING

Cesvi has a zero-tolerance approach to any harm to, or exploitation of, a child or a vulnerable adult by any of our staff, related persons or partners.

Cesvi commitment to being a safe organization begins with the staff recruitment process which includes meticulous checks, such as criminal records checks or check disclosure of previous convictions, to ensure children and vulnerable people are safeguarded and abuse is prevented. Safeguarding checks are part of the selection process performance.

HEALTH SAFEGUARDING

Cesvi pays particular attention to safeguarding the health of all the human resources of the Organisation. Therefore, in order to protect its staff, an assessment of their suitability for the position in each mission is carried out before departure. Such assessment is done by the Occupational Doctor of the Organisation, who will also examine the vaccination coverage.