Save the Children seeks a MEAL Director for an anticipated five-year USAID-funded Mental Health Activity in Ukraine. This activity will accelerate the development of modern, evidence-based, and integrated mental health systems in Ukraine that will foster enhanced accountability, efficiency, and transparency to effectively address the evolving mental health challenges faced by Ukrainians amidst and after conflict. The MEAL Director will provide technical expertise and leadership to generate and analyze quality evidence and data through monitoring, assessments, and evaluations. This individual will supervise the project monitoring and evaluation team and coordinate with project learning and management processes to ensure effective feedback loops that contribute to achieving desired outcomes.
Hiring is contingent upon successful award of the project and USAID approval of the candidate.
This is an unaccompanied post location.
Ukrainian candidates are encouraged to apply.
What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties):
- Overseeing the Project MEAL Team including the full range of activities required to track progress of implementation, identify and address knowledge gaps, successes, challenges and sustainable impact.
- Ensuring MEAL activities are aligned with the USAID Evaluation Policy, including the standardization of indicators, data collection and reporting,
- Overseeing the Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) approach, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) plan, learning agenda, and data collection, analysis and reporting to ensure the program achieves and demonstrates desired results.
- Partnering with other members of the project team and relevant partners to manage implementation and ensure project quality.
- Develop and manage the implementation of a sound MEL plan, including the facilitation of community-led monitoring approaches.
- Build, manage, and continuously strengthen the project’s MEAL system, ensuring that this system is developed in a consultative fashion and provides timely and accurate data.
- Supervise the development of a project MEAL information system (MIS), with an emphasis on cutting-edge digital MEAL platforms.
- Lead the Project’s qualitative and quantitative sample design, survey, analysis and reporting.
- Coordinate routine monitoring and annual monitoring survey processes, leading the contracting of external support (consultants, firms) as needed.
- Lead or contribute to data quality assurance mechanisms throughout the life of the award.
- Contribute to the adjustment and management of the Project’s Theory of Change (ToC), ensuring coherence between the ToC and M&E systems.
- Promote evidence-based decision making among the Project’s senior management team, ensuring the use of evidence from the project’s M&E system in collaborating, learning, and adapting processes.
- Supervise the Project’s M&E team, providing training, mentoring, and coaching to team members as required while ensuring high performance.
- Perform regular monitoring visits in project zones of intervention.
- Supervise all data collection for project-related studies and assessments.
- Participate in the development of project lessons learned.
Required Qualifications:
- A master’s degree in public health, health systems, epidemiology, statistics, psychology, social work, or related field. Additional years of experience in lieu of a master’s is acceptable.
- At least 10 years of relevant experience leading the MEAL function of multi-year programs with at least two years on a USAID-funded activity.
- Significant experience in quality program monitoring and evaluation, including both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
- Familiarity with Kobo Toolbox and statistical packages for data collection and analysis. Demonstrated experience designing or adapting ethical MEAL approaches for MHPSS programming.
- Focused technical experience in MHPSS (understands the ethics of an MHPSS MEAL) and what can and can’t be done in different types of MHPSS programming to ensure a MEAL process that collects appropriate and accurate data without causing harm.
- Demonstrated experience leading MEAL teams including team management, building or strengthening monitoring systems, conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis, designing survey methodology, and promoting evidence-based Project management.
- Familiarity with the Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) approaches.
- Strong analytical skills and an understanding of monitoring, evaluation, and assessment tools to promote evidence-based learning.
- Demonstrated experience designing and supporting community-led monitoring approaches.
- Knowledge of theories of change (TOCs), logic models, MEAL plans, data quality assurance, and data utilization
- Ability to network and engage with necessary stakeholders.
- Familiarity with the political, social, and cultural context of Ukraine.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with USAID and U.S. Government regulations, reporting procedures, and systems.
- Experience leading MEAL for a USAID-funded activity.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in Ukrainian is an advantage.
About Save the Children
Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.
Our work for children and their families requires that we commit—at every opportunity—to work together to identify and dismantle persistent systemic and structural racism, inequality, and any other forms of discrimination in this country and beyond. As an anti-racist organization, Save the Children will not tolerate discrimination in any form—in our employment practices, amongst our staff, in our leadership or toward the people we serve. We stand in solidarity with all people to fight for equal rights, justice, inclusion, and belonging.
Save the Children is committed to conducting its programs and operations in a manner that is safe for the children it serves and helping protect the children with whom we are in contact. All Save the Children representatives are explicitly prohibited from engaging in any activity that may result in any kind of child abuse.
Save the Children is committed to minimizing safety and security risks for our valued employees, ensuring all are given training, support and information to reduce their risk exposure while maximizing the impact of our programs for children and families. Our shared duty, both agency and individual, is to seek and maintain safe working conditions for all.