A career opportunity awaits at Catholic Relief Services (CRS) — they are hiring a Senior Project Officer – MEAL in Mogadishu. The ideal candidate will have 4 - 5 years of professional experience in the Monitoring And Evaluation field. Qualified candidates are urged to apply before the Aug, 24 deadline.
CRS
JOB
DESCRIPTION
Job Title:
Senior Project Officer – MEAL
Department:
Country Programming
Band:
8
Reports To:
MEAL Manager – Somalia Country Program
Country/Location:
Mogadishu, Somalia
Length of Contract:
12 Months
About
Catholic
Relief
Services:
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is an international non-governmental organization supporting relief and development work in over 100 countries around the world. Through its programs, CRS assists poor and vulnerable persons based on need, regardless of creed, ethnicity, or nationality. It works through partners to implement its programs, therefore, strengthening and building the capacity of these partner organizations is fundamental to programs in every country in which CRS operates.
CRS has a long history of supporting local civil-society organizations in Somalia and has implemented development and emergency programming in multiple sectors, primarily supported by the United States Agency for International Development. CRS’ work in Somalia supports populations across 5 regions of Somalia, with emergency presence concentrated in the South-Central area.
CRS began working in Somalia in 1961, responding with food to assist flood victims and establishing its first office there in 1964. Today, CRS continues to respond to the urgent needs of the Somali people through meeting their immediate needs (food and water); providing essential services (health, nutrition, and protection); creating and rehabilitating critical infrastructure (latrines and wells); restoring productive assets and purchasing power to build resilience and promote long-term, sustainable solutions; and ensuring peacebuilding activities to transform intercommunal conflict
.
Job
Summary:
As a member of the programming team, the Senior Project Officer – MEAL will be focused on monitoring and reporting on all project activities, processes, outputs, outcomes, and context in support of CRS’ work serving the poor and vulnerable. S/he will be expected to approach this work with a thorough, service-oriented, capacity strengthening approach and will ensure that the project consistently applies best MEAL practices, develops and implements a strong MEAL system, which generates data that enables evidence-based decision-making and adaptive management, and ultimately leads to high quality of the programming and increases impact on beneficiaries’ lives.
As a member of the programming team, the Senior Project Officer - MEAL will lead and support monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning activities for the Give Well-supported vaccination project. The position will monitor and report on project activities, processes, outputs, outcomes and context, while ensuring that the project applies CRS MEAL policies, CRS program quality principles, donor requirements, and good MEAL practices. S/he will develop and implement a strong MEAL system that generates reliable data for evidence-based decision-making and adaptive management, with a specific focus on vaccination coverage, zero-dose and under-immunized children, outreach performance, service quality, community feedback, data quality, routine learning, and partner capacity strengthening.
Roles
and
Key
Responsibilities
•
Support the coordination and implementation of all Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) project activities as outlined in the detailed implementation and MEAL plans, CRS program quality principles and standards, CRS MEAL Policies and Procedures, donor requirements, and good MEAL practices.
•
Provide technical guidance and capacity building support to project implementing partners on data quality, robust data collection, systematic analysis, high-quality reporting, feedback from participants, and data use for decision-making.
•
Conduct data verification and quality assurance exercises on both monitoring and non-sensitive feedback reported by implementing partners and support partner action planning to address any gaps or weaknesses found.
•
Systematically monitor, identify, and report on any challenges, gaps, or “surprises” in programming to leadership and relevant program staff.
•
Lead the rollout of accountability systems, including feedback, complaints, and response mechanism (FCRM) to ensure accountability across the programming portfolio
•
Support the planning, implementation, and follow-up of regular reflection on project data and experiences amongst program and partner staff.
•
Support the Emergency Program Manager in timing and tailoring MEAL evidence and data to target audiences for use, decision-making and adaptive management.
•
Collaborate with local partner(s) to prepare high-quality performance and, as relevant, evaluation reports per established reporting schedule and partner agreements.
•
Assist with identifying and collecting information for case studies and briefs on promising practices and learning.
•
Closely work with partner MEAL team to keep project documents up to date, monitor project progress, and present to the project management for decision-making
•
Carry out routine supportive supervision to project sites and prepare detailed field reports.
•
Lead MEAL system digitalization and capacity building of field staff on the digitalized system.
•
Lead capacity building initiatives, remotely or on-site, to staff and partners to ensure efficient and consistent adoption and use of ICT4D applications.
•
Configure and maintain applications and user devices. Provide timely and quality service delivery, technical support, and advice to user requests to ensure proper user access to agency business data and information.
•
Monitor the capture-and-link pathway from household-level identification of zero-dose and under-immunized children through referral, vaccination, recording, reconciliation, and follow-up for subsequent doses.
•
Coordinate monthly reconciliation between community lists, referral logs, facility registers, outreach records, EPI/DHIS2 data, electronic immunization records where available, and project reporting tools.
•
Analyze child follow-up, dropout, defaulter tracing, caregiver reminders, referral outcomes, missed settlements, low-yield sessions, and reasons for non-vaccination, and present findings for timely operational action.
•
Ensure that micro plans remain living tools by supporting regular updates based on routine monitoring, population movement, accessibility, service readiness, stock information, community feedback, LQAS or rapid assessment findings, and implementation learning.
•
Support planning, implementation, quality assurance, and use of baseline, annual, endline, LQAS, rapid assessment, qualitative study, third-party monitoring, evaluation, or verification activities as defined by the project MEAL framework and donor requirements.
•
Coordinate survey preparation, enumerator orientation, field supervision, data quality checks, data cleaning, preliminary analysis, and validation of findings with CRS and partner teams.
•
Ensure LQAS or rapid assessment findings, where approved and funded, are used as practical decision-focused tools to identify underperforming areas and guide targeted adjustments in outreach, supervision, and resource allocation.
•
Work with leadership and technical teams to triangulate survey findings with routine monitoring, community feedback, microplanning data, supervision findings, and partner reports to strengthen the overall evidence base for decision-making.
•
Ensure timely project documentation for assigned MEAL activities is complete, accurate, quality-checked, and filed according to CRS and donor requirements, including tools, datasets, reports, verification records, feedback logs, monitoring checklists, action trackers, and learning products.
•
Monitor the capture-and-link pathway from household-level identification of zero-dose and under-immunized children through referral, vaccination, recording, reconciliation, and follow-up for subsequent doses.
•
Coordinate monthly reconciliation between community lists, referral logs, facility registers, outreach records, EPI/DHIS2 data, electronic immunization records where available, and project reporting tools.
•
Analyze child follow-up, dropout, defaulter tracing, caregiver reminders, referral outcomes, missed settlements, low-yield sessions, and reasons for non-vaccination, and present findings for timely operational action.
•
Ensure that micro plans remain living tools by supporting regular updates based on routine monitoring, population movement, accessibility, service readiness, stock information, community feedback, LQAS or rapid assessment findings, and implementation learning.
•
MEAL Competencies:
- Track project MEAL requirements – both CRS MEAL Policies and Procedures (MPP) and donor requirements.
- Work with MEAL staff and partner staff to implement the MPP and donor MEAL requirements applicable to your projects.
- Complete the annual MEAL procedure self-assessment for your project and develop an action plan to advance MEAL practice.
About Mogadishu
Mogadishu, known locally as Muqdisho, is the capital of Somalia and the country's largest city. It serves as the political, economic, and cultural heart of the nation. The city hosts the headquarters of numerous UN agencies, international NGOs, and government institutions, offering diverse career opportunities for development and humanitarian professionals.
Ereyada Soomaaliga (Somali Keywords): Shaqo Cusub • Kormeerka & Qiimaynta • Shaqo Buuxda • Shaqo Muqdisho