Location: Gambella
Organization: Mercy Corps
Deadline: May 31, 2025
Job Description
Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible.
In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action, helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. now, and for the future. We help people overcome poverty and conflict. Working with communities, we leverage local logic to help people transform their lives. To grow more food, earn higher incomes and ultimately advocate for their needs.
Mercy Corps has been operating in Ethiopia since 2004. In partnership with civil society organizations, private sector, and the government, Mercy Corps Ethiopia has reached more than five million Ethiopians with interventions to save lives and build secure livelihoods. Our programs emphasize market-driven solutions, reinforce social bonds, and help communities build resilience to the impacts of climate change. Currently in Seven regional states – Afar, Gambella, Oromia, Somali, Amhara, Tigray and South Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNPR) – Mercy Corps Ethiopia is driven by the mission to contribute the emergence of a peaceful, resilient, and prosperous Ethiopia which is inclusive of youth and women. Our strategic directions focus in promoting inclusive and dynamic markets; promoting peace and social cohesion through strengthening formal/informal governance structures and citizen engagement; improved natural resource governance; and integrated humanitarian response.
Department Summary
Trade4Peace is a Hilton Foundation funded project with the aim of building sustainable peace and improving livelihoods of host communities and refugees in Gambella region with the specific objectives of strengthening peaceful co-existence & social cohesion among conflicting communities, improving their livelihoods through improved agricultural production and productivities, accessibility to economic opportunities and provision of inclusive financial services.
Location: Gambella Field Office
Position Status: Full-time
Current Team Member: N/A
Safeguarding Risk Level: medium
About MEAL Officer
The MEAL officer is responsible for the overall monitoring, evaluating, accountability and learning of the Trade4Peace project. S/he is responsible for Planning the MEAL system, developing MEAL tools/template, monitoring and evaluating all interventions of the program, ensuring complaint and feedback handling and ensuring accountability, and compiling reports, and success stories. S/he makes sure that the MEAL systems, particularly in Trade4Peace project response, should be able to regularly track changes in context, and vulnerability and need to be able to make rapid adjustments to plans. S/he reports to Gambela Field Office MEAL Specialist. The key roles and responsibilities of the position are summarized as follows.
Essential Job Responsibilities
Monitoring and reporting
- Organize, and plan field-level monitoring events and compile reports for adaptive management.
- Manage a database (e.g. drive) for the project insecurity response coordinators implementing partners, and program beneficiaries for data tracking.
- Support the capacity building of Program staff, implementing partners on M&E formats/templates/forms for data collection, including Output and Outcomes Trackers, as well as assessment tools.
- Ensure proper documentation is in place including filing project documents, and indicators data sets, including data collected from individual farmers, ToRs, field trips reports, assessment tools, formats, and reports.
- Support and monitor implementing partners other key humanitarian and development actors while conducting context analysis, assessments and monitoring the quality of collected data.
- Support the participatory monitoring events along with the program team, humanitarian and development partners, and communities.
- Conduct follow-up monitoring visits to ensure agreed actions are implemented as per the plan.
- Compiles regular field monitoring reports from program team, drawing lessons, and providing feedback, which enables adaptive management practices.
- Maintain and update the overall progress of project indicators for outputs and outcomes as per the commitment made with the donor.
- Design how to integrate context indicators into the MEAL system based on the result of regular context analysis to strengthen how the program interacts with the context and conflict dynamics.
- Regularly summarize monthly/quarterly/bi-annually/annual reports, lessons, challenges/constraints, and possible collective measures to cope with and/or mitigate the shocks/stress to achieve the intended goals of the program.
- Participate and support joint planning, and support to design ways of working across humanitarian and development partners.
- Support the development of conflict sensitivity monitoring tools, and regularly monitor through evidence-based conflict sensitive monitoring approach in the Program intervention areas.
Evaluation:
- Assist the program staff with all evaluation formatives, and events such as participatory variety selections, individual-based and gender-sensitive farmers’ preference variety selection, the performance of local seed producers, and community seed banks, etc.
- Support regional staff and/or the evaluation team in conducting periodic evaluations of the Program’s interventions at the field levels.
- Timely plan and initiate context and seed security systems assessments and analysis, pré and/or post-intervention assessments, etc.
- Coordinate and review all assessment reports prepared by partners to ensure quality and accurate reporting.
- Regularly evaluate risk assessment results and suggest mitigation strategies.
- Timely evaluate the progress of joint implementation as per the joint planning of humanitarian and/or development partners in seed insecurity responses.
- Evaluate the progress of innovative funds, and seed business co-funding supported to strengthen the seed systems.
Accountability:
- Establish an effective mechanism for handling and responding to complaints/feedback at the community level and make each of the involved key actor is accountable for intervention, and actions.
- Ensure that the Complaint Feedback Mechanism (CFM), which may be raised due to the Program’s intervention, is functional and accessible to beneficiaries.
- Share information on quality and accountability issues (monitoring reports, CFM databases, preliminary verification reports, case studies, etc.).
- Present MEAL findings at each progress review meeting.
Learning:
- Participate in and organize major evaluation events happening in the field.
- Ensure appropriate mechanisms that enhance learning between humanitarian and development partners.
- Initiate and facilitate quality program implementation through the integration of learning and evaluation events across sectors/programs.
- Develop a profile of the Program’s component, a summary of the progress report, and success story, and share key learning documents from the result of MEAL systems.
Organizational Learning
- As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.
Supervisory Responsibility: N/A
Accountability
Reports Directly To: MEAL Specialist
Works Directly With: MEAL, and program specialists
Knowledge and Experience/ Minimum qualification
- Should have a minimum of Master of Science in statistics, economics, Project management, and related field of study.
- Should have a minimum of 2 years working experience, in the related field
- Experience in NGO, project management, humanitarian organizations, in shocks/stress sensitive areas is preferable.
- Very good experience of MEAL systems in response to re-current shocks/ stress, which enable for adaptive management practices.
- Very good quality of communication skills, analytical skills, proactive to changing environments/situations.
Being fluency in English, Amharic languages. and one of the local languages is also considered as additional requirement.
Success Factors
Excellent demonstrated intercultural, interpersonal and negotiation skills, strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Excellent communication, facilitation, partnerships, and networking skills with a wide range of private, partner and NGO-sector actors. Excellent in computer, and internet skills, curious, with great problem-solving skills, unafraid to ask questions, and results motivated.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Gambella town with frequent movement to project woredas which is Itang special woreda and Gog woreda for including host community and refugees.
Ongoing Learning
In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.
We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.
Equal Employment Opportunity
- Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.
- We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.
Safeguarding & Ethics
Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme.
We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.
HOW TO APPLY
All qualified individuals are invited to apply for the advertised position. All applications, including a CV, three references, and all applicable official papers, must be sent electronically through this: LINK.
Only candidates that are short-listed will be acknowledged and called for interviews.
“Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer promoting gender, equity and diversity. Qualified female and young candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. We are committed to empower women and youth.”
DEADLINE FOR ALL APPLICATIONS: May 31 / 4:00 PM
