Career Opportunity: Head of MEAL- Cohere

Cohere is committed to providing equitable opportunities to candidates and welcomes all candidates to apply, without discrimination based on age, disability, ethnicity, origin, political belief, race, religion, sex or gender, sexual orientation, language, and culture.

Cohere particularly encourages candidates who have experienced forced displacement and who have experience in MEAL or a closely related field to apply.

About Us

Cohere is an international NGO of 50+ employees registered in Uganda, Kenya, and the United Kingdom that specializes in building holistic partnerships with Refugee-Led Organizations (RLO) in refugee-hosting areas. Currently, we operate in 5 different locations across East Africa and have partnered with more than 40 RLOs. We support RLOs in strengthening their professional capacity, establishing social enterprises, and accessing resources to implement, sustain and scale out humanitarian response activities. With our RLO partners, we aim to support refugees to lead fulfilled and dignified lives and transform the humanitarian and development sectors towards more community-led responses.

In recent years, refugee-led organizations have finally received some recognition for the critical work they do as first responders to refugee crises as well as crises faced by the wider community, such as COVID-19, Ebola, and famine. RLOs are also key actors in promoting the integrated development of refugee-hosting areas all over the world. Recognition of their work, however, and the number of new RLOs emerging as key players and humanitarian actors have not been enough to shift meaningful humanitarian funding to RLOs. RLOs still receive less than 1% of the international aid allocated to refugee responses. What is more, there are systemic barriers preventing refugees from playing a meaningful role within the refugee response as a whole, such as within humanitarian organizations, and within decision-making processes where decisions are made about the futures of refugee communities. Beyond allocating funding to refugee leaders there are numerous opportunities for reforming the humanitarian sector as a whole so that the way we respond to forced migration crises globally is more appropriate, effective, and sustainable.

Cohere is one organization that also needs to reform to be fit for purpose in playing a key role in these critical changes. We are part way through a five-year process that will enable our organization’s work to be informed, guided, and led by the people whose lives we affect through our work. We are committed to continuing this journey in a transparent manner so that we can share the process with the rest of the sector.

Job Description

Cohere is looking to recruit for the position of ‘Head of MEAL’ either in Uganda or Kenya who will have a leading role in the design, development, and implementation of the organization’s MEAL as well as a meaningful contribution to the progress of Cohere by building new localization indicators in adherence with Cohere’s vision and mission.

The Head of MEAL will also, in coordination with the team, participate in the development, monitoring, and reporting of indicators holding COHERE accountable for its commitment to refugee leadership over each step of the organization’s decision-making processes around our programs, structures, and policies.

Responsibilities

Pilot the implementation of Cohere’s MEAL strategy

• Lead the development and management of the organization’s MEAL system
• Provide guidance in the development of contextualized and quality MEAL tools
• Provide guidance in data management including data collection, collation, analysis, and reporting to MEAL and programme teams
• Co-develop and oversee the implementation of data quality check mechanisms
• Provide methodological support to MEAL and programme teams
• Co-create effective and harmonized channels of data flow among different teams in the organization.
• Ensure the incorporation of the organization’s learning generated through MEAL activities into the programme and strategic planning and revision processes.
• Coordinate MEAL-related collaboration between leadership, programme, and partner staff across all relevant teams.
• Lead the design of MEAL capacity-strengthening training for internal teams as well as external community-led partners.
• Act as a focal point for external evaluations where relevant.

Ensure Cohere’s exemplarity and synergy between its operations and advocacy.

• Organize indicators co-design sessions with RLO partners to ensure RLO partner ownership over COHERE’s framework of success.
• In relation with RLO partners, lead the development and implementation of the organization’s MEAL strategic plan
• Provide guidance in the design and implementation of programme-based theories of change and results frameworks, and their alignment to the organization’s overall strategic objectives, by ensuring
  • Refugee ownership of the COHERE’s programs and initiatives
  • Equitable partnerships and excluding tokenistic practices
  • Inclusivity of COHERE’s workplace culture in regards to DEI principles.
• In close relation with the Head of Advocacy, follow the evolution and emergence of power shift indicators in programs and workplace cultures from meaningful-participation supporters(States such as New Zealand, Canada, US, aid agencies and organizations, RLOs, academics, and companies), Transpose and adapt these to COHERE. This will imply a strong part of the online watch, literature review, and one-to-one conversations with M&E officers of partners, like-minded organizations, academics, and leaders of the meaningful refugee participation movement.
• Generate data that will feed into COHERE’s advocacy strategy to shift power, and that will position COHERE as leading by example on the thematic it advocates for.
• Work closely with the Head of Communications to ensure data-driven editorial content.

Essential Requirements

• Graduate or Postgraduate degree or equivalent in terms of experience in an RLO or CBO, in a field related to project and MEAL management, international development, statistics, demography, data management, and other relevant areas.
• Proven progressive responsibility in a similar position.
• Proven experience in
• Project cycle and MEAL management
• MEAL strategy and system design and implementation
• Data management including data collection, analysis, and interpretation
• Conducting data quality assessments and designing effective pathways for results sharing
• Research and report writing
• Data collection tool design and use
• Design and delivery of MEAL capacity-strengthening training
• Community engagement in MEAL activities
• Design and implementation of MEAL plans results framework and theories of change
• Excellent writing skills
• Strong interpersonal skills and empathy, particularly with regard to working with vulnerable people
• Willingness to travel within Uganda/Kenya and other countries if necessary
• Excellent knowledge of MS Office
• Reliability and self-reliance
• Strong critical and analytical thinking
• Strong interest in localization and refugee leadership
• Motivation to cultivate and share knowledge
• Responsible and systematic work approach
• Enthusiasm and self-initiative

Desired Requirements

• Experience or strong understanding of challenges faced by refugees and other marginalized communities in East Africa.
• Experience in working in M&E for an RLO or refugee-led initiative or a CBO working on forced displacement.
• Notable initiative and ability to take ownership of projects, manage multiple deadlines, and work effectively independently and collaboratively in a team environment;
• Cultural competence and intelligence, ability to work well in a diverse, multicultural workforce;
• Exceptional willingness to ensure meaningful participation, inclusion, and engagement for all team members and external partners;
• Experience in working within a refugee context including challenging fieldwork conditions
• Experience working with a diverse team of people from different backgrounds

What We Offer

• Working in an international team of visionary and motivated individuals
• Opportunities for personal and professional growth
• Health insurance
• Participating in extensive national and international networks within the humanitarian and development sector
• 25 days of annual leave
• Opportunity to work remotely