MEAL and Partnership Specialist  

If you share our values and believe that children’s lives should not be torn apart by war, we want to hear from you.

Department: Programmes    
Contract Type:  Fixed Term; full time, 6 months, renewable based on performance and budget availability. 
Place of Work:  Sana’a    
Working Hours: Full-time (40 hours per week)
Reports to: Programme Development and Quality Advisor        

About us

War Child, the charity for children affected by war. We are a specialist charity for children in conflict, delivering high-impact programmes that are rebuilding lives across OPt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordon, Ukraine, South Sudan  Afghanistan, Colombia, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic and Yemen. We understand children’s needs, respect their rights, and put them at the centre of the solution - from reintegrating children formerly associated with armed groups and armed forces (CAAFAG) in the Central African Republic to reuniting children with their families in Afghanistan. We look forward to a world in which the lives of children are no longer torn apart by war. This is a vision that can only be realised through the collective actions of children themselves, communities and their leaders, organisations like War Child, governments and key decision makers.

Our values

Bold

• We use our passion and creativity to deliver high quality evidence-based work designed to maximise our beneficial impact for children in conflict.

Accountable to children

• Children can rely on us to respond to their voices and to treat them with respect and dignity.

Transparent

• We expect to be held to account by our supporters and beneficiaries and we respond with openness and honesty

Committed to each other

• We support each other and our partners to achieve ambitious goals and to be the best we can be.  We are honest and open with each other, sharing our successes and confronting our challenges. 

MEAL and Partnership Specialist Role

Under the supervision and direct line management of the Programme Development and Quality Advisor, the MEAL and Partnership Specialist ensure effective MEAL management and strengthening of partnerships by supporting the design and implementation of MEAL and partnership strategies, coordinating contractual and operational follow-up with partners, and ensuring high-quality, compliant reporting and communication in line with donor requirements. 

War Child is recruiting qualified MEAL and Partnership Specialist to support our programs in Yemen. We are seeking experienced individuals with a solid background in MEAL and Partnership within humanitarian and emergency contexts, particularly in Yemen and in response to child protection, PSS, education, FSL and economic empowerment of youth and young women programs.

The MEAL and Partnership Specialist is responsible for supporting the implementation of MEAL and Partnership framework and will have non-sector-specific, area-level responsibilities.
    
Key Responsibilities

1.    Partnership Framework: Support the operationalization of War Child Partnership Framework; adaptation, design and rollout of the partnership and localization strategy, including partner mapping, tools development, and internal alignment.
2.    Partnership Mutual Accountability: Coordinate due diligence, self-assessment, draft and manage partnership agreements.
3.    Partner Coordination & Capacity Building: Contribute to partner coordination, support deliverables validation, and implement capacity-building initiatives to strengthen partner performance.
4.    Lead the design and implementation of the MEAL system with MEAL team to ensure effective monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning across all programmes, in line with War Child global MEAL system and donor requirements. 
5.    Oversee data quality, analysis, and reporting, ensuring timely generation of evidence and insights to support programme performance, decision-making, and donor compliance. 
6.    Strengthen accountability and learning mechanisms, including community feedback systems, evaluations, lessons learned, and knowledge management processes to improve programme quality and impact.

Detailed Tasks / Main Activities

Partnership Framework:

• Support the mapping and analysis of potential partners based on programme and operational needs, in coordination with the relevant SMT members.
• Support the adaptation and implementation of partnership framework, SOPs, and aligning them with War Child Global Partnership Framework.
• Contribute to the development, testing, and updating of partnership tools, including Due diligence tools, assessment tools, Partnership Funding Agreement template, Reporting templates and annexes, Capacity assessment tool or Mapping and tracking tools
• Support the development and updating of internal partnership-related procedures, including roles and responsibilities matrices
• Ensure proper documentation, archiving, and accessibility of partnership-related tools and resources

Partnership Mutual Accountability:

• Under the lead of the PDQA, facilitate the integration of partners inputs in proposals and act as a focal point for gathering partner documentation for proposals.
• Coordinate due diligence processes with partners and with War Child’s different departments before final validation of the analysis by the PDQA.
• Support the organization of contractual kick-off meetings with partners. 
• Coordinate the drafting, review, and finalization of partnership agreements (MoUs, PFA, annexes)
• Ensure proper documentation, filing, and achieving all partnership-related information.

Partner Coordination & Capacity Building:

• Jointly with the partners, identify capacity gaps and support the design, implementation, and follow-up of partner capacity building plans.
• Support the validation of partner deliverables across relevant departments.
• Organize and follow-up on coordination meetings with partners and internal departments (programme, MEAL, finance, logistics).
• Organize or contribute to partnership reviews, coordination mechanisms, and lessons learned exercises.
• Flag challenges, risks, and issues related to partnerships to the PDQA and contribute to their resolution.

Lead the design and implementation of the MEAL system:

• Oversee the implementation of the WCA monitoring and evaluation system in Yemen, including the migration of projects data into the Management Information System (MIS) database.
• Work with MEAL team to design tools for data collection responsive to Education, Child Protection, PSS and Livelihoods programmes, which are consistent with the project log frames.
• Support MEAL team and project staff including implementing partner staff to maintain quality assurances of data collected.
• Ensure that project MEAL tools and SoPs are applied and properly used by partners.
• Supervise independent externally funded final evaluations and liaise, negotiate and commission work as necessary with external evaluators;

Oversee data quality, analysis, and reporting:

• Work with MEAL team to ensure that output and outcome data are collected, analyzed and documented for timely reporting and Indicator Performance Tracking Table to make sure monthly progress data/ documents are uploaded.
• Maintain and regularly report against LF and update, ensuring progress and achievements for each indicator are accurately documented and work with program teams to collect justifications for any over- or under-achievements and integrate them into the LF.
• Compile, validate, and report on monitoring and evaluation data from Yemen on a quarterly and annual basis for senior management and Global MEAL team.
• Conduct routine checks on the accuracy of figures reported by MEAL team and partner, cross-verifying them with data in LF and other reporting forms and documents. Identify discrepancies and address them promptly to maintain consistency and accuracy across reporting platforms.

Strengthen accountability and learning mechanisms:

• Ensure that accountability mechanisms are safe, accessible, and appropriate for all projects and segments of the population.
• Support the establishment and maintenance of multiple channels for feedback (e.g., help desks, suggestion boxes, hotlines, surveys).
• Support the development and dissemination of communication materials on the project information, Safeguarding communication channels and BCRM channels in appropriate languages and formats.
• Ensure the learning from internal and external evaluations is disseminated and incorporated into the development of future projects. 
• Support in facilitating reflection and learning sessions with program staff and partners to ensure insights from MEAL data are effectively utilized to enhance project design and implementation.

These duties provide a framework for the role and should not be regarded as a definitive list. Other reasonable duties may be required consistent with the grade of the post.

Education

• Bachelor degree in relevant field of study (e.g. development, social science, information management, statistics or related field) 

Work Experience and Knowledge

• At least 3-5 years’ experience preferably field-based international NGO programme experience;
• Significant experience working in working with partners and monitoring and evaluation, including design of systems and tools, data analysis and report writing, particularly within the fields of child protection, education or PSS programming;
• Demonstrated ability to create practical simple data collection and evaluation tools, including questionnaires
• Experience of designing, conducting and analysing quantitative and qualitative research 
• Experience in facilitating training and building up capacity of human resources in partnership management and M&E  development and implementation
• Sound knowledge of participatory approaches and experience with systematising such approaches
• Excellent computer skills: MS word, excel, power point, databases, including relevant M&E packages and ability to support others in working with databases and statistical software 
• Experience working with national/international NGOs on child protection/education/livelihood projects.
• Fluent in English and Arabic (spoken and written) 

Qualities

• Good interpersonal and communications skills
• Team player
• Excellent analytical skills 
• A commitment to participatory approaches 
• Ability to be administratively self-sufficient.
• Flexible and willing to support others at times when particular organisational priorities take precedence
• Patient and appreciative of the circumstances faced by Field staff
• Commitment to War Child’s aims, values and mission

Your team

• Programme Development and Quality Advisor
• You
• MEAL Assistants

Child safeguarding and Adults at Risk

Our work with children and at-risk adults to keep them safe is the most important thing we do. We are committed to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults in all areas of our work. We have zero tolerance for any behaviours and practices that puts children and/or vulnerable adults at risk of abuse and/or harm. Successful applicants will be expected to be compliant and sign up to our Child Safeguarding policy, our Code of Conduct and PSEA: Adults at Risk Policy. You can find the Child Safeguarding and Adults at Risk policy here: https://www.warchild.org.uk/whats-happening/news/our-child-safeguarding-policies-and-procedures 

Pre-employment checks

Employment with War Child will be subject to the following checks prior to your start date:

• a satisfactory police record check to include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and/or an International/National Criminal Record Check, and a clear vetting and Due Diligence check
• receipt of three satisfactory references