MEAL Officer - National Post - Lebanon - Beirut

The Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Officer is responsible for planning, coordinating, and implementing monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning activities to ensure high-quality data collection, analysis, reporting, and evidence-based decision-making. The role supports project quality through field monitoring, data quality assurance, accountability mechanisms, and continuous learning while providing technical guidance to the MEAL Assistant and program teams. The MEAL Officer is responsible for maintaining accurate project data, preparing monitoring reports, and ensuring compliance with RI's data quality, confidentiality, and accountability standards.

Key responsibilities

Accountability and Complexity

The job holder works with a moderate level of independence, applying professional experience, judgment, and established procedures to complete assigned MEAL responsibilities within agreed guidelines and SOPs. The role involves solving a range of straightforward technical and operational problems, analyzing possible solutions, and making day-to-day decisions related to data collection, monitoring, reporting, and accountability processes. The position may provide line supervision or informal guidance to junior team members, enumerators, or field staff, with responsibility for the quality of their own work and contribution to the wider MEAL team’s outputs. Supervise, mentor, and provide day-to-day technical guidance to the MEAL Assistant, ensuring timely completion of assigned tasks and adherence to RI MEAL standards and procedures.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability

• Support the development, adaptation, testing, and implementation of project MEAL tools, including PHCC and PSU monitoring checklists, patient-exit and satisfaction surveys, baseline and end-line assessments, post-distribution monitoring tools, training-evaluation forms, focus group discussion and key-informant interview guides, and outcome-monitoring tools.
• Configure and test electronic data-collection tools using ODK, KoboToolbox, or other approved platforms, ensuring that validation rules and project indicators are accurately incorporated.
• Develop sampling plans for monitoring exercises and assessments by calculating appropriate sample sizes and selecting representative beneficiaries or households in line with approved methodologies.
• Coordinate and support data collection for project assessments, including monitoring of PHCC and PSU services, Community Health Clubs, MHPSS activities, IYCF counselling, malnutrition screening, NFI distributions, Cash for Nutrition assistance, home visits, referrals, and capacity-building activities.
• Train and provide technical guidance to data collectors, CHVs, program teams, and other relevant staff on the correct use of monitoring tools, informed consent, confidentiality, interview techniques, and data-quality requirements.
• Conduct regular field-monitoring, observation, distribution-monitoring, validation, and data-verification visits to project implementation locations, including supported PHCCs, PSUs, collective shelters, and community outreach sites.
• Monitor the relevance, quality, accessibility, safety, and timeliness of project activities.
• Conduct daily or periodic data-quality checks during assessments, identify data gaps or inconsistencies, and coordinate timely corrective action with program and field teams.
• Analyze monitoring findings, identify trends, service gaps, risks, over- or underachievement, and provide practical recommendations to program teams.
• Support monthly data-reflection meetings and quarterly lessons-learned exercises.
• Document best practices, success stories, innovations, and lessons learned, and support the use of monitoring findings to improve project implementation and adaptive programming.
• Collect and document beneficiary feedback during field visits and support the dissemination of information on RI’s feedback, complaints, safeguarding, and referral mechanisms.
• Coordinate with the Accountability and Safeguarding team to ensure that sensitive feedback, safeguarding concerns, and complaints are referred through the appropriate confidential reporting channels.

Data Management, Reporting and Documentation

• Oversee the accuracy, completeness, consistency, and timeliness of project data collected by program teams, CHVs, PHCCs, PSUs, and other data collectors.
• Conduct data cleaning, validation, and reconciliation across project databases and source documents.
• Maintain and regularly update project indicator trackers and MEAL databases, ensuring appropriate disaggregation by sex, age, population status, disability, location, and other donor-required categories.
• Compile, analyze, and interpret quantitative and qualitative data to measure project progress, outputs, outcomes, service quality, and beneficiary satisfaction against approved indicators and targets.
• Prepare data summaries, dashboards, charts, monitoring reports, and evidence-based recommendations for program teams, management, and donor reporting.
• Follow up with project teams on the timely submission of means of verification and ensure that attendance sheets, distribution records, patient surveys, training records, referrals, monitoring reports, and other supporting documents are complete and properly approved.
• Maintain organized, secure, and accessible electronic and hard-copy filing systems in accordance with RI’s data-protection, confidentiality, and records-management requirements.
• Ensure compliance with RI data protection policies, informed consent procedures, and humanitarian data responsibility standards throughout the data lifecycle, including data collection, storage, sharing, and archiving.
• Immediately escalate significant data-quality concerns, safeguarding risks, suspected fraud or manipulation, serious beneficiary complaints, or implementation issues to the appropriate supervisor or focal point.

Field Coordination, Communication and Professional Conduct

• Plan and coordinate field-monitoring schedules with Health, Nutrition, MHPSS, Accountability and Safeguarding, Finance, Operations, and field teams, ensuring that visits are aligned with project priorities and operational requirements.
• Provide technical guidance to program and field teams on monitoring requirements, data collection, means of verification, indicator definitions, and corrective actions.
• Communicate monitoring findings objectively and constructively.
• Protect the confidentiality and privacy of beneficiary and patient information and ensure that data are accessed, transferred, and shared only through authorized systems and on a need-to-know basis.
• Immediately report field incidents, safeguarding or protection concerns, complaints, conflicts, data breaches, or other issues that may affect beneficiary safety, project quality, compliance, or RI’s reputation.

Behavior and conduct

• Ensures that behavior inside and outside of work promotes the values in RI’s code of conduct and safeguarding policies
• Acts with integrity and holds themselves accountable for being respectful, inclusive and professional
• Reports any concerns

Person Specification

Skills, knowledge and expertise required for the role.

Essential Criteria

1. Bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Public Health, Social Sciences, Development Studies, Information Management, Economics, or another relevant discipline.
2. Minimum of two years of relevant professional experience in monitoring, evaluation, accountability, learning, data management, research, or program-quality functions.
3. Previous experience working with a local or international NGO, donor-funded project, or humanitarian program in Lebanon.
4. Previous experience monitoring health, nutrition, MHPSS, primary healthcare, or community-based programming.
5. Sound understanding of MEAL processes, including indicator tracking, field monitoring, needs assessments, baseline and end-line assessments, post-distribution monitoring, outcome monitoring, beneficiary surveys, and data-quality assurance.
6. Experience collecting, cleaning, validating, compiling, analysing, and presenting quantitative and qualitative data.
7. Experience developing, adapting, testing, or implementing monitoring and assessment tools, including questionnaires, checklists, satisfaction surveys, and interview guides.
8. Proficiency in digital data-collection tools such as KoboToolbox, ODK, or similar platforms, including basic form configuration and testing.
9. Strong Microsoft Office skills, particularly Excel and Word, including the ability to use formulas, filters, pivot tables, charts, and data-validation functions.
10. Ability to maintain and update project databases, indicator trackers, means-of-verification records, and reporting tools accurately and on time.
11. Good analytical and report-writing skills, with the ability to summarize findings, identify trends and gaps, and provide practical recommendations.
12. Ability to train, coach, and provide guidance to enumerators, outreach workers, CHVs, or field teams on monitoring tools, data quality, informed consent, and confidentiality.
13. Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work respectfully and effectively with beneficiaries, communities, PHCC staff, field teams, partners, and other stakeholders.
14. Fluency in spoken and written Arabic and good working proficiency in English.
15. Willingness and ability to conduct regular field visits to PHCCs, PSUs, collective shelters, and community implementation locations.
16. Familiarity with PHENICS, ActivityInfo, LogAlto, or similar health-information and project-monitoring systems

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.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Relief International 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

Relief International (RI) 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. 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 RI’s Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.