MEAL Lead

The MEAL Lead serves as a senior member of the Education for All South Sudan (EFASS) Programme's Senior Management Team, responsible for developing and implementing the programme's Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEAL) strategy in alignment with organizational, FCDO, and international best practices. The role involves designing and managing a robust monitoring and evaluation system across all programme components, leveraging qualitative and quantitative methods to measure progress and evaluate impact against the programme's five interlinked outcomes. The MEAL Lead ensures that results from monitoring, the Learning Outcomes and Quality Assessment (LOQA), and lesson learning systematically inform programme implementation through adaptive management principles, including quarterly reviews to assess cost-effectiveness and learning outcomes. The postholder oversees rigorous documentation of evidence on effective models for fragile and conflict-affected contexts, communicates findings to internal and external stakeholders (including FCDO, the Ministry of General Education and Instruction, and sector coordination bodies), and ensures data collection processes function across all activity locations to provide quality, timely data. The role includes producing monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual reports, ensuring all data is disaggregated by gender and disability status, and providing strategic and technical leadership for Outcome 4. The MEAL Lead trains and supervises a team of MEAL staff, contributes to staff and partner capacity building, and translates LOQA and pilot evidence into clear recommendations and learning products that shape implementation choices and system pathways.

Advanced degree (master's or doctorate) from an accredited university in social science, international development, evaluation research, statistics, education, or a related discipline; Equivalent experience may be substituted for graduate degree; Minimum of 10 years of experience in monitoring, evaluation, and learning for education programming in fragile and conflict-affected contexts; Experience with projects designed to improve education in South Sudan is strongly preferred; Demonstrated experience with adaptive management approaches and evidence-based programming, including use of data for programme decision-making and course correction; Significant previous experience carrying out monitoring and evaluation activities in hard-to-reach areas, preferably for FCDO-funded accountable grants or similar donor-funded programmes; Experience with learning assessments, education data systems, and national-level diagnostic studies such as learning outcomes assessments; Familiarity with foundational literacy and numeracy measurement is desirable; Experience ensuring data disaggregation by gender and disability status, including use of the Washington Group set of questions or similar tools for disability assessment; Experience monitoring programmes that include cash transfer interventions, accelerated education, catch-up learning methodologies, or teacher training components is preferred; Understanding of conflict-sensitive and climate-adaptive programming approaches and ability to integrate these considerations into monitoring frameworks; Strong negotiation skills and demonstrated ability to develop relationships with local counterparts, government ministries, donors, and sector coordination bodies; Experience training and supervising monitoring and evaluation staff and building capacity of partners on MEAL best practices; Excellent analytical, communication, and writing skills with ability to produce high-quality reports and present findings to diverse audiences; Fluency in English is required.