MEAL Consortium Team Lead

About the organization

The International Rescue Committee is a global humanitarian organization that helps people affected by conflict and disaster regain safety, health, education, economic stability, and control over their futures. Established in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the organization operates in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities.

In Uganda, the organization has been active since 1998, supporting refugees, vulnerable host communities, government institutions, community-based organizations, civil society, and private sector actors. Its work in the country spans health, protection and rule of law, women’s protection and empowerment, economic recovery and development, education, and cross-cutting systems strengthening and accountability initiatives. The Uganda team is based in Kampala, with field offices in Lamwo, Kiryandongo, and West Nile.

Programme context

The Refugee Support, Empowerment and Transformation programme is an anticipated FCDO-funded initiative aimed at making Uganda’s refugee response more sustainable and locally led. It is structured around two pillars:

• Lifesaving assistance: meeting urgent needs for new arrivals and the most vulnerable groups through multisector support and protection, using a cash-first approach.
• Self-reliance and resilience: strengthening the self-reliance of refugees and host communities through evidence-based graduation or lump-sum cash support.

The programme will be delivered across refugee settlements in Uganda in close coordination with the Office of the Prime Minister, UN agencies, INGOs, national NGOs, and consortium partners.

Role overview

The MEAL Consortium Team Lead will provide strategic direction and technical oversight for monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning across the consortium. This position is responsible for building and maintaining a unified MEAL system that protects data quality, supports strong evidence generation, strengthens accountability to affected populations, and enables adaptive programming across all partners.

The role is central to embedding MEAL into programme design, delivery, and decision-making. It ensures that consortium results are comparable, credible, and aligned with donor reporting expectations while also supporting learning and programme improvement at both operational and strategic levels.

Key responsibilities

• Design, roll out, and continuously improve a consortium-wide MEAL strategy aligned with organizational standards and donor requirements.
• Build MEAL systems that support adaptive management, informed decision-making, and accountability to donors and stakeholders.
• Set up and lead consortium MEAL governance forums and technical working groups to maintain alignment and quality control.
• Ensure the generation of reliable evidence for programme steering, planning, and donor engagement.
• Oversee a harmonized monitoring framework that keeps data consistent, dependable, and comparable across partners.
• Standardize indicators, measurement approaches, and reporting methods in line with donor and internal expectations.
• Lead data quality assurance processes such as audits, verification exercises, and regular checks.
• Make sure monitoring captures both numerical performance data and qualitative insights to support adaptive programming.
• Guide mixed-methods research work, including contribution analysis, outcome harvesting, and cost-effectiveness studies.
• Turn evidence into practical recommendations for adaptation, scale-up, and policy influence.
• Encourage the use of evaluation findings in reporting, learning, and strategic choices.
• Lead the design of consortium accountability systems that actively include and respond to affected populations.
• Ensure feedback and complaint channels are harmonized, accessible, and safe across all locations.
• Integrate safeguarding, sexual exploitation and abuse prevention, and protection-sensitive reporting into MEAL systems.
• Make sure accountability information is used to improve services and programme delivery.
• Build and institutionalize a consortium-wide collaborating, learning, and adapting system.
• Embed learning into steering processes and donor reporting timelines.
• Promote an organizational culture centered on evidence-based decision-making and adaptive management.
• Integrate the donor value-for-money framework, covering economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and equity, into MEAL systems.
• Carry out consortium-level cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness analysis to support decision-making.
• Ensure value-for-money evidence informs reporting, programme design, and investment decisions.
• Create and enforce MEAL standards, tools, and reporting templates across the consortium.
• Strengthen partner capacity in results-based management, adaptive programming, and data quality assurance.

Requirements

• A master’s degree in economics, social sciences, education, statistics, monitoring and evaluation, project planning and management, development studies, public policy, or another relevant discipline.
• A postgraduate diploma in monitoring and evaluation, or an equivalent professional qualification, will be an advantage.
• Between 7 and 10 years of progressive experience in MEAL within humanitarian or development programmes, including at least 5 years in senior technical or leadership roles.
• Proven experience managing MEAL systems for large, multi-year, multi-partner donor-funded programmes with harmonized frameworks, reporting structures, and performance tracking.
• Strong background in refugee response and resilience programming, including livelihoods, cash-based interventions, graduation models, and self-reliance approaches.
• Experience developing and applying evaluation systems such as baselines, midline and endline studies, value-for-money analysis, and adaptive learning frameworks.
• Experience handling MEAL functions in complex consortium or multi-stakeholder settings, including coordination with government, UN agencies, NGOs, and donors.
• Ability to design and manage integrated MEAL systems, including logframes, theories of change, indicator tracking tools, and data quality systems.
• Ability to analyze complex quantitative and qualitative data and convert it into clear donor reports, learning products, and actionable recommendations.
• Strong analytical capability, including triangulation of data from multiple sources to support decision-making and reporting.
• Practical knowledge of MEAL data collection, management, and visualization platforms such as Power BI, KoboToolbox, CommCare, STATA, and SPSS.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English; additional relevant local language skills are an advantage.

Professional standards

All staff are expected to follow the organization’s standards for professional conduct, including integrity, service, equality, and accountability. The organization enforces policies related to safeguarding, conflicts of interest, fiscal integrity, reporting wrongdoing, and protection from retaliation. It is committed to preventing harm, responding appropriately when harm occurs, and fostering a workplace that encourages critical thinking, shared power, open discussion, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services.

Additional information

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