MEAL Lead

Benefits

Additional Information

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future. The IRC has been operating in South Sudan since 1989 and is registered as an international NGO. IRC currently delivers multi sectoral programming directly and through partners across seven states and two administrative areas. These include Northern Bahr el Ghazal, covering Aweil East, Aweil West, and Aweil South counties, Unity State, covering Rubkona, Koch, and Panyijiar counties, Upper Nile State, covering Maban, Renk, Panyikang, Nasir, Ulang, and Panylgang counties, Lakes State, covering Rumbek Centre, Rumbek East, and Yirol West counties, Central Equatoria, covering Juba, Yei, and Kajokeji counties, Eastern Equatoria, covering Kapoeta East, Jonglei, covering Ayod, Twic East, Uror, Akobo counties, as well as Abyei Administrative Area and Ruweng Administrative Area, including Pariang County and Ajoung Thok and Pamir refugee camps. Background and objectives of Education for all South Sudan(EFASS) South Sudan has one of the world's most fragile education systems, with approximately 2.8 to 3 million children, representing around 60 to 70 percent of the school-age population, out of school. Foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes remain critically low, with less than 10 percent of children achieving minimum reading competency. Years of conflict, accelerating climate shocks, and government education expenditure under 3 percent of the national budget have created an entrenched crisis. Girls and children with disabilities are disproportionately affected by these barriers, with harmful gender norms and stigma further limiting their access to education. EFASS is a £27 million, four-year programme (April 2026 to March 2030), designed to deliver five interlinked outcomes. These include improving access, retention, and progression for the most marginalised out-of-school children, particularly girls and children with disabilities in conflict and climate-affected areas. The programme also targets improved foundational learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy, strengthened delivery of inclusive and climate-adaptive education approaches by teachers and facilitators, improved education data and evidence for decision-making through a national Learning Outcomes and Quality Assessment, as well as strengthened pathways for system uptake and sustainability beyond EFASS. Scope of Work The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEAL) Lead serves as a member of the Programme's Senior Management Team and is responsible for developing and implementing the programme's MEAL strategy in accordance with organisational, FCDO, and international best-practice requirements. Working closely with the Team Leader, Deputy Team Leader, and technical staff, the MEAL Lead ensures that relevant data is collected, analysed, and used to inform management and design decisions. The MEAL Lead develops and manages a monitoring and evaluation system across all programme components that leverages qualitative and quantitative methods to measure progress and evaluate impact against the programme's five interlinked outcomes. The postholder ensures that results from monitoring, the Learning Outcomes and Quality Assessment, and lesson learning systematically feed into programme implementation through adaptive management principles. This includes overseeing quarterly reviews to assess cost-effectiveness and learning outcomes, with underperforming models redesigned or discontinued through a fail-fast approach. The MEAL Lead ensures rigorous documentation of evidence on effective models for fragile and conflict-affected contexts to inform future pooled donor investments and national education recovery planning. The MEAL Lead communicates information obtained through monitoring and evaluation activities to programme staff and external stakeholders, including FCDO, the Ministry of General Education and Instruction, and sector coordination bodies, to enable informed decision-making. The postholder ensures data collection processes function across all activity locations to provide quality, timely data, regularly performs data quality assessments, spearheading analysis of all datasets for effective tracking of planned activities by EFASS and conducts site visits to provide technical assistance