The Luxembourg NGO SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde a.s.b.l. (SOS VEM) is recruiting a MEAL Manager (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning) (permanent contract, 40 hours/week, position based in West Africa).
Context
Global context: Operating in the field of child protection, SOS VEM co-finances and supports the implementation of development and emergency programmes, particularly in West, Southern and East Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. The organisation benefits from institutional and private funding. It actively promotes and upholds the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct regarding compliance, child and youth safeguarding, and protection against and prevention of harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse. It is a member of the SOS Children’s Villages International (SOS CVI) Federation and works closely with national SOS Children’s Villages associations, members of the Federation, in programme implementation.
Community Support Programme for Child Protection and Child Protection Systems (PACOPE-SPE)
Based on the principles set out in the United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children and reaffirmed by the United Nations Resolution on the promotion and protection of children’s rights, SOS VEM is currently developing a new Framework Agreement V (2027-2031) for funding purposes with the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade. In this context, the NGO collaborates with the national SOS Children’s Villages Associations (NAs) (SOS VE) in four West African countries: Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal, for the implementation of PACOPE-SPE programmes. These programmes pursue a dual objective:
- Improving the care and protection of children and adolescents through strengthened participation of children, adolescents, families, communities, civil society actors and organisations, with the active engagement of the State and public authorities;
- Strengthening the socio-economic empowerment of vulnerable families and young people.
These programmes, reaching more than 9,000 children and 1,800 parents/caregivers, will be implemented by the teams of the National Associations in each country, supported by a localised technical support mechanism composed of four experts. This mechanism provides cross-cutting support and quality assurance to strengthen capacities and ensure efficiency through training and advisory support to local and national programme teams and coordinators. This close technical support is tailored to the needs identified and expressed in each country, while its multi-country positioning also enables strategic oversight and broader perspective.
In order to strengthen the technical support team within the framework of the implementation of Framework Agreement V (2027-2031), which finances the PACOPE-SPE programmes, a fifth expert position has been created to complement the technical support mechanism: MEAL Manager.
Position Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the Programmes Manager of SOS VEM, the MEAL Manager will be responsible for:
- Supporting monitoring and evaluation processes and the updating of information systems to ensure their effectiveness, in collaboration with programme coordination staff from SOS VEM’s partner NAs;
- Contributing to capacity building for teams in the collection, processing and analysis of multi-sectoral data related to child protection and the socio-economic development of families and young people;
- Ensuring the reliability of monitoring and evaluation data and supporting the analysis of progress and measurement of results achieved by the PACOPE-SPE programmes;
- Ensuring the availability and quality of information required for reporting, analysis and decision-making during technical and supervision platforms, as well as for knowledge capitalisation.
Key Areas of Responsibility
Technical Area
- Continue developing existing MEAL tools for adaptation, streamlining, simplification and relevance purposes and, where necessary;
- Review indicators and propose new indicators where required;
- Update data collection tools and define new tools where necessary;
- Proactively suggest improvements to data entry and verification processes, in collaboration with an external service provider responsible for database management.
- Define database analysis procedures in order to highlight technical information required and useful for analysis and decision-making.
Operational Area
- Ensure the implementation of the M&E process enabling continuous and objective monitoring of programme progress towards expected results as defined in the logical framework. This includes defined indicators, data collection tools, data entry and quality control processes, and available analysis mechanisms;
- Ensure the implementation of M&E processes responding to user requests concerning the monitoring of specific issues or processes;
- Ensure the continuous updating, for SOS VEM, of the reference framework used to assess programme performance.
Technical Support
- Provide close technical support in M&E to teams in collaboration with national and local M&E officers;
- Deliver the necessary training to improve, consolidate and strengthen the implementation of M&E processes by programme teams;
- Support teams during key planning and data collection exercises and ensure the correct use of tools and data entry procedures;
- Participate in joint field missions to gather beneficiaries’ perceptions, assess the relevance of indicators to local realities and collect recommendations for improving M&E processes.
Information Management
- Ensure that the information required for the preparation of various reports is available in the appropriate and relevant format;
- Ensure that information required for technical platforms and meetings is available in an appropriate format;
- Ensure that information on lessons learned and good practices arising from knowledge capitalisation exercises is made available in an appropriate format;
- Contribute, together with members of the technical support team, to documentation activities and communication on achievements, challenges and lessons learned, in collaboration with the national coordination teams and communication teams of SOS LU and the SOS VE NAs.
Profile
Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree (BAC+4/5 equivalent) in statistics, economics, sociology, project management or other related fields.
Professional Experience:
- At least four years’ professional experience in similar monitoring and evaluation roles within development projects or programmes;
- Practical experience in programming and supervising digital data collection processes (smartphones and tablets) and database management and exploitation (query programming);
- Experience in training staff on quantitative and qualitative data analysis approaches for results measurement;
- Experience in one or more programme intervention countries.
Knowledge and Technical Skills
- Technical Expertise
- Knowledge of monitoring, evaluation, learning and social accountability approaches;
- Use of quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods
- Proficiency in data processing and analysis tools (KoboToolbox, SPSS, Power BI, ODK or equivalent) and strong command of standard Windows-based software, particularly Excel;
- Programme Management and Content
- Demonstrated experience in applying the results-based management approach;
- Demonstrated experience in the field of child protection;
- Familiarity with concepts relating to gender, inclusion and empowerment/development of autonomy;
- Direct experience of working with local authorities, partners, organisations and associations/NGOs.
- Fluency in French, both spoken and written, with excellent report-writing skills in French; knowledge of English is an asset.
Personal Qualities and Competencies
Commitment, perseverance, dynamism, accountability, pragmatism, open-mindedness, assertive communication, analytical skills and the ability to work effectively in teams, with a cooperative mindset that prioritises collective achievement within an associative and multicultural environment.
Terms and Conditions
- Consultancy contract with an initial duration of 15 months starting on 1 October 2027;
- Position ideally based in Mali or Niger;
- Very frequent travel within the sub-region to support and accompany programme teams in the four countries;
- Final contractualisation for the duration of the Framework Agreement (ending on 30 June 2032) will become effective upon successful completion of the probationary period.
To work with SOS Children’s Villages, candidates must adhere to the principles set out in our Code of Conduct and safeguarding policies, including those relating to protection against and prevention of harassment and all forms of abuse. Appointment to the position will include an induction and training period on the organisation’s principles and working methods.
In the event of recruitment, the successful candidate will be required to provide a criminal record certificate.
Applications, including a cover letter and curriculum vitae, must be submitted exclusively by email to SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde a.s.b.l. (recruitment@sosve.lu), quoting SOS/RH/26/02 in the subject line. The deadline for receipt of applications is 21 September 2026.