Carf Meal Officer

We are looking for a **Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Evaluation (MEAL) Officer **to join the **Start Network** within our **Humanitarian Department** to support the ongoing MEAL activities of our anticipation, early action and risk financing initiatives, with a particular focus on MEAL requirements for the donor ECHO.

**About Us**

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

**About the Team**

Start Network is an independent charity made up of more than 80 aid agency members across five continents, including international, national and local organisations.

Our aim is to deliver more effective emergency aid, harnessing the power and knowledge of the network to make faster and better decisions to help people affected by crises. We advocate for radical change in the global aid system so that the world can deal better with the humanitarian challenges of today, and of the future. Our work focuses on three areas to change the system:

- Localisation - shifting power to those closest to the front line to enable more effective and appropriate responses.
- New forms of financing - providing fast, early, and dependable funding, to help communities to become more resilient to crises.
- Collective innovation - testing new ways of working and sharing learning and expertise to build a more effective humanitarian system.

The Start Funds MEAL Officer will work with colleagues within both SCUK and Start Network. Previously (until May 2019) Start Network and Start Funds and Programmes were hosted by Save the Children UK (SCUK) since its creation in 2012. The position sits within Save the Children UK as a Grant Custodian on behalf of the Start Network supported by a Grant Custodian Agreement (GCA) which describes the roles and commitments of each entity.

For more information on the SCUK and Start Network arrangements please refer to the FAQ document here.

**About the role**

The Start Network funds have a robust monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning (MEAL) portfolio to strengthen evidence-based learning, performance and overall accountability towards the people affected by or at-risk of crises, donors, members, and partners.

Reporting to the Crisis Financing MEAL Lead, the CARF MEAL Officer will play an important role to support the ongoing MEAL activities of anticipation, early action and risk financing initiatives, with a larger focus on the impact of Start Network's newest finance mechanism, Start Ready.

This role will particularly focus on MEAL requirements and activities funded by European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operation (ECHO) and will support and work closely with CARF MEAL Advisor and the Learning and Research Advisor (within the Evidence and Learning Team).

**In this role, you will**:
**Performance**
- Support development, monitoring, and reporting of anticipation, early action and risk financing initiatives' Key Performance Indicators used in donor reporting, governance committee meetings and in other external fora as required, with a specific focus on MEAL requirement and activities funded by European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operation (ECHO).
- Strengthen management information systems and processes for data quality, storage and visualisation.
- Contribute towards the identification and implementation of diverse and innovative approaches to MEAL.
- Support the annual post-season learning reviews of the various Disaster Risk Financing systems

**Accountability**
- Deliver and enhance Start Funds' quality, accountability and monitoring practices to members, partners and affected populations by organising and facilitating learning debriefs and pre/post season workshops and reviewing project report forms.

**Knowledge**
- Contribute towards continuous improvement of technical quality, processes and outputs of CARF MEAL including, but not limited to, the development of methodological guidelines, MEAL tools and approaches.
- Produce and support various thematic research, reviews, case studies and learning products according to the CARF MEAL work plan.

**Teamwork**
- Liaise with Senior Strategic Partnership Officer -ECHO and programme/operational staff to support all ECHO MEAL requirements
- Work with the Start Communications and Digital Team and the Start Programmes Communications Manager to ensure visibility, awareness, and learning, on the role and use of forecast-based information for anticipatory responses.

**About you**

**To be successful, it is important that you have**:

- Previous experience delivering MEAL in natio