The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC works with people forced to flee from war, conflict and disaster and the host communities that support them, as well as with those who remain within their homes and communities. At-work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. IRC leads the way from harm to home. Began work in Ethiopia, 1999 in response to severe drought that happened in Ethiopia’s Somali region. Currently, providing assistance in ten different regions implementing emergency and development programs in health, water and sanitation, economic recovery and development (ERD), women’s protection and empowerment, education, child protection, and multi-sectoral emergency response.

Job Overview/Summary:

The MEAL Assistant is part of the M&E department and will work closely with the field- based M&E Officer and CR Officer based in Addis. The position holder will be responsible for ensuring the implementation of robust client feedback channels at their respective locations which may include design and administration of surveys, focus group discussions, proactive and reactive feedback mechanisms. The employee will be accountable for aggregating client feedback, identifying key themes and challenges or opportunities to respond to, and presenting these to the management team for a decision on how to respond. The candidate will also be desirable for recording and monitoring feedback, and for ensuring that the loop is closed, and clients are advised of decisions taken.

Major responsibilities include:

Feedback Planning and Implementation

• Collect client feedback through various channels that IRC installs including community meetings, surveys, discussions, phone lines, suggestion boxes, SMS among others.
• Regularly update the excel based Feedback Registry on everyday basis and raise cases including breach of IRC code of conduct, allegations of child abuse or sexual exploitation and other major programmatic complaints
• Receive, record, and classify complaints for attention by the MEAL Officer and refer to the respective sectors.
• Collect response from the program staff on the feedback and communicate back to client.
• Facilitate the preparation of CRA logistics before field visits e.g. paper based data collection tools, promotional materials etc.
• Ensure accurate and confidential filing of CRA reporting forms such as client feedback form, Feedback Registry, surveys, interview, minutes from community meetings, reports, datasets among others.
• Generate reports on the implementation and use of feedback channels, per sector, including limitations and challenges.

Feedback Monitoring, Reporting, and Response

• Aggregate and disaggregate client feedback (according to gender, age, status, sector, risk-level and other client appropriate disaggregation).
• Present statistics on feedback received and feedback content in clear formats to highlight feedback trends to the program team, as well as synthesize qualitative feedback in ways which provide the detail that the program will need to craft an appropriate response.
• Analyze key themes, challenges, and opportunities for program improvement.

Other

• Provide support to the M&E Office to conduct ongoing monitoring and evaluation activities.
• Other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs.

Reporting line:

The MEAL Assistant will report to the MEAL Officer on issues related day to day activities. On technical issues related to Client Responsiveness the candidate will be received technical support by the CR Officer in Addis.

Requirements

Qualifications

• BA degree or Diploma/Level IV in social science and other relevant field of studies
• 0-year work experience for BA Degree and 2 years work experience for Diploma holders
• Analyze and communicate data in a way that facilitates effective decision making.
• Proactively engage with clients and community members, acting as a community liaison focal point
• Driven and able to balance multiple tasks, commitments, and to work flexibly in a team.
• Creativity, curiosity and passion, and the ability to develop and test new ways of working and solutions to problems.
• Strong oral and written communications in local language and Amharic is required.

Desirable:

• Working experience with refugees and/or IDPs, and an understanding of the feedback channels preferred by displaced people.
• Experience in implementing feedback channels. These may include surveys, FGD, hot lines, suggestions boxes, open feedback etc.
• Written and verbal communication in English is an added advantage.