MEAL Lead – Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning

Your Mission

The MEAL Lead provides strategic leadership and technical oversight for War Child’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) systems, including the Quality of Care (QoC) Framework and MEAL for humanitarian and emergency responses, across the War Child Alliance and with strategic partners. The role ensures evidence, learning, and accountability are embedded in programmes and organisational initiatives, driving programme quality, organisational learning, and evidence-based decision-making at scale through line management of MEAL Coordinators and engagement in strategic planning and reporting.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of MEAL strategies, frameworks, standards, and tools, aligning them with ** organisational priorities, accountability commitments, and evidence needs**.

• Support results-based planning and strategic program design, including theories of change development, validation, and application.

• Integrate and operationally implement Quality-of-Care indicators across the War Child Alliance, implementing partners, and strategic partners, ensuring consistent performance monitoring and improvement.

• Onboard partners and implementing teams, providing technical support for EBMs (Evidence-Based Monitoring) and EIMs (Evidence-Informed Management) while ensuring QoC and MEAL systems are effectively applied.

• Oversee technical quality assurance of MEAL systems, processes, and data, including standardisation of indicators, results interpretation, and credible evidence generation.

• Strengthen organisational learning and adaptive management by consolidating and utilizing evidence and insights.

• Build and enhance MEAL capacity across teams and partners through guidance, tools, training, mentoring, and technical support.

• Lead MEAL localisation efforts, supporting partner-led MEAL systems, capacities, and leadership in alignment with organisational commitments.

• Contribute to the development of the organisational MEAL strategy and MEAL positioning within the Alliance.

• Line manage MEAL Coordinators, overseeing performance, coherence, and effectiveness of the MEAL function across contexts.

Role-Specific or Context Responsibilities

• Provide leadership on Humanitarian MEAL, ensuring context-appropriate, timely, and adaptive approaches supporting rapid decision-making, accountability to affected populations, and learning (through After Action Reviews) in emergency and fragile contexts.
• Lead development and governance of Quality of Care (QoC) and reach indicator guidance, systems, and tools.
• Support accountability and feedback mechanisms to ensure meaningful community participation and responsive actions.
• Establish and maintain EBM and reach dashboards to consolidate program delivery and learning insights.
• Ensure ethical, safe, and responsible data collection, management, and use in compliance with data protection, safeguarding, and organisational policies.
• Promote systematic use of MEAL evidence and learning to inform program adaptation, strategic decisions, and organisational priorities.
• Provide technical MEAL inputs for donor engagements, proposal development, and compliance with evidence and reporting requirements.
• Align and coordinate MEAL, QoC, and evidence systems across the War Child Alliance.
• Support multi-sectoral, technical, and rapid needs/strength assessments.
• Communicate MEAL and learning results internally and externally, including contributions to communications products.
• Represent War Child in global and inter-agency MEAL, quality, and evidence networks.
• Undertake regular travel to support implementation, oversight, and learning.