Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL)

About CIVIC 

Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) Center is an international nonprofit and nongovernmental organization with offices around the world working to improve protection for civilians in conflict zones. Our mission is to support communities affected by conflict in their quest for protection and strengthen the resolve and capacity of armed actors and relevant institutions to prevent and respond to civilian harm. We are advocates who believe that no civilian caught in conflict should be ignored, and advisors who provide practical solutions to preventing and responding to civilian harm. Learn more at civiliansinconflict.org.  

About the Position

Position: Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Officer
Duty Station: Mogadishu, Somalia, with approximately 50–60% of working time spent in field and programme locations,
Contract duration: 12 months, with the possibility of extension
Employer: Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC)

Background

The Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) is seeking an experienced Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Officer to strengthen evidence, learning and programme quality across its work in conflict-affected areas of Somalia. CIVIC works across civilian protection, peace and security, stabilization, community engagement, institutional strengthening, research and policy engagement. Its programming involves communities, civil society, government institutions, security actors, and national and international partners.

As CIVIC expand its engagement with frontline and conflict impacted communities and security forces and government authorities, the programme needs to assess what changes as a result of training, community engagement, dialogue, advocacy and institutional support. This includes changes in knowledge, attitudes, relationships, behaviour and institutional practice; implementation of commitments; the functionality and local ownership of community-based protection mechanisms; community–security relationships; and policy influence on civilian protection. Such changes are rarely linear, involve multiple actors and may take time to emerge. CIVIC therefore seeks a MEAL professional with strong technical skills and practical knowledge of conflict, peace, security and protection programming. The officer will help teams understand what works, what does not, why, and what to change.

Purpose of the Role

The MEAL Officer will support the development and implementation of the Somalia programme's MEAL systems and take day-to-day responsibility for monitoring, data collection and analysis, results tracking, evidence management, and follow-up of programme outcomes across the portfolio. The role will maintain clear project- and donor-level results tracking while supporting an integrated Somalia programme evidence system, with particular attention to behavioural, relational, institutional, policy and protection-related change.

Key Responsibilities

MEAL Systems and Programme Quality

• Support the development, maintenance and strengthening of programme and project-level MEAL frameworks, plans and tools.

• Translate theories of change and programme objectives into clear results chains, indicators, baselines, targets and monitoring approaches.

• Maintain reliable programme results databases, indicator tracking systems and evidence repositories.

• Support programme teams to develop realistic indicators, targets and learning questions for new projects and proposals, while ensuring alignment with approved project results frameworks and donor requirements.

• Harmonize common MEAL approaches, indicators and tools across projects where appropriate, while maintaining traceability to project-specific donor requirements and avoiding duplication or double counting.

• Conduct routine data quality checks and ensure significant programme results are supported by credible evidence.

• Work closely with programme teams to make MEAL practical, proportionate and useful for programme management.

Portfolio and Grant-Level MEAL Management

• Maintain project-specific results frameworks, indicator tracking tables, targets, evidence requirements and reporting schedules for each active Somalia grant, while linking them to a coherent programme-level MEAL framework.

• Maintain clear traceability between approved proposals, results frameworks, workplans, activities, monitoring evidence and reported results, and flag material gaps or inconsistencies to programme management.

• Establish controls to prevent double counting of participants, activities and results where projects overlap geographically, institutionally or thematically.

• Support periodic portfolio-level analysis to identify where projects contribute jointly to common outcomes, where evidence gaps remain, and where programme adaptations are required.

Monitoring Outcomes and Programme Impact

Support the development and application of practical approaches for assessing whether interventions are producing meaningful and sustained change. This will include monitoring changes in:

• Individual knowledge, attitudes and behaviour;

• Institutional capacity and practice;

• Community protection capacities;

• Communication, trust and responsiveness between communities and relevant institutions. etc

Capacity Strengthening and Engagement Effectiveness

The MEAL Officer will attend selected trainings and field engagements, in coordination with programme leads, to observe delivery, test content and methods, collect baseline and follow-up evidence, and assess how participants apply learning. The officer will help assess effectiveness beyond attendance and satisfaction.

This will include:

• Working with trainers to agree learning objectives, competency measures and follow-up questions before delivery.

• Designing baseline, pre-, post- and follow-up intervention assessments where appropriate.

• Assessing changes in knowledge, attitudes, confidence and behaviour;

• Assessing whether training contributes to changes in professional, institutional and/or operational practice. etc

Community, Security and Institutional Change

Support the development and application of conflict-sensitive approaches for assessing changes resulting from engagement with communities, security actors and government institutions.

This may include assessing:

• Community perceptions of safety and protection concerns.

• Communities' ability to raise protection concerns safely and effectively.

• Functionality and effectiveness of Community Protection Groups, Community Protection Champions, and other community-based protection mechanisms, including their ability to identify, document, refer, and follow up on protection concerns.

• Responsiveness of relevant institutions to concerns raised. etc

Advocacy, Policy and Research Influence

Support the development and maintenance of practical systems for assessing the influence of advocacy, policy and research work.

This will include:

• Tracking policy and advocacy objectives, recommendations and institutional commitments;

• Documenting evidence of uptake of recommendations;

• Assessing changes in policies, procedures, institutional mechanisms and practice. etc

Accountability, Community Feedback and Complaints

Support the establishment and regular review of safe, accessible and context-appropriate channels through which community members, training participants and other stakeholders can give feedback or raise complaints about the organization’s activities. Explain the channels in Somali and other appropriate formats, including options that do not require approaching a local authority, security actor or programme participant.

Help maintain a restricted feedback and complaints register for routine programme matters, with minimum necessary information, clear categories, assigned owners, acknowledgement and follow-up dates, status, resolution and closure. Apply organizational procedures and agreed response times; review trends and overdue items with the responsible manager.

Ensure people understand what the mechanism can and cannot address, how their information will be used, and how they may receive a response. Seek informed consent where required, protect confidentiality, avoid retaliation, and provide a safe way to complain about staff, partners or the complaint handler.

Recognize safeguarding, sexual exploitation and abuse, fraud, corruption, serious misconduct and urgent protection concerns; immediately refer them through the organization’s designated confidential reporting and referral pathways. Do not investigate such allegations, promise an outcome or enter sensitive case details in a general MEAL database. Follow survivor-centred and child safeguarding procedures and applicable reporting obligations.

Coordinate with programme and protection colleagues to distinguish feedback on the organization’s work from reports of civilian harm or protection incidents. Route the latter to authorized protection or referral processes, with consent and due regard for safety, without creating a parallel case-management function.

Close the feedback loop by tracking whether routine complaints receive a response, checking whether complainants can safely access the mechanism, and sharing anonymized themes and changes made with communities. Analyze patterns by location and, where safe and useful, by relevant groups to identify exclusion, barriers and programme improvements.

Learning and Adaptive Management

Support the use of evidence to strengthen programming.

This will include:

• Supporting and, where appropriate, facilitating learning and reflection sessions;

• Facilitating after-action reviews following major interventions, where useful;

• Supporting outcome harvesting and learning exercises; etc 

Qualifications and Experience

Essential

• Bachelor's degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Peace and Conflict Studies, International Development, Statistics, Political Science, Security Studies, Public Policy, Social Research or another relevant field. A relevant master's degree is an advantage.

• At least seven years of progressively responsible experience in MEAL, evaluation, research, evidence or programme quality, preferably including experience in conflict-affected settings, civilian protection or community safety.

• Demonstrated experience in programmes related to several of the following: conflict prevention, stabilization, protection of civilians, security sector governance, community security, humanitarian protection, advocacy and policy influence, or institutional accountability strengthening.

• Demonstrated experience supporting the measurement of behavioural, relational, institutional or policy-level change.

• Experience assessing training and capacity strengthening beyond attendance and immediate pre/post testing.

• Experience with, or demonstrated understanding of, outcome harvesting, contribution analysis or other approaches suitable for measuring complex change.

• Experience supporting donor reporting, results verification and programme reviews.

• Strong understanding of conflict sensitivity, do-no-harm principles, research ethics and responsible data management.

• Good understanding of Somalia's conflict, security, political and humanitarian context.

• Excellent written and spoken English and Somali.

• Ability and willingness to travel regularly to high-risk and hard-to-access programme locations in Somalia, subject to security arrangements.

• Ability to engage professionally with military, police, state-level security forces and the African Union stabilization mission in Somalia.

Desirable

• Direct experience with protection of civilians or civilian harm mitigation programming.

• Experience monitoring programmes involving military, police or other security institutions.

• Experience measuring community–security relationships, trust or institutional responsiveness.

• Experience assessing advocacy, policy influence or institutional reform.

• Experience working with government institutions, civil society, international NGOs, UN agencies and/or donors.

• Experience supporting accessible community feedback and complaints mechanisms, including confidential referral and safe handling of sensitive concerns.

• Strong experience with Kobo Toolbox, ODK, or similar digital data collection platforms.

• Advanced Excel skills and experience with Power BI or similar data visualization platforms.

• Familiarity with statistical or qualitative analysis software such as SPSS, Stata, R, NVivo or equivalent.

Additional Details 

Application Deadline: October 7, 2026 

Due to the high volume of applications, only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. Shortlisted candidates will receive an email invitation from TestGorilla to submit their resume. Please complete this step promptly to ensure your candidacy is fully considered.

CIVIC is an Equal Opportunities Employer committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or any other protected characteristic. 

Note to Recruiters and Placement Agencies: CIVIC does not accept unsolicited agency resumes and does not pay placement fees for candidates submitted by agencies other than its approved partners.