MEAL Specialist (Third Party Monitoring)

Organizational Setting

FAO Afghanistan is investing across all 34 provinces of Afghanistan in resilience reinforcing actions that focus on protecting agriculture livelihoods and local ecosystems, boosting local production of nutritious foods and cash-incomes, and safeguarding critical agriculture sectoral development gains achieved over the past couple of decades through revitalizing rural markets and economy. In particular, FAO provides a combination of humanitarian and basic needs/non-humanitarian assistance to female and male farmers and herders across Afghanistan in the agriculture, livestock, irrigation and natural resources sub-sectors through its projects and programs, as described in the 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) and the United Nations Strategic Framework for Afghanistan (UNSFA) 2023-2027, specifically under UNSFA Priority 2 Economic Opportunities and Resilient Livelihoods.

Reporting Lines

The incumbent will work under the overall guidance of the FAO Representative (FAOR) and/or Deputy FAOR in Afghanistan. S/he will work under the guidance of the Senior Emergency and Rehabilitation Officer (Head of Monitoring, Analysis and Strategic Communication Unit) and direct supervision of the MEAL Specialist (Advisor) or as may be assigned. The direct supervisor will be responsible for assigning day-day tasks, administration of the leaves and monitoring the performance.

Technical Focus

The MEAL Specialist (Third-Party Monitoring) will work within the multidisciplinary MEAL Team and across Emergency and Resilience and Development programming colleagues to provide a strategic and innovative approach to implementation of quality MEAL approaches across FAO programme portfolio.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Coordinate with implementing partners, regional MEAL teams, and research institutions to ensure that all ongoing studies and assessments strictly adhere to approved study protocols, sampling strategies, and ethical standards.
• Facilitate orientation sessions and hands-on training, in line with FAO’s methodological guidance, for field teams, enumerators, and partner staff on study protocols, data collection procedures, informed consent, and data quality standards.
• Support the design, field pre-testing, and standardization of data collection tools and field manuals, ensuring methodological alignment across regions and implementing partners.
• Conduct systematic quality assurance checks during data collection, including spot checks, back-checks, and data validation reviews, and provides feedback to ensure compliance in line with approved methodologies and data quality requirements.
• Perform preliminary data cleaning and validation checks to verify accuracy, completeness, and consistency of datasets submitted by partners and regional teams, flagging discrepancies and coordinating timely corrections.
• Collaborate closely with the Information Management and Visualization Specialist to ensure that validated data are accurately compiled, stored, and transformed into analytical products and dashboards that support decision-making and learning.
• Liaise with various teams to align partner-led data collection and analysis activities with the national monitoring, evaluation, and learning agenda and the agreed evaluation calendar.
• Review partner progress reports, data sets, and technical deliverables, providing feedback to ensure that outputs meet quality benchmarks, methodological standards, and agreed reporting formats.
• Document and track deviations from study protocols, coordinates corrective measures with field teams and implementing partners, and maintain an audit trail of quality assurance actions taken.
• Support the preparation and technical review of study summaries, field synthesis reports, and learning briefs generated from partner-led or regional studies, ensuring findings are evidence-based and actionable.
• Maintain and regularly updates a central tracker of all ongoing studies, capturing key milestones on training, data collection, quality assurance, and reporting timelines.
• Contribute to regular learning and reflection sessions with partners and regional teams to share findings, methodological lessons, and good practices that strengthen collective learning.
• Provide technical backstopping and mentoring to regional MEAL staff on field monitoring, data verification, and compliance with study protocols and data quality assurance mechanisms.
• Ensure the secure management of study records, ensures data confidentiality, and guarantee adherence to ethical standard throughout all stages of data collection, analysis, and reporting.
• Perform any other related duties as assigned by the supervisor.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University (Bachelor) degree in business administration, economics, data sciences, social sciences, or a closely related field.
• For university degree at least six (6) years, for advance degree (Master) at least four (4) years of relevant work experience in results-based management, monitoring and evaluation and/or relevant coordination for humanitarian/development project implementation.
• At least 2 years of UN or INGO experience is desirable in results-based management, monitoring and evaluation and/or relevant coordination for humanitarian/development project implementation
• Working knowledge (Level C) of English and proficiency in local language (Dari/Pashto).
• National of Afghanistan.

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Strong project management and organizational skills
• Ability to work under tight deadlines.
• Good with designing tools for Mobile Data collection on platforms such as KOBO and ODK.
• Ability to organize stakeholder meetings or workshops.
• Excellent presentation and data analytical skills.
• Good monitoring and evaluation and the use of both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods.
• Excellent report writing skills.
• Strong interpersonal and communication (both written and oral) skills.
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment.
• Strong professional command of Microsoft Office, particularly Word and Excel.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION