Accountability Officer (11708)

[Mosul,Iraq ]

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Position Reports to:- MEAL Manager/MEAL Coordinator 

Background:- 

IMC’s basic package of essential health care encompasses high impact primary health care services, Water Sanitation and Hygiene as well as key nutrition, food security and protection interventions. Through support of existing Ministry of Health (MoH) health facilities, training of medical staff, and operation of mobile medical units (MMU), IMC offers curative and preventive consultations, maternal and child health (MCH) care, reproductive health services including skilled birth attendance, family planning (FP), syndromic management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and services of the Minimum Initial Services Package (MISP) for Reproductive Health (ie. clinical management of rape, HIV prevention, hygienic delivery, emergency obstetric and neonatal care (EmONC)), therapeutic and supplementary nutrition services linked to comprehensive food security activities, gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response, and mental health support. IMC also focuses on building the capacity of local community structures, such as village health committees (VHCs), community health workers (CHWs), and health centers management committees (COGEs). CHWs are trained and supported to conduct health education and hygiene promotion activities in their communities to encourage healthy practices and utilization of available health services, and the capability of VHCs and COGES to supervise and manage health facility operations for the benefit of in their communities is enhanced. The aim of IMC’s work is to strengthen local social services and develop capacity for greater community resilience, while maintaining flexibility and the ability to respond to the continuing instability and accompanying increasing humanitarian needs in the country.

Job Purpose:-

International Medical Corps is a member the Core Humanitarian Standard Alliance, and adheres to the Sphere Project community of humanitarian response practitioners and their standards, all of which reinforces our commitment to the highest international standards of quality and accountability.  IMC defines accountability as the responsible use of power; taking account of the people we aim to assist’s needs when making decisions that will affect them, giving account by explaining our decisions and actions, and being held to account by providing avenues to share feedback, raise complaints and concerns and to be responded to.

The Accountability and Learning Officer is responsible for ensuring accountability mechanisms in place at IMC, that they are being implemented across all programs to fulfill IMC’s minimum accountability standards, especially with regards to communications and community engagement (information sharing), beneficiaries’ meaningful participation, feedback, complaints handling, monitoring, evaluation and learning. The Accountability and Learning Officer will be the primary support person for designing and implementing the Community Based Feedback and Response Mechanisms (CBFRM) process, as the first point of contact for receiving, reviewing, addressing and responding to beneficiary feedback and complaints.  S/he will build capacity of program staff to ensure the integration of accountability best practices in project design implementation and will coordinate closely with MEAL, program, and senior management staff to ensure that beneficiary complaints and feedback are properly addressed. Furthermore, the Accountability and Learning Officer will also ensure that Knowledge Management and Learning (KML) mechanisms are in place, set up basic system to capture lessons learnt and best practices for each program and project by working closely with MEAL Manager, senior management, and program/operation staff. The A&L officer will incorporate the findings of satisfaction surveys, case studies, outcome level studies, quality-monitoring processes and findings, and program review workshops into the learning framework as per IMC’s policies and guidelines.

Main Responsibilities:-

1. IMC’s policies, guidelines, and procedures

• Actively promote Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) standards within IMC and amongst its beneficiaries.
• Contribute to the creation of a positive image and overall credibility of the organization, notably through the application of the Code of Conduct, humanitarian principles and the 9 Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) commitments.
• Apply the basic monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning concepts and the purpose of MEAL, with a specific focus on accountability to affected populations (AAP).
• Manage the implementation of policies and procedures for monitoring, evaluation and reporting in the country specific to AAP and CHS commitments.
• Guide the MEAL teams on participative monitoring methodologies (e.g. constituent voice, community scorecards).
• Support with the implementation of learning framework and mechanisms through the projects.
• Apply Knowledge management and learning policies and guidelines on the project implementation.

 

2. Project design and planning

• Identify the budget/resources needed for MEAL activities of projects pertaining to establishment and maintenance of AAP and KML systems and activities.
• Plan and manage a needs assessment that includes direct data collection from most vulnerable sub-groups of disaster affected communities or appropriate key informant (women, children, elderly, handicapped/special needs, and other marginalized ethnic/social groups).
• Support MEAL team in adapting needs assessments and planning to be more inclusive of direct beneficiary consultation, particularly in the identification / inclusion of vulnerable groups.
• Conduct complimentary AAP analysis/assessments, including, but not limited to: stakeholder analysis, communication needs assessment, CBFRM community consultation

 

3. MEAL system

• Collect qualitative and quantitative data effectively at different levels: facility, community.
• Ensure data entry using an electronic database.
• Lead data collection activities following the data collection and reporting flow put in place for a project.
• Develop simple data collection tools based on monitoring indicators.
• Train data collectors in basic principles of data collection.
• Maintain effective MEAL system (ensure data collected translate to MEAL Framework/IPTT).
• Ensure that AAP data is collected routinely throughout project cycle (not just at project mid and endpoints, enabling corrective action).
• Develop and maintain local Community Based Feedback and Response Mechanism (CBFRM) Procedures as per organizational CBFRM Guidelines.
• Lead/Conduct Regular community consultations, surveys, FGDs to gauge/monitor how well country team is adhering to AAP commitments and progress towards achieving AAP work plan objectives.

 

4. Knowledge management and Learning

• Develop KML mechanisms and processes for NWS while ensuring these mechanisms are in line with IMC’s guidelines
• Develop data collection tools based on AAP/KML requirements.
• Establish basic learning systems that incorporate program studies’ findings, lessons learnt, achievements and gaps, and develop all the tools required to support learning practices.
• Organize internal reviews and lessons learned workshops and present practical recommendations
• Ensure after-action reviews and lessons learned exercises, including data collected through Community-Based Feedback and Response Mechanism (CBFRM) and other participative forms of community engagement and feedback collection.
• Organize the documentation of the project activities, results, and processes.
• Organize secondary data (internal and external sources).
• Develop high quality case studies and lessons learned reports.
• Analyze and share all the captured findings on regular basis during program review events or whenever needed to inform project planning and decision-making.

 

5. Data quality management

• Adhere to the fundamental concepts of data quality.
• Conduct on-site routine data quality audits at different field site/office-levels.
• Assess the quality of collected data for indicators.
• Mitigate data pitfalls, issues, and strategies for quality data.
• Coordinate routine data quality audits conducted in different sites and compile results at the level of a mission.
• Provide supportive supervision on data quality at field site/office-levels.
• Develop and implement strategies to improve data quality.
• Manage tools and methods for assessing data quality for all indicators.

 

6. Sampling

• Apply the concept of ‘random sampling’ following instructions/guidelines of a manager while conducting any community level survey.
• Apply ‘spin-the-bottle’ method used for selection of households in population-based surveys.
• Implement probability and non-probability sampling techniques as and when appropriate after consulting with manager.
• Develop sampling frame and carry out sampling following instructions (manager, guidelines).

 

7. Qualitative and quantitative techniques

• Conduct qualitative data collection activities.
• Use different methods of data collection in qualitative research:
  • Key informant interviews
  • In-depth interviews
  • Group discussions
  • Focus group discussions
  • Direct observations as an MEAL tool
• Develop and use key qualitative tools (observation checklists, guide for group discussion and interviews) for monitoring purpose.
• Engage with communities on accountability and conduct community consultations.
• Engage with communities on accountability and conduct community consultations, demonstrating an understanding of underlying social dynamics, and ensuring data collected is representative of populations without power (avoiding over dependence on community leaders, local authorities, and/or government authorities as prime sources for defining communities “needs” and preferences).
• Able to design and lead appropriate methodologies to consult communities on their preferences based on operational context.
• Perform data entry using a statistical software and under guidance and supervision.
• Know the different interview techniques (structured/ semi structured).
• Design and use structured questionnaires for monitoring purpose.
• Organize training and coordination of enumerators.
• Promote the use of direct beneficiary data collection methodologies specifically focused on beneficiary perception, satisfaction and other quality management measurements.
• Oversee logistics planning and survey data collection, data entry and management.
• Develop database structures to store and manipulate quantitative data

 

8. Mobile and manual data collection

• Determine the appropriate data collection tool based on the purpose, advantages and disadvantages of mobile data collection techniques.
• Use smart phones/tablets for data collection.
• Design simple questionnaire using XLS form.
• Install and configure mobile data collection tools (OKD collect, Kobo collect, ONA collect, etc.) on smart phones or tablets
• Design questionnaire using form builder (Kobo form builder, ONA form builder, etc.)

 

9. Data analysis, including use of statistical software

• Performs qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
• Perform descriptive univariate and bivariate data analysis using Excel Pivot tables.
• Interpret frequency tables, bi-variate cross tables, mean and median.

 

10. Evaluation design

• Lead/Conduct regular internal evaluations and community consultations, analyze the organization performance, capturing lessons learnt and case studies, and provide feedback to program management.
• Apply the fundamental principles of evaluation (concepts, purposes and types of evaluations, contribution versus attribution, counterfactual).
• Contribute to the preparation of project evaluation and facilitating the field level work
• Use and supervise quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods of data collection in evaluation.

 

11. Techniques for presenting information

• Communicate clearly the findings of accountability activities and reviews against targets set by the project using basic data visualization tools such as tables and graphs to represent data and information.
• Compile data and indicators at project level for reporting in a clear and concise manner, providing all required information.
• Use PowerPoint to share results of data analysis and monitoring.
• Presents AAP data in simplified yet informative formats, depicting disaggregated community perceptions on quality of humanitarian actions and accountability commitments.

 

12. Management and leadership

• Supervise survey enumerators at field sites level.
• Coordinate with manager/program staff for data collection/MEAL activities.
• Support the Country Office in identifying human resources needs in MEAL.
• Provide technical guidance and coordination of MEAL officers from field sites as pertaining to AAP/CHS implementation.

 

13. Capacity development and training

• Deliver basic and intermediate level training to staff (data collection methods, use of tools and core concepts as they pertain to Accountability to Affected Populations and the CHS).
• Assess the knowledge change of participants to trainings.
• Identify gaps in staff knowledge of MEAL concepts and skills and can provide a training in these topics.
• Organize/ facilitate training and provide coaching/mentoring staff and on-the-job training to improve skills of staff pertaining to AAP and the implementation of the CHS.

 

14. Community Based Feedback and Response Mechanism

• Provide support to the MEAL Specialist/Coordinator/Manager on establishing and maintaining effective feedback mechanisms for decision making, fully in line with commitments regarding accountability to affected populations (AAP), including IASC CAAP, CHS, and Sphere Humanitarian Charter
• Support in implementing and monitoring the CBFRM, accountability initiatives, and practices across the Mission.
• Support the implementation of methodologies to consult communities on their preferences based on the operational context.15.

 

    15. Conflict Sensitivity

• Oversee the implementation of the Conflict Sensitivity approaches across the project/program.
• Oversee IMC’s adherence to Do No Harm and the conflict sensitivity (Safe and Effective Humanitarian Response) framework at the missions

    16. Perform other duties and responsibilities as required.

Candidates’ Specifications

 

Qualifications:-

– Bachelor degree in Social Work/Social Sciences or equivalent.

Experience:-

– Minimum of 3 years of applied experience with a humanitarian organization and or working with refugees/IDPs in humanitarian settings.

– Familiarity with and experience in implementing the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS), Quality COMPASS or similar humanitarian quality management initiative.

Competency:- 

Essential

• Understand key concepts and commitments regarding accountability to affected populations (AAP) e.g. IASC CAAP, CHS,
• Knowledge of quality management and accountability initiatives, codes of conduct, principles and standards commonly used in the aid sector, in particular:
  • The International Red Cross Movement and NGO Code of Conduct in Disaster Relief
  • The Sphere Project’s Humanitarian Charter and Protection Principles
  • The Minimum Standards for Age and Disability Inclusion in Humanitarian Action
  • The Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action
  • The Secretary-General’s Bulletin on Special Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse the International Red Cross Movement and NGO Code of Conduct in Disaster Relief
• Strong training facilitation/presentation skills and/or experience with carrying out community level information education communication (IEC) campaigns
• Excellent report writing skills in English
• Demonstrated understanding of data protection and confidentiality as part of data collection and management practices, and ability to respect and maintain confidentiality.
• High-level MISSION’S LANGUAGE, Arabic and English – proficiency (Speaking – Reading – Writing).

Desirable

• Support innovation and organizational change when needed.
• Build collaborative relationships and stimulate collaboration across different departments and missions.
• Have the analytical, conceptual, and strategic thinking skills.
• Strong empathy skills, patience and genuine care and respect for needs of vulnerable populations.
• The ability to work in a systematic and organized manner.
• The ability to prioritize competing demands.

 

Other:-

Note that this position requires frequently field visit to the IMC sites across Ninawa, and with minimum 3 visits per week.

Please send your English CV to IMC email: 

[email protected]

• Please indicate the code of the position (11708) in the Subject line.

• CVs without the subject line “11708” will not be considered.

• Links to CVs will not be taken into consideration.

• The deadline will be the 12 of April ,2021 at 4:30 pm (Iraq time).

• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

* Note:- please send your national ID, certificates attached in application email as well.

*Bank account will be requested from the selected candidate.

 

 

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