The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world’s largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you’re a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

BACKGROUND

The IRC was present in Sudan from 1981 to 2009. In November 2019, the IRC re-registered in Sudan and opened a main office in Khartoum, with programming beginning in 2020. The IRC expanded into non-SAF-controlled regions of Darfur and South Kordofan in 2024. It is currently operational in Al Jazeera, White Nile, Gedaref, River Nile, Blue Nile, South Kordofan, West Darfur, Central Darfur, and North Darfur states, including a satellite office in Tunaydbah (Gedaref). The IRCs impact groups are vulnerable individuals impacted by conflict and crisis, including women, children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, refugees, mixed populations, and host communities.

Since the outbreak of war in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the country has spiraled into relentless violence, institutional collapse, and mass displacement. Despite multiple ceasefire announcements, violence has continued for nearly two and a half years, displacing over 12 million people across all 18 states. Sudan is facing one of the most complex and devastating humanitarian crises in the world today.

More than 30 million people now require humanitarian assistance, and around 25 million people face acute food insecurity, including 770,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Damage to infrastructure, supply shortages, and restricted humanitarian access continue to severely hinder the humanitarian response. In response to increasing needs, the IRC has scaled up its humanitarian efforts despite immense challenges. The IRC supports Sudanese communities, within the country and across national borders.

The project is designed to run from mid-2026 for up to 3 to 5 years.

SCOPE OF WORK

The IRC is seeking a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Senior Manager for an upcoming FCDO funding opportunity. This project aims to enhance the wellbeing of survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) and conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and their families and reduce GBV and CRSV in targeted states.

The MEAL Senior Manager will provide leadership and direction across all aspects of monitoring and evaluation of the FCDO project activities, client feedback mechanisms, conduct assessments and evaluations, lead the reporting process, and provide project knowledge management. S/he will be developing and implementing the projects monitoring, evaluation, reporting, accountability and learning strategy/performance monitoring plan in accordance with IRC, FCDO, and best international practices. S/he will lead the consortiums Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) function, ensuring that all partners have centralized, safe and harmonized feedback and complaints mechanisms, which includes overseeing the collection, verification, consolidation and analysis of accountability data from all consortium partners and ensuring timely response and followup in line with the IRCs client responsiveness mechanisms. The MEAL Senior Manager will also represent and coordinate with the AAP Working Group (AAP WG) to maintain alignment with national and interagency AAP standards and to promote joint learning and information sharing. The MEAL Senior Manager will work closely with the Sudan MEAL Coordinators, the Regional MEAL Advisor, technical staff, and consortium partners counterparts to ensure that relevant data is collected, stored, analyzed, and used to inform management and design decisions and to provide project updates, evaluations, and reports, as required. The MEAL Senior Manager will directly oversee country-based research and knowledge management staff in delivering research and learning activities, including engagement with the IRCs global research (Airbel) team to deliver project research, as necessary.

Please note that recruitment is contingent upon the successful award of the project, and the selection of final applicants is subject to FCDOs approval.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Develop, manage, and implement a monitoring and evaluation system (performance monitoring plan) across all project components including client feedback mechanisms that leverages qualitative and quantitative methods and draws from a variety of data sources to measure progress, inform project management and decision-making and evaluate impact, as well as support collaboration, implementation, learning, and adaptation across the consortium.

Provide training, assistance, and consultation, as needed, on interpreting and using performance benchmarking measures, key performance indicators (KPIs), MEAL tools and reports.

Lead the collection of periodic data reports and compilation of narrative reports and submit them to the Consortium Coordinator.

Communicate information obtained through MEAL activities to program staff, consortium partners, downstream partners and external stakeholders, including FCDO, to enable informed decision-making.

Develop and ensure compliance with procedures for collecting and reporting project and program performance data to ensure quality, timely data.

Lead centralized information management for the consortium, ensuring standardized data collection tools, unified indicators, harmonized MEAL reporting templates and a consolidated MEAL database/dashboard that supports accurate, timely reporting and decisionmaking.

Lead consortium-wide AAP by ensuring centralized and harmonized feedback and complaints mechanisms across partners, overseeing accountability data from partners and ensuring timely response and followup in line with IRCs client responsiveness standards.

Represent the consortium in AAP coordination meetings, including the AAP WG, ensuring alignment with interagency AAP standards and contributing to joint learning and information sharing.

Collaborate closely with the IRC Country MEAL Coordinators to harmonize AAP/CRM findings across the consortium and the wider country program, ensuring consistent analysis, escalation and followup on trends that require countrylevel or crosssector action.

Regularly review data collection processes, perform data quality assessments, and make adjustments, as needed.

Prepare the MEAL section of the annual work plans and review or update it, as needed.

Participate and provide input to program strategy, including necessary adjustments or refinements to the work plan.

Oversee baseline surveys and assessments and the implementation of the MEAL system on a day-to-day basis.

Lead consortiumwide learning and reflection processes, including quarterly project reviews, midterm review (MTR) and afteraction reviews (AAR), ensuring findings are documented, shared and used across all partners to inform adaptive management and decisionmaking.

Lead mid-term and final evaluations to inform project and programming decisions.

Oversee and support research design and research implementation, including rapid assessments, longitudinal assessments and impact evaluations, in partnership with the IRCs Airbel Impact Lab.

Work closely with the Third-Party Monitoring (TPM) entity commissioned by FCDO to assess program delivery, capture knowledge from the project, and support TPM activities, as needed.

Provide technical oversight on MEALrelated budgeting, supporting partners to plan and utilize MEAL budgets effectively, monitor…