Categories: Vacancies, May 2026

MEAL ADVISOR

Work Location: Kenya – Nairobi

Organization: CARE International

Deadline: Jul 15, 2025

Job Description

MEAL ADVISOR

PSAI – PROG STRATEGY INNOVATION
Kenya – Nairobi
Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Zimbabwe

* Starting salaries are based on various factors, including candidate experience, education, knowledge, skills, and the cost of labor where the job is based. Salaries listed only apply to jobs based in the US.

Who We Are:

As a global leader, CARE is shaping the future of the humanitarian and development sector. Each year, we deliver support and services to millions of people globally. We do this by focusing on our mission and vision, and the values of equality and excellence that guide our organization. We seek dedicated individuals who align with our mission and are passionate about making it a reality by collaborating with others, embracing learning and innovation, and delivering results.

What We Are Looking For:

At CARE, we value diversely talented people who can bring different experiences and perspectives to our organization. We know that not all applicants will have every skill and qualification. We encourage everyone who meets the minimum required qualifications to apply. Having one or more of the preferred qualifications will strengthen an application. But, even if you are earlier in your career or followed a non-traditional educational or professional path, we hope you will consider a career at CARE.

Job Title: MEAL ADVISOR

Job Location(s): Kenya – Nairobi

JOB SUMMARY:

CARE is seeking an experienced and creative monitoring, evaluation, adaptation and learning specialist to join the management team of a for an11M digital impact program focused on advancing meaningful digital adoption and use of the internet for women and girls, strengthening lives and livelihoods while influencing digital ecosystems through evidence and learning. Employing a strong localization approach, the program will create opportunities for organizations and businesses across Sub-Saharan Africa to advance effective and replicable approaches to digital inclusion for women while generating insights and lessons for others to adopt and implement.

About the role:

As the Senior MEAL Advisor for this effort, you will champion and operationalize the learning agenda developed by the donors and CARE. You will be the MEAL specialist in a small team characterized by passion for locally-focused digital development, impactful partnerships, and great data. You will be responsible for defining the measurement tools and systems we will deploy across all program investments to monitor performance and generate data that supports both the learning agenda and emerging lessons. You will make sure the program honors the theory of change and evaluation frameworks that promote sense-making and communicate impact. You will build partnerships with sub-awardees and manage vendors to support the consistent collection, management, and analysis of data from across the program’s investment portfolio. You will coordinate the consolidation of program results, performance and lessons for a wide range of audiences, and create opportunities for cross-program/sub-awardee information sharing.

About you:

The position requires exceptional skills working across cultures to support innovative program design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and learning; development of sound tools and operating procedures to assure quality implementation and measurement of achievement; proven methods to enhance data use for decision making; excellent communication and presentations skills, including proven diplomacy with high-level stakeholders; and sound written and oral skills. Successful candidates will bring a clear track record of building creative, cost-effective, multi-country measurement and learning systems that support decision making and performance monitoring. You will have experience with complex gender and social norms programming and an understanding of effective tools or tactics for measuring change in these domains. We want a team player who is ready to jump into a small, quickly-moving team and make it work

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Develop and Manage MEAL Systems

Lead the development and management of the program MEAL System for a 3.5 year program in line with the program theory of change and learning priorities
Develop and/or define key performance indicators and impact metrics, drawing on existing indicators and tested tools as much as possible
Develop data collection instruments and systems to support responsible data management and timely reporting between sub-awardees, CARE, and donors
Manage and/or generate routine reports, drawing on MEAL system to assess program progress, identify emerging lessons and illustrate opportunities for improvement.

Manage data collection approaches and data management vendors

Recruit and manage regional MEAL consultants and/or firms to support the delivery of the program MEAL system
Help articulate an evidence base that supporting the learning agenda
Extract insights from previous programming to inform impact assessments
Connect with KM colleagues across CARE and the larger public to share data and findings

Training, capacity building, and sharing learnings

Create excellent rapport with sub-awardees and provide technical assistance across MEAL activities
Deliver capacity building and training support to program sub-grantees as needed
Create opportunity for cross-regional “sharing and learning” events – online, in person as possible, etc.
Willingness to travel up to 35% of the time

Represent program with internal and external audiences

Generating and/or supporting others to generate program reports and presentations
Presenting program updates to internal stakeholders and donors
Representing the program in external events and conferences

Required Qualifications:

– Bachelor’s degree and least 10 years of relevant experience with international development/financial
inclusion/social impact organizations
– Creative and impact-driven ideas about MEAL in the context of digital inclusion
– Ability to take the lead/self-start based on the needs of the larger program
– Confidence to bring a greater voice to MEAL and make substantive program recommendations
– Mixed-method expertise, with depth in participatory and emancipatory MEAL approaches
– Strong cross-cultural communication skills, including experience working with globally distributed teams
– International work and lived experience, preferable in Sub-Saharan Africa
– An entrepreneurial mindset, comfort with ambiguity and a commitment to going beyond the status quo
– Excellent measurement tool development/use across large-scale multi-country research
– Experience delivering MEAL capacity building to support others to execute monitoring and evaluation tasks
– Direct line management and/or consultant management experience
– Fluent English speaker and writer: effective communicator, able to convert complex data and information into
engaging reports, analysis, and insights
– Knowledge/use of digital data collection services – ODK, Kobo, and participant-facing data/reporting/feedback
systems

Preferred Qualifications:

– Master’s degree in development-related methods, data science, science and technology or other relevant
field, or the equivalent combination of education and work experience.
– Experience or familiarity with the digital impact, economic empowerment and/or financial inclusion data and
tools
– Experience measuring gender norms and/or change gender-focused programming
– Grounded in local approaches through participatory action research and other empowerment-based
approaches
– Commitment to gender equality, localization and decolonization of aid
– Exemplary critical thinking and reasoning skills to break down complex problems and find practical solutions

There are individuals who may use CARE’s name and trademark in emails and on websites in an attempt to solicit fees from interested job-seekers. Some examples of these fees are placement fees or immigration processing fees. CARE does not use recruiting or placement agencies that charge candidates an up-front fee of any kind. Occasionally, CARE does employ recruiting or placement agencies to help us identify candidates for specific employment within CARE. If you’re contacted by a legitimate recruiting or placement agency, there should be no charge to you. If you suspect that you have been a victim of fraud from someone purporting to be CARE, please contact us at legal@care.org. Please do not email legal@care.org to apply for this position. Instead, click “apply now” below in order to submit your interest.

CARE is an Equal Opportunity employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, disability, marital status, or veteran status, or any other characteristics protected under applicable law.