MEAL Manager Palestine

Norwegian Refugee Council; Palestine Township (IA); On-site; USD 40,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Travel: ~30% to operation areas

Equal opportunities employer (D&I)

Professional development opportunities

Job summary

Norwegian Refugee Council is seeking an experienced MEAL Manager to lead strategy, quality assurance, and learning for Palestine operations. The role designs SOPs, budgets, and monitoring systems, guiding evidence-based decision making in collaboration with programme leadership.

It requires building capacity with partners and ensuring data governance across sites. Ideal candidates bring 6+ years in MEAL, a relevant degree, strong data skills, and advanced English.

Qualifications

• Minimum 6 years of MEAL experience in NGO or international settings, incl. management.
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field as listed.
• Strong MEAL principles and data-driven decision making.
• Experience with data collection, reporting, and protection principles.
• Proficient in English, with ability to communicate for programme learning.

Responsibilities

• Design MEAL strategy, SOPs, and budgets for country office.
• Lead evaluation planning and learning agendas for programme decisions.
• Coordinate with partners and internal teams to strengthen MEAL.
• Support partners with MEL best practices and data quality.
• Promote learning through analyses, after-action reviews, and learning cycles.

Skills

MEAL systems

Leadership

Data analysis

Capacity building

Advanced English

Education

Bachelor's degree in Statistics/Information Systems/Development Studies

Tools

Microsoft Office

SharePoint

Teams

OneDrive

Planner

Job description

Background

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has been present in Palestine since 2009. NRC implements programming directly and in collaboration with partners in five Core Competencies: Shelter & Site Management, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH), Information Counselling and legal Assistance (ICLA), Protection from Violence (PfV) and Education. NRC Palestine implements programming both directly as well as through a wide network of partners.

Last year, NRC served nearly 600,000 unique program participants.

Job Description

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has been present in Palestine since 2009. NRC implements programming directly and in collaboration with partners in five Core Competencies: Shelter & Site Management, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH), Information Counselling and legal Assistance (ICLA), Protection from Violence (PfV) and Education. NRC Palestine implements programming both directly as well as through a wide network of partners. Last year, NRC served nearly 600,000 unique program participants.

NRC’s programming in Palestine has a strong humanitarian, protection and resilience focus that looks to meet vital needs through sustainable solutions to increase early recovery outcomes through integrated programme responses. In this complex, challenging operating environment in Palestine, NRC is working to strengthen the quality, responsiveness, integration, and sustainability of our programmes. This requires high-quality monitoring, evidence, accountability and learning systems in place in order to ensure the oversight and effectiveness of our programmes for the people we serve.

• Please note for this role, applicants must be legally eligible to work in Palestine. We are unable to provide work permits or visa sponsorships for this position.

What We Are Looking For

An experienced, motivated Monitoring, Evidence, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) Manager who will lead the strategic direction and quality assurance of MEAL in the country office. The role holder will design and implement a strategy, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and budgets for the function, which aims to ensure the Country Office (CO) is meeting and exceeding NRC’s MEAL minimum standards. In close collaboration with programme leadership, the role leads CO learning agenda and evaluation planning required to feed into programme and strategic decision making at key learning moments. As a functional manager this role is part of a technical matrix structure and works collaboratively with both the technical and the operational management structures at country and area offices.

If you are a passionate seasoned humanitarian professional with experience in management, MEAL systems and methodologies, working with partners and capacity building, then this is the role for you!

What You Will Do

The role will have the following responsibilities:

• Support the design of theories of change, MEAL tools, and indicators with Programme and Advocacy teams; ensure that MEAL plans are developed and implemented.
• Development and sign-off on logframes during program design and proposal development processes.
• Contribute to CO-level procedures, policies, and guidance to institutionalise MEAL across the mission.
• Promote MEAL as a strategic priority by contributing to country strategy processes and supporting programme Specialists in using MEAL data.
• Support NRC Palestine’s implementing partners with best MEL practice, ensuring alignment of systems and accurate reporting
• Ensuring learning moments are institutionalized, with systems in place for analyzing and using data and supporting programmed managers to interpret and use learning for strategic and programmed decision making. This includes contributing to the development, learning and adaptation of multi-year programmed strategies and organisational strategic reviews
• Ensure learning through evaluations, after-action reviews and lessons learned exercises based on the CO learning agenda and integrate findings across the Project Cycle Management (PCM) phases.
• Act as the in-country focal point for programmatic digital systems—supporting system adoption, and overseeing troubleshooting, user feedback, and coordination with global teams—while ensuring compliance with data governance frameworks.
• Ensure harmonization of monitoring approaches across both area offices, to enable analysis and reporting to be consistent across programmes and locations.
• Work with senior Programme staff to increase data literacy and familiarization of use of data and evidence as an approach towards strategic planning. Advocate for programme learning and raise concerns to management when learning seems to be lacking.
• Engage with Global MEAL units to adapt good practices, receive technical support in line with global MEAL procedures, and ensure CO’s experience feeds into global learning.
• Support programme teams to make contextual adaptations to the MEAL framework in line with global guidance, such as MEAL planning and implementation for integrated programmes, Hard to Reach contexts, working with partners, working with development donors or in acute emergencies.
• Carry out any other tasks related to the position or the MEAL function as delegated by the line manager.

What You Will Bring

• Minimum 6 years of MEAL experience, including managerial experience, NGO and/or international organisation, preferably in emergency or post-conflict settings, with experience supporting internally displaced persons (IDPs) and working in camp or remote management environments.
• Bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Information Systems Management, Social Sciences, Development Studies, or a related field.
• Strong understanding of MEAL principles and current approaches in relief and development settings, using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
• Skilled in data analysis, interpretation of trends, and communication of findings to support evidence-based decision-making.
• Experience in mobile and online data collection systems and in data management and analysis platforms.
• Experience handling sensitive community feedback in line with data protection principles.
• Experience coordinating with the UN system, INGOs, donors, and local authorities at field level.
• Technical expertise in programme evaluation methodologies and approaches.
• Proficient in facilitating participatory discussions, learning workshops, and capacity‑building activities.
• Advanced in spoken and written English.
• Familiarity with the political and humanitarian context in Palestine.
• Experience implementing MEAL systems in hard‑to‑reach or remote‑managed areas.
• Experience supporting MEAL for one of NRC’s Core Competencies is an asset.
• Experience with local partners capacity building in complex or sensitive environments.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office standard applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) is required; experience with Microsoft 365 collaboration tools (e.g., SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Planner) is an advantage.

What we offer

• Duty station: West Bank, Palestine or Gaza
• Please note for this role, applicants must be legally eligible to work in Palestine. We are unable to provide work permits or visa sponsorships for this position.
• Travel: Approximately 30% to areas of operation.
• Salary/benefits: Grade 9 on NRC’s Palestine National salary scale.
• NRC is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to diversity without distinction to age, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, and physical ability.
• We think outside the box, encourage ideas, and give responsibility to all employees at all levels. You will have many opportunities to be heard and take the initiative.

Find out more about the benefits of working for NRC

Why NRC?

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent humanitarian organisation helping people forced to flee. Our 15,000 staff work in crises across 40 countries, providing life‑saving and long‑term assistance to millions of people every year.

NRC currently has over 3,000 staff across the Middle East dedicated to assisting people affected by conflict in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya and Palestine. Its humanitarian interventions are based upon its programming expertise in the Core Competencies of Shelter, Education, WASH, Livelihoods and Food Security, and Information Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA) to vulnerable displaced people that were forced to flee.

Watch this short video to see NRC in action.

We are looking for people who are passionate about helping refugees and people forced to flee. Are you one of those people? If you are, NRC offers you the opportunity to:

• do demanding and professional work, often in challenging contexts.
• join a work culture that empowers every employee to share ideas and take responsibility.
• be part of a welcoming and supportive community committed to human dignity.

Learn more about NRC's operations in Palestine here.

Responsibilities

All NRC employees are expected to work in accordance with the organisation’s values. To be dedicated, innovative, inclusive and accountable are attitudes and beliefs that shall guide our actions and relationships. NRC has a commitment to safety and wellbeing and together we build a positive working culture to feel valued, empowered, supported, safe and have a sense of belonging. NRC does not tolerate employees exploiting or abusing people and has zero tolerance to inaction.

About Us

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is a global humanitarian organisation helping people forced to flee.

Join us in assisting millions of people in areas where others cannot, tackling some of the world's most dangerous and difficult crises. Bring your skills and dedication to an organisation recognised for providing high quality aid and for defending the rights of refugees and internally displaced people.

At NRC, we give responsibility to employees at all levels and foster professional growth and innovative teams. You can expect a supportive culture and an open dialogue with management. We are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Together, we save lives and rebuild futures.

Safeguarding is central to NRC’s work. We expect all employees to:

• treat everyone with respect and dignity
• contribute to building a safe environment for all
• never engage in any form of exploitation, harassment and specifically sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment (SEAH)
• always report. NRC has zero-tolerance approach to inaction against exploitation, abuse and SEAH