Development Coordinator - MEAL

CARE International works around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty, and achieve social justice. We seek a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and all people live with dignity and security. We put women and girls at the centre because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities.

CARE Zambia and its implementing partners are implementing the BMU-IKI-funded project, Community-Based Adaptation: Scaling Up Community Action for Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Southern Africa and Beyond (CBA-SCALE Southern Africa+), from 2023 to 2028.

The project aims to strengthen climate resilience in Zimba District through the integration of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction into policies, plans, and budgets at community, district, and national levels. It also promotes climate-resilient actions in key sectors, including water resources management, agriculture, and fisheries; strengthens climate information, early warning, and disaster risk management systems; and supports ecosystem and biodiversity conservation.

The project’s expected outcome is increased resilience to climate change among all genders and social groups across the 12 wards of Zimba District. Through inclusive, gender-responsive, and nature-based approaches, the project supports communities in identifying, planning, and implementing locally led adaptation actions that reduce climate-related risks to human well-being, livelihoods, food security, and natural ecosystems.

CARE Zambia, an International Non-Governmental relief and development organization with various projects in Eastern, North-western, Luapula, Lusaka, and Southern provinces of Zambia, is looking for an experienced, innovative and motivated individual to fill the following position;

Job Title: Development Coordinator - MEAL

Reports to: Senior Project Coordinator

Location: Zimba, Southern Province

Type of Contract: Fixed Term

Job Summary

The Development Coordinator - Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) will lead the implementation of the MEAL function for the CBA-SCALE Southern Africa+ Project in Zambia, ensuring high quality monitoring, accountability, learning, documentation, reporting, and evidence generation throughout project implementation.

The position will focus on tracking progress against project outcomes and indicators; strengthening data quality and utilization; facilitating learning and adaptive management processes; supporting knowledge management and documentation; coordinating accountability mechanisms; and ensuring project evidence informs advocacy, influencing, policy engagement, and future programming.

The position will serve as the primary liaison between the Zambia project team, CARE Zambia MEAL Unit, Programme Quality and Impact (PQ&I) team, consortium MEAL structures, and implementing partners to ensure consistency in reporting, learning, and performance management across Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique.

The position will also support organizational resource mobilization, project design, and MEAL support to other CARE Zambia projects within the Southern Region as assigned.

Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Monitoring, Evaluation and Performance Tracking

• Lead implementation of the project's Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) framework, ensuring effective tracking of project outputs, outcomes and resilience results.
• Coordinate routine monitoring of project indicators, milestones and targets and ensure timely reporting of progress.
• Maintain project databases, indicator tracking tables and monitoring systems in accordance with CARE and donor requirements.
• Conduct regular data quality assessments, verification exercises and field monitoring visits to ensure data accuracy, completeness and consistency.
• Support project teams and partners to analyze and utilize monitoring data for adaptive management and decision-making.

2. Learning, Documentation and Knowledge Management

• Lead implementation of the Performance, Evidence, Reflection and Learning (PERL) agenda for the project.
• Facilitate reflection, after-action review and sense-making sessions with project teams, communities, partners and relevant stakeholders.
• Promote understanding and utilization of documentation and learning tools among project staff and implementing partners.
• Document project lessons, good practices, innovations, case studies, human interest stories and community adaptation experiences.
• Develop and disseminate learning products including briefs, factsheets, presentations, case studies and policy-oriented knowledge products.
• Support cross-country learning and exchange among consortium partners in Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique.

3. Accountability and Feedback Mechanisms

• Lead the establishment and operationalization of the Feedback and Accountability Mechanism (FAM) across all project intervention areas.
• Ensure community members and stakeholders understand available feedback channels and accountability processes.
• Monitor and track community feedback, complaints and response actions.
• Generate periodic accountability reports and facilitate learning from feedback trends.
• Ensure accountability mechanisms are inclusive, gender-responsive and accessible to all project participants.

4. Consortium MEAL Coordination and Knowledge Management

• Serve as the Zambia MEAL focal point, coordinating reporting, learning, and knowledge-sharing with consortium partners across Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique.
• Consolidate and submit project progress, indicator results, evidence, lessons learned, and learning products to consortium structures.
• Participate in consortium technical meetings, learning platforms, and communities of practice, ensuring Zambia's experiences and achievements are effectively represented and shared.
• Promote harmonized MEAL, reporting, learning, and evidence-generation approaches across consortium partners and contribute to regional knowledge management, community-based adaptation, and locally led adaptation workstreams.
• Foster collaboration with consortium partners, government institutions, research organizations, and civil society actors to strengthen learning, influencing, and the uptake of project evidence.

5. Reporting and Data Management

• Coordinate collection, consolidation, analysis and reporting of project performance data.
• Support preparation of donor, consortium, quarterly, annual and management reports.
• Ensure all means of verification and project documentation are appropriately maintained and archived.
• Collaborate closely with CARE Zambia MEAL Unit and Programme Quality and Impact (PQ&I) teams on data management, reporting standards and organizational learning.
• Ensure alignment with CARE's standard reporting frameworks, indicator guidance and information management systems.

6. Evidence Generation, Advocacy and Influencing

• Generate and package evidence from project implementation to support advocacy and influencing efforts.
• Support development of policy briefs, learning briefs and technical papers based on project experiences.
• Collaborate with technical teams to document and communicate outcomes of community-based adaptation and locally led adaptation approaches.
• Support dissemination of evidence and learning to government institutions, consortium partners, civil society and relevant networks.

7. Community-Based Monitoring and Locally Led Adaptation Tracking

• Facilitate development and utilization of community-level indicators for tracking implementation of Local Adaptation Plans.
• Support Ward Climate Change Committees and other community structures to monitor adaptation progress and resilience outcomes.
• Strengthen participatory monitoring and community-led review processes.
• Ensure community-generated evidence informs project reviews, learning processes and reporting.

8. Capacity Strengthening

• Build capacity of project staff, local partners, government stakeholders and community structures on MEAL systems, PERL approaches, data quality, documentation and reporting requirements.
• Mentor project teams on the use of monitoring tools, accountability mechanisms and knowledge management practices.
• Support partners to strengthen compliance with CARE and donor MEAL standards.

9. Programme Quality, Design and Resource Mobilization

• Participate in proposal development and project design processes by contributing MEAL frameworks, theories of change, indicators and learning agendas.
• Review activity concept notes and project proposals to ensure logical results frameworks, measurable indicators and clear monitoring arrangements.
• Collaborate with GESI and Livelihood Improvement Programme (LIP) staff to ensure integration of gender-responsive and socially inclusive monitoring approaches.

10. Other Responsibilities

• Perform any other duties consistent with the nature and level of the position as assigned by the supervisor.

Qualifications and experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as Agriculture, Development Studies, Sociology, Social Work, Demography, or related discipline.
• At least 3-5 years of experience in MEAL, research, or project performance management within NGO or government programmes.
• Demonstrated experience in resilience programming, rural livelihoods, locally led and community-based adaptation, natural resource management, disaster risk management, gender equality, and women’s empowerment.
• Proven expertise in implementing MEAL systems, facilitating learning and adaptive management processes, and managing accountability and feedback mechanisms.
• Strong skills in qualitative and quantitative research, data collection and analysis, report writing, evidence synthesis, and development of knowledge products.
• Proficiency in data management and analysis tools such as SPSS, Excel, Kobo, CommCare, DHIS2, or similar platforms.
• Experience supporting evidence-based advocacy, policy engagement, and influencing initiatives.
• Excellent analytical, communication, facilitation, coordination, and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to work independently and within diverse teams.
• Strong understanding of rural development, community resilience, and gender and power dynamics.
• Familiarity with CARE International MEAL standards and programme quality frameworks is an added advantage.

Suitably qualified and interested members of the public are invited to submit their applications through the Thornsoft Recruitment Portal by logging in here. Or https://royalty.thorn-soft.com/recruitment/job-details.php?job=250

Closing Date: 13th November 2026

Kindly ensure that, all academic qualifications are verified by the Zambia Qualifications Authority (ZAQA).

CARE is an Equal Opportunity Employer promoting equity and diversity.

As part of CARE’s commitment to preventing sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse and child abuse, we conduct reference checks on all final-stage candidates in line with the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. By applying for this role, you are giving us consent to contact your previous employers to seek information in line with this scheme.

How to Apply

Apply using the following link: https://royalty.thorn-soft.com/recruitment/job-details.php?job=250