Consultancy Recruitment: Evaluation Expert for Multi-country Evaluation of Life Skills and Citizenship Education Initiative in MENA: covering Syria and Iraq for 5 months Remote and travel to countries

The UNICEF MENA Regional Office is conducting a multi-country evaluation of the Life Skills and Citizenship Education Initiative. The multi-country evaluation covers the UNICEF supported LSCE initiatives in 5 countries of the MENA region, as well as a regional overarching analysis based on the findings resulting from these 5 country level evaluations.

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built. We offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture., coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, the right to Education

How can you make a difference? 

The multi-country evaluation serves both learning and accountability, with a higher weight on the learning function. The purpose of the evaluation is to:

1. foster institutional learning by UNICEF and its stakeholders on the use of the Life Skills and Citizenship Education framework to achieve rights-based and transformative outcomes for young people on civic engagement, employment and entrepreneurship and on education outcomes and strengthen the design and implementation strategies of future and ongoing interventions targeting these LSCE outcome and impact results.
2. contribute to informing policy decisions by governmental counterparts in the MENA region related to enhancing LSCE outcome and impact results.
3. account for the performance of UNICEF interventions in MENA in maximizing the potential of children to transition from childhood to adulthood, from education to work and from unreflective development to responsible and active citizenship and to account for UNICEF’s specific contributions to these results.
4. provide foresight insights for informing strategic decisions by UNICEF on the future of the LSCE framework and for strengthening the achievement of LSCE outcomes.

These purposes apply to both the MENAR multi-country evaluation report and each of the country level evaluation reports, except for purpose iv) which applies only to the multi-country evaluation report.

Objectives

The evaluation aims to:

• evaluate the usefulness and use of the conceptual and programmatic LSCE framework for programming outcome-focused, context-specific holistic and rights-based LSCE interventions in the MENA region, responding to the needs and priorities. To be evaluated with the lens of Relevance, coherence
• evaluate the performance of LSCE interventions in developing the core skills and their contribution to achieving the outcome results and evaluate the factors fostering or hindering the achievement of these results. To be evaluated with the lens of Effectiveness, efficiency
• Evaluate to what extent the results achieved are expected to last and to contribute to the targeted impact results.  To be evaluated with the lens of Sustainability, impact
• document Lessons learned. covering ad minimum the following areas: Insights on how life skills and their outcomes are achieved. Insights useful for designing the intervention logic of LSCE interventions: insights related to the selection of dimensions of learning and core skills, the teaching and learning approaches, the selection of multiple pathways pathways, the systems approach the enabling environment, and the assumptions to be realized to transition.
• identify recommendations that help improve LSCE efforts.

 Role of the Evaluation Expert

The evaluation expert (EE) is responsible for implementing three country evaluations more precisely of the LSCE initiatives in Syrai and Iraq and the EE contributes to the multi-country evaluation. More precisely, the evaluation expert:

• is responsible for the delivery of two country level evaluation reports (Syria and Iraq).
• contributes to the development of the overarching inception report of the multi-country evaluation, covering the common evaluation design and methodology for the five country evaluation reports of this multi-country evaluation.
• is responsible  desk review for the two countries, for the inception phase interviews for these countries, and for providing country related inputs into the inception report, for the for the timely delivery of the two country evaluation reports and all their related  evaluation deliverables and for their compliance with the UNICEF evaluation quality and ethical procedures that apply, and ensuring that the content of these three country evaluation reports address the evaluation objectives and questions as described in these terms of references and subsequently operationalized in the inception report.
• leads on evaluative thinking for these two country evaluation reports throughout the evaluation process, from inception report to final report, ensuring that the evaluation findings reflect a sufficient level of evaluative insights and analytical depth, based on methodological rigor.
• collects the data for these three country level reports together with the national evaluation experts and is responsible for technical oversight and management of these national evaluation experts.
• works with the data analyst to analyzes the data of these two country level evaluations, drafts and finalizes these three country level reports
• contributes to the regional evaluation report
• presents the preliminary findings of the two country evaluation reports to the stakeholders and facilitates interaction on the findings.
• provides written responses to comments from key-stakeholders on the draft report through the comments-matrix.
• ensures that all the two country reports uphold the UNICEF quality and ethical standards and works closely with the UNICEF evaluation manager responsible for reviewing the deliverables until the approval of these evaluation deliverables.
• provides regular progress reports to the evaluation manager and is the liaison person for all communications of the evaluation team with UNICEF.

Work Assignments Overview:

Phase 1: Inception Phase

• Kickoff meetings.
• Inception consultations/interviews.
• For each of the two countries (Syria and Iraq):

• Perform a desk review.
• Draft country-specific inception report elements (elements not included in the core report).
• Stakeholder mapping and analysis.

• Contribute to core inception report.
• Work with the Data Analyst in designing data collection platforms and analysis plan.

Deliverables:

• Country-specific elements of the inception annexed to the core inception report.

Delivery Deadline: 12 days

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Work Assignments Overview:

 Phase 2a: Data Collection (Syria and Iraq)

• Travel to Syria and Iraq to train National Evaluation Experts in data collection, ethics, and tools developed for the evaluation.
• Primary data collection (working in conjunction with National Evaluation Experts).
• Provide support and respond to any issues related to tools, sampling, ethics, and referral linkages during the data collection process.

Deliverables:

• Field mission report (including training of national consultants in ethics, data collection, and support provided during data collection).

Delivery Deadline: 16 days

Phase 2b: Presentation of Preliminary Findings

• Individual two-country primary and secondary data analysis.
• Presentation of individual two-country preliminary findings.
• Participate in the regional preliminary findings.

Deliverables:

• Presentation of country (each separate) preliminary findings.

Delivery Deadline: 3 days

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Work Assignments Overview: 

Phase 3a: Data Analysis and Drafting of the Report

• In-depth analysis of the data collected from Syria and Iraq.
• Draft two individual country reports.
• Address formal comments from wider stakeholders and clients (comments matrix and evaluation report).

Phase 3b: Co-creation of Recommendations

• Conduct two separate evaluation recommendations co-creation workshops with Syria and Iraq.
• Participate in regional evaluation recommendations co-creation workshop.

Deliverables:

• Draft two individual country reports ready for wider stakeholder formal commenting.

Delivery Deadline: 24 days

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Work Assignments Overview:

 Phase 4: Report Finalization

• Individual country final reports and slide decks.

Deliverables: 

• Two individual country final reports and slide decks.

Delivery Deadline: 5 days

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

Minimum requirements:

• Education:

  Master’s degree in education or social sciences, or a related field (e.g., developmental psychology).

• Work Experience: 
• Practitioner as a subject matter expert in education policy, learning and/or skills development, with a minimum of 8 years post-qualification work experience.
• Technical expertise in high-level and high-quality programme and/or considerable experience in conducting evaluations of education and/or transferable skills programmes implemented in various contexts, including countries implementing humanitarian programmes, or countries characterized by fragility is required.
• Working knowledge of UNICEF programming strategies, field work, procedures, and organizational culture (prior UNICEF employment experience should be declared to enable assessment of possible conflicts of interest).
• Strong qualifications and demonstrated experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection methods and analysis.
•  
• Language Requirements:
• Fluency in English (oral communication, reading complex documents, writing reports) is required. Those fluent or basic spoken and written Arabic will be an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others 

[add the 8^th competency (Nurtures, leads and manages people) for a supervisory role]. 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:  

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF’s Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.