If you are a committed, creative professional and you would like to make an active and lasting contribution to build a better and safe world for children, we would like to hear from you. The State of Palestine office is seeking a dynamic qualified candidate to join our team as a Research & Evaluation Specialist at the P-3 level, based in East Jerusalem, State of Palestine Country Office.

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, hope

UNICEF in the State of Palestine works to uphold the rights of children to access essential services and protection, from early childhood through adolescence. Our objective is to ensure that every child in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, irrespective of background or circumstance, has an equal chance to fulfil their potential. Following the escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, UNICEF is responding at scale with Education, WASH, Nutrition, Health, Child Protection and Multi-Purpose Cash, while preparing for return to learning for children across the State of Palestine to respond to the most precent and critical needs of children, while supporting the restoration of essential services.

UNICEF is seeking a candidate for Research & Evaluation Specialist to lead comprehensive aspects of evaluation, research, assessments, and studies portfolio of UNICEF State of Palestine. Under the guidance of Chief Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation (PME) with dotted reporting line to Evaluation Regional Advisor, Research & Evaluation Specialist provides technical and operational support to facilitate the overall planning, design, and implementation of the country office Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation & Research Plan (IMERP) and is responsible for managing and monitoring the implementation of IMERP within the country office, and where appropriate across offices, between agencies and with national and international stakeholders and collaborators.

The Evaluation and Research Specialist plays a key role in designing, implementing, and promoting the use and wider learning through evaluations, research, studies, assessments and the Country Office’s programme data. This role should also ensure all evaluative activities are carried out in alignment with UNICEF’s mission, guiding principles, standards, commitments, and regulatory framework.

Summary of Key Functions and Accountabilities

The incumbent is expected to lead and/or contribute to the following areas:

1. Integrated Monitoring, Evaluation & Research Plan (IMERP) 

Ensure that the Country Office and national partners use a well-prioritized and realistic plan of research, and evaluative activities that will provide the most relevant and strategic information to manage the Area Programme toward achieving expected results while coping with emergencies. 

  • Update State of Palestine Office’s Costed Evaluation Plan for the remaining Area Programme Document (APD) cycle, 2026-2027, in consultation with the chiefs of programmes, chief of PME, and the Deputy Representative, Programme.
  • Monitor implementation of planned and ongoing IMERP studies, research and assessments by following up with programme focal points and updating the IMERP accordingly.
  • Updating EISI, the global online evidence database and uploading reports as required for completed assignments.
  • Liaise with programme focal points to disseminate evidence both internally and with external stakeholders.
  • Support programmes in preparing high quality evidence-based Terms of References (ToRs) and fulfill institutional requirements such as Ethical Standards and Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals where applicable.

 2. Assessment, Surveys and Analysis

Ensure that the Country Office’s relevant programmes and national partners have timely and up-to-date knowledge and evidence based on evaluations, studies, and research to contribute to various assessments, analysis, and surveys.

  • Integrate technical inputs and program insights while recognizing field-level constraints, to effectively support programs in adopting the most appropriate and optimal methodologies.
  • Support the preparation and advancement of MICS with the national statistics bureau, regional office, and HQ.
  • Ensure all assessments, surveys and analysis are aligned with the national and EU-World Bank-UN tripartite Rapid Damage Needs Assessment (RDNA) and Recovery frameworks.

3. Evaluation

Ensure that UNICEF-supported evaluations are designed and executed in line with UN quality standards, and that findings are promptly disseminated to stakeholders to enhance program performance and foster broader organizational learning.

  • Coordinate closely with the Evaluation Office at HQ to lead the scoping, implementation, and completion of the Country Office’s Level 3 Evaluation.
  • Oversee and the manage the Country Office’s key program evaluations—Cash Programme and Education Programme in the West Bank—ensuring their completion by March 2026.
  • Lead the initial planning for thematic evaluations in alignment with the Country Office’s Costed Evaluation Plan.
  • Participate in technical evaluation for recruiting highly qualified and experienced individual consultants and/or firms for evaluations.
  • Follow-up of all ongoing Evaluation Management Responses (EMR) in the EISI database to ensure that they are up-to-date.

4. Research Management

Ensure that UNICEF-supported research is designed and implemented according to established UNICEF policies and procedures, and the results are disseminated in a timely fashion to stakeholders to improve programme performance and contribute to wider learning.

  • Support to programmes in developing ToRs, recruitment of consultants and quality assurance of deliverables for all research activities that will be active during the course of this assignment.

5. Evaluation and Research Capacity Development

Ensure that the evaluation capacities of the Country Office staff and national partners – government and civil society – are strengthened enabling them to increasingly engage in quality programme and project evaluations for programme performance and evidence generation.

  • Lead the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education M&E Capacity Building Programmes, ensure the final report, protocols, data policy are endorsed by the line ministries, the final products from two capacity building programmes are nationally owned in 2026.
  • Lead the M&E master’s programme in partnership with a national university.
  • Identify the emerging needs from the country office’s staff, academia, government and CSOs related to the national capacity building on monitoring, evaluation and research.  

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

Minimum requirements:

Education: An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in evaluation, economics, social sciences, public policy, statistics, development, or another relevant technical field.

Experience: A minimum of five years of professional work experience in programme development and implementation with the main focus on evaluation, research, studies and assessment including data collection and analysis.

Language Requirements: Spoken and written proficiency in English is required, proficiency in other UN languages, especially Arabic is an advantage.

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 (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people.

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

This position is not considered an elevated risk role. However, UNICEF reserves the right to conduct further vetting/assessment within the scope of child safeguarding as appropriate. 

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

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. UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will 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.

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.

UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female are encouraged to apply.

This is required for all posts requiring a higher education degree. “UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/”

Only shortlisted candidates will be notified and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

The VA is open to all (internal and external candidates)

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.

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.

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Before applying, please make sure that you have read the requirements for the position and that you qualify. Applications from non-qualifying applicants will most likely be discarded by the recruiting manager.