Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

UNICEF India works with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India, and with State governments to strengthen routine immunization and primary health care, with a particular focus on reaching zero-dose and underimmunized children and on improving the quality of services delivered at the last mile. Under the Gavi Health Systems Strengthening (HSS-3) grant, UNICEF India Country Office is implementing a package of interventions in 143 districts across 11 States, delivered through eight UNICEF field offices. The grant has two flagship components. The first is the roll-out of the U-Mentor application, a digital supportive-supervision and mentoring platform designed to strengthen the capacity and service-delivery quality of frontline health workers and their supervisors. The second is structured civil society organization (CSO) engagement for demand generation, community mobilization and the identification and tracking of zero-dose and missed children, delivered through 19 CSO partnerships managed across the eight offices.

Because implementation and funds are decentralized to field offices and partners, the Country Office requires a single, consolidated and continuously updated view of both financial utilization against allocation and programmatic achievement against target. Reporting obligations to Gavi and to MoHFW fall on a quarterly cycle, while internal UNICEF management review requires monthly analysis. Together these generate a
continuous cycle of data collection, validation, analysis and reporting that cuts across the Health, Social and Behaviour Change (SBC), Finance and Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation sections at the Country Office and their counterparts in the field offices. Against this background, the UN Volunteer Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist will serve as the dedicated M&E focal point for the Gavi HSS-3 grant, providing the analytical backbone for grant oversight, donor and Government reporting, and internal management decision-making. The assignment offers substantive exposure to large-scale immunization programming, digital health innovation, civil society partnerships and results-based grant management in one of UNICEF's largest country programmes.

Under the direct supervision of the Immunization Specialist, UNICEF India Country Office, and in close collaboration with the SBC, Finance, Monitoring for results sections, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

1. Grant monitoring framework and planning tools

• Maintain and update a consolidated HSS-3 monitoring framework that links the grant results framework, annual and quarterly workplan targets, budget allocations and indicator definitions across all 11 States, 143 districts, eight field offices and 19 CSO partnerships.
• Maintain a master indicator reference sheet – definition, numerator and denominator, data source, reporting frequency, baseline, target and means of verification – agreed jointly with the Health & SBC teams, so that a single set of definitions is applied across all reporting units.
• Support the development and periodic revision of quarterly workplans, ensuring that every target, milestone and budget line remains traceable to the approved Gavi HSS-3 grant agreement and allocation.
• Maintain the grant risk register and monitoring calendar, tracking reporting deadlines, assurance activities and follow-up actions for each field office and partner.

2. Monitoring and reporting of financial utilization against allocation

• Track expenditure and outstanding commitments against allocation for each field office, State, output and activity, and maintain a live financial utilization tracker or dashboard refreshed quarterly.
• Compute and interpret burn rate, utilization percentage, and projected under- or over-expenditure by field office and by result area; flag deviations beyond agreed thresholds to the supervisor and the Health section together with proposed corrective actions.
• Monitor the ageing of outstanding DCTs and pending liquidations for CSO partners, follow up with field offices on delays, and escalate persistent bottlenecks.
• Prepare the financial utilization sections of the quarterly donor and MoHFW reports, and support the preparation of budget revisions, re-phasing and reprogramming requests with supporting analysis.
• Analyse the relationship between financial utilization and programmatic achievement to generate efficiency and value-for-money insights that inform management decisions on reallocation of resources.

3. Monitoring and reporting of programmatic achievement against target

• Consolidate monthly programmatic progress data from the field offices on UMentor roll-out – including registrations and active users, mentoring visits completed against plan, coverage of targeted facilities, quality and competency scores, and closure of gaps identified through mentoring.
• Consolidate monthly progress data on CSO engagement – including community mobilization and demand-generation activities, zero-dose and missed children identified and linked to services, immunization sessions supported, and coverage of prioritized districts and vulnerable communities.
• Disaggregate and analyse results by gender, geography and equity markers wherever data permit, so that reporting reflects the situation of the most disadvantaged children and communities.

4. Data quality assurance and field verification

• Design and apply data quality assurance protocols covering completeness, timeliness, accuracy, consistency and validity of all data submitted by field offices and CSO partners, and maintain documented evidence of the checks performed.
• Maintain an issues and action tracker arising from data quality reviews, field visits, spot checks and assurance activities, and follow up with the concerned field offices and partners until closure.

5. Donor, Government and internal reporting

• Prepare the quarterly Gavi HSS-3 progress report, in the donor's prescribed format and to the donor's timeline, consolidating financial utilization and programmatic achievement with narrative analysis, risk updates and mitigation measures.
• Prepare the quarterly progress report and briefing package for MoHFW and relevant national programme divisions, aligned with Government reporting formats and review cycles, and support presentation of results at Government review meetings.
• Produce the monthly internal analytical review pack for Country Office management, comprising dashboards, exception reports and a concise analytical note on bottlenecks, emerging risks and recommended management actions.
• Organize and support monthly M&E review calls with the field offices to review submissions, resolve data issues and agree follow-up actions, and maintain records of decisions taken.
• Draft ad hoc analyses, briefing notes, presentations and responses to queries from the donor, Government counterparts, the Regional Office and Headquarters.

6. Internal coordination and partnership monitoring

• Serve as the M&E focal point for the grant, coordinating routinely with the Health, SBC, Finance and Monitoring teams at the Country Office and with field offices.
• Support monitoring of the 19 CSO partnerships against their Programme Documents, tracking deliverables, milestones, timelines and reporting Compliance, and contribute to partner performance assessment.
• Represent the M&E function, as delegated, in internal grant review meetings and in technical working groups with Government and partners.

7. Knowledge management

• Maintain a well-organized, version-controlled repository of grant monitoring data, reports, evidence and correspondence that can withstand donor and audit scrutiny.
• Document lessons learned, good practices and case studies from the U-Mentor roll-out and CSO engagement, to inform course correction, future programming and resource mobilization.
• Support any mid-term review, evaluation, assurance activity or audit of the grant, including preparation of data, evidence and management responses.
• Perform any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.