Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, NOB - Temporary Appointment for a period of 364 days based in Herat, Afghanistan (for National of Afghanistan only)

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you.

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you.

For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Purpose for the job:

The Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) Officer will be accountable for the accomplishment of the stated key end-results by providing professional expertise and assistance in information/data collection, statistics and data analysis, monitoring & evaluation (M&E), preparation of reports, communication and partnership, and in implementing training programmes for national and sub-national data collection, monitoring, evaluation and research capacity building with special attention to the interest, concern and participation of primary stakeholders.  

KEY END-RESULTS EXPECTED

To support Herat Zonal Office with:

1. Assist in coordination of programme planning and reviews;
2. Timely monitoring and measurement of changes in conditions due to programme or policies in country are provided to the Zonal Office and provincial partners to facilitate provincial planning, and assess the impact of the programmes and policies, and report on the progress being made;
3. Zonal Office Performance are systematically monitored and data for key indicators of the IRs, activities and management reports are collected and made available to management and the Country Management Team;
4. Make sure that evaluation results are disseminated and follow up actions of evaluation recommendations are taken.
5. The monitoring and evaluation capacities of Country Office staff and national partners are strengthened, enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead monitoring and evaluation processes;
6. Effective communication and partnerships are achieved in carrying out integrated planning of research, monitoring and evaluation activities within the Country Office and with the Regional office, national partners, the UN Country Team and the international community;
7. Design and implementation of the zonal Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Plan including reporting and supportive supervision of national technical assistants and extenders at zonal level.

 Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1.  Situation Monitoring and Assessment

Provide technical support to ensure that the Zonal Office and provincial partners have timely and accurate measurement of change in conditions in the country, including monitoring of provincial socio-economic trends in the country’s wider policy, economic or institutional context, to facilitate planning and to draw conclusions about the impact of programmes or policies.

Duties & Tasks

• In coordination with programme colleagues and other stakeholders, support the collection of data on situation of children and women to improve programme planning.
• Support management of available information on provincial statistics and key indicators through update databases for easy access and use. Prepare provincial level statistical reports on the status of children’s and women’s human rights issues. Keep monitoring the situation of children’s and women’s rights with provincial partners and keep updated with the information of the quality research that address issues and challenges affecting children and their families.
• Coordinate with programme colleagues and partners and provide assistance in their using up-to-date information in, inter alia, Situation Analysis, Early Warning Monitoring Systems, Annual Reviews, Mid-Term Reviews, and Annual Reports or other progress reports.  
• In humanitarian response situations, provide technical support for a rapid assessment (inter-agency or independently if necessary) to be carried out within the first 48-72 hours. Provide rapid and accurate information on emergency programme’s coverage, coordination and coherence.
• Provide technical support to ensure that the ZO has information necessary for UNICEF to effectively report on and advocate for children’s rights through the appropriate channels. 
• Support the ZO in collecting and interpreting existing early warning data effectively to guide the adjustment of programmes and operational approaches when and as country contexts deteriorate.
• In close consultation with supervisor and liaison with partners, make a professional contribution for formulation of zonal specific sound results-based programming process and collaborative working relations with programme staff and partners
• In a close coordination with programme staff and partners, ensure that the all the program implementation activities including data collection and management of data are timely and effectively implemented that provide accurate and relevant data on key activities and results.
• Guided by ACO SPPME, assist the zonal office in forging and establishing partnerships for rapid assessments, con-current monitoring and surveys. In coordination with other stakeholders, support the collection of data (through rapid assessments surveys, programme data etc.) to improve integrated planning.
• Support management of available baseline information on key indicators through established databases (e.g., Afghan Info, DevInfo, national sub-national survey, locally conducted surveys) for easy access and use. Prepare/update zonal level statistical profile and reports on the status of children’s, and provide a technical support to zonal HACT assurance obligations including programmatic monitoring reports on progress.

2.   Programme Performance Monitoring

Provide technical support to ensure that the Zonal Office has quality information to assess progress towards expected results established in annual work plans.

Duties & Tasks

• Provide technical support as necessary to identifying and adjusting a set of programme performance indicators, in the context of the annual IMEPs, the Annual Management Plan and Annual/Rolling Work Plans. 
• Provide technical support to ensure that monitoring system are in place and that key programme monitoring indicators are tracked and analyzed, and provided regularly to the Zonal Management Team to guide programme and management decisions.
• Carry out data collection and analysis from field visits, to feed into to programme performance monitoring.  
• Keep tracking of follow-up action based on management decisions resulting from Country Office performance monitoring and evaluation.
• Compile monitoring and evaluation information/data: Contribute to the preparation of management reports (e.g., relevant sections of the annual reports), drawing on monitoring and analysis of key management indicators. Assist in the preparation of reports on systemic issues, good practices or any other analysis or data related to programme implementation and/or evaluation, including programme’s performance, relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability. 

3.   Evaluation

Provide technical support to ensure that evaluation results are useful to the intended audience. 

Duties & Tasks

• Review and provide technical comments on draft evaluation reports. Contribute to the effective dissemination and sharing of knowledge, findings, conclusions, recommendations and lessons from evaluation to the intended audience to improving programme performance and contributing to wider learning.   Specifically, assist in feeding evaluation results into key UNICEF programme planning processes including the Annual Reviews and the Mid-Term Reviews. Support effective participatory feedback, including to community and civil society stakeholders.
• Provide assistance in tracking to ensure that a management response to the recommendations of the evaluation is completed, recorded, and followed up for implementation.  Most specifically, ensure that evaluation recommendations are submitted to the ZMT and follow-up actions recorded in ZMT minutes.
• Submit electronic copies of all evaluations to ACO PME Section.

4.   M&E Capacity Building

Provide technical support to ensure that the monitoring and evaluation capacities of Zonal Office staff and provincial partners – government and civil society – are strengthened enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead monitoring and evaluation processes.

Duties & Tasks

• Contribute to M&E capacity building for provincial partners and institutions and corresponding activities for implementation in the context of the IMEP.  Provide technical support for implementation of capacity building strategies as a joint commitment with other developmental partners with special attention to the interest, concern and participation of primary stakeholders. 
• In close consultation with senior managers, contribute to formulation of staff capacity development strategy and plans, and exercise effective leadership in implementing them, ensuring that Zonal Office staffs have the basic knowledge and skills to fulfil their monitoring and evaluation responsibilities, and training is planned and carried out to fill identified gaps.
• Promote and provide support to ensure that Zonal Office staff and provincial partners are aware of and have access to UNICEF monitoring and evaluation learning resources.

5.   Communication and Partnerships

Provide technical support to ensure that all of the above tasks are carried out and accomplished through effective communication and partnerships, as elaborated below:

Duties & Tasks

• Facilitate or contribute to integrated planning of research, monitoring and evaluation activities within the Zonal Office, with national and sub-national partners and the wider international community, in the context of internal office management plans, the zonal programme planning process, the UNDAF and sector wide approaches respectively.
• Facilitate or contribute to joint monitoring and evaluation activities with national partners, the UN Area Team and the wider international community, wherever possible in the context of the above processes.
• Provide technical support to Zonal Office staff and provincial partners on data collection, data management and data analysis for basic monitoring and evaluation.
• Provide synthesis of M&E results to the Zonal Management Team and key programme and operations staff.
• Ensure that evaluation recommendations are communicated to the relevant partners for implementation, with advice on the Implementation Plan and follow-up action for future programming.
• Facilitate learning from the results of monitoring and evaluation within the Country Office and more widely within UNICEF in the region and globally, as well as among national partners and other key stakeholders.
• Seek advanced or in-depth technical support on monitoring and evaluation from the ACO PME Section on monitoring and evaluation as necessary.
• Collaborate with the ACO PME Section to ensure the availability of current and accurate monitoring and evaluation data and results. 

Education:

University degree in Social sciences, Statistics, Population Studies/Demography, development planning, planning, evaluation, survey implementation, statistical research, information systems.

Experience:

• Professional work experience in programme development and implementation including planning, monitoring and evaluation is required;
• Two years of relevant professional work experience in program/project development.  Previous work experience in UN system agency or organization is an asset.
• Exposure to emergency programming including preparedness planning. Active involvement in a humanitarian crisis response programme preferred.
• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in Data Collection, Data management, Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation Process Management;

Language:

Fluency in English is required.  Knowledge of Dari/Pashto is essential. Additional UN language(s) are an asset.