TA Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist, (P-3), Cox Bazaar , Bangladesh ( 364 days)

UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of every child. UNICEF has spent 70 years working to improve the lives of children and their families. Defending children's rights throughout their lives requires a global presence, aiming to produce results and understand their effects. UNICEF believes all children have a right to survive, thrive and fulfill their potential – to the benefit of a better world.

For every child, A plan

To ensure that the UNICEF Field Office has useful, valid and reliable information on

• the situation of children’s and women’s rights;
• the performance of UNICEF-supported programmes including their relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability, and in emergency contexts, their coverage, coordination and coherence.

To work within the UN country team to support United Nations Country Team (UNCT) goals for delivering valid and reliable information on the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other goals, and on the performance of UN-supported programmes.

To assist in the establishment of a monitoring an evaluation tools which enhance partnership between the UNCT, government and other key players to collectively track progress on MDGs and other international commitment for children.

To assist in the development of national capacities for monitoring, evaluation and research, with special attention to the interest, concern and participation of government, community, and civil society stakeholders.   

How can you make a difference? 

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

Ensure that the Country Office and national partners use a well-prioritised and realistic plan of research, monitoring and evaluation activities that will provide the most relevant and strategic information to manage the Country Programme, including tracking and assessing UNICEF’s distinct contribution. 

Duties & Tasks

• Make professional contributions to and provide technical assistance for the planning and establishing the major research, monitoring and evaluation objectives, priorities, and activities in UNICEF’s multi-year and annual IMEPs, in consultation with child-rights and implementing partners.
• Likewise, support the development of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) M&E Plans from a sound results-based programming process.
• Identify the M&E objectives, priorities, and activities required for effective Country Office (CO) and partner Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans,
• In humanitarian response situations, within the first month, draft and recommend a simple one-month data-collection plan to cover key data gaps as required for the initial emergency response, working in close collaboration with the humanitarian clusters partners.     
• After the initial humanitarian response, support management of the medium-term response with a revised IMEP

 2.  Situation Monitoring and Assessment 

Ensure that the Country Office and national partners have timely and accurate measurement of change in conditions in the country or region, including monitoring of socio-economic trends and 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 other stakeholders, support the collection of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and other key social development indicators (through MICS or other surveys) to improve national planning.
• Support partners in the establishment and management of national statistical databases (e.g., DevInfo), ensuring that key indicators are readily accessible by key stakeholders. Potential uses include the Situation Analysis, Common Country Assessment, Early Warning Monitoring Systems, and Mid-Term Reviews. 
• Develop a collectively Situation Monitoring and Assessment system owned by all key partners which supports the preparation of country level statistical and analytic reports on the status of children’s and women’s rights issues; and which allow, when opportunities emerge to influence developmental and social policies.  To include technical support to global reporting obligations including national reports on progress toward the MDGs, and toward the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) fulfilment.
• In humanitarian response situations, provide professional support for one or more rapid assessments (inter-agency or independently if necessary) to be carried out within the first 48-72 hours, working in close collaboration with the humanitarian clusters partners.

3.  Programme Performance Monitoring 

Ensure that the Country Office has quality information to assess progress towards expected results established in annual work plans.

Duties & Tasks

• Provide technical support to ensure that a set of programme performance indicators is identified and adjusted as necessary, with inputs of all concerned partners in the context of the multi-year and annual IMEPs, the Annual Management Plan and Annual Work Plans, as outlined in the Programme Policy and Procedures Manual). 
  • Coordinate with partners to ensure that monitoring systems are properly designed, and that data collection and analysis from field visits are coordinated and standardised across programmes to feed into to programme performance monitoring, with special attention to humanitarian response.
  • Drawing on monitoring and analysis of key program performance and management indicators, provide professional input to management reports, including relevant sections of the annual reports.

4.  Evaluation

Ensure that UNICEF-supported evaluations are designed and implemented to established UN quality standards, and the results are disseminated in a timely fashion to stakeholders in order to improve programme performance and contribute to wider learning.

Duties & Tasks

• Technically support programme partners to formulate Terms of Reference and evaluation designs of high quality, when relevant drawing on the know-how of knowledge institutions, in compliance with the organization’s programme evaluation policies and guidelines.
• Monitor and ensure the quality of the field work and data management during the implementation phase, and the quality of the analysis and ease of understanding during the report writing phase.

• Disseminate evaluation findings and recommendations to the intended audiences in user-friendly methods.  In particular, to ensure that effective participatory feedback is provided to community and civil society stakeholders.

•      Monitor and ensure that a management response to the findings and recommendations of the evaluation is completed, recorded, and followed up for implementation.  Most specifically, ensure that evaluation recommendations are submitted to the Country Management Team and follow-up actions recorded in CMT minutes. Submit electronic copies of all evaluations to NYHQ via the Evaluation Data Base web portal, with full accompanying documentation.

5.  M&E Capacity Building

Ensure that the monitoring and evaluation capacities of Country Office staff and national partners – government and civil society – are strengthened enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead monitoring and evaluation processes.

Duties & Tasks

•        Promote the awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of M&E function among all staff members through communication, training, learning and development activities organization-wide.

•       In close collaboration with partners, ensure that an M&E capacity building strategy for UNICEF/UN staff national partners and institutions exists in the context of the IMEP, or UNDAF M&E plan.  Pay particular attention so the capacity needs of national partners such as professional evaluation associations will be strengthened by involvement in evaluation processes and possibly through specific capacity building initiatives.

•       Collaborate to implement capacity building strategies as a joint commitment with other developmental partners. Utilize a range of appropriate skills building strategies including self-learning, seminars and workshops and practical experience in order that UNICEF and UN staff have the basic knowledge and skills in understanding and applying new M&E policies, tools, and methods to fulfil their responsibilities. Similarly, design and implement strategies suited to the skills needs of national partners.

•       Actively seek partnerships with knowledge institutions for the identification of capacity gaps and development of strategies to address them.

6.  Coordination and Networking 

Ensure that the UNICEF office is effectively linked to wider UNICEF M&E developments in a way that both contributes to and benefits from organizational learning on effective M&E management.

Duties & Tasks

•  Collaborate with Country office Chief, M&E and Regional Evaluation Adviser for overall coordination of priority research, monitoring and evaluation activities, especially those of regional scope requiring the coordinated effort of multiple countries.
•  Partner with the CO Monitoring and Evaluation Chief to ensure that current and accurate M&E data and results are included in regional reports, multi-country studies, and knowledge sharing networks. 
•  Undertake lessons-learned reviews on successful and unsuccessful M&E practices and experience at the national level, and ensure they are shared as appropriate.  Similarly, pay attention to M&E knowledge networks to identify innovations and lessons learned that may be relevant for the CO and partners to improve their M&E function.

Qualifications of a successful Candidate

Advanced university degree in social sciences, statistics, planning development, planning.
Professional work experience in programme development and implementation including monitoring and evaluation activities as follows: Level 3 - Five years of relevant professional work experience. Developing country work experience (for IP) or field work experience (for NO)
At least one instance of exposure to emergency programming, including preparedness planning. Active involvement in a humanitarian crisis response programme preferred.  
Fluency in English is required. Fluency in the local language of the duty station an an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

Our core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified candidates from all backgrounds to apply.

Remarks

* The successful candidate for this emergency recruitment MUST be available to commence work within 31 days of receiving an offer.

* Please note that is a non-family duty station.

Employment is conditional upon receipt of medical clearance, any clearance required, the grant of a visa, and completion of any other pre-employment criteria that UNICEF may establish. Candidates may not be further considered or offers of employment may be withdrawn if these conditions are unlikely to be met before the date for commencement of service