Monitoring & Evaluation (Child Rights Systems Monitoring) Specialist, NOC, Fixed Term (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) - This vacancy is open only for Nationals of Kyrgyzstan.

Monitoring & Evaluation (Child Rights Systems Monitoring) Specialist, NOC, Fixed Term. Duty Station: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. This vacancy is open only for Nationals of Kyrgyzstan.

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 of the Position

1. To ensure that the UNICEF Country Office and national partners have useful, valid and reliable information on:

• the situation of children and women and on the progress in realizing their rights;
• the reduction of equity gaps within the country;
• the results of UNICEF-supported national public programmes including their evaluation; and
• the contribution of UNICEF to the achievement of the results;

2. To assist in the development of national capacities for child rights monitoring, evaluation and research, with special attention to the interest, concern and participation of government, community, and civil society stakeholders. 
3. To support Country Office’s efforts in knowledge management by identifying, documenting and sharing lessons learned and good practices related to child rights within the Country Office and in the country.
4. Where relevant, to assist in the establishment of monitoring and evaluation tools which enhance partnership between the UN Country Team, government and other key players to collectively track progress made by the country in meeting its international commitments for children. 

Key Expected Results

• Strengthening child rights systems monitoring;
• Situation Monitoring and Assessment;
• Evaluation;
• Knowledge Management;
• Contribution to Networking and Advocacy;
• Monitoring, Evaluation & Research Planning.

Key Accountabilities and Duties & Tasks 

1. Strengthening child-rights system monitoring.

Strengthen monitoring and evaluation capacities of national, regional and local partners, from the government, the parliament and civil society as well as the independent child rights institutions and  mechanisms are enhanced and that stakeholders  have at their disposal disaggregated evidence to influence, develop, implement, monitor and evaluate international commitments, national, regional and local policies, allocations of resources and programme implementation models, focusing on child- related disparities and inequities.

1. Duties & Tasks

• Maintain and develop partnerships with relevant stakeholders, the parliament and civil society to establish and/or strengthen the existing independent monitoring and evaluation systems and processes so that reliable and disaggregated data and analysis on the situation of disadvantaged and excluded are available to, and used by, decision-makers in the development childr-related policies and programmes.
• Systematically promote equity-based child rights indicators and monitoring systems in partnerships
• Actively seek partnerships with centres of excellence for the identification of capacity gaps (in terms of human resources, processes, indicators, etc.) to monitor and evaluation progressive realisation of child rights and reduction of equity gaps and the development of strategies to address them.

2. Situation Monitoring and Assessment 

Ensure that the Country Office and national partners have timely and accurate measurement of change in the conditions of disadvantaged and excluded children 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 on equity for children.

Duties & Tasks

• Support partners in the establishment and management of national statistical databases (e.g., DevInfo); and contribution to regional and international databases (e.g. TransMonEE), 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 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 of equity gaps; and which allow,  when opportunities emerge to influence developmental and social policies.  This is to include technical support to global reporting obligations including national reports on progress toward international commitments for children, and toward CRC  and CEDAW fulfilment. 

• In coordination with other stakeholders, where applicable support the collection of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and other nationally or internationally agreed key social development indicators (through MICS or other surveys) to improve national planning.

• 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. Evaluation

Ensures that UNICEF-supported evaluations (such as joint evaluations of public policies and programmes or impact evaluations of pilots) are strategically selected and conducted in accordance with UN quality standards. Ensures that the results of these evaluations are disseminated in a timely fashion to internal and external stakeholders to inform public programme design and performance and contribute to national and corporate learning.

Duties & Tasks

• Technically support programme colleagues and national partners in identifying and designing strategic evaluations. This may include joint evaluation of public policies and programmes, impact evaluation of models and pilots and participation to strategic multi-country evaluations.

• Technically support programme colleagues and national partners to jointly formulate Terms of Reference and evaluation designs of high quality, when relevant drawing on the know-how of knowledge institutions, in compliance with the UNEG evaluation norms and standards.

• Monitor and ensure the quality of the field work and data management during the programme implementation phase, and the quality of the analysis and ease of understanding during the report writing phase as per UNICEF evaluation policy and guidelines.

• 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 jointly developed by all relevant stakeholders, 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.

4. Knowledge Management

Ensure that UNICEF contributes to national, regional and international learning on child rights by sharing knowledge, good practices and lessons and by supporting national partners and civil society to share the same with other countries.

Duties & Tasks

• Coordinates the CO efforts to support the government, the parliament and civil society in the identification of good practices in  and support their dissemination within the country, regionally and internationally (as relevant) by partners themselves.
• Undertake lessons-learned reviews on 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.

5. Contribution to Networking and Advocacy  

Ensure that the UNICEF partnerships, networking and advocacy are effectively supported by relevant and evidence-based research and knowledge related to children in the country, focusing on the most vulnerable children. 

Duties & Tasks

• Strengthen the capacity of UNICEF colleagues and national partners, including the media, to generate and use reliable and disaggregated data and analysis on the situation of vulnerable children for their own interventions and advocacy for child rights.
• Link UNICEF’s partnerships and advocacy strategies with the knowledge strategy to ensure that the CO has at its disposal the latest data and analysis on vulnerable children and their families, generated by UNICEF or partners.

6. 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 UNDAF M&E Plans from a sound results-based programming process.
• Collaborate with Regional M&E Advisers and HQ Evaluation Office for overall coordination of priority research, monitoring and evaluation activities, especially those of regional scope requiring the coordinated effort of multiple countries.
• Identify the M&E objectives, priorities, and activities required for effective 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.

Qualifications of 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:
• Five years of relevant professional work experience. field work experience 
• At least one instance of exposure to emergency programming, including preparedness planning. Active involvement in a humanitarian crisis response programme preferred. 
• Fluency in English and Russian UN languages of the duty station required, as well as knowledge of local language is an asset.

Competencies of Successful Candidate

Core Values 

• Commitment 
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Integrity

Core competencies

• Communication    
• Working with People  
• Drive for Result  

Functional Competencies

• Leading and Supervising  
• Formulating Strategies and Concepts  
• Analyzing  
• Applying Technical Expertise  
• Planning and Organizing  

Technical Knowledge  

Specific Technical Knowledge Required 

• Human Rights Based Approach to Planning.
• Knowledge of Project Evaluation.
• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in Evaluation Process Management.
• Follow-up on Recommendations and Dissemination of M&E results.
• Emerging international good practice in monitoring and evaluation partnerships.

Common Technical Knowledge Required

• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in demography, statistics, and data management.
• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in methodology of M&E, including  theories, standards and models, quantitative/qualitative/mixed methods, validity/reliability testing of data, data analysis and interpretation, and statistical inference methods.
• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in Activity Monitoring & Evaluation, Evaluation Design, data analysis, and reporting.
• Human Rights, Gender equality and diversity awareness 

Technical Knowledge to be Acquired/Enhanced 

• Professional/technical knowledge/expertise in Team Management, Coaching & Training.
• Mastery of UNICEF's M&E policies and procedures.  
• Latest programme monitoring and evaluation theory, methodology, technology and tools.
• Understanding of UN Mission and system, current key UN topics; and International Code of Conduct. 
• Understanding of UNICEF Mission Statement and UNICEF Guiding Principles.
• UNICEF strategic framework for partnerships and collaborative relationships.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.