National Consultant - Monitoring and Reporting

Background

UNDP globally and regionally has built a strategic vision that recognizes the importance of creating employment opportunities as a means to addressing both poverty reduction and inequalities and exclusion. In its activities, UNDP in Albania systemically addresses the needs of vulnerable people and communities such as women, youth, people with disabilities, Rom and Egyptians.

The relevant portfolio builds on UNDP partnerships, past work and experience, including in employment and skills development, social inclusion and private sector engagement. Over the past 9 years, UNDP Albania, has implemented several skills development/employment related interventions and it has built a strategic vision that recognizes the importance of creating employment opportunities as a means to addressing both poverty reduction and inequalities and exclusion.

UNDP Albania’s strategic vision is to contribute to building a labour-market focused skills development system that is suited to enhance the employment and entrepreneurship aspects of the unemployed in urban and rural areas, while simultaneously addressing the skills needs of those employed in the formal and informal sectors and emerging entrepreneurs.

The ambition of the Swiss funded Skills Development for Employment (SD4E) Programme is to make a systemic contribution to the modernization of Al­bania’s VET/VSD system by addressing several key challenges: skills mismatch and unequal access to employment and training services; labour market challenges in rural areas; insufficient governance of funding for employment and training; lack of coor­dination / collaboration in the system; inadequate labour market information; and insufficient quality and relevance of VET and VSD providers and their programmes. The overall goal of the programme is that “more young women and men in urban and rural areas in Albania are employed or self-employed.” In order to achieve this goal, the programme focuses on four outcomes:

Outcome 1:       Improving and diversifying employment promotion measures, and advancing their governance

Outcome 2:       Improved environment and regulatory framework for up-scaling work-based learning schemes (elements of dual system)

Outcome 3:       Quality assurance and accreditation of VET/VSD providers

Outcome 4:       Anticipating skills needs in the short and medium term

In addition, the UNDP Albania is implementing an intervention seeking to help mobilize private sector financing for piloting of an Employment and Skills Development Fund for persons with disabilities, whose employment and training needs remain largely unaddressed.

Given that the private sector financing and government cost-sharing in areas of human and social rights are still very limited, the overall aim of the intervention is to convene the private sector and catalyze their capital for social and developmental impact and to address this discrepancy through a social impact fund.

The intervention pursues several specific objectives:

1) To leverage the significantly larger capital, equity and assets of the private sector for a social cause with the ultimate aim of raising income of people with disabilities by providing them with opportunities/interventions to acquire productive skills and strive towards independent lives;

2) To operationalize the Law in favour of persons with disabilities and setting up the Fund and mechanism for private investments and government cost-sharing, and eventually for loans and levies for future blended financing; and

3) To promote social impact investments and public private partnerships.

Recognizing the need to carefully measure the results and collect the lessons learned gained from the implementation of the above interventions the UNDP Albania is seeking to hire the Monitoring and Reporting Officer to strengthen monitoring, evaluation and reporting capacity for the above interventions.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the UNDP Programme Specialist, the Project Officer will be responsible for the design, coordination and implementation of the monitoring and evaluation, research, and learning framework of the interventions. He/she will develop a systematic monitoring framework to improve the qualitative and quantitative evidence gathered in the course of implementation and ensure that it serves as a basis for further programming and adjustment of activities.

The Project Officer works in close collaboration with the programme team and CO programme and operations units, Government officials, private sector, non-government and civil society organizations. 

The incumbent will have the following responsibilities:

• Assist in the revision of the project log frame matrix, particularly in the areas of performance indicators and their measurement;
• Assist in the development and/or finalization of the project Work Plans and keep it updated in accordance with project activities and timeframes as relevant.
• Develop the overall framework, for project M&E, impact assessment, final evaluation, develop project Performance Monitoring Plan with relevant data collection systems.
• Review the quality of existing data in the project subject areas, the methods of collecting it, and the degree to which it will provide good baseline statistics for impact evaluation.
• With collaborating partners, review their existing approaches and management information systems and agree on any required changes, support and resources.
• Collect data on a regular basis to measure achievement against the performance indicators.
• Maintain and administer the project’s document database; information and data, analyse and aggregate findings.
• Support project progress reporting, project reviews and final evaluation.
• Identify lessons learned and develop case studies to capture qualitative outputs of the project. Provide advice to the supervisor on improving project performance using M&E findings.
• Produce monitoring reports and prepare presentations based on M&E data as required.
• Provide the CO with management information she/he may require.
• Perform other duties as may be assigned by the Programme Specialist

To ensure the delivery of the above tasks, the Consultant will:

• Work closely with the team of the Skills Development for Employment Programme for resolving any implementation issues or sharing information on progress of implementation;
• Contribute to research, needs assessment and fact-finding activities, information sharing etc;
• Support and closely collaborate with other consultants mandated by UNDP for purposes related to the programme;
• Ensure good collaboration and networking with other national and international institutions concerned issues related to the area of responsibility;
• Coordinate the work and find synergies whenever possible at with other donor or GoA funded interventions in order to increase the impact generated by the programme.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity;
• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgement;
• Self-development, initiative-taking;
• Act as a team player and facilitate team work;
• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
• Creating synergies through self-control;
• Managing conflict;
• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others;
• Informed and transparent decision-making.

Functional Competencies:

• Knowledge and expertise of data collection techniques and tools, and familiarity with M&E concepts, etc.;
• Strong communication skills (written, spoken, composing, presentation) and ability to share expertise for capacity building;
• Political and cultural sensitivity and commitment to UNDP’s development objectives in the country.

Required Skills and Experience

• Master degree in International Development, Economics, Social Sciences or closely related field is required;
• Minimum 5 years of professional experience in development cooperation with international organizations, preferably with substantive knowledge on economic development, employment vocational education and monitoring and evaluation systems
• Substantive knowledge of data collection techniques and tools, and proven familiarity with M&E concepts is highly desirable.
• Excellent writing and editing skills, with an excellent command of English, and an ability to convey complex ideas in a creative, clear, direct, and lively style;
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Prior exposure to employment / VET related programmes is preferable;
• Previous experience/familiarity with UNDP, other UN agencies or international organisations is desirable;
• Full working knowledge of English and Albanian is essential

Evaluation Procedure

Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated. Individual consultants will be evaluated based on Combined Scoring method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal. Applicants obtaining 49 % or more of the total technical points will be considered for financial evaluation.

Combined weighted scoring: 

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation – max points: 70

• Educational background. (20 points)
• Substantive knowledge on economic development, employment and skills development, private sector (30)
• Professional experience – coordination, support, drafting, presenting, monitoring in multi-stakeholder environments including the government and the private sector and/or development cooperation. (20 points)

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation – max points: 30

Application Procedure

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. The application should contain:

• Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application.
• Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability-please fill in the attached form...http://www.un.org.al/doc/PSU_%20Individual%20Contract_Letter%20to%20UNDP.docx
• Filled P11 form including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees, please upload the P11 instead of your CV. Download here.
• Financial Proposal in ALL* - specifying a total lump sum in Albanian Lek  for the tasks specified in this announcement.  The attached template may be used - http://www.un.org.al/doc/Financial%20Offer%20template.doc Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant during the contract period (e.g. fee and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services).
• Copy of Diplomas and copy of Passport.

* Kindly note that Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal are two separate documents and should be both part of your application.

How to Submit the Application:

How submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

• Download and complete the UN Personal History Form (P11) for Service Contracts (SCs) and Individual Contracts (ICs);

• Merge your UN Personal History Form (P11) for Service Contracts (SCs) and Individual Contracts (ICs), Financial Proposal, Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability  and cover letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded;

• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement); 

• Click “Apply Now” button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click “Submit Application;”

• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above);

• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

• Merge your UN Personal History Form (P11) for Service Contracts (SCs) and Individual Contracts (ICs), Financial Proposal Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and cover letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded

UNDP retains the right to contact references directly. Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Qualified women and individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.