Quality Assurance Specialist, (P-3), Bujumbura, Burundi #109326

Under the supervision of Chief Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, the incumbent will be accountable for monitoring and quality assurance of donor reports and proposals of all programme funds falling under UNICEF’s accountability, quality assurance of evaluations, formulate programmatic recommendations for programmatic quality improvement, as well as strengthening the capacities of UNICEF staff and partners on evaluations and reporting

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

Under the supervision of Chief Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, the incumbent will be accountable for monitoring and quality assurance of donor reports and proposals of all programme funds falling under UNICEF's accountability, quality assurance of evaluations, formulate programmatic recommendations for programmatic quality improvement, as well as strengthening the capacities of UNICEF staff and partners on evaluations and reporting. 

How can you make a difference?

1. Quality assurance of donor reports, proposals and other reports

• Update and maintain information on all the donor and programme proposal and reporting requirements. Ensure Programme Section Chiefs are updated on these requirements and follow up as required.
• Maintain a coherent system for tracking reports due to donors to ensure that they are submitted in high quality and on time.
• Review and edit draft reports and proposals ensuring that they meet established quality standards and follow guidance shared.
• Upload submitted donor reports and proposals to the system as applicable and maintain the office's electronical archive of them.
• Promote the understanding and capacities among staff members to produce quality reports through communication, training, learning and development activities organization-wide.
• Formulates recommendations for improvements of programme design (RBM) at the proposal stage.
• Support quality assurance and editing of the Country Office Annual Reports and Mid-Year Reports as required.

2. Quality assurance of evaluations

UNICEF-supported evaluations attain established UN quality standards, and the results are disseminated in a timely fashion to stakeholders for improving programme performance and contributing to national and corporate learning.

• 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.

3. Evaluation and management for results Capacity Building

The evaluation and management for results capacities of Country Office staff and national partners – government and civil society – enhanced with the contribution of UNICEF knowledge partners meet the expectations and requirements of their positions and responsibilities.

• Promotes and builds capacity on results-based planning and reporting among UNICEF staff and partners
• Promote the awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of the evaluation function among all staff members through communication, training, learning and development activities organization-wide. 
• In close collaboration with partners, ensure that an evaluation 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 evaluation policies, tools, 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.

4. Programme Quality Improvement

Programme design is improved by ensuring that programmatic recommendations of evaluations are taken into account in any follow up programming as well as a strengthened review of donor proposals to ensure programmatic design incorporates RBM approaches. .

• Provides programmatic design recommendations (RBM) based on the quality review of proposals and donor reports.
• Formulates recommendations for programme quality improvement based on the results of the evaluations.

5. Coordination and Networking

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

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

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will ha

• Advanced university degree in social sciences, statistics, planning development, planning.
• A minimum of 05 years of relevant professional experience  at national and international level. Emergency experience is an asset.
• Fluency in English and French. Fluency in another UN Language and in the national language of the duty station an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

The competencies required for this post are

• Leading and Supervising [ II ],
• Formulating Strategies and Concepts [ II ]
• Analyzing [ II ],
• Applying Technical Expertise  [ II ]
• Planning and Organizing [ III ]

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Burundi is a non-family duty station.