HEAD OF EVALUATION OFFICE

The Internal Oversight Service (IOS) provides the Director-General with independent and objective assurance, systematic review and advice designed to add value and improve programme design, delivery and accountability.

Evaluation helps UNESCO accomplish its objectives by assessing the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, coherence, impact and sustainability of UNESCO's programmes/activities/projects, while fostering institutional learning and a robust organizational evaluation culture.

Under the overall authority and direct supervision of the Director IOS and in line with the policy of Results Based Management, accountability for results and UNESCO's evaluation policy, the incumbent will be responsible for lOS' maintaining an effective organization-wide evaluation system to promote organizational learning and accountablity for results as well as an appropriate organizational evaluation culture.

The incumbent is accountable for ensuring the independent conduct and quality of corporate evaluations and shares a joint responsibility with other UNESCO’s entities for establishing a decentralized system of evaluations and promoting the use of evaluations.

The incumbent will provide day-to-day management of the Evaluation Office, including definition of expected results for staff and performance monitoring and appraisals, accomplishment of evaluation work plans, contribution to overall management of IOS, and participation in UNESCO and relevant inter-agency working groups, committees and management meetings.

In particular, the incumbent will\:

- Develop the biennial evaluation plan, the development and/or update of an evaluation strategy based on the evaluation policy and monitor progress towards its implementation and achieving the plan and strategy and related performance indicators;

- Ensure that all evaluations are carried out in compliance with the biennial evaluation plan of the Organization, the Director-General's requests, or the Executive Board's decisions;

- Provide quality control over the preparation of all evaluation related products (e.g. terms of reference, inception report, draft report, final report, annual reports);

- Ensure the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards and the evaluation policy are fully implemented;

- Ensure follow-up to the implementation of evaluation recommendations and the appropriate integration of

lessons learned into programme and policy-setting activities of the Organization;

- Lead teams, when appropriate, in the evaluation of programmes/projects financed from regular or extrabudgetary sources;

- Oversee the development of guidelines, procedures and methodologies to be applied by evaluators in assessing programme outcomes measured against planned objectives and targets, using performance indicators and with reference to the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, coherence sustainability and impact. The incumbent will be responsible for overseeing the design of training modules/materials and practical training of the Secretariat staff members in programme evaluation and programme audit;

- Guide support to decentralized evaluation through the development of guidance materials, help desk function and training of decentralized evaluation focal points;

- Engage in fund raising, resource mobilization and partnership development for evaluations, especially for large extra-budgetary projects or specific thematic undertakings;

- Support the Director of IOS in developing a stronger corporate evaluation culture. Lead the development and implementation of  a communications and dissemination strategy for each evaluation, ensuring the development of appropriate evaluation products and annual reports capturing strategic key findings, lessons and recommendations and promote proactively their use in the organization and at the system-wide level.

Education

• Advanced university degree (Masters degree or equivalent) in Evaluation, Social Sciences, International Relations, Business or Public Administration, Economics or related fields.

Work experience

• A minimum of ten (10) years of progressively responsible and relevant professional experience in the evaluation of programmes and projects of relevance to UNESCO’s mandate and activities.
• Relevant professional and progressively responsible experience acquired at the international level.

Skills/competencies

• Knowledge of the norms and standards for evaluation in the United Nations System.
• Knowledge of Results Based Management and performance indicators development.
• Knowledge of international standards and practices in evaluation and respective evaluation methodologies.
• Demonstrated leadership, team-building and organizational skills, with proven ability to maintain effective working relationships in a multicultural environment.
• Strategic thinking with an appetite for innovation.
• Thorough academic grip of evaluation principles, methodology and practices.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with proven ability to draft clearly and concisely.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to effectively deal with various internal/external partners and with sensitive matters.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the UNESCO Secretariat. For this post, excellent knowledge of English is required.