Child Rights Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist ( open to Montenegro nationals only )

Podgorica

Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
Location: Podgorica
Grade: Mid level - NO-C, National Professional Officer - Locally recruited position
Occupational Groups:
- Human Rights
- Women's Empowerment and Gender Mainstreaming
- Education, Learning and Training
- Monitoring and Evaluation
- Children's rights (health and protection)
- Early Childhood Development
- Adolescent Development
Closing Date: Closed

UNICEF in Montenegro is seeking for an experience professional to join our team and support UNICEF's CRM function in monitoring progress towards the full realisation of child rights for all children and to ensure high quality of evaluations to strengthen national information, data and knowledge systems.

I. Organizational Context

The new UNICEF Strategic Plan highlights, the importance of evidence and data to document “what works and does not work to achieve results for the most disadvantaged children, and why”. The SP also underscores the importance of information and knowledge to “influence domestic planning, financing and delivering of services for children”.

Today, the overriding national priority in Montenegro is to join the EU. The accession process generated important reform processes in all sectors - social, economic, political, justice and security sectors. This represent an opportunity for UNICEF - like never before - to advance child rights and ensure that no child is left behind. Seizing up on this opportunity, reliable disaggregated data and evidence on the situation of children including the equity gaps, have never been more required, to ensure the best interest of children is reflected in the ongoing national reform processes.

In Montenegro, UNICEF is committed to strengthening national capacities to engage in CRM/SDG monitoring, in order to so, it is imperative to strengthen the quality of evidence on what works for children. This is a key strategy of UNICEF Country Programme (2017 – 2021), in which the Country Programme intend to bring down bottlenecks and barriers to services for marginalized children and build an inclusive society. To attain these results (as included in the CPD), it is of utmost importance to reinforce national monitoring and guarantee systems for delivering on child rights. To deliver on the expected leadership of UNICEF, reliable, predictable and sustainable professional capacity is necessary. The office need to secure a set of skills that are essential to monitor progress towards the full realisation of child rights for all children and to ensure high quality of evaluations to strengthen national information, data and knowledge systems.

II. Purpose of the Job

Under the direct supervision of the Representative, and in close coordination with the Deputy Representative on programme related issues and Regional Advisor M&E for technical assistance and quality assurance, the incumbent is accountable for the planning and implementation of child rights monitoring (CRM), research and evaluation policies, strategies and activities in UNICEF Montenegro Country Office.

III. Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks

1. Strengthen monitoring capacity of national, regional and local partners - from the government, the parliament, independent child rights institutions/mechanisms and civil society. Support counterparts and partners’ capacity to generate high quality of disaggregated data and 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.

2. 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. This includes monitoring of socio-economic trends and national policies, legal frameworks, economic and institutional context, to facilitate planning and to draw conclusions about the impact of programmes or policies on equity for children.

3. Develop partnerships and collaborate with internal and external counterparts, including those of the UN and national partners, in order to exchange information, improve the ability to collect and disseminate data on the situation of children, coordinate the planning and implementation of Human Rights related activities. Create linkage to the regional and global Child Rights Knowledge Networks to ensure that national policies and legal frameworks are in accordance with international Child Rights standards.

4. Maintain collaboration with relevant Regional Advisers and HQ Officers for effective overall coordination on support and technical guidance.

5. In collaboration with programme team, support planning, monitoring and implementation of activities by providing technical guidance and contribute to the country programme advocacy strategy results.

6. Lead the planning and management of the evaluation function at the country office in line with UNICEF’s evaluation policy by developing a workplan for the evaluation function, managing the overall implementation of the evaluations and providing guidance and technical support to sectors, senior management and the CMT on evaluation related matters. Identifies and lead the implementation of CO evaluations.

7. Manages the CO evaluations, ensure they are impartial, independent and credible and meet UNICEF/UNEG quality standards. Contribute to represent UNICEF in UNDAF evaluations and other cross sectoral and thematic evaluations. Contribute to the conceptualization of the country programme mid-term reviews and new Country Programme Documents from an evaluation perspective. Fosters organizational accountability and learning based on the outcome of the evaluations.

8. Lead and coordinates the preparation of the multi-year rolling and annual IMEPs (integrated Monitoring, Evaluation and Research plans – now called “PRIME”) of the CO.

9. Develops and manages internal quality assurance system for evaluations; and follows up on evaluation findings and recommendations.

10. Foster policy level and academic partnerships with a view to support national evaluation capacity development initiatives; and to contribute to the generation and dissemination of innovations and knowledge on evaluation related matters.

IV. Impact of Results

To successfully influence national policies and to unlock resources for children, generation of knowledge and alternative and innovative ways to reach excluded groups are crucial strategies. Child Rights Monitoring and Evaluation are essential parts of this effort and often serve as important catalyst for change – especially when partner staff are engaged.

V. Competencies and level of proficiency required

Core Values

Commitment
Diversity and inclusion
Integrity

Core competencies:


Communication (II)
Working with people (II)
Drive for results (II)

Functional Competencies:

• Leading and Supervising [ II ]
• Formulating Strategies and Concepts   [ II ]
• Analyzing   [ II ]
• Relating and Networking    [ II ]
• Persuading and Influencing   [ II ]
• Creating and Innovating   [ II ]

VI. Recruitment Qualifications:

Education:

An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: Social Sciences, Statistics, Public Policy, Social Policy , or another relevant technical field.

Experience: