Monitoring & Evaluation Officer - Yemen Livelihood and Human Security

In Yemen, since mid-March 2015, the conflict has spread to 20 of the country’s 22 governorates, prompting a large-scale protection crisis and aggravating an already dire humanitarian crisis brought on by years of poverty, poor governance and ongoing instability. Human rights violations are reported to be committed by all warring parties. Since the intensification of fighting, the number of people in need of some form of humanitarian assistance has increased by 33% from 15.9 million to 21.1 million people. This means that 80% of Yemen’s population now require some assistance to meet their basic needs for food, water, healthcare, shelter and other basic supplies, or to protect their fundamental rights. More than 12 million people have been directly affected by the conflict, including more than 7 million children.

The GoJ- funded Yemen Livelihood and Human Security aims to contribute to stability in Yemen by strengthening the resilience of communities to resist and recover from the conflict. The project proposes doing that through targeted interventions that increase socioeconomic opportunities, restore livelihoods, facilitate community dialogue, increase access to priority services and provide alternatives to conflict for youth. The objective of the project is to strengthen the resilience of the Yemeni community to cope with the effects of the current unrest and enable those whose livelihoods were severely disrupted to recover and rebuild their lives.

Project Outcome: Enhancing stability and peace-building, as well as providing opportunities for livelihoods to vulnerable groups and provision of socio-economic infrastructure; which will result in strengthening the resilience of communities that will in turn contribute to reduction of the conflict. Within the project timeframe, the following results will be achieved:
Outputs and activities:

• Activity Result 1: Emergency employment opportunities created for improved service delivery and
• repair of basic community infrastructure
• Activity Result 2: Emergency support provided for vulnerable groups with special attention to women headed household
• Activity Result 3: Stabilization Opportunity Response Initiatives (SORIs)

YLHS will focus on the most vulnerable such as women, the unemployed, youth, the Muhamasheen, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and stressed host communities, using inclusive, participatory and conflict-sensitive tools to mobilize and involve them in the proposed activities. Active partnerships with local authorities, the private sector, communities, and NGOs will be sought for the successful implementation of the programme.
UNDP as the Convening Agency is responsible for coordinating programmatic aspects, and the Administrative Agent (UNDP’s Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office) is responsible for financial management, with each participating UN organization having programmatic and financial responsibility for the funds entrusted to it. The project team composes of National Coordinator and Admin and Finance Analyst in Aden and will be led by the Project Manager in Sanaa.

A set of gender and conflict sensitive indicators will be defined to measure the performance of the programme at the outputs and outcomes levels. If not available, the baseline data for those indicators will be collected at the beginning of the programme, especially those to monitor change for the most vulnerable groups and individuals targeted. Moreover UNDP has already conducted several assessments in the livelihoods area that provides quantitative and qualitative information about the current situation at the governorates level, which could be used as baseline reference for the programme.  Indicators will be monitored on a regular basis, the frequency will be set according to the level of results intended to be measure (outputs vs outcome) and the utilization to be done of the indicator (monitoring vs evaluation). A peacebuilding strategy, check list and set of monitoring indicators will be developed in the programme initiation phase (during the first three months of implementation) to be used under the different programme components.

Annual monitoring visit will be conducted, to assess the implementation of activities and progress towards the results and to formulate concrete recommendations to ensure the achievement of the expected results. A monitoring, evaluation and reporting action plan will be created to ensure that all relevant activities are being conducted in a timely manner. Project evaluations will be shared with the GoJ, serving as an important part of the overall GoJ accountability framework.

A mid-term evaluation of the programme will be conducted to assess the progress towards the results, identify the main difficulties/constraints and formulate practical recommendations to improve the programme implementation as to achieve the expected results. A final evaluation will be realized to assess the achievement of the results and the impact of the programme for the targeted populations.

In addition to ongoing re-alignments in response to real-time monitoring the risks and assumptions will be managed to achieve the agreed results. They will also be reviewed on an annual basis and more regularly if appropriate.

A quarterly progress report will be produced for internal purposes, at the end of the first, second and third quarter, as to monitor the implementation of the annual work plan, the risks and main issues, and to evaluate the progress towards the expected outputs. At the end of the calendar year, an annual report will be produced to: monitor the completion of the annual work plan (AWP), assess the results achieved towards the expected outputs and outcomes; analyze the major constraints (risks, issues…) that might impact the delivery of results and propose concrete solutions/mitigation measures; analyze key challenges and lessons learnt; present the financial reporting; established the AWP for the following year.

In Yemen, UNDP ensure support to government through provision of technical and functional expertise in the areas of: resilience building; coordination; knowledge management; capacity development; mobilization of additional financial resources; and development of strategic partnerships and alliances to enhance the recovery process and the transition towards sustainable development. 

To lead the development and implementation of all M&E related activities and ensure real time monitoring and timely adjustments to implementation, promoting maximum impact and conflict sensitivity, a monitoring and evaluation officer is recruited for the YLHS UNDP component.

• Support the development of the YLHS M&E framework and ensure timely implementation of the M&E plan;
• In line with a UNDP YLHS M&E framework, identify data collection methodologies, frequency, implementation modality, and costing, and draft terms of reference for data collection, evaluation mission/ consultancy, analysis if needed;
• Assist the YLHS Project Manager in coordinating across the available components of the project to ensure effective implementation of M&E, including seeking synergies across participating UN Organizations for harmonization and maximization of available resources;
• Assist the setting-up of monitoring mechanisms through independent third parties, to identify weaknesses and provide timely support; as required, provide technical advice to PUNOs on third party monitoring through qualified NGOs, build capacity for implementing partner with clear work-plans and standard operating procedures (SOPs);
• On an annual basis, and more regularly if appropriate, review risks and assumptions to achieve the agreed programme results, including monitoring of perceptions at the community level, and advise the Project Manager accordingly, in addition to ongoing re-alignments in response to real-time monitoring;
• Assist with both the mid-term and final evaluations of the programme, to assess the progress towards the results, identify the main difficulties/constraints and formulate practical recommendations to improve the programme implementation as to achieve the expected results and the impact of the programme for the targeted populations.

• Conduct periodic field visits to two Governorates to monitor progress and bottlenecks, delays and other challenges; track results, lessons and risks, analyze these to determine impact, and advise the UNDP Project National Coordinator in the area of responsibility and Project manager on recommended lines of action; provide inputs to the Issues Log and Risk Log for the project;
• Participate in annual monitoring visits to assess the implementation of activities and progress towards the results and to formulate concrete recommendations to ensure the achievement of the expected results;
• Provide regular feedback to the YLHS Project Manager on project strategies and activities, and suggest strategies to the Project Management Team for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the project activities by identifying bottlenecks in completing project activities and developing plans to minimize or eliminate such bottlenecks.

• In coordination with YLHS National Coordinator in Aden keep track of deadlines of donor reporting requirements and ensure timely and appropriate inputs are submitted to YLHS Project Manager;
• Provides inputs at the area level to:
  • a quarterly progress report for internal purposes, at the end of the first, second and third quarter, as to monitor the implementation of the annual work plan, the risks and main issues, and to evaluate the progress towards the expected outputs;
  • an annual report, at the end of the calendar year, to monitor the completion of the annual work plan (AWP), assess the results achieved towards the expected outputs and outcomes; analyze the major constraints (risks, issues…) that might impact the delivery of results and propose concrete solutions/mitigation measures; analyze key challenges and lessons learnt; present the financial reporting; established the AWP for the following year.
• Draft any other ad-hoc project report as needed.

• Contribute to identify and formulate lessons learned from evaluations in the area of responsibility;
• Recommend further improvement of the logical frame-work and translating it into an actionable M&E plan/strategy in line with over YLHS results framework;
• Organize and conduct training on M&E for project staff in the area of responsibility;
• Provide in-house training on results-based reporting to the colleagues in the field.

• Ability to engage and foster operational partnerships with local authorities, Inter-Agency Coordination and forge productive working relationships.

• Human rights and gender equality is prioritized as an ethical principle within all actions;
• Activities are designed and implemented in accordance with “Social and Environmental Standards of UNDP”;
• Any kind of diversities based on ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability, religion, class, gender are respected within all implementations including data production;
• Differentiated needs of women and men are considered;
• Inclusive approach is reflected within all actions and implementations, in that sense an enabling and accessible setup in various senses such as disability gender language barrier is created;
• Necessary arrangements to provide gender parity within all committees, meetings, trainings etc. introduced.

Education: 

• Masters's degree in project management with emphasis on public administration, economic, development studies, or related Social Science fields and specialized in monitoring and evaluation of the programmes and projects;
• Bachelor’s degree in project management with emphasis on public administration, economics, development Studies, or related Social Science fields with two additional years of experience as indicated in the “Experience” section below could be accepted in lieu of the Master’s degree.

Experience: 

• Minimum five years of relevant working experience with bachelor’s degree or three years with Master’s degree in the areas of monitoring and evaluation including below;
• in depth knowledge of results-based planning, monitoring, and reporting and solid experience in developing practical guidance and tools on M&E;
• Experience in the use of computers and office software packages, and in handling of web-based management systems;
• Experience with up-to-date monitoring tools such as remote call monitoring, aerial photography, SMS campaign, mobile money monitoring, biometry will be an asset;
• Knowledge of UNDP and UN system programming is an asset;
• M&E experience with UNDP and/or other UN agencies is an asset;
• Previous work experience in UN programmes is an asset.

Language Requirements: 

• Fluency in English and Arabic, both written and oral.

Important applicant information

All posts in the SC categories are subject to local recruitment.

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