Vaka Pasifika Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Officer

Details

Mission and objectives

The UN Development Programme is the lead UN agency fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in more than 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and planet. In the Pacific, UNDP provides regional and country support to ten countries (Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu) and regional support to five countries (Cook Islands, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and Tokelau), together with a total population of 2.4 million. UNDP is guided by a Sub-regional Programme Document for the Pacific Island Countries and Territories 2018-2022, which in turn contributes to the achievement of an overarching UN system-wide Pacific Strategy. The Programme is shaped to assist countries to advance the global 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda tailored to each country's priorities, through focus on data, policy prioritization, participatory planning, and budgeting and monitoring - and with accelerated action to meet the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP seeks to target the most vulnerable i.e. people experiencing hardship, the marginalized living in remote rural areas, those who are vulnerable to climate and disaster risks, as well as women and youth excluded from socio-political and economic participation. UNDP adheres to an inclusive, pro-poor and human rights-based approaches that leverage cross-practice, multi-disciplinary expertise of UNDP.

Context

Pacific Islands countries (PICs) boast “big ocean” economies, with young and mobile populations and highly resilient and adaptative societies. Past and recent investments have however fallen short of developing diverse economies offering inclusive services and opportunities, resilient to external shocks and the increasing pace of climate disasters. While the scale of Pacific economies does not allow them to respond to all these challenges alone, public investment and revenues would gain from empowered officials accountable to keep basic service delivery and development priorities in mind while driving fiscal decisions. For this reason, the “Accountable Public Finances to serve Pacific people – Vaka Pasifika” project (hereafter Vaka Pasifika project) builds on the results of the “Strengthening Public Finance Management and Governance in the Pacific” (PFM) project implemented between 2018 and 2022 thanks to the support of the European Union. The proposed overarching goal of this project is to strengthen the governance mechanisms enabling Pacific countries to deliver public services that are better calibrated to meet specific needs of the people. Its specific focus will be to ensure scarce Pacific resources are better managed and the resource base available for achieving national development goals will be increased. To achieve this goal, PIC economies require stable and reliable institutions implementing the right mix of creativity and rigor informed by ground reality. The Project will contribute to this vision by (a) supporting oversight institutions and decision makers to define and implement their priorities through leadership and institutional capacity strengthening and (b) enhancing responsiveness of service delivery and public finance management by developing institutional mechanisms for engagement and openness and strengthening civil society capacity. The Vaka Pasifika project is implemented through a team based in Suva, Fiji in the UNDP Pacific Office. As part of the Effective Governance unit, the team is responsible for implementation of the project, its various activities and corresponding institutional processes and requirements. The Vaka Pasifika project focuses on the human and networked resources available to public finance stakeholders in the Pacific, one of the core focuses of the project is to grow a pool of resources working on tailored public finance and accountability tools for the Pacific. The Vaka Pasifika Monitoring and Evaluation team member acts across all outputs and activities and supports the Project Manager in reporting on and learning from activities and results. The M&E team member is expected to be a dynamic profile, with an ability to lead on designing the M&E processes, support other team members, conduct research, and propose new solutions but most importantly with the ability to lead the team in its learning process and support grantees and partners in reporting duties.

Task description

This UNV assignment is to integrate the Vaka Pasifika project team within the Effective Governance Unit of the UNDP Pacific Office. The Vaka Pasifika project is an iterative project with learning embedded in its core activities and workplan design – the M&E team member is in this regard an essential part of the project implementation and philosophy. The Vaka Pasifika project additionally is deeply engaged in discussions on decolonisation and localisation of development project, part of the focus is to alleviate the burden of reporting and monitoring for our local partners, the M&E team member is hence expected to support and take ownership of M&E activities and capacity support for the project partners. Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Vaka Pasifika Project Manager or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UNV Vaka Pasifika Monitoring and Evaluation Officer will: • Take overall responsibility for the project’s reporting activities: draft, compile inputs, finalise, ensure design and synthetic infographics for all ad-hoc, donor and corporate reporting requirements. Coordinate with UNDP focal points for corporate requirements (RMU, EG teams); • Take overall responsibility for the monitoring and update of risks, results and adaptative action in the workplan, log frame and on Quantum. • Support with the reporting requirements and needs of partners and technical specialist in collaborating with activity Manager and grants officer (generate templates, provide training, review and ensure quality or, support drafting where necessary); • Capture lessons learnt and facilitate regular learning sessions for the project team and support the Project Manager and Activity Manager in monitoring risks, emerging opportunities and support and take ownership of developing annual workplans, draft internal and external reports; • Design systems to constantly improve data collection notably disaggregated data, coordinate the baseline assessment and other feedback mechanisms, support project evaluation if necessary as well as spot-checks, HACTS and other administrative requirements (drafting, contracting, operational facilitation); • Support preparation of the regular board meetings (documentation, reflection, presentations); • Constantly seek exposure to global and regional communities of thinking and learning, bring back ideas and proposals to the project. • Maintenance of database and tracking of visibility outputs and production of communication and media reports. • Conduct learning events, seek and disseminate opportunities for project and technical learning, constantly update the Vaka Pasifika network on opportunities for growth and learning; • Support the learning process of the Vaka Pasifika fellowship – organise annual meeting for the community of practice and participate in the facilitation and organisation of the annual cohorts; • Where possible, support communication activities, management of the community of practice, event management and reporting. • Ensure that results are visible and communicated appropriately to the identified target audience of the project; • Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor. Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities: • Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day); • Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; • Provide annual and end of assignment self-reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities. • Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; • Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly arrived UN Volunteers; • Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible. Results/expected outputs: • As an active UNDP Pacific Office team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support rendered to UNDP Pacific Office and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including: - Support Vaka Pasifika Fellowship: Organization of learning component of Vaka Pasifika fellowship (3 events/year) - Project reports: Quarterly reports, annual reports, annual UNDP results reports - M&E capacity building and support to partners: Grantees report QA and drafting where necessary, training with PIANGO network. Develop package of templates and tracker tools. - Communication support: Develop infographics/visibility material for each report produced for wider dissemination (coordination with comms and graphic designer) - Learning process: Organize learning workshops for the Vaka Pasifika team and partners, facilitate design of workplans and review of risk monitors. Monthly basis. GESI plan. • Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment; • A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed.