Evaluation and Knowledge Management Specialist

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF, also known as the United Nations Children's Fund, is a United Nations agency responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide. The agency is among the most widespread and recognizable social welfare organizations in the world, with a presence in 192 countries and territories. UNICEF's activities include providing immunizations and disease prevention, administering treatment for children and mothers with HIV, enhancing childhood and maternal nutrition, improving sanitation, promoting education, and providing emergency relief in response to disasters.

Context

In June 2018, UNICEF’s Executive Board approved the revised Evaluation Policy of UNICEF. This policy sets out the purpose and use of evaluation in UNICEF, provides definitions, norms, and standards, and outlines governance arrangements and accountabilities as well as performance standards for the evaluation function. It aims to increase the quality, independence, credibility, and utility of evaluation evidence for learning, decision-making, and accountability, which in turn support better results for children. One of the key accountabilities for UNICEF’s East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) is to provide support and oversight for quality assurance activities and evaluations. The revised Evaluation Policy demands an increase in coverage and quality of evaluations. To facilitate the successful implementation of the policy, ESARO is increasing its technical capacity to meet its accountabilities

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the Regional Evaluation Adviser, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: 1. Strengthen the regional evaluation function. Support the implementation of the revised Regional Evaluation Framework and Action Plan in accordance with the UNICEF Evaluation Policy and build regional evaluation capacity. · Monitor and report on the implementation of the Regional Evaluation Framework and Action Plan and its key indicators against targets. · Support the implementation and update(s) of regional evaluation-related guidance notes on evaluation management and use, quality assurance, and national evaluation capacity development (NECD). · Organize and plan regular regional evaluation network meetings with relevant colleagues at country, regional, and headquarter levels, focusing on regional priorities and key evaluation topics. · Provide evaluation capacity development support at the country and regional levels, including the design and delivery of training curricula. · Support the NECD activities and management of NECD-related partnerships (including the regional Programme Cooperation Agreement with CLEAR-AA) at country and regional levels. · Support the development of, and maintain region-specific guidance on a range of topics, including Country Programme Evaluation terms of reference, and standard operating procedures for country offices on evaluation planning, management, quality assurance, and use. · Support other tasks related to strengthening the regional evaluation function, including providing support to country offices and the regional office in increasing evaluability, evaluation coverage, evaluation quality, independence of the evaluation function in country offices, etc 2. Evaluation design, management, quality assurance, and use. Support the planning, management, and quality assurance of country-level, multi-country and regional evaluations, as assigned by the Regional Evaluation Adviser. · Support evaluation planning, design, management, and use of specific evaluations (and evaluative work) of country offices. · Support the quality assurance function of the Evaluation Section, reviewing terms of ref-erence, inception reports, and draft evaluation reports. · Support the management of regional evaluations (and evaluative work), in accordance with the UNICEF Evaluation Policy and regional guidance notes on Evaluation Manage-ment and Use and Quality Assurance. 3. Regional knowledge management, peer support, and networking. Facilitate the sharing of, and learning from, evaluation-related lessons, conclusions and recommendations, and support knowledge exchanges on content and methods across and beyond arrange of regional stakeholders. · Maintain and update the Evaluation page of UNICEF ESARO public website in Share-Point. · Manage ESARO Evaluation Section’s SharePoint collaboration site and ensure the or-ganization of document libraries and their contents and the accessibility to relevant users. · Provide knowledge sharing and knowledge management supports to country offices on evaluation-related topics and matters. · Liaise with the Evaluation Office at headquarters on Evidence Information Systems Inte-gration (EISI) record keeping and related questions/issues. · Support ESARO’s Evaluation Section’s engagement in and contribution to United Nations Network for Evaluation in Sub-Saharan Africa (UNNESSA). · Develop knowledge products or organize knowledge sharing/peer learning events for different audiences on lessons, conclusions, and recommendations from country-specific, multi-country, and regional evaluations.