Chief Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, P-4, Mexico City, Mexico #553895 (Temp Appointment)

Contract

This is a P-4 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 150,373 USD and 193,875 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, love

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education, and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. Therefore, the focus on equity is vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

Mexico is a country of origin, transit, and destination for migrant children from the countries of northern Central America, seeking safety and opportunity in Mexico or the United States. These are children fleeing from gang-related and gender-based violence, organized crime, extortion, poverty and limited access to education and social services. They have been repeatedly exposed to threats, intimidation, and insecurity in a lawless environment. Many also want to be reunited with their families who reside in the United States.

UNICEF is supporting state and local authorities in the rapid identification, registration and care of unaccompanied and separated children and adolescents who have entered the country or are moving through Mexico on both the northern and southern borders. UNICEF is providing technical assistance to child protection, nutrition and education authorities to implement standard procedures and case management. UNICEF is also supporting the implementation of alternative care options for short and long-term solutions. UNICEF is also a key actor providing mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to displaced children and their families, currently housed in different shelters across the country, through recreational and sports activities with the support of implementing partners.

Mexico is also a country prone to emergencies. Mexico's complex landscape, extensive coastline and unique geological and climatic environment make it vulnerable to a range of natural disasters, including earthquakes and tsunamis, floods and landslides, volcanic eruptions and meteorological hazards. Each of these primary hazards is in turn associated with a number of secondary hazards (e.g., flooding from tropical cyclone rainfall or landslides from earthquakes) that affect children.

How can you make a difference?

The incumbent of this position reports to the Country Representative, Mexico, and is responsible for providing professional technical, expertise on planning, monitoring, reporting and knowledge management to the teams in the Mexico Country Office.

The Chief Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation is responsible for preparing, executing, managing, and implementing a variety of technical tasks to contribute to planning, monitoring implementation, oversight and reporting to ensure effectiveness and contribute to results. The incumbent is also responsible for supporting Knowledge Management and Evaluation within the Country Office.

1. Programme planning, monitoring and evaluation:
2. Budget and Contribution Management
3. Results-Based Management Capacity Development and Quality Assurance
4. Resources Mobilization and reporting

Programme planning, monitoring and evaluation:

• Provide substantive technical leadership and support to the Deputy Representative Programme for the Country Programme process, including in the preparation of Strategy Notes, the Country Programme Document (CPD), the Country Programme Management Plan (CPMP) and coordination of UNICEF inputs to the UN Country Assessment, the UNSDCF and Joint Programmes, ensuring coherence with the UNICEF CPD and the emerging needs of children.
• Identify problems or alternative courses of action to accelerate/ improve programme delivery.
• Make professional contributions to and provide technical assistance to the planning and establishing of the major monitoring and evaluation objectives, priorities, and activities in UNICEF’s multi-year and annual Integrated, Monitoring and Evaluation plans (IMEPs), in consultation with implementing partners and other Monitoring and Evaluation colleagues.
• Support the implementation of Field Offices plans including supporting them in planning, monitoring and reporting.
• Undertake visits to counterparts and field offices to identify and manage risks in programme planning and implementation.
• Ensure timely implementation and effective programme monitoring of UNICEF inputs (cash, supply, contracts, training, and travel) and provide technical leadership to quarterly and annual reviews and planning exercises. Undertake frequent monitoring visits to assess the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of UNICEF assistance for planning monitoring and adjustment of strategies and approaches.
• Provide guidance and procedures to programme teams on all aspects of programme planning monitoring and evaluation according to UNICEF’s, policies, guidelines and operational procedures, especially those specifically developed for the Country Programme.
• Ensure establishment of an effective monitoring system for regular assessment of UNICEF and partner programme performance aligned with specific targets and outcomes related to the Country Programme goals and ensure linkages between sub-national government and national monitoring systems.
• Organize capacity building for an effective programme monitoring system which reflects UNICEF’s contribution and enhances and facilitates Country Programme implementation.
• Prepare programme status reports required for management and donors, budget reviews, programme analysis, annual reports, etc.

Budget and Contribution Management:

• Ensure that the Country Office budget is managed in line with results-based budgeting principles and standards and that grants are reported on and used in line with donor commitments.
• Actively follow up with Programme sections to ensure effective and timely budget planning and expenditure, including ensuring compliance with IPSAS.
• Establish systems to monitor the optimum and appropriate use of program resources (financial, human, administrative, and other assets) and verify compliance with organizational rules, regulations and procedures, donor commitments, and standards of accountability and integrity in collaboration with the operations team.
• Oversee, provide guidance and supervise staff responsible for fund management with an increasing focus on results-based budgeting and spending as well as monitoring of spending against results. This includes regular interaction with Section Chiefs and Chiefs of Field Offices on various aspects of fund management, determining the resource envelope for the various programmes and overseeing that the Office achieves all the global indicators related to fund management. It also includes linking expenditures to programmes by systematically using coding expenditures in line with results-based budgeting principles.
• Ensure that UNICEF’s dashboard system of performance management and reporting is well understood, updated, and applied across the office.
• Manage and supervise the implementation of the Harmonized Cash Transfer (HACT) assurance activities in line with UNICEF procedures and policies.
• Ensure proper use of eTools in the office and provide overall quality assurance and documentation of HACT.
• Provide quality assurance on grants management, including ensuring that donor funding is spent in line with commitments; full utilization including facilitation of no-cost extension for grants and fund reversals.

Results-Based Management (RBM) Capacity Development and Quality Assurance

• Ensure that the planning, monitoring, and evaluation capacities of Country Office staff and national partners – government and civil society organizations – are strengthened, enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead planning, monitoring and evaluation processes.
• Promote awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of RBM among all staff members through communication, training, learning, and development activities Office-wide.
• Oversee the quality review of draft PCAs/PDs, from a RBM perspective.
• In close collaboration with partners, ensure that a RBM capacity development approach for UNICEF/UN staff, national partners and institutions is developed, implemented and updated.
• Actively seek partnerships with knowledge institutions, including other UN agencies, for the identification of capacity gaps and development of strategies to address these.

Resource mobilization and reporting

• Support Office-level resource mobilization via monitoring of donor contributions and quality assurance of proposals for funding and donor reports.
• Monitor overall fundraising levels for different outputs of the UNICEF Country Programme for informed decision making against Country Office resource mobilization initiatives.
• Review and negotiate donor partnership agreements in the country, ensuring alignment with globally negotiated frameworks. Act as CO focal point for grants related program verification in coordination with related program sections and operations teams.
• Quality-assurance of donor proposals to ensure competitive submissions and review of donor reports to highlight results and ensure adherence to negotiated requirements.
• Maintain a central repository for the Office on donor agreements, proposals, reports and donor communication for decision making and lessons learned.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education:

An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in the fields of social sciences, statistics, economics, development, planning or similar. A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.

Experience:

• A minimum of 8 of relevant professional experience in any of the following areas or in a combination of the following areas: programme/project planning, monitoring, evaluation, and results reporting.

The following experiences are not required but will be considered an asset:

• Management of complex budgets.
• A Results-Based Management (RBM) background.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization.

Language:

• Fluency in English is required.
• A intermediate level of Spanish is required, but complete fluency is preferred. If the person hired is not fluent, he/she will have to commit to improving their English skills in the first six/twelve months of work.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability (CRITA) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: https://uni.cf/UNICEFValues

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable male are encouraged to apply.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.