Child Rights Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist (NO-3), UNICEF Sarajevo, B&H, Fixed Term appointment, 1 year with possibility of an extension

Contract

This is a NO-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-3 contracts.

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, a champion

Why working for UNICEF video

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy, communication and operations.

UNICEF Bosnia and Herzegovina country programme for 2021–2025 results and strategies are fully aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as outlined in the emerging SDG Framework in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2021–2025. The country programme will also contribute to the achievement of priorities expressed in: (a) the Action Plan for the Implementation of Priorities from the European Commission Opinion and Analytical Report; (b) the “Joint Socio-Economic Reforms for the period 2019–2022’’; and (c) the human rights commitments of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the related treaty obligations, in particular the Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Consultations with government counterparts, civil society, academia, the private sector and young people informed the scope of the country programme.

The vision of the proposed country programme is that all children in Bosnia and Herzegovina will benefit from an equitable realization of their rights to health, education, protection, and participation, overcoming the existing bottlenecks and in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. The Theory of Change is that children will have more chances to survive, thrive and develop to their full potential if more children, from birth through adolescence, enjoy greater access to and use of strengthened service-delivery systems in health, nutrition, early childhood development, inclusive education, social protection, care and justice systems, and if parents and communities are enabled to fulfil children’s rights through positive social norms and practices.

How can you make a difference?

PURPOSE OF THE JOB

1. Under the supervision of the UNICEF BiH CO Deputy Representative, Child Rights Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist will provide professional technical expertise to UNICEF office by ensuring the UNICEF Country Office and national partners have useful, valid, and reliable evidence on:

• the situation of children, youth and women and on the progress in realizing their rights.
• the equity gaps and critical bottlenecks to realization of child rights within the country.
• the performance of UNICEF supported programmes including evaluation of their relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability, and in emergency contexts, their coverage, coordination and coherence, and the contribution of UNICEF to the achievement of the results.

2. To assist in the development of the UNICEF Country Office and national capacities for child rights monitoring, evaluation and research, with special attention to the interest, concern and participation of government, academia, community, children and civil society stakeholders.

3. To support Country Office’s efforts in advancing Data for Children and knowledge management by identifying and sharing lessons learned related to child rights within the Country Office and in the country.

4. Where relevant, to assist in the establishment of child rights monitoring and evaluation tools which enhance partnership between the UN Country Team, government and other key players to deliver reliable information and collectively track progress made by the country in meeting SDGs and its international commitments for children.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES and DUTIES & TASKS

1. STRENGTHENING CHILD-RIGHTS SYSTEM MONITORING

Strengthen monitoring and evaluation capacities of national, regional and local partners, from the government, the parliament, academia and civil society as well as the independent child rights institutions and mechanisms are enhanced and that stakeholders have at their disposal disaggregated 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.

Duties & Tasks

• Maintain and develop partnerships with relevant stakeholders, the national statistical offices, the government, the parliament, child rights coordination bodies and the civil society to establish and/or strengthen the existing monitoring and evaluation systems and processes so that reliable and disaggregated data and analysis on the situation of disadvantaged are available to, and used by, decision-makers in the development child-related policies and programmes.
• Systematically promote equity-based child rights indicators and monitoring systems in partnerships. Support the national partners in data-gap assessments and development of action plans for the improvement of data on children from surveys, administrative data, and all other relevant pertinent sources.
• Actively seek partnerships with centres of excellence for the identification of capacity gaps (in terms of human resources, processes, indicators, etc.) to monitor and evaluation progressive realisation of child rights and reduction of equity gaps and the development of strategies to address them.

2. SITUATION MONITORING AND ASSESMENT

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 or region, including monitoring of socio-economic trends and the country’s wider policy, economic or institutional context, to facilitate planning and to draw conclusions about the impact of programmes or policies on equity for children.

Duties & Tasks

• Support partners in the establishment and management of national statistical databases (e.g., SDG database/platform, child rights indicators database/dashboard); and contribution to regional and international databases (e.g. TransMonEE), ensuring that key indicators are readily accessible by key stakeholders. Potential uses include the Situation Analysis, Common Country Analysis, Early Warning Monitoring Systems, SDG reporting/voluntary national reviews and Programme Reviews.
• Develop a Situation Monitoring and Assessment system owned by all key partners which supports the preparation of country level statistical and analytic reports on the status of children’s and women’s rights issues and of equity gaps; and which allow, when opportunities emerge to influence developmental and social policies. This is to include technical support to global reporting obligations including national reports on progress toward international commitments for children in CRC,VNR, CRDP, CEDAW, UPR fulfilment.
• In coordination with other stakeholders, where applicable support the collection of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and other nationally or internationally agreed key social development indicators (through MICS or other surveys) to improve national planning and integration of evidence for children.
• In humanitarian response situations, provide professional support for one or more rapid assessments (inter-agency or independently if necessary) to be carried out within the first 48-72 hours, working in close collaboration with the humanitarian clusters partners.

3. EVALUATION

Ensure that UNICEF-supported evaluations (such as joint evaluations of public policies and programmes or impact evaluations of pilots) are strategically selected and conducted in accordance with UN quality standards and UNICEF Evaluation Policy. Manage all evaluations at the country level and ensure that the results of these evaluations are disseminated in a timely fashion to internal and external stakeholders to inform public programme design and performance and contribute to national and corporate learning.

Duties & Tasks

• Technically support programme colleagues and national partners in planning, identifying and designing strategic evaluations that contribute to evidence for the realization of CRC, SDGs in line with the UNICEF Evaluation Policy. This may include joint or country-led evaluations of public policies and programmes, impact evaluation of models and pilots and participation to strategic multi-country evaluations. Evaluations are planned and conducted in partnership with national authorities, addressing issues relevant to the national agenda
• Formulate evaluation Terms of Reference in consultation with UNICEF relevant programme staff and external partners, establishes evaluation Reference Groups, recruits qualified independent evaluation teams and manages and objective and ethical evaluation process from design to dissemination in line with and evaluation designs of high quality, when relevant drawing on the know-how of knowledge institutions, in compliance with the UNEG evaluation norms and standards and UNICEF’s regional quality assurance procedures. Coordinates availability of budgets for planned evaluations for and evaluation findings are delivered on time.
• Manages evaluations at the country level in accordance with the UNICEF evaluation policy and UNEG norms and standards, including those for quality assurance; engages competent evaluators who conduct their work in accordance with the evaluation policy norms and standards; supports the development and implementation of management responses. Support the representative to provide adequate financial resources for the planning and implementation of Country Evaluation Plans.
• Disseminate evaluation findings and recommendations to the intended audiences in user-friendly methods. In particular, to ensure that effective participatory feedback is provided to community and civil society stakeholders.
• Support the Country Management Team and relevant programme colleagues in the preparation of management response. Monitor and ensure that a management response to the findings and recommendations of the evaluation is jointly developed by all relevant stakeholders, recorded, and followed up for implementation. Most specifically, ensure that evaluation recommendations are submitted to the Country Management Team and follow-up actions recorded in CMT minutes. Submit electronic copies of all evaluations to NYHQ via the Evaluation Data Base web portal, with full accompanying documentation. Update the online evaluation and research database and management response tracker on a quarterly basis.
• Together with other UN agencies, promote evaluation capacity development (enabling environment, organizational capacity and experience, individual knowledge and skills) of national institutions with mandates related to monitoring and evaluation. Joint evaluations of components of the national development agenda/SDGs, particularly those most relevant for children, are encouraged.

4. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Ensure that UNICEF contributes to national, regional and international learning on child rights by sharing knowledge, good practices and lessons and by supporting national partners and civil society to share the same with other countries.

Duties & Tasks

• Coordinates the CO efforts to support the government, the parliament and civil society in the identification of good practices in and support their dissemination within the country, regionally and internationally (as relevant) by partners themselves.
• Undertake lessons-learned reviews on M&E practices and experience at the national level, and ensure they are shared as appropriate. Similarly, pay attention to M&E knowledge networks to identify innovations and lessons learned that may be relevant for the CO and partners to improve their M&E function.

5. COORDINATION, NETWORKING AND ADVOCACY

Ensure that the UNICEF partnerships, networking, and advocacy are effectively supported by relevant evidence and knowledge related to children in the country, focusing on the most vulnerable children.

Duties & Tasks

• Strengthen the capacity of UNICEF colleagues and national partners, including the media, to generate and use reliable and disaggregated data and analysis on the situation of vulnerable children for their own interventions and advocacy for child rights.
• Link UNICEF’s partnerships and advocacy strategies with the knowledge strategy to ensure that the CO has at its disposal the latest data and analysis on vulnerable children and their families, generated by UNICEF or partners.

6. DATA, MONITORING, EVALUATION & RESEARCH PLAN (IMEP)

Ensure that the Country Office and national partners use a well-prioritised and realistic plan of data collection and analysis, research, and evaluation activities that will provide the most relevant and strategic information for national decision-makers and to manage the Country Programme, including tracking and assessing UNICEF’s distinct contribution.

Duties & Tasks

• Make professional contributions to and provide technical assistance for the planning and establishing the major research, monitoring and evaluation objectives, priorities, and activities in UNICEF’s Costed Evaluation Plan and CO annual RSEs, in consultation with child-rights and implementing partners.
• Likewise, support the development of UNSDCF M&E Plans from a sound results-based programming process.
• Collaborate with Regional M&E Advisers and HQ Evaluation Office for overall coordination of priority research, monitoring and evaluation activities, especially those of regional scope requiring the coordinated effort of multiple countries.
• Identify the M&E objectives, priorities, and activities required for effective CO and partner Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans.
• In humanitarian response situations, within the first month, draft and recommend a simple one-month data-collection plan to cover key data gaps as required for the initial emergency response, working in close collaboration with the humanitarian clusters partners.
• After the initial humanitarian response, support management of the medium-term response with a revised EISI.

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

Education:

• Advanced university degree in social sciences, statistics, strategic planning, data science, or any other related fields.

Work Experience:

• Relevant professional work experience in programme development and implementation including monitoring and evaluation activities as follows:
• Five years of relevant professional work experience or field work experience (for NO)

Language Proficiency:

• Fluency in English and fluency in another UN language an asset. Fluency in the language of the duty station is mandatory

Technical Knowledge:

a) Specific Technical Knowledge & Competencies Required

• Understanding of data ecosystems and data sources concerning children, SDGs and CRC.
• Human Rights Based Approach to Planning.
• Knowledge of Evaluation.
• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in managing evaluations.
• Follow-up on recommendations and dissemination of M&E results.
• Emerging international good practice in monitoring and evaluation partnerships.

b) Common Technical Knowledge Required

• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in demography, statistics, and data management.
• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in methodology of M&E, including theories, standards and models, quantitative/qualitative/mixed methods, validity/reliability testing of data, data analysis and interpretation, and statistical inference methods.
• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in Activity Monitoring & Evaluation, Evaluation Design, data analysis, and reporting.
• Human Rights, Gender equality and diversity awareness

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (1)
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (2)
• Works collaboratively with others (2)
• Builds and maintains partnerships (2)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (2)
• Thinks and acts strategically (2)
• Drive to achieve results for impactful results (2)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)

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 here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. 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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.

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 are also 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.

For further details please contact Human Resources at UNICEF Office in Sarajevo, Ms. Aldijana Brezovac, abrezovac@unicef.org.

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