Consultancy Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Capacity Building Safe Online Initiative, End Violence Against Children (EVAC), 120 working Days, Remote

Contract

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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, PROTECTION

Safe Online is a priority initiative of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children and this positions its work at the forefront of a global movement that is seeking to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.2 and secure a future where every child grows up in a safe, secure and nurturing environment.

Safe Online focuses on how digital technologies and connectivity intensify existing and facilitate new forms of violence against children, especially one of the worst forms of that violence: online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA). Safe Online invests in solutions, technologies, programmes, and capacities to tackle online CSEA. Importantly, our work in developing a global evidence base along with our advocacy, policy influence and collective action impacts intersecting areas of digital harm. These include cyberbullying, harassment, mental health and radicalisation and the role of the internet in facilitating criminal activity such as human trafficking.

Safe Online intends to pioneer a new monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) system, working with key partners in the ecosystem, to measure progress towards agreed intermediate outcomes for systems change at country, regional and global levels. A new Results Framework, in line with Safe Online’s Strategy 2023-25, has been developed to monitor and track results through the Safe Online investment portfolio, as well as through Safe Online’s key performance indicators (support provided to the grantees, network building, evidence and knowledge, advocacy and action). The new Results Framework also incorporates high level intermediate outcomes and indicators, which Safe Online, jointly with all partners contribute to. Concrete plans have also been developed for strengthening Safe Online grantees’ MEL capacity. Safe Online is currently developing a draft Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) plan that would provide guidance on best practices in MEL for Safe Online grantees. As Safe Online grantees are diverse and are at different points in their MEL knowledge and practices, a grantee capacity assessment tool will be implemented in Q3 2023 to understand how and in what ways capacity for MEL is varied among the Safe Online grantees and identify areas in which grantees need specific support. Tailored learning clinics/webinars will subsequently be organised based on grantee needs and a Safe Online MEL Community of Practice (CoP) will be established.

How can you make a difference?

PURPOSE

Safe Online is seeking an experienced professional to design high quality monitoring and evaluation capacity building plan, tools and conduct/facilitate tailored workshops/learning clinics/webinars for Safe Online grantees on MEL systems, approaches, good practices and strategies that will help grantees in improving their existing systems and processes and capturing results and evidence of impact. The consultant will also work to establish, operationalise and maintain a Safe Online MEL Community of Practice (CoP) and organise and facilitate CoP learning events.

The key tasks below describe the overall scope of work on capacity development for Safe Online grantees and specific activities will be finalised based on the findings from the grantees’ MEL capacity and needs assessment to be conducted in Q3 2023.

Key Tasks and Activities

Safe Online MEL Capacity Building

The consultant will work closely with Safe Online Senior MEL Specialist to finalize the design of the Safe Online grantees’ MEL capacity and needs assessment, analyse the findings of the assessment upon administration and develop and implement a MEL capacity building plan for the grantees.

• Administer the Safe Online grantees’ MEL capacity and needs assessment
  • Finalize the design of the assessment survey
  • Prepare and administer the assessment survey online
  • Draft a report with the analysis of the assessment findings
• Design the training sessions on specific MEL topics, for example:
  • Understanding of key concepts and approaches in M&E
  • How to develop Theory of Change, logic models and results frameworks?
  • How to develop MEL systems and methods of data collection, processing and analysis for project improvements and impact evaluations?
  • Data quality assessment and management
  • Evaluation design and methodologies (experimental and quasi-experimental, quantitative and qualitative, etc.)
  • Managing impact evaluation for decision making and generation of new evidence and knowledge
• Organise and conduct/facilitate the quarterly capacity building workshops/webinars to Safe Online grantees. This shall include the following tasks:
  • Lead pre-session activities (e.g. preparing the agenda and session materials including email invites; coordination with and briefing of speakers as applicable)
  • Prepare the technical requirements for the webinar (e.g. zoom links, webinar platform, etc.)
  • Actual facilitation/moderation of the sessions
  • Lead post-session activities (e.g. post-session feedback survey; activity report including analysis of results from participant feedback survey)
• Provide tailored follow-up coaching with selected sample of Safe Online grantees as they apply MEL learning and develop and implement a MEL plan.

Safe Online MEL Community of Practice

The consultant will work closely with Safe Online Senior MEL Specialist to establish the Safe Online MEL Community of Practice (CoP) that would be a virtual forum/platform for Safe Online grantees to dialogue, reflect, share MEL-related tools, resources, best practices, evidence and support peer-to-peer learning to improve the effectiveness and impact of their projects on ground.

• Establish, operationalise and maintain a Safe Online MEL CoP consisting of Safe Online team, Safe Online Evaluation Advisory Group members, Safe Online grantees and implementing partners.
• Identify options, good practices, recommendations for communications platforms, management strategies, resource requirements and timeline for establishment and maintenance of the CoP.
• Organise and facilitate quarterly CoP learning events to share experiences, best practices, innovations and successful approaches on results-based monitoring and evaluation including reports of learning events.
• In coordination with the Safe Online team, strategize towards engaging the CoP members beyond the learning events to ensure sustainability and continuous learning and knowledge sharing.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in economics, international development or relevant social sciences and / or professional qualification in evaluation.
• A minimum of FIVE years of relevant professional experience in Monitoring and Evaluation and Capacity Building-related activities, preferably in the international development sector.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Additional Requirements:

• Extensive knowledge and demonstrated experience in results-based management (RBM), as well as participatory monitoring and evaluation methodologies and approaches.
• Extensive knowledge and demonstrated experience in organisational development, capacity building as well as strategic development.
• Strong training and facilitation experience is essential.
• Strong analytical, conceptual and problem-solving skills demonstrated through evaluation / research with a micro and systems level perspective.
• Substantive knowledge and experience related to child rights programming and/or ending violence against children is highly desirable. Experience related to work on prevention, identification and/or deterrence of online child sexual exploitation and abuse would be considered an asset.
• Experience setting up Communities of Practice using digital platforms, such as MS Office 365 and similar, is strongly preferred.
• Strong verbal, written and presentation skills in English is required; knowledge of Spanish, French, and/or other UN languages is desirable.
• Ability to work in a diverse, multicultural, and highly collaborative environment.
• Confidence, diplomacy and savvy in engaging with high-level partners and stakeholders.
• Experience of the UN context and the role of the UN, its entities, and hosted funds is desirable.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit 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.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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:

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

Individuals engaged under a consultancy will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.