Evaluation Specialist, P4 (Institutional Effectiveness portfolio), NYHQ (5 months)

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 171,387 USD and 220,969 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, evaluate:

UNICEF HQ provides global leadership and oversight for the evaluation function. As such the office is responsible for developing an agenda and work plan to evaluation UNICEF's programmes and processes. The Evaluation Office (EO) conducts and/or manages independent, corporate evaluations and evaluation syntheses, provides technical assistance and quality assurance for evaluations commissioned at the decentralized level (country and regional office, as well as other division in HQ office), and develops evaluation methods. The EO is also responsible for publishing a global evaluation plan that accompanies respective corporate strategies.

The work of the EO is guided by the UNICEF Evaluation Policy and the upcoming Plan for Global Evaluations 2022-2025, which seek to contribute to deepening organizational accountability and learning, in support of the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022-2025, and in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By providing timely and dependable feedback on what is working well and any shortcomings, the unit helps to strengthen evidence-based decision making by programme managers and national policy makers.

The Evaluation Specialist is responsible to independently conduct evaluation-related tasks, as well as to support the management of institutional effectiveness portfolio, under the supervision of the senior evaluation manager and EO director. In accordance with UNICEF’s mission, guiding principles, standards, commitments, and accountability framework, and under UNEG evaluation norms and standards, the evaluation specialist would ensure that corporate learning and accountability needs are met through the conduct of these activities.

How can you make a difference?

The purpose of this position is to support the management evaluations within the institutional effectiveness portfolio of UNICEF’s Evaluation Office. The Evaluation Specialist is responsible for strengthening the contribution of the evaluation function at the strategic and policy levels through the conduct of corporate institutional effectiveness evaluation that transcend the sectoral areas of the Strategic Plan.

The Evaluation Specialist will report to Senior Evaluation Specialist, P5, under the overall guidance of the Director of Evaluation and in collaboration with other Evaluation Specialists.

Key tasks include

• Support UNICEF’s institutional effectiveness portfolio, with the scoping and preparation of the global evaluations; complex programmes, policies, and cross-cutting themes; as well as joint programmes (in conjunction with other UN agencies):
  • Provide support and guidance for independent corporate-level evaluations related to institutional effectiveness.
  • Coordinate as appropriate, with field offices, Headquarters divisions and external partners and other UN agencies’ evaluation offices.
  • Collaborate with other UN evaluation units and professional evaluation bodies to advance institutional effectiveness.
  • Contribute to draft of the evaluation terms of reference.
• Support UNICEF’s institutional effectiveness portfolio with the management of the global evaluations as per the UNICEF Global Evaluation Plan; as well as cross-cutting programmes, policies and cross-cutting themes and inter-UN agencies’ joint programmes:
  • Facilitate access to data as well as communications and meetings between the evaluation team, the various stakeholders in HQ as well as in the regional and country offices, and the Chair of the Evaluation Advisory Group.
  • Provide technical and logistical support to the EO and the evaluation team; help organize country visits and desk-based case studies, and other data collection activities.
  • Review and provide inputs/QA on data collection methods and tools as well as on the evaluation deliverables (inception report, document review report, country case study reports and interim report).
  • Develop a list and repository of relevant documents for use during the evaluation inception and data collection and analysis phases.
• Contribute to other evaluation and evidence related initiatives within the EO as needed, for example:
• Providing technical advice and quality assurance on evaluation TORs, reports and other evaluation initiatives sent by HQ, ROs and COs (on demand).
• Undertaking special assignments as requested by the Director of Evaluation.

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

• Advanced university degree in social science, evaluation, public policy, economics, statistics, in research methods, or another field related to institutional effectiveness.
• Eight years of relevant professional work experience in programme evaluation, M&E and operational research.
• Understanding of institutional effectiveness evaluations within UN-agencies, multi-lateral agencies, large scale public or private sector organizations is required.
• Experience conducting mixed-method evaluations that relay on both qualitative and quantitative approaches and a variety of data collection modalities (surveys, interviews, focus groups, direct observation, desk reviews).
• Willingness/ability to keep up to date with the latest skills and organizational guidance in the field of evaluation.
• Demonstrate ability to work in a multi-cultural environment as well ability to foster collaboration across the organization, building working networks and facilitating appropriate distribution.
• Fluency in English; knowledge of another UN language is an asset (Arabic, Chines, French, Russian, Spanish).

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

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.