Generic VA: Chief Planning, Monitoring and Data (PMD), P-5, Islamabad, Pakistan

Contract

This is a P-5 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 10 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 160,427 USD and 201,052 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, Happiness

How can you make a difference?

Pakistan was the sixth country in the world to sign and ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, less than one year after it was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989. However, children and adolescents living in Pakistan still face acute challenges.

UNICEF supports the Government of Pakistan to accelerate progress for children, work to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and help children realize their rights under the Convention on the Rights of Children. This will be made through, among other things, strong partnerships with provincial authorities, teachers and health professionals, frontline workers and social mobilisers, communities and families, and of course the children and adolescents themselves.

In particular, UNICEF will work so that:

• Every child survives and thrives -- being in good health, immunized, protected from polio and accessing nutritious food.
• Every child learns.
• Every child is protected from violence and exploitation and registered at birth.
• Every child lives in a safe and clean environment, with access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.

To learn more about UNICEF work in Pakistan, please visit the country website www.unicef.org/pakistan and videos on YouTube and Vimeo

Chief Planning, Monitoring and Data (PMD): Under the guidance and supervision of the Deputy Representative, the Chief is responsible for coordinating the development the country programme (CP), monitoring and data progress towards achievement of the CP, overseeing implementing CSO partnership, in addition to HACT and PSEA as well as supporting the Dep Rep Prog with PRC functions. This Chief will also provide guidance and support to IPs with budgeting as part of the CSO procedure with support from Partnership and finance team in operations; as well as partnership management unit including HACT assurance, planning for and management of the section budget in coordination with the partnership team; provides up-to-date statistics for analysis of the situation of children, including in humanitarian situations, providing such data & statistics to management and programme teams for evidence informed policy advocacy, policy advice and (programmatic) action and with data as a strong element and basis for regular reporting to the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The Chief provides technical guidance and support to the country office and field offices in the areas of annual work planning, field monitoring, results reporting, budget management, and HACT assurance activities in accordance with the Accountability Framework. The Chief to also provides technical guidance to the CMT and PMT in accordance with corporate policies, procedure, and guidance to ensure adherence and compliance with quality standards and corporate deadlines. This will be done in close collaboration and coordination with the Section Chiefs, Chiefs of Field Office, Deputy Representative Operations, and other members of the CMT and senior management team.

Within the delegated authority and under the given organizational set-up, the incumbent may be assigned the primarily, shared, or contributory accountabilities for all or part of the following areas of major duties and key end-results.

To make a difference, the incumbent shall be responsible for following key strategic functions, accountabilities and related duties/ tasks;

1. Programme Planning and Reporting

Ensure that the Country Office and national partners develop an equity-focused and results-based and measurable Country Programme that provides the basis for implementation, performance monitoring, planning, data and reporting.

• Formulate the vision and help set goals for the country office, aimed at maximizing the UNICEF delivery of results at scale in highly prioritized themes where UNICEF has a clear value-add and/or programmatic niche
• Provide support to the Deputy Representative and leads the process of organizing and managing preparation, review and analysis of strategic programme planning documentation including the overall Country Programme Document (CPD) and leads the office in mid/end year reviews. This includes leading strategic prioritization of results and budgets (evidence synthesis including situation analysis, CPDs and related documents), annual workplans and annual management plans
• Drawing on monitoring and analysis of key programme performance indicators, provide professional inputs to management reports including the Country Office annual reporting processes as well as reporting on SMQs and KPIs among others
• Coordinate and guide the preparation of equity-focused, results-based, and risk-informed, rolling/annual work plans and leads review exercises of the same.
• Oversee, provide guidance and technical support, and supervise staff responsible for establishing quality assurance mechanisms related to improved planning and effective use of planning tools in field offices and programme sections in line with the results-based management principles and standards.
• Conduct periodic programme reviews internal as well as with government counterparts and other partners. Identifies problems or alternative courses of action to accelerate/improve programme delivery.
• Coordinate the regular conduct of the Programme Management Meetings,
• Contribute to UNICEF’s participation in United Nations (UNSDCF, One UN) processes, ensuring adequate input on the improvement of the well-being of children and women.
• Providing technical advice and oversight to partnership and risk management, including environmental & social standards and PSEA
• Championing knowledge management and (programme) learning within the office, and beyond

2. Programme Monitoring

• Leading the monitoring of UNICEF country programmes and progress towards achievement of outcome level results as described in the programme theories of change and results and resources plan (RRP) . That should also check for unintended changes and robustness of planning assumptions and including in humanitarian situations and related Core Commitments for Children in Emergencies (CCCs)
• Ensure the appropriate selection of programme indicators and other markers of progress to provide data on the coverage, quality and equity of UNICEF-supported programmes. Coordinate the availability and capacity for country-specific / adapted programme monitoring tools and guidelines, in line with global monitoring procedures and guidelines, for measuring programme performance (towards the country programme outcome) and assessing progress towards effective and efficient programme implementation, including Humanitarian Performance Monitoring and with clusters.
• Ensure that the Country Office has quality information and data to assess progress towards expected results established in annual work plans; and that inform situation and needs analyses, programme prioritization, design, planning, implementation, performance management, and review.
• Oversee, provide guidance and technical support, and supervise staff responsible for establishing programme monitoring mechanisms including mid-year and annual reviews, mid-term reviews, strategic moments of reflection, ensuring identification of progress and encounter of bottlenecks to be addressed by the programme sections and field offices.
• Oversee and provide technical guidance on setting up programme monitoring systems/tools using digital platforms and oversee their further development. This includes field-monitoring, third-party monitoring (TPM) – including the management of TPM contracts – humanitarian performance monitoring and community-based monitoring.
• Oversee the implementation performance of the programme monitoring system and regularly adjust standard operating procedures to ensure optimal monitoring results.
• Lead and coordinate of the development and regular updates of the Situation analysis (SitAn) of children and women, including change in programme environments
• Lead strategic thinking and coordinate all knowledge management, learning and sharing including identifying, documenting and disseminating best practices and lessons learned to internal and external audiences.

3. Programme Assurance

Ensure that the Country Office is HACT compliant.

• Oversee, provide guidance and technical support, and supervise staff responsible for HACT compliance, ensuring the development of assurance plans, as well as regular monitoring of and reporting on HACT compliance.
• Provide leadership in risk management and HACT implementation.
• Guide the continued roll-out of HACT and PSEA, including the training of staff and implementing partners, and continued support on issues of operational efficiency and risk management.
• Facilitate the learning of lessons for improved programme implementation from HACT programmatic checks, micro assessments, and other reviews.

4. Data collection, analysis, use and dissemination

• Ensuring availability of up-to-date statistics for analysis of the situation of children, including in humanitarian situations, providing such data & statistics to management and programme teams for evidence informed policy advocacy, policy advice and (programmatic) action and with data as a strong element and basis for regular reporting to the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
• Ensure that the Country Office has quality programmatic and outcome level data to assess progress towards expected results established in annual work plans, and SDGs progress.
• Oversee, provide guidance and technical support and supervise staff responsible for establishing programme data collection systems including Child Labour Survey (CLS), Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions (SMART) nutrition surveys, Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys (MICS), and other methodological data collection, and analysis; this includes ensuring identification of progress and encounter of bottlenecks to be addressed by the programme sections and field offices, and to some extent the government.
• Oversee and provide technical guidance on setting up programme data collection systems/tools using digital platforms and oversee their further development, to feed into programme corrective measures. This includes reviewing, Third-Party Monitoring (TPM) – including the management of TPM contracts – humanitarian performance monitoring and community-based data collection systems development.
• Oversee the implementation of innovative ways for collecting, analysing and use data to feed into policy dialogues and continued programme improvements, including regularly adjusting standard operating procedures to ensure optimal data utilization.
• Lead strategic thinking and coordinate all knowledge management, learning and sharing from programmatic data, including identifying, documenting and disseminating best practices and lessons learned to internal and external audiences.

5. Section Budget Management

• As Chief of Section, ensure that allocated budgets to the section is managed in line with results-based budgeting principles and standards and that grants are reported on and used in line with donor commitments in coordination with the Partnerships and Resource Mobilization section. It will also include linking expenditures to programmes by systematic use of coding expenditures in line with results-based budgeting principles.
• Ensure that the work breakdown structure in VISION is correctly inputted and adhered to thereafter, and that activities under the workplan are coded and all special markers/tags and reporting in VISION are properly done and updated.
• Provide quality assurance on grants allocated to the PMD section including ensuring funding is spent in line with commitments; full utilization including facilitation of No-cost extension and fund reversals in coordination with the Partnerships and Resource Mobilization section.

6. 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 – are strengthened enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead planning, monitoring, and evaluation processes.

• Promote the 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 donor proposals and reports, as well as draft PCAs/PDs, from an 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 them.

7. Coordination and Networking

Ensure that the UNICEF office is effectively linked to wider UNICEF P&M developments in a way that both contributes to and benefits from organizational learning on effective P&M management.

• Collaborate with Regional Chief of Programme and Planning, the regional planning team, and relevant Offices at HQ for overall coordination of priority planning and monitoring activities, especially those of regional scope requiring the coordinated effort of multiple countries.
• Partner with the Regional Chief of Programme and Planning and the regional planning team to ensure that current and accurate P&M data and results are included in regional reports, multi-country studies, and knowledge sharing networks.
• Undertake lessons-learned reviews on successful and unsuccessful P&M practices and experience at the national level, and ensure they are shared as appropriate. Similarly, pay attention to P&M knowledge networks, including those related to One UN, UN-Reform including United Nation Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) and related procedures and milestones (e.g.: Common Country Analysis, MAF…) and sustainable development to identify innovations and lessons learned that may be relevant for the CO and partners to improve their P&M function.
• Nurturing the responsible use of data (ethically, protecting private data, sharing responsibly, using data quality standards to guide use) within UNICEF and its partners.

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

• Advanced university degree(Master's or above) in social sciences, statistics, planning development, planning, international development.
• *A first University Degree (Bachelor's) in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• Ten years of professional work experience in programme development, implementation, and monitoring, and budget oversight and including both international and national work experience.
• Practical experience in monitoring large programmes would be an asset.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency would be an asset. At least one instance of exposure to emergency programming, including preparedness planning will an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

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: https://uni.cf/UNICEFValues

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (2); 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 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.

1. Technical Knowledge

a) Specific Technical Knowledge Required

• Comprehensive understanding of various approaches and methods of Programme and Project Planning.
• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in methodological guides for all types of Monitoring & Evaluation.
• Knowledge of Human Rights, Gender and Equity issues and their implications of projects/programmes.
• Knowledge of Institutional Evaluation, Environment Assessment, Result Based Management and Strategic Evaluation.
• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in Planning, monitoring and data for Influential programme planning and continued improvement.

• 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 Monitoring & Evaluation, 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.

c) Technical Knowledge to be Acquired/Enhanced

• Professional/technical knowledge of best practices, lessons learned, follow-up on recommendations, communication and dissemination
• Understanding of UNICEF’s policies and procedures for programming, monitoring and evaluation guidelines.
• UNICEF strategic framework for partnerships and collaborative relationships.
• Latest programme monitoring and evaluation theory, methodology, technology and tools.
• Understanding of UN Mission and system, current key UN topics; and International Code of Conduct.
• Understanding of UNICEF Mission Statement and UNICEF Guiding Principles

Life at UNICEF

Working at UNICEF is highly rewarding. With attractive remuneration package encompassing competitive pay and benefits, a culture that helps staff thrive and diverse opportunities for personal and professional development, we aim to help you maintain a fulfilling life both at and outside the office.

We make sure you and your loved ones receive the resources and care that you need to thrive. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. Our contracts, wellbeing policies and initiatives ensure that you are well equipped to effectively deliver for children such as;

• Tax exemption, family allowances, hardship benefits, 10 UN holidays and annual leave allowance, maternity, paternity, adoption leave, medical and dental insurance, pension etc.
• Career support, staff wellbeing programme, breastfeeding policy, flexible work arrangements, childcare room, family support, policies & initiatives, security etc.
• UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

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 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:

• This Vacancy Announcement is open to all internal candidates.
• This post is open to all personnel with an ongoing employment relationship with UNICEF, including staff members on a continuing, fixed term and temporary appointment, individual contractors and full-time time-based consultants, and UNV.
• 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.
• Verified educational certificates are a pre-requisite for employment at UNICEF.
• UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates will be prioritized.
• UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. 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.