Generic Vacancy Announcement - Nutrition Specialist (M&E/NIS), NOC, Nairobi, Kenya (Kenyan Nationals Only)

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, Food and Nutrition Security !

UNICEF in Kenya implements nutrition strategies and services in communities to improve the diet and feeding practices of mothers, infants and young children. This includes during the crucial first 1,000 days of a child’s life, which lay the foundation for healthy growth and development; and during adolescence, which offers an opportunity for children to catch up in terms of growth, and to address nutritional deficiencies from earlier years.

https://www.unicef.org/kenya/nutrition

How can you make a difference?

The Nutrition Specialist (M&E/NIS) ensures that the UNICEF Country Office has useful, valid and reliable information on the situation of children’s and women’s rights and on the performance of UNICEF-supported programmes including their relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability, and in emergency contexts, their coverage, coordination and coherence.

1. Integrated Monitoring, Evaluation & Research Plan (IMEP)

Ensure that the Country Office and national & county level partners use a well-prioritized and realistic plan of research, monitoring and evaluation activities that will provide the most relevant and strategic information to manage the nutrition component of 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 of major nutrition research, monitoring and evaluation objectives, priorities, and activities in UNICEF’s multi-year and annual IMEPs, in consultation with child-rights and implementing partners.
• Support the development of UNDAF M&E Plans from a sound results-based programming process.
• 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 nutrition data-collection plan to cover key data gaps as required for the initial nutrition emergency response, working in close collaboration with the humanitarian clusters partners

2. Situation Monitoring and Assessment

Ensure that the Country Office and national partners have timely and accurate measurement of change in conditions 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.

Duties & Tasks

• In coordination with other stakeholders, support the collection of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and other key social development indicators (through MICS or other surveys) to improve national & county nutrition planning.
• Support partners in the establishment and management of national & county level nutrition statistical databases (e.g., DevInfo), ensuring that key indicators are readily accessible by key stakeholders. Potential uses include the Situation Analysis, Common Country Assessment, Early Warning Monitoring Systems, and Mid-Term Reviews.
• Develop a common nutrition Situation Monitoring and Assessment system owned by all relevant sectors and key stakeholders which supports the preparation of country level statistical and analytic reports on the status of children’s and women’s rights issues and which allow, when opportunities emerge to influence developmental and social policies. To include technical support to global reporting obligations including national reports on progress toward the MDGs, and toward CRC and CEDAW fulfilment.
• In humanitarian response situations, provide professional support for one or more rapid nutrition assessments (inter-agency and independently if necessary) to be carried out within the first 48 - 72 hours, working in close collaboration with the humanitarian.

3. Programme Performance Monitoring

Ensure that the Country Office has quality information to assess progress towards expected results established in annual work plans.

Duties & Tasks

• Provide technical support to ensure that a set of nutrition programme performance indicators is identified and adjusted as necessary, with inputs of all concerned partners in the context of the multi-year and annual IMEPs, the Annual Management Plan and Annual Work Plans, as outlined in the Programme Policy and Procedures Manual).
• Coordinate with all partners to ensure that monitoring systems are properly designed, and that data collection and analysis from field visits are coordinated and standardized across programmes to feed into programme performance monitoring, with special attention to humanitarian response.
• Drawing on monitoring and analysis of key program performance and management indicators, provide professional input to management reports, including nutrition relevant sections of the annual reports

4. Evaluation

Ensure that UNICEF-supported evaluations are designed and implemented to established UN quality standards, and the results are disseminated in a timely fashion to stakeholders in order to improve programme performance and contribute to wider learning.

Duties & Tasks

• Technically support programme relevant sectors and partners to formulate Terms of Reference and evaluation designs of high quality, when relevant drawing on the know-how of knowledge institutions, in compliance with the organization’s programme evaluation policies and guidelines.
• Monitor and ensure the quality of the field work and data management during the implementation phase, and the quality of the analysis and ease of understanding during the report writing phase.
• 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.
• Monitor and ensure that a management response to the findings and recommendations of the evaluation is completed, 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

5. M&E Capacity Building

Ensure that the nutrition monitoring and evaluation capacities of Country Office staff and national & county level partners – government and civil society – are strengthened enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead monitoring and evaluation processes.

Duties & Tasks

• Promote the awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of M& E function among all nutrition section staff members through communication, training, learning and development activities organization wide.
• In close collaboration with multisectoral partners, ensure that an M&E capacity building strategy for UNICEF/UN staff national partners and institutions exists in the context of the IMEP, or UNDAF M&E plan. Pay particular attention so the capacity needs of national partners such as professional evaluation associations will be strengthened by involvement in evaluation processes and possibly through specific capacity building initiatives.
• Collaborate to implement capacity building strategies as a joint commitment with other developmental partners. Utilize a range of appropriate skills building strategies including self-learning, seminars and workshops and practical experience in order that UNICEF and UN staff have the basic knowledge and skills in understanding and applying new M&E policies, tools, methods to fulfil their responsibilities. Similarly, design and implement strategies suited to the skills needs of national partners.
• Actively seek partnerships with knowledge institutions for the identification of capacity gaps and development of strategies to address them.

6. Coordination and Networking

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

Duties & Tasks

• 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.
• Partner with the Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Adviser to ensure that current and accurate M&E data and results are included in regional reports, multi-country studies, and knowledge sharing networks.
• Undertake lessons-learned reviews on successful and unsuccessful 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.

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

• An Advanced university degree in social sciences, statistics, planning development, planning
• A minimum of five years of professional work experience is required. Field work experience is necessary. Professional work experience in programme development and implementation including monitoring and evaluation activities is required.
• At least one instance of exposure to emergency programming, including preparedness planning. Active involvement in a humanitarian crisis response programme preferred
• Knowledge of Project Evaluation.
• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in Evaluation Process Management, Follow-up on Recommendations and Dissemination of M&E results.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or(Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language of the duty station is considered as an asset

For every Child, you demonstrate...

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

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drives to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

To view our competency framework, please visit 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.

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.

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.