International Consultancy on Programme Effectiveness Review (PER) Bamako, Mali - 10 weeks (Remotely)

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 141,094 USD and 181,912 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, hope

In Mali, children face a variety and multiple forms of abuse, violence and exploitation, including those who are on the move and affected by the crisis. The humanitarian crisis that Mali has experienced since 2012 further impacted the lives of children and their families. Families and children, including unaccompanied children, continue to move for safety reasons, or for (temporary) work opportunities or for transit purposes. As a result, children face family separation, exploitation, child labor, recruitment into armed groups, trafficking, smuggling, sexual violence, and a lack of basic services, while existing child protection concerns have further exacerbated. Children are exposed to these multiple vulnerabilities and risks in an extremely weak protective environment where basic social welfare services are weak and traditional community-based child protection mechanisms have been disrupted

The purpose of undertaking a Programme Effectiveness Review is to generate and feedback new knowledge on how current programme strategies are working in an evolving real-world context, so as to adapt programmes and accelerate progress to outcomes for children. Programme Effectiveness Reviews use real-world monitoring evidence to assess the contributions of programme strategies in terms of what works, for who, in complex settings. Acceleration can include 1) faster-achieved, further reaching or more-sustainable development outcomes, and/or 2) better mitigating the reversal or more quickly building back outcomes for children in emergencies[1] In the context of MALI, it will be an interdependent combination of both.

How can you make a difference

Purpose and Objective of the consultancy

The purpose is building a strategic vision to position UNICEF as a knowledge broker and advocate for the realization of the rights of children, as a contribution to the achievement of the SDGs. The PER will inform decision on the “WHAT” (priorities) and the “HOW” (relevant strategies) of the UNICEF business model for 2023-2024, aligned with global, regional and national priorities and the SDG goals. These choices will be enlightened by sectoral priorities, programme pillars, challenges/opportunities and translate into revised Programme Strategy Notes (PSN) and theories of change, to inform the continuity of the Country Programme Document. To achieve the purpose, the PER will seek to:

Context: Analyzing the changes in the situation of children, adolescents and their families and identify key elements which will influence UNICEF programming environment in the next two years (2023-2024).

Mechanisms: Generating learning about the relevance, implementation quality, and coherence of programme strategies, assumptions, bottlenecks and causal pathways. Redefine (if indicate) strategies and implementation modalities for greater effectiveness and efficiency in achieving results for children; reinforce lifecycle approaches in line with our global/regional priorities; and

Outcomes: Assessing likely contributions of UNICEF programme (change) strategies towards a defined outcome-level result or results (intended and unintended) at the national and/or local level. Build on existing results, scale up and define sectoral or cross-sectoral program priorities for children and adolescents to address inequalities while considering the emergency situation, internal displacement crisis, our comparative advantage and prevailing key partnerships, adapting to structural changes in some key programmatic areas.

Methodology

The overall approach is a utilization-focused approach to monitoring and evaluation – the process and the product of Programme Effectiveness Reviews will serve the needs of the primary intended users in achieving the primary intended uses.

The primary intended users of Programme Effectiveness Reviews at the country level are UNICEF results managers and management teams to better understand what programme strategies are working (or not), and to rapidly adapt programme design and implementation accordingly.

Secondary intended users are in-country UN Results Groups and key UNICEF stakeholders, to better understand what programme strategies are working (or not); and UNICEF monitoring specialists, to better target support to monitoring systems-strengthening.

To be rapid and timely, the main Review process (Phase 2 – Phase 4, of 6 phases) is designed to be completed in one month under the facilitation of the Deputy Representative.

While the PER is internal to UNICEF, external participants would be invited as guest speakers to promote “out of the box” thinking and challenges our programming assumptions. Participants would be drawn largely from UNICEF MALI and WCARO.

There are four principal phases to the process, several of which can take place in parallel:

Phase 1 Preparation phase: Programme Effectiveness Reviews is to use Multiple Lines and Levels of Evidence (MLLE). In essence, this means that findings and recommendations area based on triangulating different sources and types of data, from different ‘levels’ of the programme, organizational, and/or social structure. The office planned to collect data through L3M assessment to inform program’s outcomes progress, through a partnership with the national institute of statistics. The process will be lead by the PME team.

Phase 2 Inception: This includes assessing the monitorability of the programme (clarifying the ToC), partnership review, stakeholder mapping, desk review and synthesis of existing monitoring evidence from the joint field mission/observation. A participatory workshop to refine the Review Framework will be facilitate by an external consultant.

The overall approach is a utilization-focused approach to monitoring and evaluation – the process and the product of Programme Effectiveness Reviews will serve the needs of the primary intended users in achieving the primary intended uses.

The primary intended users of Programme Effectiveness Reviews at the country level are UNICEF results managers and management teams to better understand what programme strategies are working (or not), and to rapidly adapt programme design and implementation accordingly.

Secondary intended users are in-country UN Results Groups and key UNICEF stakeholders, to better understand what programme strategies are working (or not); and UNICEF monitoring specialists, to better target support to monitoring systems-strengthening.

To be rapid and timely, the main Review process (Phase 2 – Phase 4, of 6 phases) is designed to be completed in one month under the facilitation of the Deputy Representative.

While the PER is internal to UNICEF, external participants would be invited as guest speakers to promote “out of the box” thinking and challenges our programming assumptions. Participants would be drawn largely from UNICEF MALI and WCARO.

There are four principal phases to the process, several of which can take place in parallel:

The scope of work will follow key moments as presented in the table below and will lead to the deliverables specified therein.

6. Deliverable

Month1- July

Month2-August

Month3-September

Preparation Stage – 20% or Remuneration (Approx. 10 days effort level)

Contracting

X

Summary of desk/ literature review with Bibliography

X

Draft specified methodology, work plan, data collection instruments

X

Detailed Outline of the inception Report

X

Execution Stage – 40% of Remuneration (Approx. 35 days effort level)

Report Agenda Outline revised and approved

X

Final approved Methodology, including analysis questions and agenda

X

Conduct PER

X

Provide profiles and case studies

X

Presentation of Summary findings to UNICEF Technical Team

X

Finalization Stage – 40% of Remuneration (Approx. 11 days effort level)

Zero-draft of the 4 Analytic notes (1 per pillar) report submitted for written feedback

X

Presentation to UNICEF Board (PMT-CMT) and facilitated discussion of 1st Draft

X

First draft of 4 programme Analytic notes finalized and submitted for written comment by UNICEF and Government

X

Final Version of Analytic notes and Summary Report submitted and approved

X

7. Governance

Within the UNICEF Office, main responsibilities for the SMR will be as follows:

Responsible

Role

Representative (focal point)

• Provide leadership and cooperation with Government, partners, focal point with RO
• Provide strategic guidance, approve PER ToR and each step

Deputy Rep. (DR)

Programmes

• Provide coordination for the PER process with the PM and Regional Office
• Develop the roadmap and methodology for PER
• Ensure that strategic recommendations from each step are incorporated
• Reviews quality of inputs

Country Management Team (CMT) – Chiefs of sections

• Prepare and review each step
• Recommend necessary adjustments
• Oversee preparation of deliverables

PM&E Staff

• Organize partnership reviews
• Prepare/Update Strategy Papers with the consultant
• Coordinate data gathering
• Participate to the narrative report.

Deputy Rep. (DR)

Programmes

• Ensure rapid and efficient delivery of operational needs related to light PER process (contracts, travels, payments, etc.)
• Prepare the internal review of its area considering new guidance (ERM, EiE, IB, etc.)

Regional Office

• Provides technical guidance
• Facilitate reflections towards the strategic shift that CO is trying to make
• Facilitate the alignment of the ongoing Programme with global/regional priorities and the connection with the new SP 2022-2025
• Validate final report

Joint Consultative Committee (JCC)

• Forward to CMT and management Staff’s questions and comments on PER process

• Represents Staff in the PER steering group

  8. Ethical consideration

To ensure a rapid and timely process, while meeting ethical and human rights obligations, Programme Effectiveness Reviews should apply the principle of Do No Harm. The Consultant with the support from the Team Leader is primarily responsible for the ethical conduct of the review, overseen and supported by Review Managers. Ethical arrangements should include:

Maximizing use of existing monitoring data and systems

Adherence to all relevant safety procedures, local regulations, and good practices for infection prevention and control, based on site-specific risk analyses

Identification of excluded and vulnerable groups, communities and individuals during stakeholder mapping

Designing the review process to ensure inclusion and non-discrimination of voice during inception, data collection, analysis, and interpretation

Adherence to the relevant ethical procedures for field monitoring visits in the context where the review is taking place

Organization of any visits and meetings at a time that is least disruptive for communities, with adequate provision for safety, shelter, sustenance, and WASH facilities

Anonymization of evidence included in the synthesis table and short report

Prior informed consent from a review participant (or their parent/guardian for children), including adolescents and young people, for citation of a quote, story of change or photograph.

9. Time and duration of contract

Two months and half (maximum): 10 weeks.

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

10. Qualifications Required

Education: Advanced degree in social science (sociology, economics, anthropology, development studies, political science) or related fields relevant to the assignment;

Experience:

A minimum of 8 years of professional experience in conducting equity-focused research, socio-economic and human rights-based analysis, and technical assistance to governments and organizations, in the areas of the human rights-based approach to programming (HRBAP), an understanding of the CRC and other relevant frameworks, ability to conduct equity-focused research and analysis.

Proven ability in the coordination of research, dialogue and synthesis of complex information in strategic reports.

Knowledge and experience in conducting similar analysis (e.g. equity-focused situation analysis), and breadth of knowledge on children and women’s issues.

Demonstrated experience with research and participatory methods.

Strong writing and analytical skills for quality report writing (sample of a recent analytical report will be requested)

Strong presentation and communication skills in English (fluency required).

Strong coordination skills and ability to adhere to deadlines

Previous work experience with UNICEF in a similar capacity is an advantage.

Previous work experience in Mali is an advantage

Other competencies: Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment and establish harmonious and effective relationships with national partners.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF Values

Care

Respect

Integrity

Trust

Accountability

Core Competencies

Builds and maintains partnerships

Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

Innovates and embraces change

Drive to achieve results for impact

Manages ambiguity and complexity

Thinks and acts strategically

Works collaboratively with others

Nurtures, leads and manages people

11. Procedures and logistics

UNICEF will fund all traveling if required (agreed in advance) upon submission of receipts.

The consultant will use her/his computer and other equipment

The consultant will submit deliverables in an electronic form (Microsoft Word).

Before commencing the contract, the consultant will be required to sign a Health Statement and to document that he/she has appropriate health insurance. The consultant will be responsible for the accuracy of that statement.

The contract will be between the consultant and UNICEF. The assignment will be supervised by the Country Office Representative Programmes with support from the Chief PME.

Interested candidates are kindly requested to apply in [link] and upload the following documents:

▪ Letter of Interest (cover letter)

▪ CV or Resume

▪ Performance evaluation reports or references of similar consultancy assignments

.Technical Offer

▪ Financial proposal: All-inclusive

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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