M&E (After Action Review, AAR Emergencies), Consultant

Consultant Programme & Policy Monitoring & Evaluation

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

Between 2021 and 2022, UNICEF Angola has responded to multiple emergencies including not only the drought, but also outbreak of Polio and the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

UNICEF has played a critical role in humanitarian leadership and interagency coordination. Both as chair and co-chair of the UN Disaster Management Team (DMT), sector lead for WASH, Nutrition and Education, and co-lead for Protection working alongside Government at central and decentralized levels to support the implementation of Government and UN interagency humanitarian response in the country.

The 2021/22 emergency season provides an important opportunity for UNICEF to strengthen its organization learning in the area of humanitarian action and coordination, by examining what worked, what didn’t, and how performance can be improved and integrated into any and all upcoming preparedness planning.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose

Facilitate a structured discussion on the 2021-2022 humanitarian intervention that enables UNICEF team to consider and reflect on what happened, why it happened, and how to sustain strengths and improve on weaknesses. The overall objective of the after-action review (AAR) exercise is twofold: (1) to reflect on UNICEF humanitarian response to the drought and COVID-19 interventions and (2) to agree on UNICEF preparedness actions and responsibilities ahead of the next emergency season.

Specific Objectives

The exercise will be guided by the Planning, M&E section with the support from the Emergency Specialist and regional office (RO) colleagues. Specifically, the focus will be on what worked and what didn’t; (ii) UNICEF cluster/sectoral leadership and coordination; (iii) opportunities for improvement; and (iv) to agree on preparedness actions and responsibilities in anticipation of the next emergency season both to strengthen ACO preparedness and in support of the UN Disaster Management Team (DMT) and the National Civil Protection (SPCB) and line ministries.

Methodology

After Action Review (AAR). An after-action review (AAR) is a professional discussion that focuses on performance standards and enables development professionals and colleagues with similar or shared interests to discover for themselves what happened, why it happened, and how to sustain strengths and improve on weaknesses. The AAR is integrated within UNICEF’s continued commitment to improve the outcomes of humanitarian action for children through systematic recording and integration of lessons learned within ACO preparedness.

The review should address the following 4 key AAR questions:

1. What was expected to happen?

2. What happened?

3. What went well, and why?

4. What could have gone better, and why?

Each key question will look at participants’ perception related to the standard principles of appropriateness, effectiveness, efficiency, coverage, and coordination, and will focus on 5 learning categories:

a) Data: availability, data collection, data use, quality

b) Planning: participation, prioritization, coherence, review

c) Resources: availability, timeliness, flexibility, access, use

d) Field presence and Capacity:

e) Coordination: among UNICEF sections, with other UN, with government, national, regional, local, inter and intra sector/cluster

AAR priorities learning over (upward) accountability: include and prioritize the views and inputs from program staff, program recipients/affected people; focus on experiential basis and reflection of direct experience; generate rapid feedback and actionable learning. It is based on the general principle is ‘no attribution, no retribution’, and focus on the goal to improve the response capacity of UNICEF, not to assess specific accountability or impact (usually covered by more structured evaluations). It is done by the team, for the team. The AAR is a UNICEF standard stand-alone learning processes in small to medium-scale emergency responses that focus on encouraging reflective-learning exercises. (See ALNAP evaluation of humanitarian Actions Guide)

Key questions

Specific open-ended questions will be drafted for each key element of the AAR. An open-ended question has no specific answer and allows the participants to reply based on what they perceived as significant.

Big-picture question: Looking broadly at UNICEF humanitarian interventions in 2021-2022, how would you describe it, in one sentence?

Specific questions for each of the key question/learning category will be formulated. The list will be finalized after the first round of individual interviews.

The effectiveness of an AAR is based on three assumptions:

• A supportive learning environment: Staff members feel safe enough to disagree with others, ask naive questions, own up to mistakes, and represent minority views. They recognize the value of opposing ideas and are willing to take risks and explore the unknown.

• Concrete learning processes: Formal processes exist for generating, collecting, interpreting, and disseminating information.

• Leadership that reinforces learning: The organization’s senior management demonstrate willingness to entertain alternative viewpoints; signal the importance of spending time on problem identification, knowledge transfer, and reflection; and engage in active questioning and listening.

Focus

The AAR will focus on the drought response. However, it will also collect information and make link with other concomitant humanitarian interventions such as Polio, COVID-19 pandemic, and IDPs. It will focus on UNICEF actions and involve UNICEF staff, UN agencies (key members of the DMT), Government officers (SPCB and line ministries), and CSO (local NGOs).

Management

Overall, the AAR will be facilitated by an external Consultant/facilitator. The Facilitator will:

• Collect, Collate, and analyze information on the emergency response

• Meet different internal (UNICEF) and external (UN, GOV, CSO) players to get an overview of what they are doing in the drought response including obtaining information relevant for the review.

• Develop all the relevant materials and presentations that will be used for the review process.

Scope of Work:

The Consultant will work in close collaboration with the Emergency Specialist, and under the supervision of the Chief PME, to support of technical M&E assistance for the efficient and effective After-Action Review (AAR) of the Angola CO emergency activities. In particular, he/she will:

1. Individual interviews: the facilitators will meet each participant individually asking the 4 key AAR questions.

2. AAR session: A facilitator guides the review discussion, and notes are recorded on flip charts with the help of a dedicated scribe.

Contribution to improving ACO preparedness

The results of the ACO AAR exercise will substantially strengthen ACO preparedness and UNICEF capacity to better support the UN, Government, and line ministries.

Proposed field mission

Where possible, a field mission will be conducted to interact with UN partners, Government and implementing partners with whom UNICEF engaged in the field.

Deliverables

The facilitator/consultant will:

• Lead and facilitate a two-day review workshop.

• Final and formal report is presented two weeks following the AAR session itself. Recommendations/lessons learnt and actionable items will be later brought to the attention of ACO and RO management teams.

Performance Conditions:

1 Inception report: written in Portuguese

2 Draft version of AAR report written in Portuguese and English

3 Presentation (PPT) of AAR results to be presented in validation workshop written in Portuguese and English

4 Last version of AAR report written in Portuguese and English, including validation workshop

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Timeline

Estimate Budget

Support desk review with analysis of emergency response to complete inception report

1-Inception report

01/07/2022 – 07/07/2022

20%

Provide support on formulation of draft version of the AAR report: based on triangulation of data collected

2-Draft report of After-Action Review

07/07/2022 – 14/07/2022

30%

Support facilitation of validation workshop on results: present main findings, conclusions, recommendations

3-Presentation (PPT) and synthesis/brief of AAR with key findings in English and Port.

14/07/2022 – 21/07/2022

20%

Provide support to revise the final draft report in response to inputs provided in English with feedback received from different stakeholders (from workshop)

4-Final report of the AAR

21/07/2022 – 31/07/2022

30%

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

• A Master’s or higher in one of the following areas: social sciences, statistics, demography, economics, development or related

  • Professional work experience of at least five (5) years in development and emergency contexts for monitoring and evaluation (M&E), research, program planning and development, in emergency contexts

  • Extensive experience in undertaking evaluations, in facilitating After Action Review with the UN and other International organizations.

  • Fluency in English with excellent presentation, facilitation and report writing skills.

  • Knowledge of spoken and written Portuguese is highly desirable.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

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.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract 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. The candidate may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid).

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Added 1 year ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org