Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Specialist (Research), Maseru, Lesotho, 364 days

Contract

This is a P-3 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 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 101,149 USD and 132,447 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, Opportunities

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose for the job:

Under the guidance and supervision of the Deputy Representative, the incumbent Planning, Monitoring, Research and Evaluation Specialist P3 will provide support to and facilitate the planning, monitoring, research, evaluation, and reporting functions for the country programme. This will be done in close collaboration with programme officers, specialists and chiefs across different sections in UNICEF Lesotho Country Office

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

1. Programme Planning and Coordination

• Support the development of programme guidance to assist in development of annual / rolling workplans aligned with relevant programme planning documents, processes, UNICEF guidance and RBM principles.
• Provide technical expertise to programme reviews and annual reviews with counterparts to assess progress and to engage stakeholders to take required action/interventions to achieve results.
• Participate in appropriate Inter-Agency meetings/events to collaborate with Inter-Agency planning and preparations, and to integrate and harmonize UNICEF position and strategies with the UNSDCF process.
• Provide technical support and coordinate various Inter-Agency initiatives such as UNSCDF Joint workplan, UN Info, UNSCDF annual report and other Inter-Agency reporting Initiatives.
• Collaborate with Regional Planning, Monitoring and Research Advisers for overall coordination of priority research, monitoring activities, especially those of regional scope requiring the coordinated effort of multiple countries.

2. Programme Monitoring and Reporting

• Provide technical support to ensure that the Country Office has quality information to assess progress towards expected results established in annual work plans and a quality set of programme performance indicators and means of verification are identified and adjusted as necessary.
• Coordinate with UNICEF programme staff and partners to ensure that programme monitoring systems are properly aligned with the relevant national and global indicators.
• Coordinate with UNICEF programme staff and partners to ensure that data collection efforts and analysis from programmatic and field visits are coordinated and standardised across programmes to feed into regular programme performance monitoring, with special attention to humanitarian response.
• In collaboration with UNICEF programme staff, plan and collaborate with monitoring, reporting and evaluation initiatives to establish benchmarks, performance indicators and other UNICEF/ UN system indicators, to assess/ strengthen performance accountability, coherence and delivery of concrete and sustainable results for the programme.
• Contribute to quality and timely reporting requirements, including RAM, CSIs, and country office annual reports. Ensures that programme results with logical flow are adequately and accurately reflected in all relevant programme documents in collaboration with programme sections.

3. Evaluation and Research Planning

• Lead the planning and establishing of the major assessment, research and evaluation objectives, priorities and activities in UNICEF’s multi-year and deed into UNICEF’s annual IMEPs.
• Ensure that UNICEF-supported evaluations and research projects are designed and implemented to the UN high quality standards, and the results are disseminated in a timely fashion to stakeholders to improve programme performance and contribute to wider learning.Monitor and ensure that a management response to the findings and recommendations of the evaluation is completed, recorded, and followed up for implementation.
• In line with the organization's research policy ensure that principles and standards that should guide research are upheld, identify emerging and strategic issues for further research. Support the development of a well-prioritized research agenda for the Country Office.
• Technical lead and support research projects for the Country Office, ensuring that the research process and final products are of high quality and meet UNICEF research standards, particularly ethical requirements.

4. Partnership and Capacity Building

• Ensure that the Country Office builds sustainable partnerships for planning, monitoring, research and evaluation. Ensure that the planning, monitoring, research and evaluation capacities of Country Office and national partners are strengthened, enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead planning, monitoring, research and evaluation processes.
• Support capacity building of UNICEF programme staff and partners to integrate results-based management into programme planning, implementation, and monitoring.
• Promote the awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of the planning, monitoring and reporting function among all UNICEF programme staff through communication, training, learning and development activities organization-wide.
• 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 partner governmental staff have the knowledge and skills in understanding and applying new PME policies, tools, methods to fulfil their responsibilities.
• Ensure that the UNICEF office is effectively linked to wider UNICEF PME developments in a way that both contributes to and benefits from organizational learning on effective PME management.

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

Recruitment Qualifications

EducationAdvanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in international development, statistics, economics, social sciences or other relevant field.ExperienceMinimum of 5 years of practical and analytical work experience at national and international levels in planning, monitoring, reporting, evaluation, data and statisticsLanguage RequirementsFluency in English, both written and verbal, is required.

Knowledge of another official UN language or the local working language of the duty station 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: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

▪ Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (II)

▪ Drive to achieve results for impact (II)

▪ Innovates and embraces change (II)

▪ Manages ambiguity and complexity (II)

▪ Thinks and acts strategically (II)

▪ Works collaboratively with others (II)

▪ Nurtures, leads and manages people (I)

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

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. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. 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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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:

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 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.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.