Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist, NO-3, FT, Iran #125349 (Iranian nationals only)

Mid Programme & Policy Monitoring & Evaluation

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, Joy

Organizational Context and Purpose for the job

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.

Purpose for the job:

The Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation (PME) Specialist reports to the Deputy Representative Programme with a dotted line to the Representative for supervision. The role leads the PME team in overseeing the planning, monitoring and evaluation across the office. The PME Specialist provides professional technical, operational and management assistance throughout the planning, monitoring, evaluation process preparing, executing, managing and implementing a variety of technical tasks to contribute to programme effectiveness and oversight.

Key function, accountabilities and related duties/tasks

How can you make a difference?

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1. Programme and Country Office Planning

2. Situation Monitoring and Study & Research Planning

3. Programme Implementation and Performance Monitoring

4. Evaluation

5. Capacity Building

6. Coordination and Networking

7. Knowledge Management

1. Programme and Country Office Planning

Ensure that Country Programme Document (CPD) and the corresponding result and resource framework is developed, reviewed and updated based on the applicable planning procedures and processes and workplans and programme documents are developed and quality assured.

• Plan and lead the development and modification process of UNICEF country programme document and coordinate the quality assurance reviews and collection and consolidation of inputs received from the stakeholders until the complete finalization

• Lead launching requirement and arrangements for new country programmes or official amendments

• Plan for and lead the bottleneck and causality analysis, prioritization, and development of the theory of change in coordination with internal and external stakeholders and national counterparts as relevant

• Design and implement planning procedures to support regular planning and adaptation of the programmes to the emerging needs

• Provide technical support to programme units to develop programme specific theory of change and key interventions

• Support budget planning and work breakdown structure design

• Oversee country office planning for compliance with the global mandates and strategies

• Provide technical support to development of the workplans and their corresponding result and resource frameworks and quality assuring compliance with applicable standards

• Plan for and support migration to new programming systems and platform

• Provide technical support to planning, development and modification of United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework under relevant inter-agency coordination mechanisms.

• Provide technical support to integrated programming for humanitarian-development nexus

• Plan for and conduct annual risk assessment and incorporate relevant elements of risk informed programming in the programme design

• Ensure cross-cutting issues are systematically integrated in the programme design

• Support functional mapping for the programmatic needs to enable efficient delivery of programme results

• Explore programming prerequisites as per the applicable guidelines and the evolving needs

• Provide technical input to the management on the programme planning status and needs.

• Conduct partnership mapping and reviews

2. Situation Monitoring and Study & Research Planning

Ensure that the Country Office has a plan for evidence generation and utilization that will provide the most relevant and strategic information, including monitoring of socio-economic trends and the country’s wider policy, economic or institutional context, to facilitate an effective programme management

• Lead identification of evidence and data gaps and advise on the appropriate solutions to enable informed programme

• Provide technical support to planning and establishing the major study and research objectives, priorities, and activities in UNICEF’s multi-year and annual plans

• Provide technical support to quality assurance process for planning and conducting studies, research and national surveys

• Support coordination with the national and international entities on evidence generation efforts and requirements

• In coordination with other stakeholders, support the collection of SDGs and other key social development indicators (through MICS or other surveys) to improve national planning

• Support partners in the establishment and management of systems to support Situation Analysis, Common Country Assessment, Early Warning Monitoring Systems, and Mid-Term Reviews.

• Coordinate and oversee periodic reporting on risks and the corresponding mitigation measures.

3. Programme Implementation and Result Monitoring

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

• Provide technical support to ensure that a set of programme performance indicators is identified and adjusted as necessary in the context of the annual planning and based on the global indicator selection and development standards

• Lead, and oversee data collection and analysis, planning monitoring visits and standardisation of practices across the office

• Provide technical support in setting baselines and targets for indicators under the country programme result and resource framework, programme documents and UNSDCF and support development of consolidated report for internal or external dissemination.

• Drawing on monitoring and analysis of key programme performance and management indicators

• Provide professional input to management reports, including relevant sections of the annual/mid-year reports

• Quality assure indicator reporting and narrative reports by advising on the correct rating/reporting measures and standards and means of verification

• Plan and coordinate mid-year/term and annual reviews for the country programme documents and workplans based on the applicable procedures.

• Support planning for and holding of the steering committee with the national counterparts for mid-year/term and annual reviews.

4. Evaluation and Audit

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 to improve programme performance and contribute to wider learning.

• Develop and amend country office costed evaluation and quality assure the form and content for approval at regional, global and the executive board level.

• Technically support programme partners and designated evaluation steering committee members to formulate Terms of Reference and evaluation designs of high quality

• 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 desk studies, field work, data collection and analysis, 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.

• Supporting senior management in organizing and conducting audits, drafting and implementation of recommendations and management responses.

5. Capacity Building

Ensure that the 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 monitoring and evaluation processes.

• Promote the awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of PME function among all staff members through communication, training, learning and development activities organization wide.

• In close collaboration with partners, ensure that capacity building strategy for UNICEF/UN staff, national partners and institutions on result-based management exists. Pay particular attention so the capacity needs of national partners such as professional evaluation associations and national evaluations offices 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.

• Support regional and global capacity building programmes on result based management and country programme planning

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.

• Support partnership development and management with national implementing partners, NGOs, and civil society organizations

• Collaborate with regional and where needed global planning, monitoring, research and evaluation sections and advisors for overall coordination of priority planning, research, monitoring and evaluation activities, especially those of regional scope requiring the coordinated effort of multiple countries.

• Partner with the Regional Planning, Monitoring, Research and Evaluation chiefs 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.

7. Knowledge Management

Ensure that the UNICEF office is systematically involved in documentation around programmes to contribute to organizational learning, programme and strategy adaptation and advocacy efforts.

• Take lead on and provide technical support to identify, capture, synthesize and share lessons learned from different knowledge sources

• Research and report on best practices and systems for development planning of knowledge products

• Participate as resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders.

• Systemize knowledge documentation, retrieval and management process withing the office and contribute to regional initiatives

Impact of Results

The efficiency and efficacy of support provided by the PME Specialist to the CMT and wide range stakeholders contribute to the successful planning and monitoring efforts that in turn result in improved country office and national stakeholders’ development planning, performance and achievement of concrete and sustainable results.

Effective implementation of evaluations enhances UNICEF’s capacity and credibility in delivering highly effective programs and concrete and sustainable results that directly improve services to mothers and children in the country.

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

Education:

A university degree in social sciences, data and statistics, planning, development, and other field of sciences relevant to this role with minimum 3 years of extensive qualifying work experience directly related to this role.

Experience:

Five years of relevant professional work experience in non-for-profit/public sector programme and project planning, monitoring and evaluation.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English and Farsi is required.

Specific Technical Knowledge & Competencies Required

Knowledge/expertise of:

• programme and strategic planning
• process and procedure development
• evaluation management,
• risk informed programming
• project/programme work planning
• financial management and budget planning/reporting
• statistics and data management.
• Research process and methodology development
• Result based management
• Partnership development and management
• Proposal and report development
• risk and compliance and programmatic quality assurance

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…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people.

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’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable candidate with disability are encouraged to apply.

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.

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Added 10 months ago - Updated 10 months ago - Source: unicef.org