Monitoring & Evaluation Officer

Job Description

Contract duration: 9 Months (April-December 2021)

Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Summary of key responsibilities:

Within the delegated authority and under the given organizational set-up, the incumbent may be assigned the primarily, shared, or contributory accountabilities for all or part of the following areas of major duties and key end-results.

1. Evaluation
Manage programme evaluations at the country level in the assigned themes laid out in the UNICEF Jordan Costed Evaluation Plan.
Duties & Tasks:

• Identifying the evaluation needs of UNICEF Jordan and develop a Terms of Reference in consultation with programme sections.
• Managing the hiring process to engage independent external evaluators.
• Coordinating among all stakeholders and propose appropriate methodologies and governance arrangements for evaluations.
• Ensuring proper quality control during implementation, and ensure ethical clearance.
• Reviewing all deliverables and payment.
• Managing appropriate dissemination of completed evaluations and guiding stakeholders in the development of proper management responses, uptake of lessons learned and application of evidence gained.
• Support formulation of evaluation management response (EMR) in consultation with key stakeholders and ensure that both final reports and the EMRs are uploaded on to HQs’ online depositories with the full accompanied documents in a timely manner.

2. Situation Monitoring and Assessment
Provide technical support to ensure that the Country Office and national partners have timely and accurate measurement of change in conditions in the country or region to facilitate planning and to draw conclusions about the impact of programmes or policies.
Duties & Tasks:

• Support management of available baseline information on national statistics and key indicators through established databases for easy access and use. Provide a technical support to global reporting obligations including national reports on progress toward the SDGs, toward CRC fulfilment, and toward CEDAW fulfilment.
• Keep monitoring the situation of children’s and women’s rights with national partners and keep updated with the information of the quality research that address issues and challenges affecting children and their families.
• Coordinate with the Country Office and partners and provide assistance in their using up-to-date information in, inter alia, Common Country Assessment, Annual Reviews, , and Annual Reports or other progress reports (such as UNSDF Annual Report).
• In humanitarian response situations, provide technical support for a rapid assessment (inter-agency or independently if necessary) to be carried out within the first 48-72 hours. Provide rapid and accurate information on emergency programme’s coverage, coordination and coherence in close collaboration with partners and in line with the core commitment on children (CCCs).
• Provide technical support to ensure that the CO has information necessary for UNICEF to effectively report on and advocate for children’s rights through the appropriate channels and to enhance partnerships with key players in monitoring collectively progress on child focused international commitments, including SDGs.
• Support the CO in collecting and interpreting existing early warning data effectively to guide the adjustment of programmes and operational approaches when and as country contexts deteriorate.

3. Programme Performance Monitoring
Provide technical support to ensure that the Country Office has quality information to assess progress towards expected results established in annual work plans.
Duties & Tasks:

• Provide technical support as necessary to identifying and adjusting a set of programme performance indicators, 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.
• Provide technical support and/or quality assurance in designating and collating performance indicators and developing a robust Theory of Change and/or Logframe at the time of annual work planning, programme designing and programme reviews.
• Provide technical support to ensure that monitoring system are in place and that key annual programme indicators are tracked and analysed, including those related to partnerships initiative and humanitarian obligations (SitRep) in collaboration with partnership section, and provided regularly to the Country Management Team/ Senior Management Team to guide programme and management decisions.
• Carry out data collection and analysis from field visits, standardising them across programmes, to feed into to programme performance monitoring.
• Keep tracking of follow-up action based on management decisions resulting from Country Office performance monitoring and evaluation.
• Compile monitoring and evaluation information/data, and make them available to programme/planning sections. Contribute to the preparation of management reports (e.g., relevant sections of the annual reports), drawing on monitoring and analysis of key management indicators. Assist in the preparation of reports on systemic issues, good practices or any other analysis or data related to programme implementation and/or evaluation, including programme’s performance, relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability; as well as good practices in partnerships and collaborative relationships.

4. Integrated Monitoring, Evaluation & Research Planning (IMEP)
Provide technical support to ensure that the Country Office and national partners use a well-prioritised and realistic plan of research, monitoring and evaluation activities that will provide the most relevant and strategic information to manage the Country Programme, including tracking and assessing UNICEF’s distinct contribution.
Duties & Tasks:

• In close consultation with management and liaison with partners, make a professional contribution to formulation of the IMEPs from a sound results-based programming process and collaborative working relations with partners
• In a close coordination with partners, ensure that the IMEPs include data collection activities that provide accurate and relevant data on key activities and results, including results for children.
• Contribute to the incorporation of M&E tasks in the IMEPs which were identified within the CO Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan, in order to anticipate and prepare for the information needs and operational modalities of an emergency, in consultation with humanitarian partners.
• In humanitarian response situations, within the first month, draft and recommend a simple one-month data-collection plan to cover key data gaps as required for the initial emergency response through working in close collaboration with the humanitarian clusters partners. After the initial humanitarian response, support management of the medium-term response with a revised IMEP.

5. M&E Capacity Building
Provide technical support to 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.
Duties & Tasks:

• Contribute to the collaboration of an M&E capacity building strategy for national partners and institutions and corresponding activities for implementation in the context of the IMEP or UNSDF M&E plan. Provide technical support for implementation of capacity building strategies as a joint commitment with other developmental partners with special attention to the interest, concern and participation of primary stakeholders.
• In close consultation with senior managers, contribute to formulation of staff capacity development strategy and plans, and exercise effective leadership in implementing them, ensuring that Country Office staffs have the basic knowledge and skills to fulfil their monitoring and evaluation responsibilities, and training is planned and carried out to fill identified gaps.
• Promote and provide support to ensure that Country Office staff and national partners are aware of and have access to UNICEF monitoring and evaluation learning resources.
• Contribute to facilitate that Evaluation capacity of national partner organisations is strengthened through their involvement in evaluation processes and possibly through specific capacity building initiatives.
• Contribute to liaise with knowledge institutions to seek partnerships for the identification of capacity gaps and the development of strategies to address them.

You may find more information at https://jobs.unops.org/Pages/ViewVacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=21223

Requirements

• University degree in social sciences, development planning, planning, evaluation, survey implementation, advanced statistical research
• 4 years of professional work experience in programme development and implementation including monitoring and evaluation activities as follows.
• Developing country experience or exposure to emergency programming including preparedness planning is an asset.
• Exposure to the management of humanitarian interventions evaluation is an asset.

Required Skills:
a) Specific Technical Knowledge Required (for the job)

• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in Evaluation Process Management, Evaluation Design, data analysis, and reporting, Follow-up on Recommendations and Dissemination of M&E results.
• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in demography, statistics, and data management.
• Methodology of M&E, theories, standards and models, quantitative/qualitative/mixed methods, validity/reliability testing of data, data analysis and interpretation, and statistical inference methods.
• Gender equality and diversity awareness

b) Technical Knowledge to be Acquired/Enhanced (for the Job)

• Understanding of UNICEF’s policies and procedures for programming, monitoring and evaluation guidelines.
• Latest programme monitoring and evaluation theory, methodology, technology and tools.
• Understanding of UN Mission and system; and International Code of Conduct.
• Understanding of UNICEF Mission Statement and observance of UNICEF Guiding Principles.
• UNICEF strategic framework for partnerships and collaborative relationships.

About the Organization

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.