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UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, hope

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 past two decades have seen important progress on child rights, yet while much has been achieved, sharp disparities remain. In most countries, inequality is higher today than a generation ago, including in middle income countries where a majority of the world’s poor children now live. The rapid pace of urbanization and the growing youth bulge in Africa will require significant expansion of the provision of essential services for children. These challenges are compounded by the scale and complexity of crises triggered by conflict, natural disasters, or epidemics. The global community faces these challenges when the political and economic environments pose challenges of their own, testing the world’s commitment to protecting the most vulnerable. In this environment, strong and consistent leadership of UNICEF is critical to enable the achievement of results for children.

Strategic Office context:

The Chief Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (PMER) reports to the Deputy Representative Programme and is responsible for the overall management of the Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Section. The Chief PMER is accountable to the Deputy Representative Programme to ensure effective programme planning, programme monitoring, and results reporting aligned with commitments made in the South Sudan Country Programme of Cooperation and the Core Commitments for Children as articulated in the annual Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) Appeals. The post is office-based but with frequent travel within the country and occasional travel outside.

The situation in South Sudan remains complex. The protracted crises and fragile political and security context are resulting in a continued deterioration of the humanitarian situation. South Sudan is characterized by continuous sub-national and inter-communal conflict, recurrent natural disasters, continuous internal displacement, rising poverty, unprecedented levels of food and nutrition insecurity, as well as disease outbreaks. The fragile peace agreement during the transitional Government arrangement is compounding weak public services and a weak economy. UNICEF is required to work innovatively and cross-sectorally to build resilience, prevent or mitigate disasters and improve the lives and well-being of the South Sudanese people. The context requires working flexibly and rapidly to adapt to multiple operational constraints in a highly volatile and unpredictable context. 

Purpose of the job:

Under the guidance and supervision of the Deputy Representative Programme, the position will head the Planning, Monitoring Evaluation and Reporting (PMER) Section, which is responsible for Country Programme planning, Country Programme monitoring, end-of-year Country Programme reporting, implementing partnerships management, Country Programme budget planning and management, salary planning and management, contribution management, including allocations, reallocations, re-phasing, monitoring grant expiry and grants coming to a financial closure.

The Chief provides technical guidance and support to the Country Office and Field Offices in the areas of annual work planning, field monitoring, results reporting, and budget management. The Chief also provides technical guidance to the CMT and the Programme Coordination Team in accordance with corporate policies, procedure, and guidance to ensure adherence and compliance with quality standards and corporate deadlines. This will be done in close collaboration and coordination with the Section Chiefs, Chiefs of Field Offices, Deputy Representative Operations, and other members of the CMT and the senior management team, including those related to the implementation and coordination of UN agencies and with the UN Mission in South Sudan. An Evaluation Specialist with a direct reporting line to the Representative for the purpose of managing the costed evaluation plan of the Country Office, will also have day-to-day interactions with the Chief PMER, contributing to the programme performance monitoring portfolio.

How can you make a difference?

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks

1. Programme Planning and Reporting

• Keep continuously abreast with the situation of children and women in South Sudan, and ensure the collection, analysis and dissemination of updated data and information on child survival, protection and development in the country. 
• Provide substantive technical leadership and support to the Deputy Representative Programme for the Country Programme process, including in the preparation of Strategy Notes, the Country Programme Document (CPD), the Country Programme Management Plan (CPMP) and coordination of UNICEF inputs to the UN Country Assessment, the UNSDCF and Joint Programmes, ensuring coherence with the UNICEF CPD and HAC and the emerging needs of children.

2. Programme Monitoring

• Make professional contributions to and provide technical assistance to the planning and establishing of the major research, monitoring and evaluation objectives, priorities, and activities in UNICEF’s multi-year and annual Integrated, Monitoring and Evaluation plans (IMEPs), in consultation with implementing partners.
• Responsible for HRAP-based planning and monitoring for the Country Programme and ensuring that these also reflect national priorities, decentralization of government planning procedures, participatory planning approaches and indicators for regular monitoring. Ensure timely preparation and integration of UNICEF inputs into Rolling Work Plans. Ensure synchronization of UNICEF support with the GOSS planning cycles.

3. Evaluation

• Technically support programme partners to formulate Terms of References and evaluation designs of high quality in support of the Evaluation Specialist, when relevant 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 fieldwork and data management during the implementation phase, and the quality of the analysis and ease of understanding during the report writing phase. Through the Evaluation Specialist ensure to disseminate evaluation findings and recommendations to the intended audiences via user-friendly methods. Monitor and ensure that a management response to the findings and recommendations of evaluations is completed, recorded, and followed up for implementation and that electronic copies of all evaluations are submitted to NYHQ via the Evaluation Database web portal, with full accompanying documentation. Through the Evaluation Specialist ensure that evaluation recommendations are submitted to the Country Management Team and follow-up actions recorded in CMT minutes.
• Ensure timely implementation and effective programme monitoring of UNICEF inputs (cash, supply, contracts, training, and travel) and provide technical leadership to quarterly and annual reviews and planning exercises. Undertake frequent monitoring visits to assess the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of UNICEF assistance for planning monitoring and adjustment of strategies and approaches. Provide guidance and procedures to programme teams on all aspects of programme planning monitoring and evaluation according to UNICEF’s, policies, guidelines and operational procedures, especially those specifically developed for the Country Programme and the HAC Appeal.
• Ensure establishment of an effective monitoring system for regular assessment of UNICEF and partner programme performance aligned with specific targets and outcomes related to the Country Programme goals and ensure linkages between sub-national government and national monitoring systems. Organize capacity building for an effective programme monitoring system which reflects UNICEF’s contribution and enhances and facilitates Country Programme implementation.
• Prepare programme status reports required for management and donors, budget reviews, programme analysis, annual reports, etc.

4. Budget and Contribution Management

Ensure that the Country Office budget is managed in line with results-based budgeting principles and standards and that grants are reported on and used in line with donor commitments.

• Oversee, provide guidance and supervise staff responsible for fund management with an increasing focus on results-based budgeting and spending as well as monitoring of spending against results. This includes regular interaction with Section Chiefs and Chiefs of Field Offices on various aspects of fund management, determining the resource envelope for the various programmes and overseeing that the Office achieves all the global indicators related to fund management. It also includes linking expenditures to programmes by the systematic use of coding expenditures in line with results-based budgeting principles.
• Ensure that the work breakdown structure in VISION is correctly inputted and adhered to thereafter, and that programme coding and all special markers/tags and reporting in VISION are properly done and updated.
• Ensure that UNICEF’s dashboard system of performance management and reporting is well understood, updated and applied across the office.
• Provide quality assurance on grants management, including ensuring that donor funding is spent in line with commitments; full utilization including facilitation of no-cost extension for grants and fund reversals.

5. Results-Based Management (RBM) Capacity Development and Quality Assurance

Ensure that the planning, monitoring and evaluation capacities of Country Office staff and national partners – government and civil society organizations – are strengthened, enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead planning, monitoring and evaluation processes.

• Promote awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of RBM among all staff members through communication, training, learning and development activities Office-wide.
• Oversee the quality review of draft PCAs/PDs, from a RBM perspective.
• In close collaboration with partners, ensure that a RBM capacity development approach for UNICEF/UN staff, national partners and institutions is developed, implemented and updated.
• Actively seek partnerships with knowledge institutions, including other UN agencies, for the identification of capacity gaps and development of strategies to address these.

6. Resource mobilization and reporting

 Support Office-level resource mobilization via monitoring of donor contributions and quality assurance of proposals for funding and donor reports. 

• Monitor overall fundraising levels for different outputs of the UNICEF Country Programme for informed decision making against Country Office resource mobilization initiatives.
• Review and negotiate donor partnership agreements in the country, ensuring alignment with globally negotiated frameworks. Act as CO focal point for grants related program verification in coordination with related program sections and operations teams.
• Quality-assurance of donor proposals to ensure competitive submissions and review of donor reports to highlight results and ensure adherence to negotiated requirements.
• Manage knowledge management of fundraising. Maintain a central repository for the Office on donor agreements, proposals, reports and donor communication for decision making and lessons learned.

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

Education:

• Advanced university degree in social sciences or other relevant disciplines. Practical training in programme management and evaluation, survey and research analysis, or applied statistical data analysis in social sciences is an asset.

Experience:

• A minimum of eight years of progressively responsible professional work experience in programme planning, monitoring, evaluation and results reporting.

Language:

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Desirables:

• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.

• Relevant experience in evaluation a strong asset.

• Experience in effective leadership and management of teams to deliver results in high stress/risk environments is desirable.

• Experience in humanitarian contexts is considered an asset combined with experience in development contexts.

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

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (2)
• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2)
• Works Collaboratively with others (2)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (2)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (2)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (2)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

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 measures to include a more diverse workforce, such as paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will 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.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions 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. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.