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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 for as long as we are needed. 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 professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

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

For every child, the right to a Future

UNICEF’s evaluation function is largely decentralized. It includes senior-level regional evaluation advisers and multi-country evaluation specialists based in its five regions, as well as dedicated country-level evaluation focal points who provide full- or part-time support to evaluation efforts. The function conducts a diverse portfolio of independent, credible, and impartial evaluations, including corporate thematic, institutional effectiveness, humanitarian, country-led, and impact evaluations. These efforts ensure that UNICEF systematically uses evaluation evidence to enhance its effectiveness and deliver better results for children.

In 2023, the EO launched the UNICEF Evaluation of Impact Strategy and Action Framework 2022–2025, establishing institutional priorities for generating and using evidence of the impacts of UNICEF-supported interventions, including evidence of their cost-effectiveness. The Impact Catalyst Fund (ICF) serves as the strategy's main mechanism for strategic and harmonized multi-country impact evaluation portfolios. Currently, two thematic ICF windows and nine impact evaluations are underway with country offices, with two additional thematic windows proposed for 2026-2029.

How can you make a difference?

Under the direction, guidance, and supervision of the Senior Evaluation Specialist / Chief of the Programme Effectiveness and Impact Evaluation section, the Impact Evaluation Specialist is responsible for implementing UNICEF’s Impact Evaluation Strategy and technical supervision of the multi-county impact evaluation portfolio under the Adaptive Social Protection: Evidence for Child Outcomes (ASPECT) programme – a multi-year partnership between the Evaluation Office and German Development Cooperation, which is implemented in collaboration with the Office of Strategy and Evidence.
The Impact Evaluation Specialist will lead the technical planning and execution of the impact evaluation portfolio on adaptive social protection, offering hands-on expertise in impact evaluation design (including e.g. randomization and stratification plan, sampling calculations, inter-class correlation estimates), econometric data analysis, and report writing. S/he will also provide technical support and quality assurance for decentralized impact evaluations, promote the expansion of impact evaluation coverage across UNICEF programmes, and support learning and capacity development in impact evaluation for UNICEF staff and partners.
The incumbent will contribute to broader evidence generation and utilization efforts, including resource mobilization, dissemination of evaluation findings both internally and externally, and fostering trusted relationships with staff from UNICEF Centers of Excellence and other key stakeholders.
This technically specialized post will help facilitate the Evaluation Office’s transition to a new business model, one that employs in-house production of evaluative evidence to ensure the highest standards of relevance, timeliness, quality, and credibility.

Key Function, Accountability and Related Duties/Tasks

Evaluation Design and Technical Leadership

• Design and lead rigorous impact evaluations using RCTs, A/B testing, quasi-experimental designs, and natural experiments in the thematic area of adaptive social protection, household resilience, nutrition and food security; conduct impact evaluation feasibility assessments and adapt methodologies to evolving contexts, particularly in fragile/humanitarian settings.
• Develop research protocols, survey instruments, and pre-analysis plans and supervise their field testing and execution.
• Establish statistical modeling standards, e.g., sample calculations, power analysis, treatment effect estimation, heterogeneous impacts, spillovers, and machine learning (ML) technique integration.
• Manage end-to-end impact evaluation implementation, including budgeting, timeline oversight, and risk mitigation in partnership with country offices and government counterparts.
• Author comprehensive evaluation outputs, including baseline, midline, and endline reports; ensure technical rigor, clear interpretation of findings, and actionable recommendations for programme improvements.
• Mentor junior team members in causal inference, advanced analytics, and ML techniques.

Quality Assurance and Standardization

• Establish technical standards for documentation, survey and thematic indicators harmonization across Impact Catalyst Fund evaluations on adaptive social protection, resilience, food security and nutrition in different contexts (including validation and cultural adaptation).
• Develop technical guidance for UNICEF practitioners and quality-assure all thematic window analytical and dissemination outputs.
• Provide technical oversight for decentralized impact evaluation products (TORs, baseline/endline reports) to support country and regional evaluation teams.
• Support the implementation of the new impact evaluation template for the Global Evaluation Reports Oversight System (GEROS) including revisions and adjustments if needed.

Strategic Partnerships and Portfolio Development

• Collaborate with the Evaluation Office Director’s office in the development of strategic partnerships and portfolio development opportunities for multi-country and joint inter-agency impact evaluations, alongside UNICEF global programme teams, Regional Evaluation Advisors, Centers of Excellence (CoE) and other UN agencies.
• Support the Evaluation Office Director’s office in resource mobilization for impact evaluation thematic windows through engagement with external stakeholders to match evaluation priorities with global evidence needs.
• Establish partnerships with academic institutions to pilot emerging evaluation methodologies.

Dissemination and Learning

• Lead learning initiatives promoting impact evaluation initiation, planning and uptake among UNICEF practitioners and Global South partners.
• Translate cutting-edge evaluation methodologies into practical UNICEF applications. Contribute to awareness, understanding and valuing of impact evaluation as a tool, and specific rigorous impact evaluations managed by the EO, through the authorship of user-centered outputs such as working papers, evaluation blogs, methodological and peer-reviewed papers, and represent UNICEF at international evaluation forums.

ASPECT project coordination and grant monitoring

• Support coordination with key institutional stakeholders through regular technical meetings and production of joint outputs.
• Support ASPECT management on grant monitoring, timely and regular reporting to the donor.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here:  JD TA P-4 Evaluation Specialist Impact Evaluation 6 months.pdf

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

• Minimum requirements
  
  
• Education: Master or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) in Economics,Statistics,Development Studies, Public Policy, related field entailing strong quantitative training and any other related fields.
• Work Experience: At least 8 years of relevant work experience in Monitoring and Evaluation, 8+ years conducting rigorous Impact Evaluations using experimental and quasi-experimental designs including for the last 3 years, 5+ years (most recent) applying advanced statistical methods to the analysis of social protection, nutrition, food security sector programmes using longitudinal multi-level databases Proven ability to work with internal and external stakeholders at multiple levels providing technical support and capacity building, establishing/managing external partnerships including budget monitoring and execution Proven track record authoring user-centered outputs including peer-reviewed journals Thematic expertise in a programmatic area associated with UNICEF work with the focus on Social Policy, Climate Resilience. and any other related fields.
• Skills: statistical software, Python, survey platforms, Survey CTO, advanced data visualization, impact evaluation
• Language Requirements : Proficiency in English is required

• Desirables
  
  1. • Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).
     • PhD economics statistics, qualitative methodologies, impact evaluation,humanitarian contexts, GIS data, machine learning methods
     • Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian 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

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

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

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 based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

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 is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce. For this position, eligible and suitable candidates from programme countries 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.

UNICEF staff members holding fixed-term, continuing, or permanent appointments who are considered to be on abolished post status may apply for this temporary position and, if selected with a start date before 31 December 2025, may take it up as a temporary assignment, in line with UNICEF guidance on separation due to the abolition of posts or staff reduction. They will retain their fixed-term entitlements but will not hold a lien to their abolished post. For other scenarios where a Temporary Assignment may be possible, please refer to Additional guidance on IP to IP temporary assignments after completion of the full TOD.pdf (accessible to UNICEF personnel only).

The conditions of a temporary assignment, including relocation entitlements, will depend on the status of the staff member's original appointment and may be limited in accordance with applicable UNICEF policies, procedures, and practices in force.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF's Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

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.