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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.

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For every child, a champion

Estimated Duration: 9 Months

How can you make a difference? 

The Planning Monitoring & Evaluations Specialist provides professional technical, operational and administrative guidance and support throughout the planning, monitoring, and evaluation process for the Eastern Caribbean Area Multi Country Office. Specific purposes include but not limited to:

• To ensure that UNICEF Eastern Caribbean Area Country Office is guided on Country Programme development and annual work planning process, as well as its contribution to the planning of UN Framework and UN Joint Work Plans, in alignment with global, regional and country priorities, policies and principles.
• To ensure that the UNICEF Eastern Caribbean Are Country Office has useful, valid and reliable information on the performance of UNICEF-supported programmes including their relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability, and in emergency contexts, their coverage, coordination and coherence.
• To work within the UN country team to support UNCT goals for delivering valid and reliable information on the attainment of the SDGs and other goals, and on the performance of UN-supported programmes.
• To assist in the establishment of monitoring and evaluation tools which enhance partnership with key players to collectively track progress against results and other international commitment for children.
• To assist in the development of capacities for planning, monitoring, and evaluation, with special attention to the interest, concern and participation of stakeholders and partners.
• Oversight of the implementation of the office Integrated Monitoring Evaluation and Research Plan and the knowledge management strategy.
• Oversight UNICEF technical assistance to the MICS 7 in Saint Lucia and support the CARICOM Regional Statistical Programme in strengthening statistical systems in the Eastern Caribbean.
• Coordinate UNICEF ECA support to the CRC in the development of the List of Priority Issues for the Review in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.

KEY FUNCTIONS & ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Situation Monitoring and Assessment: Ensure that the Country Office and national partners have timely and accurate measurement of change in conditions in the country or region, including monitoring of socio-economic trends and the country’s wider policy, economic or institutional context, to facilitate planning and to draw conclusions about the impact of programmes or policies.

• In coordination with other stakeholders, support the collection of Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) and other key social development indicators (through MICS or other surveys) to improve national planning.
• Support partners in the establishment and management of national statistical databases (e.g., DevInfo), ensuring that key indicators are readily accessible by key stakeholders. Potential uses include Situation Analysis, Common Country Assessment, Early Warning Monitoring Systems, and Mid-Term Reviews.
• Develop a collectively Situation Monitoring and Assessment system owned by all key partners which supports the preparation of country level statistical and analytic reports on the status of children’s and women’s rights issues; and which allow, when opportunities emerge to influence developmental and social policies. To include technical support to global reporting obligations including national reports on progress toward the SDGs, and toward the fulfilment of CRC and CEDAW.
• In humanitarian response situations, provide professional support for one or more rapid assessments (inter-agency or independently if necessary) to be carried out within the first 48-72 hours, working in close collaboration with the humanitarian cluster partners.

Programme Design and Planning: Contribute to the design of the country programme and results structure, including the preparation of the main documents: MCPD, strategy notes, CPAP, annual and rolling workplans, annual management plan and other relevant documents ensuring adherence to UNICEF policies and guidelines.

• Ensure results are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.
• Lead the development of the monitoring framework and processes.

Programme Performance 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 multi-year and annual IMEPs, the Annual Management Plan and Annual Work Plans, as outlined in the Programme Policy and Procedures Manual).
• Coordinate with partners to ensure that monitoring systems are properly designed, and that data collection and analysis from field visits are coordinated and standardized across programmes to feed into programme performance monitoring, with special attention to humanitarian response.
• Drawing on monitoring and analysis of key program performance and management indicators, provide professional input to management reports, including relevant sections of the annual reports.
• Coordinate with programme sections and relevant partners to ensure that monitoring systems are properly designed, and that data collection and analysis from field visits are coordinated and standardized across programmes to feed into programme performance monitoring, (including during humanitarian response if necessary).
• Support the development of monitoring and evaluation framework for UNICEF ECA office
• Contribute to communication/dialogue/sharing of information with ECA countries as well as with the regional office

Reporting: Ensure that UNICEF-supported reporting is designed and implemented to establish UN quality standards, and disseminated in a timely fashion to stakeholders to improve programme performance and contribute to wider learning

• Monitor and ensure the quality of the field work and data management during the implementation phase, and the quality of the analysis and ease of understanding during the report writing phase.
• Disseminate Reporting 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. Most specifically, ensure that evaluation recommendations are submitted to the Country Management Team and follow-up actions recorded in CMT minutes. Submit electronic copies of all evaluations to NYHQ via the Evaluation Data Base web portal, with full accompanying documentation.
• Provide guidance and quality assurance in the preparation of high-quality donor reports including funding proposals, using standardizing formats, contents, and ensuring adherence to donor requirements.
• Coordinate the development of the Annual Reports and provide quality assurance to ensure they are timely, results-based, and evidence based.

Planning, Monitoring and Reporting Capacity Building: Ensure that the planning, monitoring and reporting capacities of Country Office staff and national partners – government and civil society – are strengthened, enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead monitoring and reporting processes.

• Promote awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of PM&R function among all staff members through communication, training, learning and development activities organization wide.
•  In close collaboration with partners, ensure that a capacity building strategy for UNICEF/UN staff national partners and institutions exists in the context of the IMEP, or UNDAF PM&R plan. Pay particular attention so the capacity needs of national partners such as professional evaluation associations 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 PM&R 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.
• Contribute to management of project evaluations, thematic evaluations and evaluability assessments to support accountability and learning, including identifying and documenting good practices and lessons learned for sharing in publications, social media and at regional and global forums.

Coordination and Networking: Ensure that the UNICEF office is effectively linked to wider UNICEF Monitoring and reporting developments in a way that both contributes to and benefits from organizational learning on effective M&E management.

• Collaborate with Regional PM&R Advisers and HQ Evaluation Office for overall coordination of priority research, monitoring and Reporting activities, especially those of regional scope requiring the coordinated effort of multiple countries.
• Partner with the Regional Planning Adviser to ensure that current and accurate Monitoring and reporting data and results are included in regional reports, multi-country studies, and knowledge sharing networks.
• Undertake lessons-learned reviews on successful and unsuccessful PM&R practices and experience at the national level, and ensure they are shared as appropriate. Similarly, pay attention to M& R knowledge networks to identify innovations and lessons learned that may be relevant for the CO and partners to improve their PM&E function.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here:  TOR ECA TA PME Specialist (P3)-VA.pdf

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

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

Education: Advanced university degree in social sciences, statistics, planning development, planning.

Work Experience: 

• At least five years of professional relevant work experience in programme development and implementation including monitoring and evaluation activities.
• At least one instance of exposure to emergency programming, including preparedness planning. Active involvement in a humanitarian crisis response programme preferred.
• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in methodology of M&E programming programming, including theories, standards and models, quantitative/qualitative/mixed methods, validity/reliability testing of data, data analysis and interpretation, and statistical inference methods.

Language Requirements: 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:

• Good knowledge and experience of the UNICEF CPP process is an asset.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency. 

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…

(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

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 male 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.

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.