Organization: UN Population Fund
Country: Senegal
Closing date:
02 Dec 2014THE LEADER IN REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. In order to maintain the Fund’s position at the cutting edge of development assistance in the field of population and reproductive health, we are continuously striving to enhance our programmatic and managerial capacities.
We are pleased to announce the following vacancy:
VACANCY NO.: Job ID 2471 (Re-opened)
CLOSING DATE: 2 December 2014 (5.00 p.m. New York time)
POST TITLE: Technical Adviser, Monitoring and Evaluation
CATEGORY: ICS-12 (equivalent to P-5)
DUTY STATION: Dakar, Senegal
POST TYPE: Non-Rotational
DURATION: One year (renewable)[i]
ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT: West and Central Africa Regional Office
ORGANIZATIONAL LOCATION:
In 2008, UNFPA embarked on regionalization and decentralization actions in order to make UNFPA more field-focused, more efficient and effective in the advancement of ICPD agenda and MDG goals and to promote the gamut of UN reform activities that could make for better harmonization among UN agencies. In this connection, UNFPA has upgraded its regional sub office in Dakar (Senegal) to the status of a Regional Office for the Western and Central Africa region effective January 2013. This will be the second Regional Office in Africa after the one currently located in Johannesburg (South Africa) to serve the Eastern and Southern Africa region.
The Regional Office for West and Central Africa (WCARO) covers 23 English, French, Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries. The countries in the region are organized at the sub-regional and regional levels into economic commissions. In its organizational set-up, the WCARO operates along broad thematic Units that are designed to stimulate and strengthen inter and intra-Unit coordination, coherence and synergy, facilitating timely and quality management and delivery of holistic population and development programme activities.
The position of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Adviser reports to the Regional Director, and is a member of the Programme Support, Quality Assurance and Broker Unit headed by a Team Leader. S/He takes the lead in the planning of thematic evaluations in the region, provides overall guidance and technical support for monitoring and evaluation activities across the full range of work of the Regional Office, oversees the effective monitoring, utilization and effectiveness of the technical, operational and programme (TOP) assistance system, and ensures full compliance with the UNFPA corporate M&E policies, procedures and standards.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Adviser (M&E Adviser)) provides leadership to the development of methodologies and tools for effective monitoring and evaluation, capacity development and thematic evaluations in the region in support of the implementation of monitoring and evaluation principles and practices to ensure relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and impact of the work of the Region.
The Adviser will work within an integrated, coordinated and systems strengthening approach, which is fundamental to the Regional Office and UNFPA’s overall strategy. The primary roles of the M & E Adviser are:
· Strategic Results Support
· Capacity Development
· Evidence and knowledge development and dissemination
· Quality assurance on evaluation
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Under the overall guidance and supervision of the Regional Director and in close collaboration with the other units, the M&E Advisor takes the lead in the planning of thematic evaluations in the region, provides overall guidance and technical support for monitoring and evaluation activities across the full range of work of the Regional Office, oversees the effective monitoring, utilization and effectiveness of the technical, operational and programme (TOP) assistance system in WCARO, and ensures full compliance with the UNFPA corporate M&E policies, procedures and standards.
A. Strategic Results Support
· Take the lead in the development of regional methodology and tools for monitoring and evaluation, in concert with HQ;
· Develop appropriate policies, norms and standards for regional monitoring and evaluation and provide guidance;
· Identify innovative evaluation methodologies and promote their incorporation into UNFPA operations;
· Take responsibility and accountability for the planning, management and oversight of thematic, country programme/project evaluations and other types of evaluations to be conducted in the region;
· Monitor and oversee compliance of Corporate tools and standards by COs under WCARO;
· Contribute to monitoring and analysis of reports on humanitarian, economic, political and social factors in the development and management of population and development programmes;
· Ensure the effective implementation of the evaluation policy, sets minimum monitoring and evaluation requirements for the Country Programme and projects, initiate and manage thematic and crosscutting evaluations, and monitor the implementation of evaluation recommendations;
· Provide support for monitoring and evaluation of the regional, thematic and country programmes in the region;
· Advise on monitoring and evaluation components of the OMPs of the Regional Office;
· Provide technical support to the RO and COs, to ensure the adequacy of both the hierarchy of results of country and regional programmes, and their use of performance and impact measurement methods and indicators;
· Contribute to the development of frameworks, methodologies and databases for monitoring ICPD MDG and other national development frameworks;
· Contribute to the formulation of the Regional Strategic Plans and Programmes, drawing upon the analysis and evaluation of interventions in the regions, and lessons learned from country programmes;
· Support the development and utilization of programme indicators and indicator databases;
· Work in collaboration with RO advisers and regional programme advisers in the formulation and implementation of oversight plan of regional programme funded initiatives;
· Ensure results-based monitoring and evaluation plan developed, implemented, and results acted upon within the COs, and RO; and
· Ensure the use of results-based indicators, facilitate and support data collection and analysis for evaluation.
B. Capacity Development
· Contribute to the development and adaptation of tools and guidance as well as training materials and manuals in the area of monitoring and evaluation, and support their use for capacity development of partner institutions and UNFPA staff in the region;
· Contribute to identify and validate regional monitoring and evaluation experts and institutions for the Fund’s regional and international rosters;
· Help build capacity of ROs and COs in the adoption and use of RBM techniques and tools;
· Provide support to country office staff and consultants in organization and management of evaluations;
· Coach junior professional staff and associates, direct expert consultants and facilitate working groups and task teams in order to provide support to programme managers, implementers on monitoring and evaluation.
C. Evidence and knowledge development and dissemination
· Contribute to the analysis, synthesis and dissemination of state-of-the-art knowledge and new approaches to monitoring and evaluation practice, in particular best practices, and make recommendations for their adoption at regional and sub-regional levels;
· Substantively contribute to the identification, documentation and dissemination of best practices / lessons learned;
· Support the office of the Director in ensuring the incorporation of evaluation results and lessons learned in the updating of specific substantive strategies, policies, tools and approaches, and ensure their availability in the organizational system for lessons learned;
· Monitor, analyze, evaluate, synthesize and share results of regional and country programme interventions;
· Monitor, analyze and evaluate national evaluation reports, synthesize evaluation findings, identify and disseminate lessons learned in monitoring and evaluation to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the work of the Office and of the region; to draw attention to regional realities, and to inform regional and global strategies, policies, procedures and tools;
· Contribute to HQ initiatives on results-based programme management by ensuring integration of lessons learned from evaluation;
· Co-ordinate with other UN regional evaluation units and professional evaluation bodies for thematic evaluations and other evaluation activities at the country and regional levels; and keep abreast of developments in the area of evaluation.
D. Quality assurance on evaluation
· Advise on the validity of the monitoring and evaluation of regional strategies and approaches;
· Develop and support a substantive quality assurance framework for the work of the Regional Office and assist/advise country offices in implementation of such framework;
· Ensure that evaluations meet high professional principles, norms and standards in line with UNFPA Evaluation Policy and UN Evaluation Group;
· Support, promote and nurture an evaluation culture within the Regional Office and the region;
· Advise on and support monitoring and evaluation processes and quality assessments in all areas of work under the RO responsibility;
· Analyze and assess how findings of reviews, assessments and other studies related to UNFPA’s areas of work are analyzed, disseminated and taken into account in ongoing strategic planning and programme development;
· Ensure the RO’s participation in multi-agency/donor and inter-governmental evaluations of complex programmes and cross-cutting themes, especially as these relate to PRSPs, SWAps, JAS, etc.; and carries out any other duties as may be required by the Regional Director.
REQUIRED COMPETENCIES
Values: Integrity, commitment, embracing cultural diversity, embracing change.
Core Competencies:
· Commitment to UNFPA Values and Guiding Principles;
· Developing People/Fostering Innovation and Empowerment/ Performance
Management;
· Accountability;
· Analytical thinking;
· Team Work/Communication/Self-Management;
· Strategic Thinking/Results Orientation and Commitment to Excellence/
Decision Making;
· Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Learning
Required Skillset:
Knowledge and understanding:
· Demonstrated knowledge and an understanding of the social, political, economic, dimensions (milieu, context) of policy making and programme implementation generally and in WCARO zone;
· Knowledge and experience of work in development assistance programming processes;
· Ability to lead and drive for results with a strong knowledge of results-based management.
Cognitive skills:
· Ability to identify the relative merits of different policy arguments in the broad or specific thematic area, applying principles and reasoned personal view in a logical and coherent way including presentation of reasoned choice between alternative opinions and solutions;
· Ability to conceptualize and to integrate knowledge with broader strategic, policy and operational objectives;
Communication:
· Ability to organize information using appropriate mode of presentation and style and to communicate effectively, illustrating relevance of information to the intended audience;
· Strong analytical, negotiation and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products;
· Ability to promote knowledge management and a learning environment through leadership and personal example
Working with others:
· Demonstrated ability to work with and within inter-disciplinary and multicultural groups to find agreed solutions to set problems and to accept responsibility and accountability for performance on any aspect of a team task;
· Demonstrated ability to provide constructive coaching and feedback;
· Ability to reflect critically on own performance up to identifying issues on which assistance is needed and to obtain such assistance;
· Excellent negotiating and networking skills.
Languages:
Strong oral and written skills in English. Working knowledge of French is an asset.
QUALIFICATIONS:
Education:
Advanced degree in public health, medicine, sociology, demography, gender, economics, international relations, international development, public administration, management or other field directly related to monitoring and evaluation. The graduate or post graduate degree should preferably include credits in the principles and practice of monitoring and evaluation.
Knowledge and Experience:
- 10 years of increasingly responsible professional experience, of which five years at the international level, and of which five years in evaluation of development, health and/or social programmes; including periodic updating of technical skills;
- Recognized expertise in monitoring and evaluation;
- Strong track record of innovative leadership in planning and managing evaluations, and proven ability to produce demonstrable results;
- Field experience and in the region is required.
- Extensive network within the academic and development communities;
UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender quality, teamwork, respect for diversity, integrity and a healthy balance of work and life. We are committed to maintaining our balanced gender distribution and therefore encourage women to apply.
We offer an attractive remuneration package commensurate with the level of the position. The package includes a competitive salary plus housing allowance, home leave, health insurance and other benefits.
[i] No expectancy of renewal in accordance with UN Staff Regulation 4.5
How to apply:UNFPA has established an electronic application management system. This allows applicants to create a candidate profile, which can be updated regularly and submitted for more than one vacancy.
Download the Step by Step Guide to Applying in the E-Recruit System of UNFPA at https://erecruit.partneragencies.org/erecruit.html
Please print out the Guide for your reference during the registration and application process.
Notice: There is no application, processing or other fee at any stage of the application process. UNFPA does not solicit or screen for information in respect of HIV or AIDS and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.
In accordance with the rules of the United Nations, persons applying to posts in the international Professional category, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, are required to renounce such status upon their appointment. Exceptions to this rule are very limited and can be made only for: (a) stateless persons; (b) newly appointed staff members who have applied for citizenship by naturalization, when such citizenship will be granted imminently; (c) acting staff members in the General Service and related categories with permanent residency status, on promotion to the Professional category; (d) staff members appointed under a temporary appointment. Please understand that UNFPA is not in a position to provide advice on or assistance in applying for any citizenship.