Monitoring & Evaluation Officer, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

• Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund
• Country: Ethiopia
• City: Addis Ababa
• Office: UNICEF Addis Ababa
• Grade: P-2

Closing date: Monday, 15 June 2015

Monitoring & Evaluation Officer, P-2, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Vacancy No: E-VN-2015-001347
Duty Station: Addis Ababa
Country: Ethiopia
Region: ESARO
Job Level: P-2
Position#: 00090477
Application Close: 15-Jun-15
Contract Type: Long-term Staff (FT)
Purpose of the Position
The incumbent of this post will support the Nutrition Section for Monitoring and Evaluation and knowledge management. The incumbent will also be accountable for the accomplishment of the stated key end-results by providing professional expertise and assistance in information/data collection, statistics and data analysis, Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E), preparation of reports, communication and partnership, and in implementing training programmes for national and sub-national data collection, monitoring, evaluation and research capacity building with special attention to the interest, concern and participation of primary stakeholders.
Key Expected Results
1. Integrated Monitoring, Evaluation & Research Planning (IMEP)

• Provide technical support to ensure that the Country Office (CO) and national partners use a well-prioritized 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.
• Make professional contributions to and provide technical assistance for the planning and establishing the major research, monitoring and evaluation activities in multi-year and annual IMEPs, which is to be reflected in UNDAF M&E Plans.
• Participate in management studies and support/participate in thematic/strategic evaluations to improve development & organizational effectiveness.
• Support and contribute to effectively joint evaluations with developmental partners, including joint evaluation of UNICEF or of multi-partner programs.
• 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, 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.

UNICEF Ethiopia Near UNECA Compound, Opposite German House Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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, 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 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) indicators (through MICS or other surveys) to improve integrated national planning.
• Support management of available baseline information on national statistics and key indicators through established databases (e.g. DevInfo) for easy access and use. Prepare country level statistical reports on the status of children's and women's human rights issues, and provide a technical support to global reporting obligations including national reports on progress toward the MDGs, 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, Situation Analysis, Common Country Assessment, Early Warning Monitoring Systems, Annual Reviews, Mid-Term Reviews, and Annual Reports or other progress reports.
• 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 MDGs.
• 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.
• 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 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 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. Evaluation

• Provide technical support to ensure that a well-prioritised and strategic selection of evaluations at programme or Country Office strategy level is managed in order that each evaluation is designed and carried out with quality process and products and that evaluation results are useful to the intended audience.
• Provide support to ensure that the relevant programme partners participate and formulate Evaluation Terms of Reference and design of high quality.
• Provide technical support to ensure that evaluation design and management meet quality standards as outlined in UNICEF Programme Policies and Procedures and related stand-alone Evaluation Technical Notes, when necessary seek expertise of knowledge institutions. Facilitate and take part in producing Evaluation Office's responses on specific and substantive issues.
• Review and provide technical comments on draft evaluation reports. Contribute to the effective dissemination and sharing of knowledge, findings, conclusions, recommendations and lessons from evaluation to the intended audience as described in the Terms of Reference with a view to improving programme performance and contributing to wider learning. Specifically, assist in feeding evaluation results into key UNICEF programme planning processes including the Annual Reviews and the Mid-Term Reviews, and formulation of the Country Programme Document, the Country Programme Action Plan and the Annual Work Plans. Support effective participatory feedback, including to community and civil society stakeholders.
• Provide assistance in tracking to 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.

5. Monitoring and Evaluation 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.
• Contribute to the collaboration of an monitoring and evaluation capacity building strategy for national partners and institutions and corresponding activities for implementation in the context of the IMEP or UNDAF 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.

6. Communication, Knowledge Management and Partnerships

• Provide technical support to ensure that all of the above tasks are carried out and accomplished through effective communication and partnerships.
• Facilitate or contribute to integrated planning of research, monitoring and evaluation activities within the Country Office, with national partners, the UN Country Team and the wider international community, in the context of internal office management plans, the country programme process, the UNDAF and sector wide approaches respectively, in consultation with child-right partners.
• Facilitate or contribute to joint monitoring and evaluation activities with national partners, the UN Country Team and the wider international community, wherever possible in the context of the above processes.
• Provide technical support to Country Office staff and national partners on data collection, data management and data analysis for basic monitoring and evaluation.
• Provide synthesis of monitoring and evaluation results to the country office senior management, the Country Management Team and key programme and operations staff.
• Ensure that evaluation recommendations are communicated to the relevant partners for implementation, with advice on the Implementation Plan and follow-up action for future programming.
• Facilitate learning from the results of monitoring and evaluation within the Country Office and more widely within UNICEF in the region and globally, as well as among national partners and other key stakeholders, engaging more expertise from knowledge institutions.
• Seek advanced or in-depth technical support on monitoring and evaluation from the Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Advisors and headquarters advisors on monitoring and evaluation as necessary.
• Collaborate with the Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Adviser to ensure the availability of current and accurate monitoring and evaluation data and results.
• Collaborate with Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Advisers and HQ Officers for overall coordination of priority research, monitoring and evaluation activities.
• Contribute to the Office wide knowledge management plan, identify opportunities and priorities for knowledge acquisition, publication and dissemination within the country, region and globally.

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

• A first-level university degree (Bachelor's) in Social Sciences, Demography, Development Planning, Statistics or a directly-related technical field(s) is required.
• A minimum of two (2) years of relevant experience, at the national and international levels, in programme monitoring and evaluation is required.
• Previous work experience with Public Health/Nutrition programming is desirable.
• Previous hands-on work experience in emergency programming, including preparedness planning is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English (written & verbal) is required.
• Knowledge of an additional UN Language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) is considered an asset.

Competencies of Successful Candidate

• Communicates effectively to varied audiences, including during formal public speaking.
• Able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment.
• Sets high standards for quality of work and consistently achieves project goals.
• Demonstrates an awareness of changes in organizational strategy that impact on own work area.
• Analyzes and integrates potentially conflicting numerical, verbal and other data from a number of sources.
• Demonstrates and shares detailed technical knowledge and expertise.
• Sets clearly defined objectives and plans activities for self, own team or department.

Remarks
This is an extension of the application deadline due to the time-lapse from the closing of the original vacancy. Previous applicants need not reapply as their original application will be duly considered.
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.