UNICEF recruits an Evaluation Specialist

UNICEF recruits an Evaluation Specialist

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, results

Working through the UNICEF country program of cooperation, and through the United Nations Sustainable Development Partnership Framework (UNSDPF), UNICEF assists countries to realize the rights of all children. This involves strategies and programs ranging from innovative and experimental to those at scale. The effectiveness and impact of the strategies and programs must be determined. Evaluation is a critical function for understanding if development objectives have been met in a way that contributes to the progressive realization of children’s rights. To this end, evaluations assist program managers to make necessary adjustments or to confirm that the program can continue to advance to scale. Evaluations have an accountability objective, to assure partners that resources guided through UNICEF are used effectively and efficiently and that there is a willingness to change when results can be improved. Furthermore, evaluation, together with other sources of evidence, contributes to country, organizational and global learning. Evaluation also supports civic empowerment and behavioural change goals when it is implemented in a participatory way that allows stakeholders and rights holders to acquire the skills to assess development initiatives and to hold duty bearers to account

How can you make a difference?

Job organizational context

This position is located in UNICEF’s Regional Office for West and Central Africa (WCARO) in Dakar which oversees the whole evaluation portfolio in the 24 Country Offices (CO) in the region, ensuring the quality of the evaluation fieldwork and of the corresponding deliverables as well the enhancing the evaluation culture amongst UNICEF staff and their in-country partners, also through transformational capacity development in the evaluation domain. The post will also aim to provide dedicated support to three countries in the region (Benin, Guinea-Bissau and Togo).

The purpose for the job

Under the supervision of the Regional Evaluation Adviser, the post provides support to the regional evaluation portfolio as it relates to a variety of programmatic sectors (including child protection, education, health, nutrition, WASH) and cross-cutting themes (gender, adolescent engagement, social protection, communication supply, etc). The Evaluation Specialist also supports efforts to disseminate findings, conclusions and recommendations

from regional and multi-country evaluations in UNICEF and with external partners, with a specific focus on three countries in the region (Benin, Guinea-Bissau and Togo).

Summary of key functions/accountabilities

• Assist with the management of regional evaluations and related evaluative work.
• Assist WCARO’s Regional Evaluation Adviser in providing dedicated technical assistance and capacity development to CO in the region during the planning and management of their evaluations;
• Contribute to the delivery of field work support towards the successful conduct of multi-country and regional evaluations;
• Gather key background documents for use in the scoping and execution of evaluations;
• Coordinate the process for the development of evaluation terms of reference, which includes guiding regional consultants in delineating the scope of the evaluation and engaging in consultations with evaluation stakeholders;
• Assist the Regional Evaluation Adviser in examining a vast array of regional evaluation deliverables, including the inception reports, draft and final evaluation reports;
• Participate in a selected number of evaluation assignments in CO that will require dedicated technical assistance in the course of the planning, data collection or recommendations validation, depending on existing needs and assessement by the Regional Evaluation Adviser ;
• Undertake other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.
• Promote regional evaluations that are useful and ensure that regional evaluation findings and recommendations are adequately exploited and acted upon.
• Help with the organization of online webinars, meetings, workshops and other types of discussion to establish a dialogue on evaluation findings, conclusions, recommendations and lessons learned;
• Reach out to CO across the region to ensure that evaluation conclusions and recommendations are considered in the continued implementation of projects and programmes and the design and appraisal of new projects and programmes;
• Support innovation, knowledge management and capacity development.
• Promote innovative approaches and good practices by integrating evaluation principles and norms through advocacy and operational support/services;
• Keep abreast, research, benchmark, introduce and implement good and cutting-edge practices on evaluation planning and management, Evaluation capacity development, institutionalize and disseminate good practices and lessons learned to maximize the use of evaluation conclusions and recommendations to support improve programming and results from delivery;
• Assist with the launch of capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of a wide range of internal and external partners/stakeholders to build their evaluation systems/and capacity across the region.

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

• Advanced university degree in social sciences, with specialization in evaluation and research methodology.
• At least 5 years in progressively responsible professional work related to evaluation and supporting evaluation management at regional level.
• Strong analytical, quantitative and qualitative research skills. Experience in child-focused center evaluation methods is necessary.
• Experience with regional evaluation offices of UN organizations is an advantage. Experience in the review of UNICEF evaluation products will be considered an advantage
• Fluency in English and French is required.

For every Child, you demonstrate:

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are:

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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 also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. 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.

Remarks:

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

* This position is based in Dakar; the incumbent will therefore be expected to live and work from Dakar (the duty station).

* Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Deadline: 09 Jan 2022 Greenwich Standard Time.Postuler