Evaluation Specialist, Innovation, P4, Temporary Appointment (364 days), # 128925, Evaluation Office, NYHQ

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. 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 personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

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

For every child, Evaluate

This temporary position is based in UNICEF’s Evaluation Office in New York, which serves as the steward of UNICEF’s evaluation function. Its Director reports to UNICEF’s Executive Board through an annual report on the evaluation function and selected evaluations. Our Office commissions and manages independent corporate evaluations and other evaluative exercises (e.g., evaluability assessments, syntheses, reviews), usually conducted in collaboration with external consultants but sometimes embedding Evaluation Office personnel in the evaluation teams. It leads the implementation of the UNICEF Evaluation Policy (2023), strategy and systems; oversees evaluation quality assurance processes; undertakes evaluation capacity development activities within and outside the Organization; actively promotes an enabling environment for evaluation and a robust evaluation culture; and ensures transparent access to evaluation information.

The work of the Evaluation Office is guided by the Evaluation Policy and the Plan for Global Evaluations 2022-2025. By providing timely and dependable feedback on what is working well and any shortcomings, the office helps to strengthen evidence-based decision-making. It seeks to contribute to deepening organizational accountability and learning in support of the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022-2025 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This position is based on our Institutional Effectiveness Unit, which assesses UNICEF’s overall organizational performance in achieving its intended results for children. Institutional effectiveness evaluations concentrate on broader organizational aspects of how UNICEF operates and how goal areas and other cross-cutting programmes are implemented. These evaluations focus on the change strategies and enablers that support the Strategic Plan’s realisation and are critical to positioning UNICEF and its partners to succeed. Other areas covered include evaluative exercises that examine UNICEF’s internal operations, institutional and structural arrangements, policies, support functions, results-based management systems, and overarching partnership approaches.

How can you make a difference?

Under the direction of the Director of Evaluation and the supervision of the Senior Evaluation Specialist (Institutional Effectiveness), the Evaluation Specialist is responsible for managing and potentially conducting or being a member of external teams that are conducting independent evaluations and other evaluative exercises of UNICEF’s overall organizational performance in the Institutional Effectiveness portfolio – i.e., those evaluations that transcend individual sectoral areas (e.g., health, education, WASH, child protection) and assess UNICEF’s overall organizational performance on measures of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and other evaluation criteria. In particular, the incumbent will manage the Evaluation of Innovation in UNICEF and other evaluative exercises that examine the Organization’s internal operations, institutional and structural arrangements, policies, support functions, results-based management systems, and overarching partnership approaches.

Main Responsibilities and Tasks

1. Lead and contribute to planning, implementing, and rolling out independent evaluations of UNICEF’s overall institutional effectiveness.

• Contribute to strategic planning efforts to identify the highest-priority and most institutionally relevant evaluation themes in the portfolio, conduct internal and external consultations to refine and finalise these topics for inclusion in the UNICEF Plan for Global Evaluations, and present these topics to key stakeholders inside and outside the Organization.
• Draft well-tailored and well-written evaluation concept notes and terms of reference under the guidance and supervision of the Senior Evaluation Specialist and in close consultation with key internal and external interlocutors.
• Directly manage independent institutional effectiveness evaluations from start to finish, ensuring that these are as timely, credible, and useful as possible in keeping with the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) revised norms and standards. Where appropriate, contribute to inception, data collection, data analysis and report drafting phases of individual evaluations as an embedded team member.
• Oversee consultant selection processes and undertake final quality control of all outputs produced by consulting teams before these are shared with the Senior Evaluation Specialist.
• Ensure evaluations for which the incumbent is responsible remain on time, on budget and target.
• Organize and execute activities to contribute to the uptake of individual evaluations for which the incumbent is responsible.
• Contribute to efforts to identify, utilise, pilot, and scale creative and innovative approaches to evaluating institutional effectiveness using best-in-class methodology.
• Approaches to alternative modalities for disseminating evaluation results and engaging with key stakeholders in ways that foster evaluation buy-in, learning, and ultimately, uptake at every stage of the evaluation process. Identity and deploy best practices to the broader evaluation function as appropriate.
• Undertake ongoing consultation and coordination with headquarters divisions, regional offices, country offices and external partners, all in close collaboration with Regional Evaluation Advisers and, where necessary, Multi-Country Evaluation Officers.

2. Contribute to office-and function-wide initiatives and the smooth overall functioning of the Evaluation Office and evaluation function.

• Contribute to technical and strategic initiatives to strengthen the Evaluation Office’s work, the evaluation function more generally, and the evaluation culture within the Organization.
• Contribute to office-wide processes, products, and other outputs (e.g., strategic planning processes, drafting of annual reports, meeting agendas, syntheses, capacity development activities).
• Contribute to a positive spirit of teamwork in the Evaluation Office.
• Collaborate closely with other Evaluation Office colleagues, Regional Evaluation Advisers, and colleagues in UNICEF’s other knowledge and evidence functions to ensure a maximally efficient whole-organization approach to planning, managing, conducting, and communicating on evaluations.

3. Undertake special assignments as required by the Senior Evaluation Specialist and Director of Evaluation. 

• At the request of the Senior Evaluation Specialist and Director of Evaluation, contribute to individual initiatives to enhance the evaluation function and culture within UNICEF and among its partners.
• Represent the Senior Evaluation Specialist at select meetings, as necessary.

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

Minimum requirements:

• Advanced university degree or higher in organizational management, organizational behaviour, evaluation, public policy, economics, statistics, social science, or other field relevant to Institutional Effectiveness.
• At least eight (8) years of professional experience as an evaluator or in a comparable role examining institutional effectiveness in multilateral agencies or equivalent large-scale public- or private-sector organizations.
• Solid track record for leading and managing mixed-method evaluations that rely on qualitative and quantitative approaches and various data collection modalities (surveys, interviews, focus groups, direct and indirect observations, desk reviews).
• Previous experience in managing or conducting evaluations of innovation is an asset.
• Willingness/ability to keep up to date with the latest skills and organizational guidance in the field of evaluation.
• Demonstrated track record working collaboratively in a multi-cultural team environment to contribute positively to shared results.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish) is an asset.

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

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of measures to include a more diverse workforce, such as paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

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 is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children.

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.

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.

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

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.