Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Coordinator

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Description

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UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls, the empowerment of women, and the achievement of equality among all genders and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In Nepal, UN Women has been implementing its five-year Country Programme (Strategic Note 2023 – 2027) to support the national stakeholders in advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women in line with internationally agreed normative standards. The Country Programme is aligned with and contributes to national priorities as described in the Constitution of Nepal and the 15th National Periodic Plan, the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2023 – 2027 for Nepal and the UN Women’s Global Strategic Plan (SP) 2022 – 2026. UN Women Nepal Country Office (NCO)’s Country Programme contributes to the following four outcome areas of the UNSDCF 2023 – 2027:

• Outcome 1: Sustainable, Resilient and Inclusive Economic Transformation
• Outcome 2: Inclusive and Transformative Human Development
• Outcome 3: Environmental Sustainability, Climate and Disaster Resilience
• Outcome 4: Governance, Federalism, Participation and Inclusion
• To achieve the above-mentioned outcomes, UN Women NCO is implementing a wide range of programmes and projects with the support of responsible parties, including government, civil society organizations, international development partners and private sector actors.
• Significant effort has been made by the NCO to foster an in-house learning culture and to generate evidence-based knowledge on key thematic areas in support of effective design and implementation of programme interventions related to gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) in Nepal. There has been a regular practice of debriefing and sharing of updates from external meetings and workshops and collective reflection on the key issues emerging, based on which NCO makes decisions and takes action. Learning from programme implementation has also been consistently used for the capacity development of programme partners.
• UN Women NCO is committed to feminist knowledge building, which is aimed at centering the knowledge, experiences and perspectives of diverse women and excluded groups in equitable, empowering and non-extractive ways. Feminist knowledge building seeks to:
• Promote the power of key constituencies to shape their own narratives, as opposed to sole reliance on top-down, expert-driven processes for programme design and advocacy.
• Facilitate a process that is empowering for diverse women and excluded groups by driving change in social norms.
• Identify alternate and diverse means of generating knowledge from an intersectional lens. This includes action research, equitable storytelling, ethnographic research and other participatory feminist methodologies.
• Identify diverse mediums, platforms and partners to share knowledge with key constituencies from an inclusive perspective, providing, for example, oral formats for people with disabilities who might not have access to digital media.
• Identify ways to harness feminist knowledge in both the short and medium terms.
• UN Women in partnership with FAO, WFP and IFAD and under the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) is currently implementing the second phase of the five-year Joint Programme on: “Accelerating Progress towards Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment (JP RWEE)” in Siraha and Saptari districts. Started from 2022, the programme aims to secure the livelihoods, rights and resilience of rural women in the context of sustainable development and Agenda 2030 and focuses on four key outcomes for rural women: (1) improved food security and nutrition; (2) increased incomes to sustain livelihoods and build resilience; (3) increased voice and agency for full leadership and participation in rural communities and governance structures, and (4) more gender-responsive policy environment for the economic empowerment of rural women. This joint programme in Nepal is part of the global JP RWEE initiative, currently being implemented in six countries worldwide with funding support from the Multi Partner Trust Fund. The implementation of the programme in Nepal is led by UN Women and overseen by a national level Programme Steering Committee led by the MoALD, consisting of senior representatives of the four participating agencies and government representatives. Implementation of the programme is monitored and supported by a Technical Working Group, consisting of technical focal points of each of the four agencies. A Programme Management Unit, situated within the lead agency, consisting of a National Coordinator and a MEAL Coordinator oversees the management and implementation of the programme and its M&E system in close collaboration with participating UN agencies (PUNOs).

Duties and Responsibilities

• Under the direct supervision of Monitoring and Reporting Analyst, MEAL Coordinator is responsible for ensuring the effective implementation of the M&E system across the JP RWEE in Nepal. For this, she/he/they will work in close collaboration with the Global MEAL Coordinator, National Coordinator and technical focal points and M&E focal points of the four PUNOs. Additionally, they will contribute to enhancement of the UN Women NCO’s overall M&E system and practices. She/he/they will also 
• participate in and contribute to the regional and global level forums/platforms in promoting cross learning.

Specific responsibilities include the following:

Programme Implementation

• Oversee the implementation of the M&E plan of JP RWEE and ensure the implementation of timely and quality MEAL activities, providing technical guidance, ensuring programme quality and enabling timely and accurate reporting on indicators.
• Oversee and quality assure the implementation of the key surveys/studies/evaluations for JP RWEE including mid-term review, end-line survey and final evaluation while facilitating the disseminations.
• Develop relevant guidelines and tools for effective monitoring and reporting in close collaboration with Global MEAL Coordinator and technical guidance of the National Coordinator.
• Review and consolidate the M&E plan on an annual basis as part of the annual work plan submission and ensure M&E activities are adequately budgeted for.
• Identify any challenges in the implementation M&E system/plan and take mitigation actions in consultation with National Coordinator and Global MEAL Coordinator.
• Co-lead monitoring exercises including joint monitoring visit to programme locations and participate in other monitoring exercises led by PUNOs and partner organizations.
• Support in monitoring synergies, integrated approaches and partnerships within the JP RWEE.
• Co-lead with National Coordinator on the periodic review exercises for JP RWEE to discuss progress, challenges and opportunities.
• Manage evaluation processes (mid-term and final evaluations) and any other assessments.

Technical Support

• Provide technical assistance with project related quality data collection, analysis and use, including related cross cutting issues such as climate change and disaster risk reduction.
• Provide feedback to field monitoring reports and ensure that action plans are included and followed up.
• Provide technical inputs to strategic planning processes including UN Women’s Strategic Note/Annual Work Plan as well as UNSDCF.
• Provide technical guidance and support to programme partners particularly on M&E activities.

Reporting

• Facilitate the periodic reporting exercise of JP RWEE in close collaboration with the National Coordinator and Global MEAL Coordinator.
• Contribute to the review of the JP RWEE narrative donor reports and ensure strong programme analysis based on indicator progress.
• Provide any other internal reports and updates as required.
• Contribute to country level reporting exercises of UN Women.

Learning

• With the National Coordinator, lead on developing a culture of learning across the programme, ensuring that learning is consistently used to drive improvements in programme implementation.
• Support with the analysis of monitoring data and provide recommendations for programme adaptation as necessary.
• Provide technical assistance on the development and implementation of knowledge management and learning plans including documentation of good practices, ensuring that evidence-based learning is captured and used.

Capacity Building

• Identify capacity gaps and provide trainings for programme partners on results-based monitoring and reporting (e.g. data collection methods, data analysis, data quality assurance and result-based management).

Accountability

• Ensure effective implementation of the Community Feedback Mechanism (CFM) for JP RWEE in close collaboration with CFM Manager and key findings/lessons learned are used for adjustments/improvements in the programme.
• Monitor effective functioning of the CFM at the community level and provide recommendations for improvement as needed.
• Perform any other relevant task assigned by the immediate supervisor.

Key performance indicators:

• Effective implementation of the M&E plan for JP RWEE.
• Timely and quality substantive inputs to JP RWEE annual work plans.
• Timely monitoring and tracking of programme results, particularly progress against the results indicators.
• Timely and effective monitoring visits conducted and implementation of follow up action plan.
• Effective management of evaluation exercises for JP RWEE, including design, conduction and dissemination.
• Quality of monitoring and reporting tools developed.
• Quality of evidence-based inputs provided to advocacy, knowledge building and communication efforts.
• Adherence to UN Women standards and rules.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Statistics, Data science, Economics, Social Science, International Development Studies is required, Gender/Women’s Studies is a plus.

Experience

• At least 5 years of minimum experience in monitoring and evaluation of development programmes, of which a minimum 2 years should include programmes related to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Excellent knowledge and understanding of logical/results frameworks and of quantitative and qualitative indicators relating to multi sectoral programmes including food security and nutrition, livelihoods, women’s empowerment and gender equality.
• Experience of designing and leading baseline and endline surveys; mid-term and final evaluations
• Experience in developing and carrying out training and capacity building activities on M&E and RBM.
• Experience of working on joint programmes with multiple stakeholders would be an added advantage.
• Experience in the United Nations systems in an asset.
• Experience of working at the community level is an asset.

Other Requirements

• Knowledge of quantitative and qualitative indicators in relation to food security and nutrition, livelihoods, women’s empowerment and gender equality (including participation, leadership and gender transformation).
• Excellent knowledge of data collection digital tools, including baseline and endline surveys (e.g. food security and nutrition survey tools, household surveys, Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index), including use of statistical software for analysis (SPSS, STATA, R, Python) and Data visualization such as Tableau.
• Excellent training/workshop facilitation skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to develop strong working relationships with partners and stakeholders at federal, provincial and local level.
• Ability to demonstrate leadership and show initiative.
• Strong understanding of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues and concepts in relation to rural development and poverty alleviation.
• Familiarity with the sustainable development goals, including SDG5.

Language Requirements

• Fluency in English and Nepali is required.
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

Source: https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=116948

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