Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist (P-4), PG Generation Unlimited, New York HQ, (Temporary Appointment 364days) # 00128314

Under the direct supervision of the Senior Advisor, Country Support, in close collaboration with the Senior Advisor, Global Programmes and under the overall guidance of the Deputy Director, Programmes, the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning Specialist will work with the wider GenU Programme team to advance GenU’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) efforts.

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 …. A hope,

Building on work across the UN with and for young people, and in line with the UN Youth Strategy, UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited focuses on finding new ways to ensure that every young person is in school, learning, training or employment by 2030 — with a focus on those in the greatest danger of being left behind, including girls, the poorest, those with disabilities, young people on the move and those affected by conflict and natural disasters.

This partnership brings together leaders from governments, UN agencies, the private sector, academia, international and civil society organizations, and young people. The partnership identifies, co-creates, resources and scales up innovative solutions to expand opportunity for young people. ​​​​​​​

How can you make a difference?

Under the direct supervision of the Senior Advisor, Country Support, in close collaboration with the Senior Advisor, Global Programmes and under the overall guidance of the Deputy Director, Programmes, the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning Specialist will work with the wider GenU Programme team to advance GenU’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) efforts. The MERL Specialist will work to ensure robust and rigorous systems are in place to define and track results generated through GenU country and global programmes, and through GenU’s Public Private and Youth Partnership (PPYP) approach. This will involve working with stakeholders at the global, regional and country levels to help develop and implement monitoring systems and assist in design and undertaking monitoring and evaluation activities. The successful candidate will collaborate across the GenU Global Team and UNICEF Programme Group to strengthen Country Offices and Regional Offices ability to effectively develop/update targets, monitor, report and analyze these, and consolidate this at global through various mechanisms.

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

Support to design and implement measurement frameworks/tools/procedures:

• Provide technical guidance to UNICEF Country Office and their in-country GenU partners on monitoring and evaluation, access to technical support for collaborative sector analysis and planning.
• Assist in preparing required documents for program reviews and approval for matters related to MERL.
• Contribute to quality assurance activities for matters related to MERL.
• Support the preparation of measurement frameworks to ensure alignment of activities with the overall GenU mission and its strategic plan, including Regional and Country Office plans.
• Collaborate with Country Office throughout all stages of programming to provide support for monitoring and evaluation of results and collection of individual impact stories.
• Work with the GenU Global Programmes team and global programme leads to develop and implement an integrated approach to monitoring and evaluating the performance of the global programme portfolio.

Enhance the depth and scope of GenU MERL activities, their application and develop capacity for Global and Country level GenU Stakeholders:

• Coordinate and facilitate process to revisit Genu Global targets and methodology to monitor these until 2025 (end of current Strategic Plan) and 2030 (linked to SDGs)
• Drive efforts to identify or further develop analysis and measurement on global impact indicators (i.e. Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), Value of Education, Decent Work, Entrepreneurship, Civic Engagement) towards the achievement of the SDGs
• Lead efforts to map, consolidate and disseminate based on target audience key global statistics or data on GenU.
• Lead process to map and identify methods to increase application and use of High Frequency Monitoring
• Collaborate with ILO on MERL activities connected to the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth initiative.
• Identify and pursue approaches to increasing relevance and wider use of Youth Foresight platform alongside ILO and GenU partners.
• Support global activities in promoting GenU MERL advancement, such as presentations, proposal writing for fundraising, etc.
• Undertake field missions to assess or establish measurement strategies and provide ad-hoc support in MERL.
• Deliver training in MERL to partners in GenU countries of operation.
• Provide support to evaluating GenU country operations, if necessary
• Coordinate the Global GenU M&E Technical Advisory Group comprised of leading experts from the UN, World Bank, private sector and civil society.
• Work with the GenU Global Programmes team and global programme leads to design and execute global programme MERL activities.

Support the preparation of analyses and presentation of results at global, regional and country levels:

• Update current Annual Results Reporting process and data collection tools as needed, working closely with partners and key stakeholders at Global and Regional level.
• Lead the coordination of GenU’s Annual Result Reporting. In doing so updating templates as necessary, developing/updating guidelines for Country Office inputs, working with UNICEF Programme Group and Regional Offices to throughout the process, collecting, quality assuring, analyzing and presenting results.
• Support the numerical and narrative presentation of results as well as individual impact stories for a wide range of GenU stakeholders (Board, Global Leadership Council, Donors, Partners) across a wide range of documents (various governance structure pre-reads, results deep dive, Year in Review and more).
• Advance and maintain the Global GenU online Dashboard.
• Undertake analysis and support in developing reports based on the data collected during global programme MERL activities.

Design, develop and maintain GenU databases.

• Assist on the development of data and information systems for monitoring, tracking performance, and reporting on results.
• Ensure data quality and consistency and ease of data extraction/use.

Thought leadership.

• Review and contribute to relevant research and impact evaluations on interventions in the youth employment, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement space to measure youth outcomes informing programmes
• Identify and promote the use of good practices in monitoring and evaluation relevant to GenU programmes.

Other related duties as assigned by the supervisor and senior team members to ensure the success of the team, including managing, guiding, training, and coaching short-term staff, including consultants, interns and volunteers, as needed.

The following minimum requirements:

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in social sciences, statistics, international development and/or related field is required.
• A minimum of eight years of professional experience in designing data collection tools, data processing/ cleaning, analysis, and presentation of findings in a humanitarian and/or development context, at the national and/or international/and levels is required.
• Proven experience in writing data-driven reports for technical and non-technical audiences, preferably with a particular focus on education matters is desired.
• Field experience with humanitarian and/or development programming is highly desirable.
• Advanced knowledge of MS Excel is required and knowledge of statistical tools plus database work preferred.
• Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of another UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) is considered 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…

• Builds and maintains partnerships
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
• Drive to achieve results for impact
• Innovates and embraces change
• Manages ambiguity and complexity
• Thinks and acts strategically
• 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 benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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.

All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

 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. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.