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,  an advocate.

The Planning and Monitoring Specialist reports to the Chief of Programme Planning, Monitoring and Research for the general guidance and direction.  The position will contribute to efficient and effective country programme delivery by ensuring results-based programme planning, monitoring and reporting on results for children in line with the latest country programme management procedure and in particular, the country programme planning guidance and the programme monitoring procedure.  The position will support availability of quality and timely data to facilitate the accurate performance measurement of progress towards country programme, work plan, humanitarian response plan and programme document results with particular focus on the areas of health and nutrition; education; child protection; water, sanitation and hygiene; social protection and policy; and adolescents and youth development.

How can you make a difference?

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favouritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education, and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfil their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

Job organizational context:

The Planning and Monitoring Specialist reports to the Chief of Programme Planning, Monitoring and Research for the general guidance and direction.  The position will contribute to efficient and effective country programme delivery by ensuring results-based programme planning, monitoring and reporting on results for children in line with the latest country programme management procedure and in particular, the country programme planning guidance and the programme monitoring procedure.  The position will support availability of quality and timely data to facilitate the accurate performance measurement of progress towards country programme, work plan, humanitarian response plan and programme document results with particular focus on the areas of health and nutrition; education; child protection; water, sanitation and hygiene; social protection and policy; and adolescents and youth development.

Purpose of the job:

•   To provide technical assistance on country programme performance monitoring by ensuring that the UNICEF Jordan Country Office has useful, valid, and reliable information for measuring progress towards achievement of country programme and work plan results for children and use monitoring findings and lessons for adaptive programming.

• To provide cross-sectoral field monitoring support to Programmes, analyse, validate, collate, and visualize collected information to support decision making.

•   To assist in the development of national capacities for monitoring and research, with special attention to the interest, concern and participation of children, adolescents, government, community, and civil society organization stakeholders.

III. Key functions, accountabilities, and related duties/tasks

Within the delegated authority and under the given organizational set-up, the incumbent may be assigned the primarily, shared, or contributory accountabilities for all or part of the following areas of major duties and key end-results.

1.  Integrated Monitoring, Evaluation & Research Plan (IMEP)

In collaboration with the Evaluation Specialist, ensure that the Country Office and national partners develop and implement a well-prioritised and realistic plan for monitoring, evaluation, research and learning activities that will provide the most relevant and strategic information to manage the Country Programme, including tracking and assessing UNICEF’s distinct contribution.

Duties & Tasks

• Make professional contributions to and provide technical assistance for the planning and establishing the major research, monitoring, and learning objectives, priorities, and activities in UNICEF’s multi-year and annual IMEPs, in consultation with child-rights and implementing partners.

• Likewise, support the development of UNSDCF research, monitoring, evaluation and learning plans from a sound results-based programming process.

• Identify the monitoring and research objectives, priorities, and activities required for effective CO and partner Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans.

• 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 cluster partners.

• After the initial humanitarian response, support management of the medium-term response with a revised IMEP

2.  Situation Monitoring and Assessment

Ensure that the Country Office and national partners have timely information to facilitate accurate measurement of change in conditions of children 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.

Duties & Tasks

• In coordination with other stakeholders, support the collection and analysis of data for tracking Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and other key social development indicators (through DHS or other surveys) to improve national planning.

• Support partners in the establishment and management of national statistical databases, ensuring that key indicators are readily accessible to key stakeholders. Potential uses include the Situation Analysis, Common Country Analysis, EPP, and Reviews.

• Develop a collectively owned Situation Monitoring and Assessment system which supports the preparation of country level statistical and analytic reports on the status of children’s and women’s rights issues; and which allow, when opportunities emerge to influence developmental and social policies.  To include technical support to global reporting obligations including national reports on progress toward the SDGs, and toward CRC and CEDAW fulfilment.

• In humanitarian response situations, provide professional support for one or more rapid assessments (inter-agency or independently if necessary) to be carried out within the first 48-72 hours, working in close collaboration with the humanitarian cluster partners.

3. Programme Performance Monitoring

Ensure that the Country Office has quality information and data to assess progress towards expected results established in annual work plans, humanitarian response plans and programme documents.

Duties & Tasks

• Provide technical support to ensure that a set of programme performance indicators is identified and adjusted as necessary, with inputs of all concerned partners in the context of the multi-year and annual IMEPs, the Annual Management Plan and Work Plans, as outlined in the Programme Policy and Procedure Site (PPPX).

• Coordinate with partners to ensure that monitoring systems are properly designed, and that data collection and analysis from field visits are coordinated and standardised across programmes to feed into to programme performance monitoring, with special attention to humanitarian response.

• Drawing on monitoring and analysis of key program performance and management indicators, provide professional input to management reports, including relevant sections of the annual reports.

4.  Results-Based Management Capacity Building

Ensure that the planning, monitoring and reporting capacities of Country Office staff and national partners – government and civil society – are strengthened enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead results-based programming processes.

Duties & Tasks

• Promote the awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of planning, monitoring, and reporting function among all staff members through communication, training, learning and development activities organization wide.

• In close collaboration with partners, ensure that the monitoring and reporting capacity building strategy for UNICEF/UN staff national partners and institutions exists in the context of the IMEP, or UNSDCF M&E plan.  Pay particular attention to strengthening the capacity of national partners by involving them in participatory monitoring processes and possibly through specific capacity building initiatives.

• Collaborate to implement capacity building strategies as a joint commitment with other developmental partners. Utilize a range of appropriate skills building strategies including self-learning, seminars and workshops and practical experience in order that UNICEF and UN staff have the basic knowledge and skills in understanding and applying new monitoring and reporting policies, procedures, tools, methods to fulfil their responsibilities. Similarly, design and implement strategies suited to the skills needs of national partners.

• Actively seek partnerships with knowledge institutions for the identification of capacity gaps and development of strategies to address them.

6.  Coordination and Networking

Ensure that the Jordan UNICEF country office is effectively linked to wider UNICEF Monitoring developments in a way that both contributes to and benefits from organizational learning on effective programme management.

Duties & Tasks

• Collaborate with Regional Planning and Monitoring Advisers and HQ DAPM staff for overall coordination of priority research, monitoring and reporting activities, especially those of regional scope requiring the coordinated effort of multiple countries.

•   Partner with the Regional Planning and Monitoring team to ensure that current and accurate Monitoring data and results are included in regional reports, multi-country studies, and knowledge sharing networks.

• Undertake lessons-learned reviews on successful and unsuccessful monitoring practices and experience at the national level, and ensure they are shared as appropriate.  Similarly, pay attention to monitoring knowledge networks to identify innovations and lessons learned that may be relevant for the CO and partners to improve their Monitoring function.

• Contribute to United Nations planning, monitoring, and reporting collaborative mechanisms in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Coordination Framework implementation.

• Work closely with the Department of Statistics on data generation, analysis, dissemination and use for programme improvement.

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

• Education:

  •   An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: statistics, economics and demography, other relevant social sciences and development studies.

  Experience: 

  • A minimum of five years of professional experience in programme design, implementation monitoring, reporting and research in the social field in Jordan is required.

  • Proven experience in designing field monitoring tools, systems, and approaches, managing data collection and analysis is required.

  •   Relevant experience in a UN system entity is considered an asset.

  •   An exposure to emergency programming, including preparedness planning and humanitarian performance monitoring is an asset.

  Language requirements:
  Fluency in English is required.  Knowledge of another official UN language or local language of the duty station is considered an asset.

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language 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

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.

[add the 8^th competency (Nurtures, leads and manages people) for supervisory role]

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

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 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 promote the protection and safeguarding of all children.

Remarks:

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also 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 cancelled.

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.

Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government 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.