Temporary Appointment (TA): Information Management Specialist (P-3), #128803, Chisinau – Moldova (6-months TA)

The war in Ukraine has had a devastating humanitarian impact on children and families from Ukraine. To date, it is estimated that around 6 million people have been displaced to Europe and neighboring countries, and another 3.7 million are internally displaced (Source: UNHCR data on refugees and internally displaced persons).

Moldova shares its northern border with Ukraine and has traditionally strong socio-economic ties with the country. Moldova considered an upper middle-income country with a population of roughly 2.65 million people (2020). Despite strong economic growth, Moldova remains amongst the poorest countries in Europe. Traditionally, Moldova has relied heavily on remittances, which has supported growth and reduced policy in the country. However, this was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in an increasing number of individuals becoming reliant on pensions and social assistance. The GDP per capita remains around USD 4,500 annually. However, even with domestic economic challenges, the Republic of Moldova has been incredibly supportive and generous to the situation of refugees from neighbouring Ukraine.

Nearly 2.5 years since the start of war in Ukraine, over 970,000 individuals have fled to the Republic of Moldova (hereafter Moldova) from Ukraine, and out of this total, approximately 118,000 refugees (44 per cent children) currently remain in Moldova, representing nearly 4 percent of the total population in the country. In January 2023, the Government of Moldova officially endorsed the Directive on granting Temporary Protection (TP) for Ukrainian refugees, setting March 1, 2023, as the starting date for implementation. The number of people registered for the TP increased gradually to the current number of over 56,000 registered refugees, of which 46,000 already received their documents, including 13,162 children. As the humanitarian situation in Mariupol and Sumy remains dire, there is no clear indication that flows of refugees to Moldova will reduce or stop in the coming weeks. UNICEF and partners are stepping us preparedness in view of possible further escalations.

UNICEF and our many partners have been on the frontlines of the humanitarian response since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, providing and supporting the delivery of multi-sectorial programme interventions in all areas. UNICEF Humanitarian Appeal for Children 2024 and its strategy to transition the immediate humanitarian response to the needs of refugees towards systems strengthening at national level to facilitate inclusion of refugee children and their caregivers into services provision and protection and further promote social cohesion between the refugee and host communities, along the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.

The Information Management Specialist is a member of the UNICEF Coordination team working on the Ukrainian Refugee Response in Moldova. The purpose of this post is to manage the collection, analysis and sharing of information that is important for UNICEF covering all sectoral and cross-sectoral programme interventions, including:

1. To ensure coherence across the different reporting mechanisms and platforms across the sectors, aligning, where needed, the humanitarian and development reporting
   • Spearhead the development of a unified, automated database encompassing all indicators – including PD’s, RRP, and HFI – streamlining the generation of reports for swift accessibility;
   • Maintain and enhance the Power-Bi report, incorporating essential updates to ensure its relevance and effectiveness in aiding decision-making processes. Promote and advocate for the utilization of this product as a trusted source of validated information among UNICEF Moldova Country Office (MCO), fostering its effective use and utilization by the entire Programme Team;
   • Contribute to the preparation and development of donor reports and proposals, ensuring the inclusion of maps, graphs, and pertinent information concerning children and women in Moldova where it is relevant. By incorporating these visual tools, the aim is to enhance clarity and impact of our communications, facilitating informed decision-making and resource allocation to address critical issues affecting different groups of women and children targeted by UNICEF program;
   • Adopt, encourage and propose innovative solutions related to reporting and information management, by crafting new tools for data collection and presentation, IM products and reports to visualize achievements, needs, and the overall situation in Moldova across all UNICEF Moldova priority areas of intervention aimed at facilitating comprehensive understanding and strategic planning efforts;
   • Ensure regular and accurate collection and reporting of all RRP and HFI indicators, maintaining a high standard of quality. This includes mandatory disaggregation by age and gender, as well as refugee / host community individuals reached, with timely submissions of reports on regular basis (as per the existing / revised RRP and HPM / HFI calendars);
   • Provide continuous guidance, training, leadership and collaboration with all UNICEF Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) – IP partners, with specific focus on new partners, to enhance their capacity, knowledge, and foster their independence in gathering information and reporting within the RRP and UNICEF HPM / HFI frameworks;
   • Continuously monitor situation, including through local media and relevant social networks, in the TNR and UTA Gagauzia, ensuring availability of updated situation and trends analysis relevant to the overall humanitarian and security situation in these locations with particular focus on the situation of children;
   • Under the leadership of the Deputy Representative and guidance and collaboration with the Heads of Section, engage in the work of inter-agency coordination forums and platforms (especially those established by OSCE and the UN) to identify opportunities for programming initiatives, partnerships and child-centered needs assessments for potential expansion of the UN / UNICEF programmatic presence, including in the Transnistrian Region and ATU Gagauzia.

2. Via Knowledge Management and use of data for monitoring of situation of children in Moldova and better alignment between the humanitarian and development objectives of the UNICEF CO:
   • In collaboration with sector teams in the Programme section, design and maintain standardized system (matrix) for tracking of Programme Document / RWPs indicators beyond humanitarian / HPM framework, thus generating input for different IM / KM products designed to clearly present UNICEF Moldova humanitarian-development- peace nexus programming.
   • Develop and generate different IM / KM products, including overviews, other visual products providing snapshot analyses, KM / IM products by priority sectors of intervention, enabling better monitoring of program implementation and identification of cross-sectorial synergies for better programming (horizontal).
   • Systematize the presentation of key findings and important data from UNICEF supported research studies and evaluations (RSE) and generate KM / IM products summarizing the RSE findings, recommendations and data on children (products including graphs, maps, tables, and other visualizations to render complex data comprehensible)
   • Collaborate with all sections, including the Communication Section, to streamline the conversion of available data into visually engaging graphs and maps, facilitating their integration into donor reports and proposals, UNICEF reports and SitReps, information bulletins, social media reports and publications and all external facing documents, under the guidance and leadership if the Deputy Representative
   • Provide possible technical assistance and IM expertise to operationalize digital portal ‘ State of Children Rights in Moldova’, developed with the support of ECARO State of Children Rights Portals in ECA (sharepoint.com) and expand the list of indicators by harvesting available information produced by the National Bureau of Statistics and disseminated through the Statistical databank “Statbank” (gov.md) and other sources.

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