UNV Youth Volunteer in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)

Details

Mission and objectives

UNFPA works to improve the lives of people in more than 150 countries around the world, which are home to 80 percent of the world’s population. In Latin America and the Caribbean region and sub-region, UNFPA has offices in 30 countries.
UNFPAs Regional Office in Panama City, Panama provides strategic support and technical advice to the Country Offices: technical cooperation, training and support to empower our partners and colleagues on the ground to ensure that the reproductive health and rights of women and young people are placed at the very centre of development.

Context

UNFPA works in more than 150 countries and territories that are home to the vast majority of the world’s people. UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency and UNFPA’s mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.The actions and recommendations identified in the report are crucial for achieving the goals of the ICPD Programme of Action and its linkage with the 2030 Agenda.
The work of UNFPA is based on the premise that all human beings are entitled to equal rights and protections. We focus on women and young people because these are groups whose ability to exercise their right to sexual and reproductive health is often compromised. Our work on their behalf is informed by an understanding of population dynamics, human rights, and cultural sensitivities.
UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030.
The UNFPA Evaluation Policy 2024 outlines a comprehensive framework for evaluation principles and procedures, and sets out roles and responsibilities for the evaluation function. The policy guides the planning, management, conduct and use of evaluations. It applies to evaluation at all levels of the organization, including project level and humanitarian evaluations. The use of evaluation for decision-making, accountability and learning remains a central focus of the policy. Further, the policy strongly emphasises innovation, especially in developing the capacities of youth in evaluation and meaningfully involving them throughout the evaluation process. The policy also sharpens the focus on leveraging ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence in evaluation. It also reinforces the commitment to joint and system-wide evaluations, multi-stakeholder engagement, and intergenerational evaluation partnerships, towards developing national evaluation capacities.
This UNV assignment is part of the United Nations Evaluation Group-United Nations Volunteers (UNEG-UNV) young evaluator programme. The programme seeks to recruit and deploy young monitoring and evaluation (M&E) professionals across the UN system, at national and international
levels, to support the effective delivery of Agenda 2030 and enhance national evaluation capacity development.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the Regional M&E Advisor, the UNV Young Evaluator will provide technical assistance to the M&E team by completing the following tasks:
● Contribute to planning and conduction of regional and country programme evaluations commissioned by the organization by supporting the development of the evaluation terms of reference, establishment of the reference group, review of draft reports, preparation of management responses, etc.
● Participate in the M&E focal points network.
● Support the evaluation of UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks in the region through the participation in the Regional Evaluation Group.
● Contribute to national SDG monitoring and reporting.
● Assist in preparation of various reports; conduct data collection, analysis and research.
● Contribute to knowledge management, including collection and categorization of various programme related documents, update and maintenance of documents;
● Assist with innovative forms of data gathering, data mapping, statistical analysis and visualization
● Support the development of training programmes on M&E, including capacity building of internal staff and national stakeholders,
● Capture best practices and advance knowledge management in relation to M&E
● Support the use of evaluation evidence to inform decisions and programmes
● Support in advancing advocacy for influential evaluation.
● Increase the M&E capacity of small evaluation functions in the UN system, including at the national and regional levels.
● UN Volunteers can also support national evaluation capacity development through training national government and civil society personnel on M&E, advising governments and policy.
● Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.
Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:
● Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);
● Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;
● Provide annual and end of assignment self- reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities.
● Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;
● Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;
● Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.