Purpose of the Position
The incumbent of this post will
ensure the following:
- UNICEF Malawi Country Office (MCO) has useful, valid and
reliable information on the situation of children’s and women’s rights; - MCO has useful, valid and reliable information on the
performance of UNICEF-supported programmes including their relevance,
efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability, and in emergency contexts,
their coverage, coordination and coherence; - The budget section of MCO takes appropriate action to
ensure proper and full utilization of funds at its disposal; - The donor reporting and relation is managed effectively
and efficiently to ensure continued funding of UNICEF programmes; - The inter-agency HACT activity for the UN is managed to
enhance coherence and synergies available to ensure transparency,
accountability, compliance with the HACT framework.
The incumbent will also work
within the UN country team to support the United Nations Country Team (UNCT)
goals for delivering valid and reliable information on the attainment of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and other goals, and on the performance of
UN-supported programmes. The incumbent will assist in the development of
national capacities for monitoring and project evaluation, with special
attention to the interest, concern and participation of government, community
and civil society stakeholders.
Key Expected Results
Planning and Monitoring
- Ensure that the Country Office has well-prioritised and
realistic section plans (either one year or two year rolling work plans)
that are signed with government partners, shared with national partners as
indicated in the plans, and adequately monitored. The plans are to be
coherent and provide synergistic support for the improvement of children
and mother’s lives in Malawi. - Support MCO sections in development and finalization of
section work plans with relevant government partner in a timely manner. - Provide fund allocation for each plan in a timely manner
to MCO sections, such that the plans can be finalized in the last quarter
of each year. Furthermore, ensure in the last quarter of each year the
following year’s plans are signed, attached in VISION and ready for
implementation. - Supervise the section M&E Focal Points of MCO, and
support their activities in building the capacity of M&E interventions
of the sections. - Ensure GIS training of the new section members and lead
the GIS activities of the MCO. - Make professional contributions to and provide technical
assistance for the M&E function of the office, and establishing the
major research, monitoring and evaluation objectives, priorities, and
activities in UNICEF’s multi-year and annual IMEPs. Likewise, support the
development of UNDAF M&E Plans from a sound results-based programming
process. - Ensure the IMEP is implemented in a timely and coherent
manner. - Lead the development of the Annual Work Plan (AWP) and
Annual Management Plan (AMP) and monitor and report on the implementation.
Situation Monitoring and
Assessment
- Ensure that the Country Office and national partners
have timely and accurate measurement of change in conditions 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. - In coordination with other stakeholders, support the
collection of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and other key social
development indicators (through MICS or other surveys) to improve national
planning. - Support partners in the establishment and management of
national statistical databases (e.g. DevInfo), ensuring that key
indicators are readily accessible by key stakeholders. Potential uses
include the Situation Analysis, Common Country Assessment, Early Warning
Monitoring Systems, Mid-Term Reviews and End of Country Programme Reviews. - Support the preparation of country level statistical and
analytic reports on the status of children’s and women’s rights issues when
opportunities emerge to influence developmental and social policies. To
include technical support to global reporting obligations including
national reports on progress toward the MDGs, and towards 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.
Programme Performance Monitoring
- Ensure that the Country Office has quality information
to assess progress towards expected results established in annual work
plans. - Provide technical support to ensure that a set of
programme performance indicators is identified and adjusted as necessary,
in the context of the multi-year and annual IMEPs, the Annual Management
Plan and Section Work Plans, as outlined in the Programme Policy and
Procedures Manual.
-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 VISION reports that provide monitoring and
analysis of key program performance and management indicators, provide
professional input to management reports, including the statutory meetings
of the MCO (such as PMT, CMT, etc.); supervise and approve performance
monitoring data inputted into the RAM, and relevant sections of the annual
reports. - Lead the Mid-Year Reviews (MYR) and Annual Review (AR)
process of the MCO.
Evaluation
- Ensure that UNICEF-supported evaluations are designed
and implemented to established UN quality standards, and the results are
disseminated in a timely fashion to stakeholders in order to improve
programme performance and contribute to wider learning. - Technically support programme partners to formulate
Terms of Reference and evaluation designs of high quality in compliance
with the organization’s programme evaluation policies and guidelines. - Monitor and ensure the quality of the field work and
data management during the implementation phase, and the quality of the
analysis and ease of understanding during the report writing phase. - Disseminate evaluation findings and recommendations to
the intended audiences in user-friendly methods. In particular, to ensure
that effective participatory feedback is provided to community and civil
society stakeholders. - Monitor and ensure that a management response to the
findings and recommendations of the evaluation is completed, recorded, and
followed up for implementation. Most specifically, ensure that evaluation
recommendations are submitted to the Country Management Team and follow-up
actions recorded in CMT minutes. Submit electronic copies of all
evaluations to NYHQ via the Evaluation Data Base web portal, with full
accompanying documentation.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Capacity Building
- Ensure that the monitoring and evaluation capacities of
Country Office staff and national partners – government and civil society
– are strengthened enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead
monitoring and evaluation processes. - Promote the awareness and understanding of the shared
responsibility of M&E function among all staff members through
communication, training, learning and development activities
organization-wide. - In close collaboration with partners, ensure that an
M&E capacity building strategy for UNICEF/UN staff national partners
and institutions exists in the context of the IMEP, or UNDAF M&E plan.
Pay particular attention so the capacity needs of national partners such
as professional evaluation associations will be strengthened by
involvement in evaluation 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
M&E policies, tools, methods to fulfil their responsibilities.
Similarly, design and implement strategies suited to the skills needs of
national partners. - Lead the M&E TWG of the UNDAF.
Cross Cutting Support
- Ensure that the budget unit of MCO, the donor relations
officer of MCO and the UN HACT coordinator are properly supervised,
coordinated with relevant sections and UN agencies; and timely
deliverables for each unit/officer provided to senior management of MCO
and where relevant UNCT. - Collaborate with Regional M&E Advisers and HQ
Evaluation Office for overall coordination of priority research,
monitoring and evaluation activities, especially those of regional scope
requiring the coordinated effort of multiple countries. - Partner with the Regional Monitoring and Evaluation
Adviser to ensure that current and accurate M&E data and results are
included in regional reports, multi-country studies, and knowledge sharing
networks. - Undertake lessons-learned reviews on successful and
unsuccessful M&E practices and experience at the national level, and
ensure they are shared as appropriate. Similarly, pay attention to M&E
knowledge networks to identify innovations and lessons learned that may be
relevant for the CO and partners to improve their M&E function. - Ensure that the budget section of the MCO is managed
properly, budget in VISION is allocated in a timely manner, cost
distributions for salary payments finalized on time, allocations and
re-allocation of funds are undertaken in a timely manner to ensure full
utilization of the MCO Grants. - Ensure that the donor relations officer performs duties
as per post’s JD, including liaising with relevant HQ and Regional office
staff. Main duty is to ensure high quality donor reports are produced on
time and submitted to donors. Supervise the donor relations officer grant
management activities to ensure full utilization of MCO grants. Support
the grant management training of MCO. - Ensure that the UN HACT coordinator performs duties as
per post’s JD, including managing all UN HACT activities such as spot
checks, micro assessments, regular audits and special audits of the
partners. Ensure UN HACT implementation is as per the revised HACT
guidelines found on the UNDG website. Ensure that the macro-assessment of
the country is undertaken in a timely manner. Support the HACT capacity
building of partners.
Qualifications of Successful
Candidate
- An advanced university degree (Master’s) in Social
Sciences, Demography, Development Planning, Statistics or a
directly-related technical field(s) is required. - A minimum of eight (8) years of relevant experience, at
the national and international levels, in programme planning, monitoring
and evaluation is required. - Previous hands-on experience in a supervisory/managerial
capacity is required. - Previous hands-on experience of emergency programming,
including preparedness planning and humanitarian crisis response
programming is highly desirable. - Knowledge of Project Evaluation, including Evaluation
Process Management is highly desirable. - Previous work experience in an emergency duty station is
considered an asset. - Fluency in English (written & verbal) is required.
Knowledge of an additional UN Language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian
and Spanish) is considered an asset.
Competencies of Successful
Candidate
- Communicates effectively to varied audiences, including
during formal public speaking. - Able to work effectively in a multi-cultural
environment. - Sets high standards for quality of work and consistently
achieves project goals. - Has good leadership and supervisory skills; co-ordinates
group activities, ensuring that roles within the team are clear. - Analyzes and integrates potentially conflicting numerical,
verbal and other data from a number of sources. - Sets clearly defined objectives and plans activities for
self, own team or department. - Translates strategic direction into plans and
objectives. - Demonstrates and shares detailed technical knowledge and
expertise.
UNICEF is committed to diversity
and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male
candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including
persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our
organisation.
If you want a challenging career
while improving the lives of children around the world UNICEF, the leading
children’s rights organization, would like to hear from you.
Visit us at www.unicef.org/about/employ to
register in our new e-Recruitment system and apply to this and other vacancies.
Applications must be received by 13-Feb-15
Vacancy position link:https://careers.unicef.org/sap/bc/webdynpro/sap/hrrcf_a_posting_apply?PA…
Please note that only candidates
who are under serious consideration will be contacted.
In the selection of its staff,
UNICEF is committed to gender balance and diversity without distinction as to
race, sex or religion, and without discrimination of persons with disabilities:
well qualified candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
