Evaluation Advisor, Evaluation Office, New York, P-5

The Position:

The position of Evaluation Advisor is located in the UNFPA Headquarters in New York. You will assist the Director of Evaluation Office in complying with UNFPA's Evaluation Policy.

You will report directly to the Director of the Evaluation Office (EO). 

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.  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. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.

Job Purpose:

Evaluation at UNFPA serves three main purposes that support the organization’s drive to achieve results. First, evaluation is a means to demonstrate accountability to stakeholders on performance in achieving development results, and on invested resources (for example, with respect to governing bodies, donor Governments, partner Governments, partner United Nations organizations and UNFPA beneficiaries). Second, evaluation supports evidence-based decision-making. Utilization focused evaluations (which enhance the utility and use of evaluations) provide credible information to support decision-making by management, where such information guides planning, budgeting, implementation and reporting, as well as improvements in policies and programmes. Third, evaluation contributes important lessons learned to the existing knowledge base on how to accelerate implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, in particular, on how best to advance sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, and on how UNFPA can best support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

EO is the custodian of the evaluation function at UNFPA. It reports administratively to the Executive Director and functionally to the Executive Board. It was established as an independent office in July 2013. 

The main functions of the Evaluation Office are as follows:

1. Prepares, reviews and updates the UNFPA evaluation policy;
2. Develops the UNFPA evaluation plan for all evaluations, based on inputs from and consultations with the Executive Board, the Executive Committee, UNFPA offices and other stakeholders;
3. Reports directly, on an annual basis, to the Executive Board on the evaluation function at UNFPA, including compliance, coverage, quality, findings and recommendations of evaluations conducted by UNFPA;
4. Conducts, or commissions to companies or to individual consultants, corporate evaluations and approves the terms of reference and prequalifies evaluators for programme level evaluations;
5. Presents, at the discretion of the Executive Board, the results of selected evaluations;
6. Sets evaluation standards and criteria, develops methodological guidance and maintains evaluation quality assurance mechanisms in order to continuously improve and enhance the quality and credibility of UNFPA evaluations, and the overall evaluation function;
7. Plans and provides the necessary training for UNFPA staff on issues related to evaluation policy, standards, criteria, quality assurance, and the design and management of evaluations;
8. Provides support and technical advice to business units managing programme level evaluations;
9. Actively disseminates and shares knowledge generated by evaluations through the UNFPA knowledge management networks and practices, and maintains a publicly accessible repository of evaluations and their management responses;
10. Engages in partnerships with professional evaluation networks, such as the United Nations Evaluation Group, and supports the harmonization of the evaluation function in the United Nations system;

Qualifications and Experience  

Education:  

Master’s degree in social sciences, public health, economics, gender, demography or management

Knowledge and Experience: 

• At least 10 years of experience in managing complex evaluations in the areas of gender, health and/or social sciences, including UNFPA core programme areas; 
• Demonstrable experience in managing and conducting different types of evaluations in or for UN organizations, other multi-lateral or bilateral development organizations;
• Demonstrable experience in strengthening evaluation capacities and providence methodological guidance and advisory;
• Demonstrable experience in conducting workshops and training on evaluation; 
• Knowledge of specialized software applied to evaluation, including IT knowledge to establish and maintain databases and tracking system, is desirable.

Languages:
 
•    Excellent verbal and writing skills in English required;
•    Fluency in Spanish and/or French required.