Individual Consultant: Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Advisor, WCARO

Duration and working schedule :

The consultancy is scheduled to take place during the period from 22nd February to 30 June 2021, with a possible extension.

Place where services are to be delivered :

WCARO Regional Office, Dakar, Senegal

Purpose of consultancy :

Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Advisory.

Background : 

The Regional Office for West and Central Africa (WCARO) covers 23 English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish speaking countries. It operates along with broad thematic Units that are designed to stimulate and strengthen inter and intra-Unit coordination, coherence and synergy, facilitating timely and quality management and delivery of holistic population and development programme activities.

The M&E Expert will work within an integrated, coordinated, and systems strengthening approach, which is fundamental to the Regional Office and UNFPA’s overall strategy.

Main Tasks & Responsibilities :

Monitoring and Evaluation Expert takes the lead in the planning of thematic evaluations in the region, provides overall guidance and technical support for monitoring and evaluation activities across the full range of work of the Regional Office, oversees the effective monitoring, utilization and effectiveness of the Strategic Information System (SIS) in WCARO, and ensures full compliance with the UNFPA corporate M&E policies, procedures and standards.

 A.  Strategic Results Support

• Take the lead in the development of regional methodology and tools for monitoring and evaluation, in concert with HQ;
• Develop appropriate policies, norms and standards for regional monitoring and evaluation and provide guidance;
• Identify innovative evaluation methodologies and promote their incorporation into UNFPA operations;
• Take responsibility and accountability for the planning, management and oversight of thematic, country programme/project evaluations and other types of evaluations to be conducted in the region;
• Monitor and oversee compliance of Corporate tools and standards by COs under WCARO;
• Contribute to monitoring and analysis of reports on humanitarian, economic, political and social factors in the development and management of population and development programmes;
• Ensure the effective implementation of the evaluation policy, sets minimum monitoring and evaluation requirements for the Country Programme and projects, initiate and manage thematic and crosscutting evaluations, and monitor the implementation of evaluation recommendations;
• Provide support for monitoring and evaluation of the regional, thematic and country programmes in the region;
• Advice on monitoring and evaluation components of the OMPs of the Regional Office;
• Provide technical support to the RO and COs, to ensure the adequacy of both the hierarchy of results of country and regional programmes, and their use of performance and impact measurement methods and indicators;
• Contribute to the development of frameworks, methodologies and databases for monitoring ICPD, SDG and other national development frameworks;
• Contribute to the formulation of the Regional Strategic Plans and Programmes, drawing upon the analysis and evaluation of interventions in the regions, and lessons learned from country programmes;
• Support the development and utilization of programme indicators and indicator databases;
• Work in collaboration with RO advisers and regional programme advisers in the formulation and implementation of oversight plan of regional programme funded initiatives;
• Ensure results-based monitoring and evaluation plan developed, implemented, and results acted upon within the COs, and RO; and
• Ensure the use of results-based indicators, facilitate and support data collection and analysis for evaluation.

B.  Capacity Development

• Contribute to the development and adaptation of tools and guidance as well as training materials and manuals in the area of monitoring and evaluation, and support their use for capacity development of partner institutions and UNFPA staff in the region;
• Contribute to identify and validate regional monitoring and evaluation experts and institutions for the Fund’s regional and international rosters;
• Help build capacity of ROs and COs in the adoption and use of RBM techniques and tools;
• Provide support to country office staff and consultants in organization and management of evaluations;
• Coach junior professional staff and associates, direct expert consultants and facilitate working groups and task teams in order to provide support to programme managers, implementers on monitoring and evaluation.

C.  Evidence and knowledge development and dissemination

• Contribute to the analysis, synthesis, and dissemination of state-of-the-art knowledge and new approaches to monitoring and evaluation practice, in particular best practices, and make recommendations for their adoption at regional and sub-regional levels;
• Substantively contribute to the identification, documentation, and dissemination of best practices/lessons learned;
• Support the office of the Director in ensuring the incorporation of evaluation results and lessons learned in the updating of specific substantive strategies, policies, tools, and approaches, and ensure their availability in the organizational system for lessons learned;
• Monitor, analyze, evaluate, synthesize and share results of regional and country programme interventions;
• Monitor, analyze and evaluate national evaluation reports, synthesize evaluation findings, identify and disseminate lessons learned in monitoring and evaluation to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the work of the Office and of the region; to draw attention to regional realities, and to inform regional and global strategies, policies, procedures, and tools;
• Contribute to HQ initiatives on results-based programme management by ensuring integration of lessons learned from evaluation;
• Coordinate with other UN regional evaluation units and professional evaluation bodies for thematic evaluations and other evaluation activities at the country and regional levels, and keep abreast of developments in the area of evaluation.

D.  Quality assurance on evaluation

• Advice on the validity of the monitoring and evaluation of regional strategies and approaches;
• Develop and support a substantive quality assurance framework for the work of the Regional Office and assist/advise country offices in the implementation of such framework;
• Ensure that evaluations meet high professional principles, norms, and standards in line with UNFPA Evaluation Policy and UN Evaluation Group;
• Support, promote and nurture an evaluation culture within the Regional Office and the region;
• Advice on and support monitoring and evaluation processes and quality assessments in all areas of work under the RO responsibility;
• Analyze and assess how findings of reviews, assessments, and other studies related to UNFPA’s areas of work are analyzed, disseminated, and taken into account in ongoing strategic planning and programme development;
• Ensure the RO’s participation in multi-agency/donor and inter-governmental evaluations of complex programmes and cross-cutting themes, especially as these relate to PRSPs, SWAps, JAS, etc.; and carry out any other duties as may be required by the Regional Director.

Delivery dates and how work will be delivered (e.g. electronic, hard copy, etc.) :

Deliverables for specific assignments will be defined during the consultancy and related delivery dates assigned accordingly. Work documentation should be provided electronically unless requested otherwise.

Supervisory arrangements :

• The Monitoring and Evaluation Expert reports to the Regional Director
• Monitoring and progress control, including reporting requirements, periodicity format, and deadline:
• The M&E Expert will report weekly to the Regional Director on (a) ongoing activities and tasks, (b) activity planning for the subsequent week(s), and (c) any ongoing or anticipated challenges or bottlenecks that need specific attention.

Required expertise, qualifications, and competencies, including language requirements :

Education :

Advanced university degree in public health, medicine, sociology, demography, gender, economics, international relations, international development, public administration, management, or other fields directly related to monitoring and evaluation.

Knowledge and Experience:

• 10 years of increasingly responsible professional experience, of which five years at the international level, and of which five years in evaluation of development, health, and/or social programmes; including periodic updating of technical skills;
• Recognized expertise in monitoring and evaluation;
• Demonstrated knowledge and an understanding of the social, political, economic, dimensions (milieu, context) of policymaking and programme implementation generally and in West & Central Africa region;
• Knowledge and experience of work in development assistance programming processes;
• Ability to lead and drive for results with a strong knowledge of results-based management.
• Ability to conceptualize and integrate knowledge with broader strategic, policy, and operational objectives;
• Strong track record of innovative leadership in planning and managing evaluations, and proven ability to produce demonstrable results;
• Field experience would be a strong asset.

Language :

Proficient in French and in English is required.

How to apply :

Applicants with the required qualifications and experience stated above (Required expertise, qualifications, and competencies, including language requirements) should submit soft copies of their P11 form to unfpa.wcaro.recruitment@unfpa.org  no later than the 1st February 2021 at 5 pm (Dakar time).

Only those candidates who meet all qualifications and experience will be contacted for further consideration. Incomplete applications will be automatically disqualified. 

Disclaimer : 

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