Chief Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, FT, P4, # 104724, East Jerusalem, State of Palestine, MENA Region

You will work in close collaboration with programme sections, the position is accountable for the establishment of viable systems that strengthen the programme focus and results for children in the State of Palestine. As such, you will facilitate planning, innovative programme monitoring and evaluation approaches, and provides guidance, coordination and leadership in policy and strategy development. You will work in collaboration with the UN country team in support of the achievement of UNDAF outcomes, as well as in monitoring the implementation of the SDGs.

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.
UNICEF is a place where careers are built, we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, help.

The Chief of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) will report to the Deputy Representative of the State of Palestine's Office. The post drives results-based management and innovative equity-focused programming approaches through leadership in planning, programme monitoring and evaluation (PME). Supports policy and strategy development through evidence generation and strategic partnerships within UNICEF and with partners.

How can you make a difference?

You will work in close collaboration with programme sections, the position is accountable for the establishment of viable systems that strengthen the programme focus and results for children in the State of Palestine. As such, you will facilitate planning, innovative programme monitoring and evaluation approaches, and provides guidance, coordination and leadership in policy and strategy development. You will work in collaboration with the UN country team in support of the achievement of UNDAF outcomes, as well as in monitoring the implementation of the SDGs.

You will ensure:

1. The Country Office has accurate, coherent, and reliable up-to -date information disaggregated by gender on: the situation of children’s and women’s rights; and the performance of UNICEF-supported programmes including their relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability, and in emergency contexts, their coverage, coordination and coherence.

2. The delivery of valid and reliable information on the attainment of the SDGs and other goals, and on the performance of UN-supported programmes.

3. National and sub-national, planning, monitoring, evaluation and research capacities and capacities and systems are strengthened using innovative technologies and platforms, with special attention to gender equality, disadvantaged groups and the interest, concern and participation of primary stakeholders.

4. Data and evidence are generated and used to inform programme development, policy formulation, to catalyze partnerships and collaborative relationships, for advocacy and actions needed for pro-child initiatives.

Key Responsibilities and Tasks

1. Situation Monitoring and Assessment.

Ensure that the Country Office and national partners have timely and accurate and equity and gender-specific information on conditions in the country and its regions, 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 and policies.

Duties & Tasks:

• In coordination with other stakeholders, support the collection of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators (through MICS or other surveys) to improve integrated national planning and policy formulation and to monitor the situation of children.
• Manage available baseline information on national statistics and key indicators through established databases, for easy access and use ensuring that indicators are adequately disaggregated (equity, gender, location, age, disability status).
• Prepare country level statistical reports on the status of children’s and women’s human rights issues when opportunities emerge to influence development and social policies and provide technical support to global reporting obligations including national reports on progress toward the SDGs, CRC, CRPD and CEDAW.
• Coordinate with the Country Office and partners and provide assistance in their using up-to-date information in, inter alia, Situation Analysis, Common Country Assessment, early warning monitoring systems (including on the emergency preparedness platform).
• In humanitarian response situations, provide technical support for a rapid assessment (inter-agency or independently if necessary) to be carried out within the first 48-72 hours, in collaboration with clusters partners. Provide strategic information to determine programmatic needs in health and nutrition, integrated early childhood development, education, adolescents, child protection, water, sanitation and hygiene, and other salient child rights issues emphasizing gender across all programmes as well as factors affecting the organization’s capacity to function in the field.
• Provide technical support to ensure that the CO has information necessary for UNICEF to effectively report on and advocate for children’s rights and gender equality through the appropriate channels.
• Support the CO in collecting and interpreting existing early warning data effectively to guide the adjustment of programmes and operational approaches when and as country contexts deteriorate.

2. Programme Planning and Integrated Monitoring, Evaluation & Research.

Ensure that the Country Office and national partners develop a well-prioritized and realistic programme plan on research, monitoring and evaluation activities that will provide the most relevant equity focused, gender-specific and strategic information to manage the Country Programme, including tracking and assessing UNICEF’s distinct contribution.

Duties & Tasks:

• In close collaboration with Senior Management, lead the process of the elaboration of the programme of cooperation, strategy notes and
• workplans at the national and sub-national levels, ensuring consistency with UNICEF Strategic Plan, the SDGs, national priorities, sectoral strategies and goals.
• Provide technical support to the process of developing and monitoring Work Plans, ensuring consistency with objectives and goals as per the
• Area Programme Document (APD).
• Provide technical support and guidance in the development of Programme Cooperation Agreements and Programme Documents with civil society organizations (CSOs) ensuring alignment with workplans and in accordance with prevailing organizational procedures.
• Assist in formulating and monitoring the Annual Management Plan.
• Support program components (sections/programs) to effectively plan, monitor and report on intersectoral results and field office results to support convergent programming, particularly in the areas of early childhood development, adolescents, communication for development and violence against children.
• Provide technical guidance and collaboration in the planning and establishing the major research and monitoring and evaluation activities in multi-year and annual IMEPs, that is to be reflected in UNDAF M&E Plans, including, data collection initiatives, such as MICS, quantitative and qualitative studies that provide accurate and relevant and data to measure outcomes for children.
• Formulate evaluation terms of reference and design of high-quality evaluations in compliance with the organization’s programme evaluation policies, guidelines and methodology while satisfying stakeholders’ requirements.
• Guide, supervise and participate in the joint evaluations with developmental partners, including joint evaluation of UNICEF or of multi-partner programs.
• Ensure that the Country Management Team examines evaluation recommendations to provide direction for action. Coordinate management response of evaluation for senior management to ensure that findings and recommendations are implemented as agreed.
• Contribute to the incorporation of M&E tasks within the CO Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan, in order to anticipate and prepare for the information needs and operational modalities of an emergency.
• In humanitarian response situations, within the first month, draft and recommend a simple one-month data-collection to cover key data gaps as required for the continued emergency response. Support rapid assessment conducted through inter-agency mechanisms to define humanitarian response and measure the progress to identify and address results for children and women, in line with the core commitment for children in humanitarian action. After the initial humanitarian response, support management of the medium-term response with a minimal IMEP, outlining the key indicators on implementation and outputs and where possible, outcome indicators and the data collection systems and sources to be used (e.g. reporting by partner NGOs, field visits).

3. Programme Management Performance Monitoring.

Ensure that the Country Office has quality information to assess progress towards expected results established in annual work plans.

Duties & Tasks:

• Provide technical support to the Deputy Representative to ensure that key programme indicators are tracked and analyzed with the contribution of implementing partners and provided regularly to the Country Management Team/ Senior Management Team for effective programme and management decisions.
• Establish mechanisms for the monitoring of cross-cutting programme results and ensure that derived information informs internal discussions and with partners to support scale-up of good practice and systems building.
• Establish office-wide mechanisms for field monitoring, ensuring standardization and coordination across programme areas and that reports enable robust programme performance monitoring and gender mainstreaming. Ensure optimum use of staff resources.
• Facilitate country office capacity development activities for staff and Implementing Partners on overall HACT compliance, including the different types of assurance activities as well as for CSO partnerships. Ensure that HACT activities are adequately implemented, monitored and reported on systematically and progress shared with management and the Country Management Team.
• Provide technical support to Deputy Representative for the implementation of evaluation recommendations and the appropriate integration of lessons learned in programme activities, especially those in the reduction of gender inequalities, is shared and used to improve gender mainstreaming results.
• Provide advice in order to ensure that management decisions based on Country Office performance monitoring are properly tracked and followed up.
• Facilitate the preparation of Annual Reviews, Mid-Term Reviews, and Annual Reports or other progress reports. Seek the feedback of the partners to improve the assistance accordingly. Ensure that progress and results are adequately captured in the Results Assessment Module (RAM) of the UNICEF performance management system.
• Provide technical advice in order that management reports including relevant sections of the annual reports are prepared drawing on monitoring and analysis of key management indicators.

4. Innovations and M&E Capacity Building.

Innovative programming approaches, particularly in planning, monitoring and innovation are introduced and supported with capacities of Country Office staff and national partners – government and civil society – strengthened enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead monitoring and evaluation processes, including those that address gender inequality, humanitarian assistance, and the equity focus.

Duties & Tasks:

• Actively promote and engage in innovative real-time monitoring approaches, using making use of new technologies, seeking out opportunities for innovations to programmatic challenges, and developing and scaling user-centered products in support of programme monitoring.
• In close collaboration with partners, ensure that an M&E capacity building strategy for national partners and institutions exists and corresponding activities are identified and implemented in the context of the IMEP or UNDAF M&E plan. Collaborate to implement capacity building strategies as a joint commitment with other developmental partners, highlighting gender as a central component.
• Develop staff capacity development strategy and plans, and exercise effective leadership in implementing them, ensuring that Country Office staff have the basic knowledge and skills to fulfil their monitoring and evaluation responsibilities, and training is planned and carried out to fill identified gaps.
• Promote knowledge of and build capacity in evaluation practices. Oversee to ensure that Country Office staff and national partners are aware of and have access to UNICEF monitoring and evaluation learning resources.
• Ensure that Evaluation capacity of national partner organizations, which may include local institutions such as national professional evaluation associations, is strengthened through their involvement in evaluation processes and possibly through specific capacity building initiatives.
• Lead and guide the development of training materials, as well as delivery of training in gender-sensitive, results-oriented M&E. Promote Evaluation Capacity Development initiatives based on demonstrated demand at country level.

4. Knowledge Management and Reporting.

Country and programme information databases support quality reporting and development of proposals that advance knowledge of the SoP programme in terms of its scope and coverage, including geographic location and results.

Duties & Tasks:

• Prepare comprehensive, analytical and substantive briefs, reports, statistics and other documentation on development and humanitarian trends and programme performance.
• Facilitates the development of briefs on good practice experiences, on sectoral and intersectoral programme delivery.
• Maintains regular up-to-date knowledge products on UNICEF cooperation Consolidates quality reports and inputs into UN documents, including Situation Reports (SitReps) in a timely manner.
• Coordinate and ensure effective dissemination of programme assessments, including lessons learned from evaluation to the intended audience.
• Specifically, ensure that evaluation results feed key UNICEF programme planning processes.
• Coordinate and ensure that electronic copies of all evaluations are submitted to NYHQ via the Evaluation Data Base web portal, with full accompanying documentation.
• Actively seek partnerships with knowledge institutions for the identification of information gaps and develop strategies to address them.
• Ensures that reports from reviews and the country office annual report and reports to donors are of the highest quality and standards.

6.Communication and Partnerships.

Ensure that all of the above tasks are carried out and accomplished through effective communication and partnerships within and outside the organization.

Duties & Tasks:

• Collaborate with key knowledge partners (universities and think tanks) for their knowledge and their research capacities in order to generate and disseminate relevant data for the identification of child-friendly policies and their effective problem-solving mechanisms.
• Build partnerships within and outside the organization. Work collaboratively with clients and partners. Facilitate joint monitoring and evaluation activities with national partners, the UN Country Team, and the wider international community, wherever possible in the context of the above processes.
• Facilitate learning from the results of monitoring and evaluation within the Country Office and more widely within UNICEF in the region and globally, as well as among national partners and other key stakeholders, ensuring that gender equality is a standard feature.
• Collaborate with Regional M&E Advisers and HQ Officers for overall coordination of priority planning, research, monitoring and evaluation activities.
• Promote the awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of M&E function among the all-staff members through communication, training, learning and development activities organization wide.
• Coordinate with partners to ensure a unified approach of M&E in emergencies.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education:

• An advanced university degree in social sciences, economics or other relevant disciplines is required.
• Practical training in programme management and evaluation, survey and research analysis, or applied statistical data analysis in social sciences is an asset.

Experience:

• A minimum of eight years of relevant professional work experience is required in programme development and implementation including monitoring and evaluation activities.
• Experience in complex and large-scale emergency programming and response, including preparedness planning.
• Experience in humanitarian and development nexus and cross-sectoral programming is an asset.
• Language Requirement:

Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language, in particular Arabic, is considered as an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people.

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

This position has been assessed as an elevated risk role for Child Safeguarding purposes as it is: a role with direct contact with children, works directly with children, or is a safeguarding response role. Additional vetting and assessment for elevated risk roles in child safeguarding (potentially including additional criminal background checks) apply.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable Female are encouraged to apply.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

This is required for all posts requiring a higher education degree. “UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/”

Only shortlisted candidates will be notified and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

The VA is open to all (internal and external candidates)

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.