For every child, Evaluate.

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias, or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic, and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education, and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

Job organizational context

The position is located within the NYHQ Evaluation Office, which serves as steward of UNICEF’s evaluation function. The Director of Evaluation reports to the Executive Director, and to the UNICEF’s Executive Board through an annual report on the evaluation function and on selected evaluations. The Evaluation Office commissions and manages independent corporate evaluations and other evaluative exercises (e.g., evaluability assessments, syntheses, reviews), usually conducted in collaboration with external consultants but sometimes embedding Evaluation Office staff in the evaluation teams. It also leads in the development and implementation of evaluation policy, strategy, and systems; oversees evaluation quality assurance processes; undertakes evaluation capacity development activities within and outside the Organization; actively promotes an enabling environment for evaluation and a strong evaluation culture; and ensures transparent access to evaluation information. The Office works closely with the Regional Evaluation Advisers in each of UNICEF’s seven regions to ensure a well-coordinated, collaborative, whole-of-organization evaluation effort and to continue to build the Organization’s community of practice. Working in a complementary manner with UNICEF’s other data, evidence and research functions, the Evaluation Office aims to deliver consistently timely, credible, and useful independent analyses that harness knowledge to help the Organization deliver results for children.

How can you make a difference?

Under the direction of the Director of Evaluation and the supervision of the Senior Evaluation Specialist, Humanitarian, the Evaluation Specialist is responsible for managing the evaluation portfolio related to humanitarian action. The Evaluation Specialist will provide technical and operational support to a series of projects (both internal to UNICEF, as well as inter-agency). The scope of work covers primarily evaluations, but may also include other exercises such as reviews, research studies, meta-analysis, and surveys, that draw on the same technical and project management skills. The Evaluation Specialist will support the Senior Evaluation Specialist, Humanitarian to commission and manage evaluations, promote follow up and use of evaluation findings and recommendations, promote the evaluation function in the organization, and manage human and financial resources. The Evaluation Specialist will also work with the Director of Evaluation and the Humanitarian Evaluation Portfolio (HEP) Team to shape the strategic direction of the portfolio, maximizing its utility as a source of both accountability and learning to UNICEF and its partners.

In accordance with UNICEF’s mission, guiding principles, standards, commitments, and accountability framework, and under United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) revised norms and standards, the Evaluation Specialist will ensure that all evaluations conducted under her/his leadership are of the highest relevance, timeliness, quality, credibility and utility possible, and that they support the organizational learning and accountability needs of UNICEF and its stakeholders in achieving results for children.

The incumbent will also contribute to cross-cutting initiatives within the Evaluation Office and the wider evaluation function within UNICEF.

 Key Functions

1. Manage and/or conduct evaluations that are impartial, independent and credible and that meet professional standards.
   • Assist the Senior Evaluation Specialist, Humanitarian in EO to plan evaluations for individual evaluations
   • Conduct background research on the emergencies or themes to be evaluated in any given year.
   • Contribute to the conduct of evaluations of projects, programmes and policies, as requested by the Senior Evaluation Specialist of the Unit.
   • Supervise evaluations conducted by staff members and consultants.
   • Provide technical support to regional and country offices undertaking humanitarian evaluations, including L3, L2 and L1 contexts, and in other country/regional thematic evaluations of humanitarian action.
   • Participate on an ad hoc basis in inter-agency humanitarian evaluation management groups, providing feedback on specific evaluation outputs, and liaising with internal colleagues and inter-agency counterparts to convey feedback on these outputs.
   • Apply high professional standards in line with evaluation policy and the UNEG Norms and Standards for Evaluation.
   • Apply evaluation quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis tools, techniques and approaches.
   • Keep abreast of developments in the area of evaluation.
   • Cooperate with other United Nations evaluation units and professional evaluation bodies.
2. Promote evaluations that are useful and ensure that evaluation findings and recommendations are followed up.
   • Assist the Senior Evaluation Specialist of the Unit with the reporting to management on evaluation findings and recommendations.
   • Organize meetings, workshops and other discussion in order to establish a dialogue on evaluation results, recommendations and lessons learned.
   • Ensure that evaluation results are considered in the continued implementation of projects and programmes and in the design and appraisal of new projects and programmes.
   • Ensure that project and programme managers respond to recommendations and monitor the follow-up on evaluations.
3. Promote the evaluation function in the organization.
   • Contribute to the development and review of evaluation-related policies, guidance, systems, procedures and tools, while also ensuring their relevance and utility at the decentralized level.
4. Support innovation, knowledge management and capacity development.
   • Promote innovative approaches and good practices by integrating evaluation principles and norms through advocacy and operational support/services.
   • Contribute to the development of approaches and guidance for humanitarian evaluations, ranging from the development of guidance, approaches and innovative data collection systems that enhances how humanitarian evaluations are undertaken; to systematic strengthening of humanitarian evaluation capacities at RO and COs levels; and piloting various approaches.
   • Keep abreast, research, benchmark, introduce and implement good practices on evaluation planning and management, institutionalize and disseminate key lesson learned to maximize the use of evaluation results to support improve programming and results delivery.
   •   Implement capacity development initiatives to enhance the competencies of a wide range of internal and external partners/stakeholders to enhance their evaluation systems/and capacity.
5. Undertake special assignments as may be assigned by the supervisor and by the Director of Evaluation.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s) in a social science, public policy, international affairs, public health or a field related to the sectors covered by humanitarian programmes is required.
• Formal training in evaluation would be considered an advantage.
• A minimum of 5 years of professional experience in the planning, implementation, and management of work in the humanitarian realm, with at least 3 years’ experience in managing or undertaking evaluations or other research activities.
• Current knowledge of designing and implementing inter- agency and rapid and timely humanitarian evaluations will be an added advantage.
• Previous work experience in a developing country and in humanitarian context is an asset.
• Knowledge of working modalities of UNICEF in humanitarian settings is desirable.
• Demonstrated experience in conducting background research and producing concise strategic deliverables summarizing finding, conclusions, and recommendations.
• Familiarity with UNICEF’s internal platforms (Vision and Insight) would be considered an advantage.
• Fluency in English; knowledge of another UN language is an asset (Arabic, Chines, French, Russian, Spanish).

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

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.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

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 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 promote the protection and safeguarding of all children.

Remarks:

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

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also 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 cancelled.

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.

Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government 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.

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