Unicef is looking for Consultancy Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Management – South Sudan

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

 

 

 

For every child :

The purpose of the consultancy is two-folds: To support the acceleration of office-wide priority monitoring initiatives – situation monitoring on children and women as well as programme performance monitoring, and the implementation of the Regional Evaluation Framework in UNICEF South Sudan.

Situation monitoring continues to remain a challenge in South Sudan; the conflict rendered the 2008 census obsolete; and the Expanded Maternal Mortality Survey intended for 2016 was deferred because population displacements made the sampling obsolete. The operational context also precludes surveys such as Demographic Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, which are critical inputs for a Child Poverty Assessment, therefore, this activity was deferred. Planning figures are mostly informed by Humanitarian Response Planning, which cannot provide disaggregated data on sex, age and location. Therefore, UNICEF launched a sentinel monitoring system to routinely collect data on women and children in select schools and health facilities, complementing national administrative systems and leveraging the ten UNICEF field offices in two locations in 2018, and plans to scale up in other field locations in 2019.

Futhermore, programme and implementation monitoring remains critical to ensure programmes are implemented according to standards and beneficiaries do not face further risks. UNICEF’s digital field (programme) monitoring system, launched in 2017, works in locations without internet coverage. In 2018, the platform was enhanced through rolling out an online action point dashboard, which will require dedicated monitoring and follow-up with sections and Field Offices to ensure action points are closed in a timely manner.  In mid-2018, an office-wide online centralized database was established as a one-stop shop on results, with linkages with UNICEF-led cluster databases. The set up and full operationalization of the database has been identified as an office priority, as part of the office’s efforts to better manage data and strengthen data quality of programmatic results data.  The full operationalization of the sentinel system, field monitoring and centralized database requires dedicated technical support in data entry/data quality assurance to ensure an up-to-date and quality database; as well as linkages to the upcoming eTools Trips Module.

UNICEF South Sudan has been conducting several evaluations this year as part of the 2019-2021 Costed Evaluation Plan that was approved by the UNICEF Executive Board as well as several HQ and Regional Office led evaluations. However, without a full-time dedicated staff to manage the evaluations, there have been challenges in quality assurance processes.  UNICEF South Sudan will need to strengthen the evaluation function in the Country Office to ensure it meets the accountabilities as per the 2019-2021 ESAR Evaluation Framework, which was recently endorsed by the Regional Management Team (RMT) in May 2019. The consultant will help coordinate the Data, Research and Evaluation streams to ensure synchronization across the work of all evidence functions, including monitoring. The UNICEF Strategic Plan 2018−2021 emphasizes the role of evaluations, research and data as key elements of sound programming, advocacy and leveraging partnerships for children. Particular emphasis is placed on improving the quality and use of evaluations, especially at the country level. Based on the ESAR Evaluation Framework, COs are to have measures in place to implement the Evaluation Policy with respect to the norms and standards, coverage benchmarks, quality assurance standards, use of evaluations and efforts to achieve the 1 percent evaluation spending target against annual programme expenditure. With the implementation of this framework, it is expected that evaluation planning, budgeting, implementation, dissemination and use of findings will be significantly improved.

UNICEF South Sudan is seeking the support of a qualified Monitoring and Evaluation Management Consultant to quality assure and manage evaluations. The Evaluation Manager will be supervised by the Chief of the Social Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (SPPME) Section.

Purpose :

The Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant reports to the M&E Specialist (P4) for guidance and general supervision. The M&E Consultant will support the acceleration of office-wide priority monitoring initiatives – situation monitoring on children and women as well as programme performance monitoring, and the implementation of the Regional Evaluation Framework in UNICEF South Sudan. It will have a particular focus on the management of evaluations to ensure that the evaluation processes and products meet the standards and norms of UNICEF and UN Evaluation Group.

SDG Monitoring (10%) :

• Provide technical guidance and operational support to the National Bureau of Statistics including the GIS Unit on the setting up a M&E framework on SDG monitoring of child related indicators.
• Draft policy papers, briefs and other strategic programme materials for management use, information and consideration.

Sentinel Monitoring and Field Monitoring (40%) :

• Provide technical support on the roll out of the sentinel monitoring system and field monitoring system.
• Prepare guidelines, tools and standard operating procedures (SOP) on sentinel monitoring and field monitoring systems.
• Organize and implement capacity building initiatives targeting field office and section staff on the use of key tools including ONA and roll out of SOPs.
• Produce analysis and data visualization products from sentinel monitoring system.
• Produce analysis for -year and annual results reporting exercises.

Management of evaluations (50%) :

The Evaluation Management Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Support the design, launch and quality assurance of ongoing and new evaluations and reviews, drafting concept notes, terms of reference, undertaking evaluability assessments, and commenting on the quality of existing terms of reference, inception reports and draft reports.
• Ensure the evaluation teams have access to the information they need for designing the baseline assessment and evaluation methods, and have access to programme document, results frameworks, monitoring and financial reports and etc.
• Ensure inception report is based on detailed desk research and include a theory of change, evaluation matrix, and timeframe for each proposed data collection method, and meet quality standards, and that the final design documents take into account all agreed comments contained in the audit trail reports.
• Support ensuring optimal participation by key stakeholders in the various review stages, and to coordinate the review of the inception report and various iterations of the draft report with primary stakeholders, internal reference groups, external advisory panels, and other external review bodies.  S/he will be responsible for generating audit trails for all comments, to work with evaluation teams to ensure that all comments are addressed, and to disseminate audit trail responses to ensure transparency and accountability.
• Support HQ, RO and CO evaluation teams in ensuring that data collection field missions are properly coordinated and prepared, and that UNICEF Field Offices, Programme Sections and national counterparts are informed of the purpose of the visits. The Evaluation Management Consultant will ensure the data analysis activities and products meet the quality standards and that the conclusions and recommendations are firmly based on evidence.
• Prepare and/or update the standard operating procedures (SOPs) on donor proposals to include a section on evaluations.
• Maintain and update the Evidence Information System Initiative (EISI) to ensure it is up-to-date with 2019 planned studies, research and evaluations.
• Prepare and update/track the 2019 Management Responses.
• Coordinate relevant evaluation stakeholder meetings and field missions related to evaluations.
• Support any capacity building initiatives on evaluations for UNICEF and partners.
• Conduct a National Evaluation Capacity Development (NECD) readiness assessment in coordination with ESARO.
• Conduct a briefing session on evaluations for government, NGO and relevant academic institutions on evaluations.
• Conduct a partnership meeting on evaluation to identify common areas of evaluation with NGO and UN partners.
• Contribute to any joint or partner-led evaluations (e.g. UN, NGO).

 

Qualifications and Competencies :

• Advanced university degree in social sciences, statistics, evaluation, planning development, planning.
• A minimum of five years of professional experience in planning, monitoring and evaluation management is required.
• Proficiency in excel
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset
• Excellent English skills, both verbal and written, is essential
• Knowledge of another official UN language or local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.

Deliverables & Payment Schedule details :

The consultancy duration consists of a total of 242 working days starting 1 July 2019 to 31 June 2020. The payment will be made on a monthly basis upon submission of the status update on the work carried out, based on the indicative deliverables.

Indicative Deliverables	Timeline
Draft policy papers, briefs and other strategic programme materials for management use, information and consideration. Data action plan as per ESAR data strategy Evaluation action plan as per ESAR Evaluation Framework Status updates on M&E initiatives for CMT/PMT Concept notes/and or proposals related to M&E	By September 2019
Provide technical guidance and operational support to the National Bureau of Statistics including the GIS Unit on the setting up a M&E framework on SDG monitoring of child related indicators. Prepare strategy of supporting Government in tracking child related SDG indicators.	By December 2019
Prepare guidelines, tools and standard operating procedures (SOP) on sentinel monitoring and field monitoring systems.	By October 2019
Organize and implement 4 capacity building initiatives targeting field office and section staff on the use of key tools including ONA and roll out of SOPs.	By December 2019
Produce analysis and data visualization products from sentinel monitoring system. (Four brief 5-page visual quarterly update with key findings and recommendations)	October 2019 – March 2020
Produce analysis for UNICEF mid-year and annual results reporting exercises. End-year results analysis against indicators of the CO Results Framework; mid-year results analysis in 2020)	November 2019 – July 2020
Prepare and/or update the standard operating procedures (SOPs) on donor proposals to include a section on evaluations.	December 2019
Maintain and update the Evidence Information System Initiative (EISI) to ensure it is up-to-date with 2019-2020 planned studies, research and evaluations.	March 2020
Prepare and update/track the 2019 Management Responses (L3 Part 2 Evaluation, Back-to-Learning, CAFAAG, Birth Registration etc.)	December 2019
Coordinate evaluations – CO, RO and HQ led evaluations, and ensure that all evaluation terms of references, inception reports and draft reports are quality assured internally and by ESARO.  (e.g. ToRs for WASH, Health evaluations that will start in 2021)	August 2019 – March 2020
Coordinate relevant evaluation stakeholder meetings and field missions related to evaluations.  (e.g. L3 Part 2, EO Global WASH evaluation)	August – October 2019
Initiate a National Evaluation Capacity Development (NECD) readiness assessment in coordination with ESARO.  Brief report on readiness prepared, based on consultation with stakeholders.	April 2020
Conduct a briefing session on evaluations for government, NGO and relevant academic institutions on CO led evaluations.  (e.g. Agenda, organization/logistics, materials, and meeting summary)	April 2020
Conduct a partnership meeting on evaluation to identify common areas of evaluation with NGO and UN partners. (e.g. Agenda, organization/logistics, materials, and meeting summary)	May 2020
Contribute to any joint or partner-led evaluations (e.g. UN, NGO) – participation in joint preparation and implementation processes.	June 2020

Estimated Duration of the Contract :

The estimated duration of the contract is 11 months, with potential travel to field locations.

Duty Station and Official Travel :

The national consultant will be based in Juba with occasional travel to Field Office locations in South Sudan.

UNICEF Supervisor

The consultant will be supervised by the M&E Specialist, SPPME with oversight by Chief of SPPME.

Travel Clause :

• All UNICEF rules and regulations related to travel of Consultants/ Individual Contractors apply.
• All travels shall be undertaken only upon the prior written approval by UNICEF.
• The eligible maximum amount for travel is specified in the contract.
• The consultant is responsible for his/her for travel arrangements. The most economic and direct route is authorized.
• Travel costs will be reimbursed after the completion of mission. UNICEF will pay the applicable DSA rate and other travel related expenses upon submission of the invoice together with the supporting documentation.

Nature of Penalty Clause in Contract :

If the final reports and documents are not submitted according to the deliverables stated in this TOR, the payments will be withheld.  UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines (fees reduced due to late submission: 20 days – 10%; 1 month -20%; 2 months -30%; more 2 months – payment withhold). All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

 

 

For every Child, you demonstrate :

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The competencies required for this post are….

View our competency framework at here

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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 also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

 

 

 

Remarks :

All applicants must submit with the their application quotation or financial proposal for daily or monthly fee.

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