Planning and Monitoring Specialist, NO-3, Fixed Term, Kassala, Sudan, Post # 121226

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, Protection 

To ensure that the UNICEF Country Office has useful, valid and reliable information on

• the situation of children’s and women’s rights;
• the performance of UNICEF-supported programmes including their relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability, and in emergency contexts, their coverage, coordination and coherence.

To work within the UN country team to support UNCT goals for delivering valid and reliable information on the attainment of the SDGs and other goals, and on the performance of UN- supported programmes.

To assist in the establishment of a data and monitoring systems and monitoring and evaluation tools which enhance partnership between the UNCT, government and other key players to collectively track progress on SDGs, achievement of humanitarian results and other international commitment for children.

To assist in the development of national capacities for monitoring, evaluation and research, with special attention to the interest, concern and participation of government, community, and civil society stakeholders.

How can you make a difference? 

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Setting standards for, and lead, programme planning and monitoring at the field office level:

• Lead and provide technical support to the process of developing and monitoring Field office Work Plans, including reporting on progress of the equity and gender marker as outlined in the Programme Policy and Procedures Guidance.
• Provide technical support in organising and managing annual/mid-year/mid-term/end term field office and country programme reviews ensuring consistency with objectives and goals set out in the field office workplans, national workplans and contribute to the Annual Management Plan.
• Monitor follow-up actions based on management decisions resulting from Field Office and country Office performance monitoring.
• Provide technical support to develop and finalize partnership programme documents PDs at the field office, quality assurance of the PD results frameworks and workplans in line with the CPD and the field office workplans.
• Provide technical support to the development of the donor proposals at the field office level and quality assurance of the proposals results frameworks to ensure alignment with the CPD and field office workplans priorities.

Situation Monitoring and Assessment

• Ensure that the field office have timely and accurate measurement of change in conditions in the field office, including monitoring of socio-economic trends and the state’s policy, economic or institutional context, to facilitate planning and to draw conclusions about the impact of programmes.
• Support national partners in the establishment and management of sub-national statistical databases, (e.g socio-economic profiles) ensuring that key indicators are readily accessible by key stakeholders. Potential uses include the Situation Analysis, Common Country Assessment, Early Warning Monitoring Systems, and Mid-Term Reviews.
• Support a collectively Situation Monitoring and Assessment system owned by all key partners at the field office level which supports the preparation of field level statistical and analytic reports on the status of children’s and women’s rights issues.
• In humanitarian response situations, provide professional support for one or more rapid assessments (inter-agency or independently if necessary) to be carried out within the first 48-72 hours and humanitarian performance monitoring at the field level.

Programme Performance Monitoring

• In close collaboration with the PRIME section in Port Sudan, ensure that the Field Office has quality information to assess progress towards expected results established in annual work plans
• Support the programme components at the field office level to effectively monitor and report on the intersectoral programme results, cross sectoral programme component results and field office results to facilitate programme coherence and convergence where appropriate.
• Contribute to development of programme monitoring framework for the field office, in line with the national level programme monitoring framework, including technical backstopping to the field team for convergent programming.
• Provide technical support to ensure that a set of programme performance indicators is identified and adjusted as necessary at the field office level, with inputs of all concerned partners in the context of the multi-year and annual Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation plans, and the field office Work Plans.
• Coordinate with partners to ensure that monitoring systems at the field office level are properly designed, and that data collection and analysis from field visits are coordinated and standardised across programmes to feed into to programme performance monitoring, with special attention to humanitarian response.
• Drawing on monitoring and analysis of key program performance and management indicators, provide professional input to field office management reports, including relevant sections of the annual reports.
• Act as the field office focal point for any national-based planning, monitoring and evaluation initiatives and facilitate data collection and field visits by external evaluations if required.
• Support UNICEF-supported evaluations at the field office level as necessary. Monitor and ensure the quality of the field work and data management during the implementation phase, and the quality of the analysis and ease of understanding during the report writing phase.

Planning and Monitoring Capacity Building

• In close collaboration with the PRIME Section in Port Sudan, ensure that the Planning and monitoring capacities of Field Office staff and national partners – government and civil society – are strengthened enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead monitoring and evaluation processes.

Data and Information Management at the field office level

• Provide leadership for the IM function at the Field Office Level in close coordination with PRIME Section.
• Responsible for leading and managing the collection, analysis and sharing of information that is essential for field and section staff to make informed, evidence-based, strategic decisions.

Networking and partnership building:

• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with government counterparts and national stakeholders at the field office level, through active sharing of information and knowledge and build their capacity for planning and implementation.
• Participate in appropriate inter-agency meetings/events with inter-agency partners/colleagues at the field office level as necessary.

Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building:

• Identify, capture, synthesize and share lessons learned from the field office monitoring efforts, for integration into the broader office knowledge development planning and management efforts. Ensure innovations are sought and implemented for planning and monitoring, especially with use of digital technology for data collection and analysis.
• Participate as resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders.

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

Minimum requirements:

Education: An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: social sciences, statistics, planning development, planning. Relevant work experience will be accepted in lieu of an advanced degree

Experience:  Five years of relevant experience in programme development and implementation, including monitoring and evaluation activities, with at least five years of professional work experience.

Language Requirements: Fluency in English and Arabic is required.

Desirables:

• Developing field work experience.
• At least one instance of exposure to emergency programming, including preparedness planning. Active involvement in a humanitarian crisis response programme preferred.
• Knowledge of another official UN language (Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is 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…

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (1)
• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2)
• Works Collaboratively with others (2)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (2)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (2)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (2)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

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 measures to include a more diverse workforce, such as paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, 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 candidates are encouraged to apply.

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.

UNICEF shall not facilitate the issuance of a visa and working authorization for candidates under consideration for positions at the national officer category.

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.