Evaluation Capacity Development Specialist, Evaluation Office, Nairobi, Kenya, P-4

Note: This position will be moved to Nairobi, Kenya by August 2025

The Position

The position is Home based until the Evaluation Office is relocated to Nairobi, Kenya, with its incumbent, by 2025. The Evaluation Capacity Development Specialist reports directly to the Director, UNFPA Evaluation Office, with a matrixed reporting relation with the Lead, Decentralized Evaluation Team, as the secondary supervisor.

The incumbent will assist the Director of the Evaluation Office in complying with UNFPA’s Evaluation Policy and support the implementation of the Evaluation Office’s multi-year costed evaluation plan. The incumbent will promote the use of evaluation results through engagement in the review of strategic documents and country programme documents.

As a member of the Decentralized Evaluation Team, the incumbent will contribute to strengthening the decentralized evaluation function, methods, quality assurance and assessment and capacity development on evaluation. The incumbent will support the implementation of the team’s annual work programme under the supervision of the Decentralized Evaluation team Lead.

The incumbent will conduct and manage centralized evaluations that are impartial, independent, credible and meet professional standards.

This position will require the establishment of strong and effective working relations with Policy and Strategic Division, HQ business units and Regional M&E Advisors in regional offices.

How You Can Make a Difference

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.

Job Purpose

The Evaluation Office is the custodian of the evaluation function. It reports functionally to the Executive Board and administratively to the Executive Director. The office is independent from the operational, management and decision-making functions in the organization, and is impartial, objective and free from undue influence.

The Evaluation Office conducts or commissions centralized evaluations, including selected country programme and regional programme evaluations, selected major country-level humanitarian evaluations, as well as other types of evaluations. It develops evaluation standards, criteria and methodological guidance and maintain evaluation quality assessment mechanisms. The Evaluation Office provides the necessary capacity development on issues related to evaluation and engage in partnerships with professional evaluation networks, such as the United Nations Evaluation Group and the Interagency Humanitarian Evaluation Group, and support the harmonization of the evaluation function in the United Nations system. It also promotes multistakeholder and intergenerational partnerships to strengthen national evaluation capacities, including meaningful involvement of young evaluators.

You Would Be Responsible For

Support to decentralized evaluation function

• Substantively contribute to and carry out key activities (learning activities; methodological products; advisory and oversight function) identified in the Decentralized Evaluation Team annual workplan and other Evaluation Office priorities as appropriate
• Lead the review, monitoring and implementation of country and regional offices costed evaluation plans
• Manage and monitor the decentralized evaluations dashboard/database
• Lead and manage the corporate evaluation quality assurance and assessment system (EQAA)
• Provide sound methodological advice and quality assurance support to select strategic decentralized evaluation processes
• Provide advice and oversight for the development and implementation of regional evaluation strategies by the regional M&E advisors to ensure alignment with the UNFPA Evaluation Policy
• Act as Decentralized Evaluation Team regional focal point and provide methodological backstopping as needed

Promote evaluation capacity development at regional and country level

• Actively contribute (planning and organization; production of teaching material; teaching) to evaluation capacity development initiatives
• Organize, facilitate and conduct webinars and learning events on different evaluation themes as required
• Contribute to the development and review of UNFPA methodological framework (handbook, guidance notes and other evaluation tools)
• Coordinate with Regional M&E Advisors and country office M&E personnel on the strengthening of decentralized evaluations
• Represent the Evaluation Office in the internal and United Nations Evaluation Group task forces and working groups

Promote the use of evaluations in programme design and implementation

• Review, comment and advise on the inclusion of evaluation results in new Country Office programmes (CPD) and strategic dialogue white papers, through engagement in Peer Review Committee process (PRC).
• Organize and lead meetings, workshops and other discussion to establish a dialogue on evaluation results

Manage selected evaluations

• Manage selected centralized and decentralized evaluations
• Apply high professional standards in line with Evaluation Policy and UN Evaluation Norms and Standards
• Apply evaluation quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis tools, techniques and approaches
• Perform other related duties and assignments as and when required.

Education

Qualifications and Experience:

Advanced university degree in social sciences, public health, economics, demography or management.

Knowledge And Experience

• 7 years of experience in managing complex evaluations
• At least 5 years of experience in strengthening evaluation functions within the UN system or in multi-lateral or bilateral environments
• At least 3 years experience in managing Evaluation Quality assurance systems
• Strong communication skills
• Experience in UNFPA core programme areas will be considered an asset
• Demonstrable experience in conducting workshops and training on evaluation

Languages

Fluency in English is required, both written and spoken. Fluency in Spanish or French is a very strong asset.

Values

Required Competencies:

• Exemplifying integrity,
• Demonstrating commitment to UNFPA and the UN system,
• Embracing cultural diversity,
• Embracing change

Core Competencies

• Achieving results,
• Being accountable,
• Developing and applying professional expertise/business acumen,
• Thinking analytically and strategically,
• Working in teams/managing ourselves and our relationships,
• Communicating for impact

Functional Competencies

• Advocacy/advancing a policy oriented agenda
• Leveraging the resources of national governments and partners/building strategic alliances and partnerships,
• Delivering results based programmes,
• External and internal relations and advocacy for resource mobilization,
• Providing conceptual innovation to support programme effectiveness,
• Providing a technical support system

Compensation And Benefits

This position offers an attractive remuneration package including a competitive net salary plus health insurance and other benefits as applicable.

UNFPA Work Environment

UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity and healthy work-life balance. We are committed to ensuring gender parity in the organization and therefore encourage women to apply. Individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply. UNFPA promotes equal opportunities in terms of appointment, training, compensation and selection for all regardless of personal characteristics and dimensions of diversity. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of UNFPA’s workforce – click here to learn more.

Disclaimer

Selection and appointment may be subject to background and reference checks, medical clearance, visa issuance and other administrative requirements.

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process and does not concern itself with information on applicants’ bank accounts.

Applicants for positions in the international Professional and higher categories, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, may be required to renounce such status upon their appointment.