Monitoring Support Specialist

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering a full-time position within the Operational Partnership Management Unit of its Division of Strategic Planning and Results. The position is home-based.

UNHCR is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. We are present in over 125 countries, using our expertise to protect and care for millions.

UNHCR’s Division of Strategic Planning & Results (DSPR) is recruiting a monitoring support contractor to support the monitoring and evaluation of UNHCR programmes delivered under the Prospects Partnership, as well as the development of results data quality assurance processes and UNHCR indicator guidance to support the implementation of the organisation’s recently issued new Global results framework.

Title: Monitoring Support Specialist

Duty Station: Home-based

Duration: six (6) months

Contract Type: Individual Contractor

Closing date: 13 June 2022

Start date: 01 July 2022

Organisational context

UNHCR has put in place a new global results framework which aligns the organization’s work around key areas of results, and provides an organizational framework for planning, analyzing and presenting results and resources globally. The framework is composed of global results areas accompanied by core indicators at the impact and outcome level which are mandatory for all operations. The global results framework is then contextualized to allow operations to better reflect their operational realities at impact, outcome as well as output level. When developing their contextualized results frameworks, operations can select from an established list of good practice indicators (some of these being standard indicators for different sectors and thematic areas) to steer their results monitoring towards proven ways of measuring results.

In early 2023, UNHCR’s operations worldwide will report against the new corporate results framework for the first time, linked to their annual or multi-year plans in the COMPASS software. Jointly with other Headquarters Divisions, UNHCR’s Division of Strategic Planning & Results (DSPR) is developing tools to facilitate monitoring and the collection of results data, working on improved indicator guidance and setting up global quality assurance processes. While indicator guidance around core impact and outcome indicators has well advanced, more guidance, particularly on good practice indicators still needs to be developed.

In addition to the corporate level results framework, DSPR is also supporting several inter-agency monitoring initiatives and frameworks, including the Prospects Partnership, spearheaded by the Government of the Netherlands, which alongside UNHCR includes the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank. The partnership is being implemented in 8 countries of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa (Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya) and is designed to maximize synergies and ultimately improve service delivery to UNHCR’s people of concern. An important element of this initiative is joint monitoring. DSPR supports the partnership in establishing and improving indicator frameworks, crafting indicator guidance, building monitoring capacity and coordinating quality assurance of results data. In addition, DSPR also participates in the Prospects Learning working group, which closely interacts with operations and various Headquarters Divisions in establishing the Prospects-specific learning agenda for the participating organizations.

To support these efforts, UNHCR is recruiting an individual contractor to provide close support to the Prospects Partnership and other selected workstreams of the unit related to the development of results data quality assurance processes and indicator guidance more specifically.

The position

We are seeking a dynamic and proactive team player, with a strong interest in monitoring and evaluation, to support UNHCR’s Division of Strategic Planning and Results in monitoring results delivered under an innovative multi-agency partnership aimed at strengthening service delivery and inclusion of refugees in eight countries in the Middle East and the East and Horn of Africa (EHAGL) region.

The Division of Strategic Planning and Results works to strengthen results-based management throughout UNHCR, including the provision of guidance and training to UNHCR Regional Bureaux, divisions and country operations to strengthen M&E capacity throughout the organization.

The contractor will work closely with the members of the Common Assessment, Monitoring and Targeting team within the Division of Strategic Planning and Results, as well as the 8 country operations and participating HQ Divisions and Regional Bureaux for MENA and EHAGL, based in Amman and Nairobi respectively. Liaising with UNHCR’s wider internal monitoring networks, you will support the development of indicator guidance and compliance across the organisation, and will play your part in achieving UNHCR’s strategic ambitions to reform the agency’s approach to results-based management; helping us to better protect people forced to flee.

Duties and responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Head of the Operational & Partnership Management Unit within the Division of Strategic Planning and Results, the contractor will be responsible for the below described tasks.

1**. Prospects Partnership:** The Prospects Partnership was initiated by the Dutch government to support the humanitarian-development nexus and the implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees. The joint multi-year (2019-2023) project specifically targets education, livelihoods and protection activities in eight different countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan in the East and Horn of Africa and Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt in MENA. The Prospects Partnership also aims to catalyze institutional change at the global level by focusing partners’ efforts on capturing and sharing lessons learned, influencing global decision makers, optimizing effective inter-agency coordination and having agencies build upon each other’s comparative strengths.

The contractor will work towards the above-described project goals, represent UNHCR in the Prospects Monitoring & Evaluation and Prospects Learning working groups and take primary technical responsibility for the following tasks:

• Develop and adjust the Prospects results framework and indicator guidance as required on behalf of UNHCR;
• Organize and contribute to capacity building workshops and trainings on monitoring and learning, jointly with the Prospects partner agencies and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
• Analyze data reported by the operations, ensuring all 8 pilot operations provide high quality reporting against the Prospect indicator framework;
• Visualize aggregated data for internal data review and external reporting purposes;
• Contribute to the timely production and dissemination of all UNHCR’s learning deliverables to Prospects partners and to the broader professional community;
• Participate in regular coordination meetings of both the M&E and Learning working groups and contribute to related activities as required;
• Advise and manage innovative learning systems and processes in the partnership.

2. The contractor will contribute to deliverables of Division of Strategic Planning and Resultsin relation to indicator guidance, quality control of monitoring and results data and thereby applying learnings from the Prospects Partnership. Specifically in relation to the Good Practice and Output indicators lists and meta data guidance, this will include the following tasks:

• Analyse the value of good practice (GP) indicators for the country operations’ strategies;
• Map output-level sector indicators, analyse potential for upgrading to GP indicators;
• Make, in close consultations with Bureaux and various headquarters-based technical experts, suggestions for the update of the good practice indicator list;
• Support coordination in relation to the development of meta-data sheets and ensure consistency across sector specific indicators;
• Contribute to indicator specific guidance and capacity building events as requested;
• Support the CATM team in contributing to the quality assurance process led by Bureaux by reviewing results data where requested and contribute technical advice and feedback.

Additional tasks may include:

• Contribute to review of tools, guidance, communications and capacity building materials related to indicators;
• Contribute to work on a global assessment, monitoring and targeting toolbox/repository;
• Participate in relevant team meetings;
• Contribute to other relevant areas of CATM work plan and ad hoc tasks as required.

Deliverables

Estimated Periodicity

To keep track of activity/project progress and to generate information to allow for adjustments of Prospects Partnerships programming where needed, provide a progress report with the following M&E content:

• Analysis of the data reports submitted by Operations, identifying potential inconsistencies in the data by looking at trends, relationships between baseline and targets for instance.
• Recommendations on improvement of indicator guidance and framework.
• Feedback to each operation on the findings of the quality assurance review.

Week 12

As summary overview of Prospect Partnership related learning topics identified through outreach with multiple Headquarters & country teams and recommendations on how the learning best facilitates paradigm change and transformative pathways.

Week 21

Stocktake report of all activities supported in relation to Prospects Partnership, as well as the mapping of Good Practice and Output indicators lists and development of meta data guidance including a summary of stakeholders consulted.

End of Assignment

Essential minimum qualifications and professional experience required

• minimum Masters’ degree in Statistics, quantitative Social Science, Economics, or another relevant field;
• at least 2 years post-Master relevant experience working in program, monitoring, data management or related field;
• excellent data and overall analytical skills;
• strong interpersonal and coordination skills;
• excellent communication and writing skills in English, working knowledge of French would be an asset;
• experience in crafting indicator guidance and meta-data sheets;
• monitoring experience in a country operation is a great plus;
• ability to work both independently and in teams;
• pro-active personality.

Location

The contractor will work with UNHCR’s Division of Strategic Planning & Results (DSPR) at UNHCR’s Headquarters in Geneva, however the position is home-based. The incumbent will be part of the Common Assessment Targeting and Monitoring team (CATM) within the Operational & Partnership Management Unit, under supervision of the Head of the Operational & Partnership Management Unit within the Division of Strategic Planning and Results, and working closely with participating country operations in MENA and EHAGL regions.

Conditions

The assignment is for six months and the start date is as soon as possible, ideally by 01 July 2022. It is a full-time role.