Vacancy Announcement Details

This temporary position is based in UNICEF's Evaluation Office in New York, which serves as the steward of UNICEF’s evaluation function. Its Director reports to UNICEF's Executive Board through an annual report on the evaluation function and selected evaluations. Our 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 personnel in the evaluation teams. It leads the implementation of the 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 work of the Evaluation Office is guided by the UNICEF Evaluation Policy (2023) and the Plan for Global Evaluations 2022-2025. By providing timely and dependable feedback on what is working well and any shortcomings, the office helps to strengthen evidence-based decision-making. It seeks to contribute to deepening organizational accountability and learning in support of the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022-2025 and in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

This position is based in our Institutional Effectiveness Unit, which assesses UNICEF’s overall organizational performance in achieving its intended results for children. Institutional effectiveness evaluations concentrate on broader organizational aspects of how UNICEF operates and how goal areas and other cross-cutting programmes are implemented. These evaluations focus on the change strategies and enablers that support the Strategic Plan’s realisation and are critical to positioning UNICEF and its partners to succeed. Other areas covered include evaluative exercises that examine UNICEF’s internal operations, institutional and structural arrangements, policies, support functions, results-based management systems, and overarching partnership approaches.

How can you make a difference?

Under the guidance and supervision of a Senior Evaluation Specialist, the Evaluation Office (Institutional Effectiveness) will be responsible for supporting institutional effectiveness evaluations. The Evaluation Officer will also support other evaluative exercises of UNICEF’s overall organizational performance to assess the organization’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and other evaluation criteria.

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 Officer will ensure that all evaluations conducted under their remit 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 Evaluation Officer will contribute to transparent, inclusive and participatory processes to promote the use of evaluation to influence change in the organization.

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

The Evaluation Officer will support evaluation processes to produce the timeliest and most relevant, credible and valuable institutional effectiveness evaluations possible and generate evidence-based recommendations that are meaningfully acted on by UNICEF and its partners, thus reinforcing its organizational accountability and generating ever-better results for children.

Measurable performance indicators will be part of the performance planning and review.

Key Responsibilities

1. Contribute to the planning, implementation and rollout of independent evaluations of UNICEF’s overall institutional effectiveness (50%)

• Carry out qualitative and quantitative analyses and secondary research to identify topics for inclusion in the UNICEF Plan for Global Evaluations and Evaluation Office Annual Work Plan, and inform the design of planned evaluations (using Stata, SPSS, Excel, NVivo, etc.).
• Contribute to drafting well-tailored and well-written evaluation concept notes and terms of reference under the guidance and supervision of the Senior Evaluation Specialist and in close consultation with key internal and external interlocutors.
• Support the management of independent institutional effectiveness evaluations from start to finish, ensuring that these are as timely, credible and useful as possible in keeping with the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) revised norms and standards. Where appropriate, contribute to inception, data collection, data analysis and report drafting phases of individual evaluations as an embedded team member.
• Arrange effective, participatory consultation processes with internal and external interlocutors (using Teams, Miro and other platforms), including scheduling meetings and interviews, preparing meeting logistics and taking notes.
• Contribute to efforts to identify and either utilise or pilot and bring to scale creative and innovative approaches to the evaluation of institutional effectiveness, from best-in-class methodological approaches to alternative modalities for disseminating evaluation results and engaging with key stakeholders in ways that foster evaluation buy-in, learning and ultimately uptake at every stage of the evaluation process. Identify and deploy best practices to the broader evaluation function as appropriate.

2. Support the preparation of high-quality and user-friendly evaluation products and their wide dissemination internally and externally (30%)

• Assist in writing and formatting evaluation reports and other products, ensuring that they are clear, concise, and well-organized in line with UNICEF Evaluation Reporting Standards, and UNICEF Global Evaluation Reports Oversight System.
• Draft communication and dissemination plans for evaluation products involving relevant internal and external stakeholders.
• Facilitate the implementation of communication and dissemination plans using various communication channels.

3. Strengthen data documentation and knowledge management (20%)

• Ensure that all data collected and analyzed during evaluation processes are accurately and comprehensively documented. This includes proper labelling, organizing, and storing data files for easy retrieval.
• Establish and adhere to metadata and documentation standards to consistently label, describe, and archive data and information.
• Ensure sensitive data and information security and confidentiality, per UNICEF Policy and Personal Data Protection.
• Maintain a well-organized archive of past evaluation reports for reference and analysis. Implement a system for easily retrieving archived documents and analysing the follow-up and uptake of evaluation recommendations.
• Document best practices and lessons learned from each evaluation of institutional effectiveness to inform future evaluations and improve the overall evaluation process.
• Clearly document the evaluation methodologies used, including data collection tools, sampling techniques, and data analysis procedures for future reference.
• Collaborate with ICT Division to ensure that the knowledge management systems and data storage for institutional effectiveness evaluations are efficient, secure, and aligned with UNICEF standards.

4. Contribute to the office- and function-wide initiatives and the smooth overall functioning of the Evaluation Office and evaluation function (10%)

• Contribute to technical and strategic initiatives to strengthen the work of the Evaluation Office and the evaluation function more generally and of the evaluation culture within the Organization.
• Contribute to office-wide processes, products and other outputs (e.g., strategic planning processes, drafting of annual reports, meeting agendas, syntheses, capacity development activities).
• Contribute to a positive spirit of teamwork in the Evaluation Office.
• Collaborate closely with other Evaluation Office colleagues, Regional Evaluation Advisers, and colleagues in UNICEF’s other knowledge and evidence functions to ensure a maximally efficient whole-organisation approach to planning, managing, conducting, and communicating on evaluations.

Full details available on the UNICEF website. Application deadline 23 November