Background

UNDP supports stabilization, state building, governance and development priorities in Afghanistan. UNDP support, in partnership with the Government, the United Nations system, the donor community and other development stakeholders, has contributed to institutional development efforts leading to positive impact on the lives of Afghan citizens. Over the years UNDP support has spanned such milestone efforts as the adoption of the Constitution; Presidential, Parliamentary and Provincial Council elections; institutional development through capacity-building to the legislative, the judicial and executive arms of the state, and key ministries, Government agencies and commissions at the national and subnational levels. UNDP has played a key role in the management of the Law and Order Trust Fund, which supports the Government in developing and maintaining the national police force and in efforts to stabilize the internal security environment. Major demobilization, disarmament and rehabilitation and area-based livelihoods and reconstruction programmes have taken place nationwide. UNDP Programmes in Afghanistan have benefited from the very active support of donors. UNDP Afghanistan is committed to the highest standards of transparency and accountability and works in close coordination with the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan and the UN system as a whole to maximize the impact of its development efforts on the ground.

Organizational Context:

The Gender Equality II is collaboration between the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and UNDP Afghanistan. It aims to develop effective gender mainstreaming models and strengthen the capacity of government ministries and institutions. The Project is in line with the goals set out in the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) for gender equity and consistent with the National Action Plan for Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA) and Millennium Development Goals of gender equality and empowerment of women. The Project has three components: 1) Enhancement of MOWA’s capacity for policy making and oversight for NAPWA implementation; 2) Development of Women’s entrepreneurship skills and capacity building of women cooperatives in 19 provinces; and 3) Increasing access to justice for women including awareness on women’s rights among men and women. The Project activities are being implemented to expand best practices identified from the pilot phase in co-operation, co-ordination and public sector effectiveness for gender mainstreaming, promotion of gender equality and strengthening of the position of women, with selected key government and non-government partners in a few specific locations. A strong partnership with civil society organizations will ensure effective implementation of some of the components of the Project and simultaneously serve as a bridge between government agencies and communities thereby modeling government-nongovernmental organizations co-operation, co-ordination and synergy for the sustainable development of Afghanistan. The Project is being implemented under the Direct Implementation modality of UNDP. Based in Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA), the Gender Equality Project (GEP) provides support to the Ministry in enhancing its oversight role for the implementation of the National Action Plan for Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA). As part of the project support structure, the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist (Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist) will be working under the direct supervision of the Project Manager and will be involved in enhancing the M&E capacity of the project as well as its government partners. GEP-II under Pillar I will support the policy and administrative level changes through the Women’s Policy Development Center, whose mandate includes establishing a monitoring and evaluation system to track NAPWA indicators. GEP-II will also assist the M&E Unit at MoWA which was established to perform the role of an oversight body to supervise the implementation of NAPWA indicators by other ministries which constitute Component 6 of MoWA’s National Priority Programme (NPP). The GEP-I contributed to all phases of its establishment through the development of; a matrix of indicators for M&E unit of MoWA aligned with ANDS indicators; the development of its Capacity Development Plan and an Action Plan; preparation of the draft M&E mechanism with its chain of reporting system; the development of a budget for Component 6 of its NPP for submission to the Human Resources Development (HRD); review of major program documents of line ministries to integrate gender sensitive component. Built on the structure and those mechanisms of MoWA M&E unit, the GEP-II will further support to improve the capacities and functions of M&E Unit by training and mentoring services of GEP M&E Specialist as well as reinforcement of M&E coordination mechanism between other line ministries and Central Statistical Office (CSO).

Note: UNDP Afghanistan reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP Afghanistan at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and education requirements.

Duties and Responsibilities

The M&E Specialist will work in close collaboration with the project team as well the 4 regional and 15 provincial offices, attending to their monitoring and evaluation needs and resolving complex supervision related issues and information delivery. The M&E Specialist will be expected to carry out any other responsibility that the Operations Specialist may assign from time to time, if required.

Summary of Key Functions:

• Develop a solid Monitoring and Evaluation system for capturing the impact of the project’s different interventions;
• Facilitate the implementation of the M&E system of the project including an efficient and effective flow of information as well as the synergy and partnership – at the national and sub-national levels,
• Contribute to the project’s evaluation, reviews and project knowledge production for informed decision making;
• Assist MOWA‘s role as an oversight body to supervise the implementation of NAPWA indicators by line ministries.

Develop a solid Monitoring and Evaluation system for capturing the impact of the project’s different interventions:

Setting-up the system

• Assess the existing system and structures to identify the strengths and weaknesses for feeding into the development of the new M&E system;
• Develop an effective M&E System for the GEP with suitable indicators for the system.
• Develop a comprehensive M & Evaluation plan outlining the overall project M & Evaluation strategy in the light of Results, Resources Framework (RRF); including the identification of efficient and effective data collection tools and data sources, both qualitative and quantitative.
• Develop a periodic evaluation and review plan for all three GEP Pillars and components as required;
• Establish database of the programme baseline activities, achievements/outputs and information on the ongoing projects activities and their contribution to the programme’s objectives.

Implementation of M&E

• Undertake field visits to monitor the implementation of activities as may be required.
• Assist programme’s projects in development/management of their M&E systems.
• Provide training to the programme’s projects/government staff on the development/ management of effective M&E systems.
• To help develop/refine/institutionalize Project M&E mechanisms for timely reporting to the project manager.
• Based on the AWP and in particular the programme budgets, design the framework for the physical and process monitoring of project activities.
• Prepare detailed analysis of projects periodic reports and suggest areas for improvements.

Facilitate the implementation of the M&E system of the project including an efficient and effective flow of information – at the national and sub-national levels,

• Develop and implement the tools (quantitative and qualitative) for data collection and for timely reporting;
• Undertake regular analysis of data collected from the regional and provincial offices and prepare reports for submission to the Project Manager in a timely manner/ as and when required;
• Ensure timely field mentoring is conducted for quality management of the project’s activities;
• Produce periodic analytical reports based on the data collected from the regional and provincial offices;
• Regularly collect lessons learnt and communicate to the management in timely manner;
• Work closely with the regional and provincial offices for the collection of the best practices and subsequent implementation across the project;
• Together with Communications Officer of the project, produce result oriented success stories from the field;
• Work closely with the Reporting officer for result oriented reporting of the project’s activities.  

Facilitate the project evaluation, reviews and project knowledge production for informed decision making focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Conduct regular internal evaluation and reviews of the project activities;
• Facilitate, together with the UNDP Country Office Programme Unit, commissioning of   independent evaluations of the project;
• Ensure proper follow-up of different evaluation outcomes and reviews based on the comprehensive action plan;
• Work closely with the technical teams for different research/knowledge product development activities’ planning;
• Facilitate different researches and publication of the outcomes both nationally and internationally;
• Together with the technical teams at the national and sub-national levels prepare case studies.

Assist MOWA’s role as an oversight body to supervise the implementation of NAPWA indicators by line ministries:

• Capacity Development for Institutional Reform and Development:
• Conduct capacity assessment of the M&E Unit at MoWA to evaluate the effectiveness of the unit   as an oversight body to supervise the implementation of NAPWA indicators by other ministries which constitute Component 6 of MoWA’s National Priority Programme (NPP).
• Establish Capacity Development Plan based on this assessment, prepare training materials and organize the trainings for both the staff of the M&E and Legal Department and other line ministries on the collection of data/information relating to the implementation of NAPWA;
• Fine tune the tools for M&E especially the M&E mechanism in support of monitoring the NAPWA indicators – through line ministries and DOWAs (at the national and sub-national levels) and ensure its effective implementation;
• Collect relevant information and data from the line ministries and compile the same for reporting to the competent authorities in MoWA;
• Develop a central data base on the data/information collected;
• Assist the M&E Unit in the preparation of reports on MoWA NPP for submission to the Ministry of Finance.
• Enhance the capacity of the M&E Unit to prepare monthly, quarterly and annual reports in collaboration with the WPDC;
• Provide proper supervision and guidance to the national M & E team;
• Contribute in development of the national staff capacities on project M & E by organizing trainings for M & E and technical teams;
• Play the role of a technical specialist to the project M & E team assuring sound implementation of the M &E activities.

Competencies

• Familiarity with different stages of project/program cycle (design, implementation, supervisions, monitoring and evaluation)
• Strong qualitative and/or quantitative analysis capabilities
• Demonstrated quality of judgment and the ability to think strategically, assessing and responding to new challenges in rural development
• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and the ability to present coherent and convincing strategic analysis;
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment and travel extensively
• Demonstrate commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values;
• Understands the structure and hierarchy of UN/UNDP, process flows throughout the organization, products and services, their measures of effectiveness, and perceptions of clients
• Make case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches
• Display initiative, sets challenging outputs for him/herself and willingly accepts new work assignments
• Work collaboratively with colleagues inside UN/UNDP as well as its partners and other stakeholders to pursue common goals
• Possess strong communication skills and analytical abilities, particularly in the areas of governance, learning, training and capacity development/transfer;
• Build strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Understand more advanced aspects of monitoring and evaluation as well as the fundamental concepts of results-based management
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments
• Tolerates conditions of stress, uncertainty or ambiguity and continues to maintain a positive outlook and to work productively.
• Has deep understanding of post conflict environment and the evolving development challenges

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s Degree in development studies,(international development, post conflict), Social Sciences or Statistical Studies

• A minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible professional working experience in international development especially in the area of monitoring and evaluation from a gender perspective; working with learning and capacity development initiatives, preferably in conflict/post conflict situation with emphasis on impact assessment on women;
• Experience of working in the field of reporting and monitoring to include experience in developing plans, tracking results, reporting to different constituencies. Monitoring experience in the UN context highly desirable;
• Experience in results-based management (RBM) is desirable;
• Knowledge and understanding of public sector institutional capacity development requirements;
• Knowledge and understanding of conflict/post conflict development (peace building, reintegration etc.) activities;
• Knowledge of the gender policy framework in Afghanistan is an advantage
• Experience related to UNDP's mandate and activities an asset;
• Previous experience of working in UNDP, UN system highly desirable;
• Excellent computer/information systems skills.

Language Requirements:

• Excellent command of written and spoken English. Knowledge of Pashto or Dari will be an asset.

Interested and qualified international candidates should apply on-line through the UNDP Jobs site at http://www.undp.org.af/Jobs/index.htm  and please ensure that to fill up and upload Personal History Form-P.11 which is available at http://www.undp.org.af/Jobs/index.htm   in the relevant field of the on-line application

Incomplete applications or applications received after the closing date (16 May 2012) will not be given consideration. Please note that only applications who are short-listed will be contacted.

For more detailed information about UNDP Afghanistan please visit our website at www.undp.org.af   

Successful candidates must be prepared to start work within 6 weeks of the offer of appointment.

Internal candidates who have served a minimum of 12 months in the current assignment are invited to apply.

Female candidates are highly encouraged to apply

FC: 04000