Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. 

One of the key areas of work for UN Women country office for South Sudan is supporting Women and Youths access to financial services and skills for their economic empowerment as stipulated in the UN Women 2022 Annual Work Plan. The overall goal of this intervention is to increase employment opportunities, market access and incomes for marginalized women and youths in South Sudan. The specific objectives will be to (i) Support the growth of SMEs and link them to MFIs & Markets and (ii) Strengthen institutional capacities of the government and private sector institutions to promote the growth of SMEs and the economic empowerment of women and youths.

Under the overall guidance of the  Country Representative, and direct supervision of the Deputy Representative, the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist will support the monitoring and reporting on interventions undertaken by  UN Women Economic Empowerment program/project by analyzing results achieved during implementation and supporting the drafting of the progress and end-line reports using appropriate systems and procedures. The Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist will work in close collaboration with the programme team at UN Women in South Sudan to deliver on these results, with frequent monitoring visits to project sites in Western Equatoria (Yambio) and Western Bahr-el-ghazal (Wau).

Duties and Responsibilities

The Project Officers will undertake the following tasks related to the implementation of the UN Women programme/project:

The Monitoring and Evaluation Officers will perform the following main functions:

1. Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Monitor the implementation of the Work Plan through collection and analysis of project-level data on project indicators, as provided in the project document and other relevant sources of information such as agency/NGO reviews, field trips etc;
• Preparation of analytical reports using relevant information available from sectors/agencies to advise the Humanitarian Coordinator on the implementation of the Work Plan;
• Guide the documentation processes for best practices and lessons learned based;
• Advocate for and assist where possible, in establishing baselines, designing of database of socio-economic data for planning, implementation and follow-up of plans and strategies.

2. Develop monitoring strategy involving the different sectors at the national and state level:

1. Assist sectors in developing performance indicators and in choosing tools for data collection, analysis and reporting;
2. Advise project management team and Work Plan partners on the progress of the Work Plan and contribute to analysis as to causes behind the differences between planned and actual achievements, in particular on cross-sectoral issues.

3. Encourage common information collection strategies between and within sectors where appropriate and possible;

• At key intervals/review periods throughout the year (Mid Year Review, Work Plan Development, and End Year Review), review information provided by project officers on indicators and targets to assess progress and identify constraints and gaps in implementation and response;
• Continuous liaison with project staff on project progress and feed any other feedback to the country management team.

4. Provide input into the Work Plan reports:

• Along with other units, advise the project management team on constraints on the implementation of the Work Plan and the effect of the achievement of project results;
• In consultation with stakeholders, provide advice on the project management team on resource allocation.

5. Support to Partners:

• Support partners in developing their own information strategies, including advising on setting appropriate indicators, strategies for collecting and analyzing information, etc;
• Review existing M and E and management information systems of partners and identify where support is needed;
• Support partners to review existing social and economic data to assess if baseline or monitoring data can be obtained;
• Assist partners in developing and implementing project M and E plans;
• Facilitate specialist resource persons to train on M and E methodologies and facilitate M and E design and implementation processes with implementing partners and primary stakeholders;
• Work with implementing partners and primary stakeholders to develop events where M and E data are analyzed and corrective actions can be agreed upon;
• Facilitate inter-sectoral planning and integration of cross-cutting issues into the Work Plan process, and provide advice to the project management team to develop and enhance the strategic vision of the annual process and working documents.

6. Reviews and Evaluations:

• Facilitate individuals and organizations contracted to undertake special surveys, sector reviews, or studies required for evaluating project effects and impacts.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills.

Knowledge Management and Learning:

• Promotes a knowledge sharing and learning culture in the office;
• Has good knowledge of UN programme and operational issues;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
• Has knowledge of UN policies and programmes in crisis and post-crisis situations;
• Development and Operational Effectiveness;
• Excellent computer/information system skills, including resource management system;
• Ability to lead the implementation of new systems (business side), and affect staff behavioral/ attitude change.

Management and Leadership:

• Focuses on impact and results for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Ability to establish effective working relations in a multicultural team environment;
• Excellent interpersonal skills;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
• Builds strong relationships with internal and external clients;
• Demonstrates capacity to communicate effectively; resource management; capacity to plan and organize programme effectively;
• Demonstrates resourcefulness, initiative and mature judgment.

Functional Competencies:

• Ability to establish priorities and work under pressure to meet strict deadlines;
• Ability to build and sustain effective relationships with stakeholders, demonstrating understanding of stakeholders’ perspective;
• Ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints;
• Ability to handle conflict and sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner;
• Ability to lead formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development projects and activities;
• Ability to lead results-based management and reporting, including gathering and interpreting data to reach logical conclusions and present findings and recommendations;
• Ability to perform a broad range of specialized activities aimed at effective and efficient functioning of the Programme unit including logistical support;
• Strong knowledge and application skills of IT tools and understanding of management systems.

Solid understanding of humanitarian issues and operations;

• Willingness to undertake regular field visits and interact with different stakeholders;
• Familiar with computer-based analysis and databases;
• Excellent interpersonal, consensus building and negotiating skills.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Timely and regular coordination and monitoring of project strategies and activities;
• Timely and quality substantive inputs to programme design, work plans and budgets;
• Timely and accurate tracking of programme results and finances;
• Timely and accurate drafting of reports;
• Timely organization of events;
• Regular interaction with partners and other stakeholders;
• Number of monitoring visits scheduled;
• Number of knowledge products developed;
• Adherence to UN Women standards rules and regulations.

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience:

• Master’s Degree in Economics, Statistics, Social Sciences, Humanities or any other related field;
• Field experience in humanitarian and/or recovery and development assistance;
• Experience working on Gender and women’s economic empowerment is a plus.;
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant proven experience (a minimum of which 2 should be international), including project planning approaches including the logical framework approach; M&E methods and approaches (including quantitative, qualitative and participatory); Planning and implementation of M and E systems; Training in M and E development and implementation; Facilitating learning and analysis based on M and E data; Information analysis and report writing;
• Experience working within the UN system, or significant experience working in collaboration with UN and NGOs;
• Fluency in both written and spoken English. Excellent drafting skills;
• Strong Knowledge of gender equality and women's empowerment and experience in gender mainstreaming.

Application Information:

• Please note, the system will only allow one attachment, and, hence please combine the multiple files while uploading the attachment.
• Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. Personal History Form P11 that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
• All applicants must submit a cover letter, completed and signed Personal History Form(P11) and two writing samples (i.e. university paper, dissertation excerpt, research report, article/blog post) with their application;
• Due to the high volume of applications received, ONLY applicants under consideration will be contacted.

Qualified women candidates are highly encouraged to apply.

Note:
In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality, and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW, and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.