Background

With the entry of the new UN Development Assistance Framework (2012-2016) in Ghana, the UNDP Ghana Country Office’s (CO) programme unit was re-organized along three thematic clusters: inclusive growth, governance, and sustainable development. The Sustainable Development Cluster (SDC) is responsible for the following areas: energy, climate change (mitigation and adaptation), disaster risk reduction, chemicals management, biodiversity, and green economy. 

Through the SDC, UNDP serves as the lead for Outcome Group 3, also popularly referred to as the ‘environment outcome,’ of the UNDAF. Outcome 3 contributes to making national systems and existing institutional arrangements for disaster risk reduction, climate change mitigation, and adaptation as defined in the Hyogo Framework of Action at the district, regional, and national levels functional. It comprises of eight outputs with three outputs addressing climate change, four outputs on disaster risk reduction and one on biodiversity. 

In 2012, the cluster implemented thirteen projects covering the thematic areas mentioned above with a budget of $5.6 million (2012 alone). The projects have different duration, funding sources (multilateral, bilateral, and UNDP’s core funds) and are implemented with a wide range of implementing partners but primarily with the Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, National Disaster Management Organization, Energy Commission, and Ministry of Health. Some projects have a national focus while others are targeted towards specific districts. While UNDP is strongly associated with upstream policy engagement, such as the formulation of climate change strategy and sectoral adaptation strategies, it has also moved the frontier of its climate change work by supporting the implementation of adaptation initiatives at the local level.

It is important to continuously monitor UNDP’s contribution to the sector and progress against its own targets as declared in the UNDAF. The 2011 Assessment of Development Results: Evaluation of UNDP Contribution in Ghana observed that M&E (as well as knowledge and information management) in the Ghana Country Office is not effective. Hence it limits the opportunity for UNDP to benefit from lessons learned and to make the necessary improvements or changes to a programme or project. 

The Sustainable Development Cluster’s (SDC) M&E is currently limited to project-level and thematic outcome evaluation exercise. Currently, there is no system for a cluster-wide monitoring and evaluation that can be used for strategic planning and assessment of long-term impacts. While baselines, indicators and targets are declared in the context of the five-year UNDAF, they are at best tentative. Furthermore, there is no system for continuously tracking the progress of achieving them over the next five years (2012-2016). During the first year of implementing the current UNDAF, the SDC staff members had immense difficulty tracking and reporting their development results, designing projects in a way that addresses bottlenecks, and generating knowledge from the experiences of various interventions. It was also difficult to comply with corporate reporting requirements in a substantive way because development results (both outputs and outcomes) are not systematically tracked in a cumulative way.  

Considering the wide diversity of projects implemented by the SDC and the complexity of the interventions, it is important to set up a cluster-wide M&E system to track how its different initiatives contribute to the achievement of broader outcomes as declared in the UNDAF and within a long-term perspective of sustainable development issues in Ghana. 

This cluster-level M&E system is intended to improve the development effectiveness of the Cluster by enabling staff members and UNDP senior management to continuously monitor the progress of achieving the development outcomes in the next five years co-terminus with the duration of the UNDAF (2012-2016). It is also intended to improve monitoring of progress towards target, programming, and knowledge management. The information emanating from the M&E system will be used for monitoring the progress against UNDAF, corporate reporting (e.g. periodic and annual reporting, such as the ROAR), and for developing knowledge products, such as policy papers and lessons learned documents. In addition, lessons learned from implementation will be incorporated in developing programmes and projects, disseminated through various platforms, such as Teamworks. 

The M&E Officer will be the focal person for the development and implementation of cluster and project specific monitoring and evaluation systems. She/he will directly report to the Cluster Manager of the Sustainable Development Cluster.  In addition, the M&E Officer will be a part of the quality assurance team of the Community Resilience through Early Warning (CREW) Project by being in charge of designing and implementing M&E tools and plans for the project. The CREW Project will build capacities within the country to reduce disaster risk by putting in place an integrated early warning system that is both scientific and people-centered. Supported by the Government of Norway, the project is designed in a way that it aligns with the Hyogo Framework of Action and the Ghana Plan of Action for DRR and climate change adaptation (CCA), and leads to tangible results in both the national and community levels.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provision of managerial and budget oversight; 
• Designing and implementing M&E tools and plans for the Sustainable Development Cluster and CREW project
• Reporting;   
• Networking;
• Support to knowledge building and knowledge sharing.

• Develops a viable project M&E plan and tools, seek feedback, and make sure there is consensus on the plan and approaches;
• Implements the plan, including identification and utilization of data source;s 
• Shares information and trains partners in collecting and sharing necessary information on time for M&E;
• Carries out regular discussions with stakeholder organizations to seek feedback on project implementation;
• Conduct regular monitoring site visits per the approved M&E plan;
• Advises the Project Manager on appropriate project adjustment strategies if required;            
• Advises technical advisors on appropriate project impacts and stories that can be developed into knowledge products;    
• Responsible for all evaluation and project closure activities; 
• Provides inputs to technical advisors and Project Manager on donor reporting and public relations;
• Provides inputs to Project Officer in UNDP project monitoring, reporting, and planning;
• Provides inputs and develops stories and communication materials in collaboration with government partners, and UNDP and UN communication teams;
• Ensures that projects are implemented in accordance with UNDP M&E policies and other relevant UNDP rules and regulations;
• Undertake other duties per the requirements of the project.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

Ethics and values:

• Taking actions that are congruent with what he/she says;
• Reliably delivering on promises and honoring commitments made;
• Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN/UNDP in actions and decisions;
• Demonstrating an appreciation of differences in values and learning from cultural diversity;
• Moves from demonstrating sensitivity to encouraging full participation, to leveraging diversity.
  

Communicating information and ideas:

• Communicating clearly and effectively;
  
• Seeking to understand the ideas of others. Facilitating and encouraging open communication;
  
• Creating an environment for open communication;
  
• Inspiring and persuading others.

Knowledge sharing/continuous learning:

• Taking responsibility for self-learning and development;
• Actively seeking learning and career development opportunities;
• Promoting organizational learning and knowledge management;
• Building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.

Organizational awareness:

• Understanding, building and using formal/ informal systems and contacts in a complex organizational and global environment to obtain results;
• Moves from an ability to use organizational services to assist others, to applying corporate thinking and applying judgment, to building support and finally, demonstrating political acumen.

Self-management and emotional intelligence:

• Managing moods, responding effectively to stress, situations of ambiguity or crisis;
• Managing relationships with others to achieve mutual benefits;
• Building an emotionally intelligent organization.

Working in teams:

• Working effectively with colleagues in ways that allow the achievement of shared objectives;
• Building teams both within existing organizational structures and outside of them;
• Creating team spirit and unity of purpose across the business unit. 

Building strategic partnerships:

• Establishing, maintaining, and utilizing a broad network of contacts;
• Building partnerships and strategic alliances;
• Leveraging the resources of national governments and other development partners.

Client orientation:

• Understanding and meeting or exceeding client needs;
• Anticipating and addressing client needs and concerns;
• Developing innovative approaches to meeting client needs;
• Ensuring overall provision of quality services to clients.

Job knowledge and technical expertise:

• Demonstrating and applying professional and/or technical expertise/knowledge of the post or discipline;
• Focusing on the knowledge and skill areas necessary to effectively perform the functions of the post;
• Identifying and seeking to expand knowledge and improve work processes.

Conceptual innovation in the provision of technical expertise:

• Supporting UNDP’s advocacy by developing innovative and creative approaches to the provision of technical expertise;
  
• Moves from research to analysis to developing innovative and creative approach to conceptual leadership and championing conceptual innovation.

Creating visibility for UNDP/supporting UNDP’s capacity to advocate:

• Ensuring that UNDP has the visibility and corporate image it requires as the key development actor.
• Design and implementation of management systems;
  
• Ensuring that UNDP has the internal management systems it requires as the key development actor. 
  

Innovation and marketing new approaches:

• Enhance existing processes or products. Developing original and innovative ideas and approaches;
• Integration in a multi-disciplinary environment.   
  

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in a relevant field.

• At least five-years of experience in M&E; 
  
• Proficiency in statistical analysis;
  
• Experience and knowledge innovative community-level capacity assessment, monitoring, and reporting;
• Proficiency in database design and management;
•  Excellent visual communication skills.

Technical Requirements:

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Outlook, etc);
• Proficiency in Internet Research and Data Gathering;
• Proficiency in web authoring is a plus;
• Proficiency in GIS mapping software (ArcGIS) is a plus;
• Proficiency in visualization tools such as Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator is an asset Proficiency in social media, mobile technology, and other digital/analogue tools for community-engagement and mass-mobilization is a plus.

• Fluency in written and spoken English.
• One or more of the Ghanaian working languages.