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.

Reporting directly to the Executive Director, the Independent Evaluation Office of UN Women serves as the custodian of the evaluation function in line with United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards. It deploys quantitative and qualitative approaches to evaluate transformative changes in gender equality and human rights and UN Women’s contribution therein. It undertakes corporate evaluations and promotes their use at decision making levels; supports decentralized evaluations for improved programming and evidence generation on what works for gender equality; supports evaluation capacity development within the organization and of regional and country partners, and promotes coordination with the UN system on joint evaluation of gender equality and the inclusion of gender in system wide evaluation.

The Evaluation Specialist will be based in the Independent Evaluation Office in New York. Under the supervision of the senior Evaluation Specialist, the Evaluation Specialist will support the implementation of the Independent Evaluation Office work programme in the areas of corporate strategic evaluations, coordination on evaluation in UN System, and evaluation knowledge management and capacity development.

Duties and Responsibilities

Conduct and/or manage evaluations that are impartial, independent, credible and meet professional standards:

• Manage corporate evaluations and assist in carrying out evaluations of country programmes and strategies;
• Provide technical support in the evaluations conducted by staff members and consultants;
• Apply high professional standards in line with Evaluation Policy and UN Evaluation Norms & Standards;
• Apply evaluation quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis tools, techniques and approaches;
• Prepare reports, analysis and synthesis to management on findings and recommendations of evaluations;
• Keep abreast of developments in the area of evaluation, exploring innovative approaches in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Promote coordination on evaluation that is gender responsive:

• Provide technical support in the implementation of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) frameworks of One UN programmes and Joint programmes;
• Represent UN Women in the task forces of the United Nations Evaluation Group as required;
• Promote the generation of knowledge on gender responsive evaluation and support the establishment of knowledge management systems on evaluation findings with UN agencies and national partners.

Facilitate knowledge management and promote evaluation capacity development:

• Provide technical inputs in the development and implementation of evaluation knowledge management products of Independent Evaluation Office;
• Provide technical support to  Evaluation Officers in the production of knowledge and information products related to evaluations as well as dissemination strategies for the evaluation;
• Prepare synthesis reports of corporate and decentralized evaluations, around areas of focus to distil common lessons learned and good practices;
• Develop evaluation guidelines in line with UN Women evaluation policy and United Nations Evaluation group norms and standards;
• Provide and/or assist in the provision of training on evaluation, self-evaluation, monitoring and results based management within the Independent Evaluation Office and in other organizational units.

Provide inputs to the effective deployment of human and financial resources of the Evaluation Office:

• Plan evaluations and prepare evaluation budgets for individual evaluations;
• Manage effectively and efficiently the use of resources for evaluations;
• Select evaluation consultants based on post requirements;
• Assist in the supervision of evaluation consultants.

Perform other related duties and assignments as and when required.

Key Performance Indicators:

The key results have an impact on the successful implementation of the Evaluation Office strategy and the utilization of evaluations in the organization.

• Corporate evaluations are implemented on time, on scope on budget;
• High quality and timely reports;
• Timely provision of technical support in the implementation of M&E frameworks of One UN or joint programmes;
• Quality of knowledge products and guidelines produced;
• Timely preparation of plans and budgets.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf.

Functional Competencies:

• Knowledge of gender equality analytical work and programming;
• Strong understanding of various methodologies in evaluation, both qualitative and quantitative, such as surveys, record reviews, focus groups and case studies;
• Ability to contribute to the development of the most efficient and effective methodology for the design, with
• minimal guidance;
• Strong understanding of gender responsive evaluation approach;
• Strong understanding of various sampling techniques and their applications and ability to develop the most
• accurate sampling technique for the methodology;
• Good strong of how to address gender equality on evaluation design;
• Strong understanding of questionnaire design and ability to develop questionnaires and other review instruments that will address issues identified in the design, independently;
• Strong interviewing skills and ability conduct interviews independently;
• Ability to collect reliable, valid and accurate information in an objective way;
• Good knowledge of gender equality and women’s human rights;
• Good training and coaching skills;
• Ability to develop partnerships to promote gender responsive evaluation in the UN system and with national partners.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in in social science international relations or related field, or combination of first level degree with relevant experience.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years professional experience in evaluation of programmes preferably in the development context;
• Experience working on gender equality and human rights;
• Proven field work experience;
• Experience related UN Women’s mandate and activities an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

Application:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

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.