Remote/Home-based: Planning, Monitoring, Reporting & Research Consultant (120 working days) - Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO)

Job no: 578082

Contract type: Consultant

Duty Station: Geneva

Level: Consultancy

Location: Switzerland

Categories: Research, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, access.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment

In ongoing humanitarian situations, robust performance monitoring is a core accountability and is essential to support effective emergency response, aligning to the Core Commitments for Children (CCCs), and enabling course corrections as needed. Thus to ensure effective monitoring of the programme actions is in place, the UNICEF ECA Regional Office seeks support from an experienced professional to lend expertise to the ECARO Programme Planning and Data team in humanitarian planning, monitoring and research to assure quality and performance objectives are met in our humanitarian programmes.

The consultant will support the Planning & Monitoring Manager (Humanitarian Performance Monitoring) in maintaining a functional HPM system that meets the monitoring and reporting requirements, working closely with the Refugee Response and Country Office Teams, the RO Emergency section and Programme sections. S/he will conduct research on the humanitarian-development nexus in high-income countries, focusing on monitoring frameworks, best practices, and opportunities for integration. Additionally, s/he will research ways to integrate the Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) workstream into HPM and research systems for collecting and analysing feedback to inform performance monitoring and strengthen accountability across the region.

Scope of Work

This consultancy aims to strengthen the humanitarian monitoring and reporting framework to ensure timely, accurate, and actionable insights that support evidence-based decision-making. The focus will be on improving data collection, analysis, and visualization systems, aligning them with the latest standards and operational needs, and fostering capacity-building initiatives that empower programme teams to effectively monitor, evaluate, and report on humanitarian interventions. This will be further enhanced with research into systems approaches that will enable UNICEF to monitor and report on humanitarian programmes that contribute to systems strengthening and align with development frameworks, as well as research on how feedback and complaints from beneficiaries can be utilized to monitor performance and inform future planning cycles.

The main responsibilities for this consultancy include:

1. Planning, Monitoring and Reporting of Humanitarian Responses:

● Provide ongoing guidance on methodologies, data collection, and reporting to ensure consistency and effectiveness across the region.

● Lead reporting for ongoing humanitarian responses, primarily to inform SitReps, with a focus on prioritized performance indicators.

●.Ensure timely submission and quality of data submitted by countries. Tracking performance trends of indicators (bi-monthly) and highlighting areas where corrective actions may be needed for program consideration.

2. Humanitarian Performance Monitoring Capacity Building:

● Develop the Humanitarian Performance Monitoring and Reporting Package to support rapid, consistent deployment across emergency situations, enhancing the speed and reliability of UNICEF’s response capabilities.

● Deliver Humanitarian Performance Monitoring webinars and workshops covering evidence-based planning, monitoring, analysis, and data visualization, with hands-on training using tools like Excel, ARC, Power BI, and Infogram

3. Conduct Research and Develop Frameworks to Enhance Monitoring, Accountability, and System Integration:

●Conduct Research on the HDP Nexus System in High-Income Countries:

● Perform a literature review of existing HDP nexus approaches, monitoring frameworks, and best practices from UNICEF offices to understand its specificities, challenges and opportunities in high-income countries.

● Analyze existing frameworks and practices, complemented by stakeholder interviews and focus group discussions, to validate data and gather additional examples of best practices.

● Develop actionable recommendations to enhance the integration of humanitarian and development systems. This includes devising strategies for incorporating diverse data collection methods, such as input from affected populations, and proposing approaches to unify reporting systems into a cohesive framework.

● Develop a Research Framework for Monitoring Feedback and Complaints Mechanisms:

● Develop a structured plan that outlines how feedback and complaints from affected populations will be systematically collected, analyzed, and utilized to inform decision-making and improve accountability.

● Research tools, protocols, and processes to ensure feedback mechanisms are effective, reliable, accessible to diverse populations, and fully integrated with performance monitoring systems.

● Establish clear methodologies for identifying trends, patterns, and anomalies in feedback data, and link these findings to actionable recommendations for program adaptation.

● Ensure the framework incorporates mechanisms for safeguarding sensitive information and protecting the confidentiality of respondents.

Estimated Duration of the Contract

120 working days between February and July 2025.

Consultant's Work Place and Official Travel

● The Consultant will be remote/home-based with no travels foreseen.

● Estimated Cost of the Consultancy & Payment Schedule

● Payment will be made on submission of an invoice and satisfactory completion of the above-mentioned deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs are incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines. All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

Please submit a professional fee (in USD) based on 120 working days to undertake this assignment.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

● Bachelors degree (with preference for Masters) in Political Science, International Relations, International Affairs, Statistics, International Development and related areas to humanitarian performance management.

● A minimum of 5 years’ relevant work experience in planning, monitoring and reporting is required.

● Extensive knowledge of M&E principles, frameworks, and best practices, with a focus on humanitarian and development programming.

● Experience in designing and implementing data collection systems, tools, and methodologies, as well as in analysing both qualitative and quantitative data.

● High proficiency in Excel, Power BI/Tableau, and ActivityInfo.

● Prior experience with UNICEF, other UN agencies or similar International Organizations, including first-hand knowledge of humanitarian response frameworks, performance indicators, and internal systems, is a strong asset.

● Experience working in emergency response in Europe and Central Asia a strong asset.

● Strong ability to interpret complex data, identify patterns, and generate actionable insights for decision-making.

● Fluency in English.

Advertised: 20 Dec 2024 W. Europe Standard Time

Deadline: 03 Jan 2025 W. Europe Standard Time

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