United Nations UNICEF Careers – Monitoring Specialist (Real Time Monitoring and Citizen Engagement)



Organisation:
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund
(UNICEF)
Grade:
NOC
Duty
Station:
Kampala, Uganda
About
UNICEF:
UNICEF,
the United Nations Children’s Fund, is the driving force that helps build a
world where the rights of every child are realized.  Uganda is one of the over 190 countries and
territories around the world where we work to overcome the obstacles that
poverty, violence, disease, and discrimination place in a child’s path.
Uganda
is among the nine countries in the ESARO region which bears a significant
proportion of global under-five mortality, malnutrition and HIV. Uganda is not
on track to meet the MDG 4 and 5 targets unless there is a significant
acceleration in coverage of key cost effective interventions.
Under
the decentralized framework in Uganda, the planning as well as the delivery of
essential services for children falls squarely on the district and the lower
level units with the MoH providing policy, strategic direction and guidelines.
UNICEF’s observation is that, for most service delivery systems on the ground,
the traditional model of input-output monitoring and occasional impact
monitoring is not addressing data gaps related to intermediate results – i.e.,
results that relate to the removal of barriers and bottlenecks that can prevent
the realization of desired outcomes or impact for children’s health.
Furthermore, there is the urgent need for timely ‘early warning’ data that will
signal whether programs are likely to be effective or not; this data also needs
to be complemented by effective feedback loops for timely program adjustment
during implementation. Lastly, there is also considerable room for learning
across districts that have significant service access and quality gaps.
The
US Fund for UNICEF, co-funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been
supporting UNICEF to initiate a project “Institutional Strengthening to Improve
Program Monitoring and Response in the Eastern and Southern Africa region”. The
project seeks to identify and promote promising practice at country and
district level related to:
·        
Making data on intermediate results
in the delivery of health, nutrition, HIV, water and sanitation services
available on a near real time basis in three[1] poorly performing districts in
Uganda;
·        
Enhancing prioritization of
essential services and timely program adjustments through local planning and
decision-making mechanisms as well as in-country learning forums
·        
Strengthening the links between
social accountability mechanisms and actual delivery agencies for improved
feedback and learning; and
·        
Establishing and refining knowledge
exchange mechanisms for peer-to-peer learning about program monitoring across
districts.
Two
outcomes are expected. The first outcome is that On the basis of demonstrated
district models, Plans of Action prepared by three districts in Uganda to scale
up use of real time monitoring data to address bottlenecks in the delivery of
health, nutrition, HIV and WASH services. The second outcome is that there is
Increased knowledge of UNICEF and government staff in Uganda on program
monitoring and response in the delivery of health, nutrition, HIV and WASH
services.
In
the context of the outcomes, five outputs are expected:
·        
Three districts will use reliable
and quality real-time data for identifying and addressing bottlenecks in the
delivery of health, nutrition, HIV and WASH services.
·        
Citizens/ youth groups in the three
districts will provide feedback on the delivery of health, nutrition, HIV and
WASH services using social media platform.
·        
The three districts will conduct
quarterly performance review using data from real-time monitoring.
·        
Staff of UNICEF Uganda Country
Office and GoU use e-platforms for learning about program monitoring and
response.
·        
Evidence and experience from the
four districts will inform a national scale up to 112 districts within 24
months.
Key
Duties and Responsibilities: 
·        
Ensure agreement at district level
on data requirements for Real Time Monitoring using the RMNCH score card.
·        
Keenly identify key stakeholders for
citizen engagement (especially care givers and families).
·        
Reach agreement on modalities for
participation using e.g. U-report and mTRAC.
·        
To customise existing platforms
(e.g. using dash boards) to cater for district level real time monitoring and
citizen engagement requirements
·        
To train and orient relevant
district staff on the use of existing platforms.
·        
To guide relevant district staff in
identifying appropriate tools to be utilised during the quarterly programme
progress review meetings.
·        
To maintain platform and oversee
access, use and rights management.
·        
Shore data from real time monitoring
and citizen engagement to all relevant stakeholders.
·        
Provide in-country program
monitoring capacity programs – for use/scaling up use of feasible tools,
especially for data collection, validation, analysis and dissemination, and for
social accountability.
·        
Conduct capacity assessments at the
inception phase of the project, on the basis of which partners will be
identified. The main partners will be government departments responsible for
the delivery of health, nutrition, HIV and WASH services and their direct
associates (in service delivery), including NGOs.
·        
Provide direct technical support to
UNICEF staff for reprioritization and program adjustment– this is essential for
managing trust-based relationships, especially for improved decision-making
within local government/national government service delivery processes.
Capacity support will be provided to national level at MoH to support the
national scale up.
·        
Provide feedback and learning for
continual program adjustments through a combination of virtual and face-to-face
methods, including in-country learning by UNICEF and country partners and
country to country learning across the four countries of Kenya, Swaziland,
Uganda and Zimbabwe which will be implementing this approach. Focus will be on
replicating and adapting successful approaches, or to finding new ideas and
access to technical advice to help solve practical challenges. The main
partners will be government departments responsible the delivery of
health-related services and their direct associates (in service delivery),
including NGOs. The creation and facilitation of a virtual community of
practice of UNICEF staff and country partners working on program monitoring
will be an important strategy – for specific knowledge sharing and learning
activities such as i) facilitated e-discussions on topics of shared concern ii)
e-queries – facilitated peer responses to country initiated practical queries
iii) face to face meetings for training and for experience sharing iv)
webinars/virtual conferences for ongoing support and exchange iv) peer-assists
– facilitated learning partnerships between 2 or more countries or across
districts to help solve specific challenges.
·        
Technically support UNICEF-facilitated
discussions at the national level on lessons emerging from the project with a
view to scaling up. While the partners at the national level will vary
depending on each country, the World Bank, EU, DfID, AfDB are major potential
partners, in addition to the central role of government departments.
Qualifications,
Skills and Experience: 
·        
The ideal candidate for the United
Nations UNICEF Monitoring Specialist (Real Time Monitoring and Citizen Engagement)
should hold an advanced university degree in Public Health, Social Sciences or
other related field.
·        
At least five years of progressively
responsible professional work experience at the national and international
levels in public health, social development, management, monitoring and
evaluation.
·        
Current knowledge of development
issues, policies as well as social programming policies and procedures in
international development cooperation.
·        
Proven ability to conceptualize,
innovate, plan and execute ideas as well as transfer knowledge and skills.
·        
Creates and encourages a climate of
team-working and collaboration in a multi-cultural environment.
·        
Possess the ability to supervise
professional and support staff and consultants.
·        
Excellent analytical, negotiating,
communication and advocacy skills.
·        
Computer skills, including internet
navigation, and various office applications.
·        
Demonstrated ability to work in a
multi-cultural environment, and establish harmonious and effective working
relationships both within and outside the organization.
·        
Communicates effectively to varied
audiences, including during formal public speaking.
·        
Consistently achieves high-level
results, managing and delivering projects on-time and on-budget.
·        
Analyzes and integrates diverse and
complex quantitative and qualitative data from a wide range of sources.
·        
Identifies urgent and potentially
risky decisions and acts on them promptly; initiates and generates
organization-wide activities.
·        
Quickly builds rapport with
individuals and groups; maintains an effective network of individuals across
organizational departments.
·        
Negotiates effectively by exploring
a range of possibilities.
·        
Fluency in English and another UN
language required.
·        
Working knowledge of the local
working language of the duty station is an asset.
How
to Apply:
ONLY
Ugandan Nationals will be considered.
UNICEF
is committed to gender equality in its mandate and its staff; qualified female
candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
·        
The applications will be considered
only if accompanied by an updated CV and P11 form, download here, as well
as the most recent performance evaluation report.
·        
If applications are sent by email,
please clearly indicate the position applied for and use this order to name
your file attachments: Firstname_Lastname followed by document e.g.
Gold_MukasaP11 or Gold_MukasaCV or Gold_ MukasaApplication.
·        
UNICEF is a smoke free environment.
·        
Only short listed candidates will be
contacted.
·        
All candidates who desire to work in
the prestigious United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)
in the above position should send their resume to:
Human
Resource Specialist,
UNICEF
Kampala, Uganda,
Plot
9, George Street,
P.O.
Box 7047, Kampala-Uganda.
Via
email to: ugderecruit@unicef.org
Deadline:
31st March, 2015

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