Country Capacity Strengthening/Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant

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Job Title: Country capacity strengthening/Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant

Type of Contract: Regular Consultant

Division: Programme – Humanitarian and Development/Country Capacity Strengthening Unit …

Duty Station (City, Country): HQ, Rome Italy (remote working possible)

Duration: From October 2022 to September 2023 (11 months)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

WFP is already deeply engaged in strengthening country capacities, providing extensive support to national stakeholders to enhance local capacities and systems. Over the 2019-2021 period, external capacity strengthening by WFP reached USD 912 million in expenditures, amounting to approximately 4 percent of total WFP transfer values. Though these numbers bear additional unpacking, they reflect strong WFP-wide engagement in capacity strengthening. Notably, capacity strengthening represents more than 50 percent of WFP transfer expenditures in 12 country-level operations, and between 25 to 50 percent in an additional 12. As of 2021, 86 percent of Country Strategic Plans (CSPs) referred to outcome-level country capacity strengthening (CCS) in their logframes.

WFP’s product offer has evolved in response to changing country needs, with WFP providing support in new areas (social protection, home-grown school feeding and food systems). As the global COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, demand from partners and governments has increased for WFP to both provide direct support to crisis response and also strengthen governments’ longer-term ability to respond. For instance, WFP has supported governments in at least 65 countries in introducing new measures or scaling up/adapting their existing social protection schemes to mitigate the pandemic’s impact.

Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 on ending hunger (SDG 2) requires WFP to extend its reach beyond 115 million direct beneficiaries to the 800 million people globally who are food and nutrition insecure. WFP’s enhanced focus on systems strengthening is based on the recognition that national systems are the primary vehicle for achieving SDG 2. Working through and with governments and stakeholders across the whole of society presents WFP with tremendous opportunities for scale, impact and sustainability of results. It is for these reasons that the new corporate Strategic Plan is focusing attention on WFP’s enabling role.

Corporate and decentralized evaluations of CCS have identified areas for improvement in measuring results and generating evidence of WFP contributions to national capacity strengthening. Enhanced evidence-generation for WFP’s enabling role is an ongoing, gradual process across headquarters, regional bureaux and the field to continue optimizing resources, responsibilities and abilities for CCS monitoring and evaluation.

Recognizing the need to be able to both learn internally from successful CCS work while also demonstrate externally the organization’s achievements, WFP will invest in evidence-generation to inform the design and implementation of its CCS activities. Building on the conceptual foundation of a recently approved CCS policy update and a new corporate results framework, WFP will consolidate its monitoring and evaluation approach for CCS which will be informed by industry best practices. Development and piloting of new indicators is underway in 2022. New and improved CCS monitoring and evaluation approaches and methods will be internally disseminated with adequate support and training. Corporate information management and reporting systems will also be reviewed to better reflect the qualitative aspects of CCS processes and results.

To deliver in line with the above, the HQ CCS unit is seeking a Country Capacity Strengthening/ Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant, reporting to the Lead of the Monitoring and Evidence-Generation Pillar within the unit, to further develop CCS indicators and monitoring methodologies; prepare guidance for improved CCS monitoring, evidence-generation; and support the implementation of CCS M&E approaches in the field.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Revise/create new methodologies and guidance for country-specific CCS indicators and manage piloting of agreed indicators;

1. Design and implement pilot M&E and evidence-generation frameworks for CS operations in the field aligned with context and industry best practice, and document learning from the pilots;

1. Identify and develop guidance for effective CCS M&E approaches that complement the CRF indicators and are feasible in WFP's operations, with particular focus on qualitative methods and evaluative approaches;

1. Develop and facilitate trainings for RB and CO M&E and programme staff as part of the rollout of the updated corporate CCS M&E framework;

1. Advise on and contribute to the development of CCS M&E approaches by other WFP technical areas;

1. Provide in-person and remote support to COs applying new CCS indicators and M&E approaches, including the revised Emergency Preparedness Capacity Indicator;

1. Provide hand-on support to COs on improved consolidation and documentation of CCS evidence from quantitative and qualitative data;

1. Support the management of CCS evidence-generation studies commissioned to inform WFP's global evidence-base on its enabling work;

1. Support other CCS M&E workstreams through research and analysis, as needed; and

1. Any other duties that may be required.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Advanced University degree in International Development, International Relations, Anthropology, Sociology, Social Research Methods or other field relevant to international development assistance, or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.

Experience:

Minimum of six years of relevant professional work experience including in international development or humanitarian work

Minimum of four years of experience in monitoring and/or evaluation, including strong experience using a variety of quantitative and qualitative analytical tools and methods.

Previous experience working in an International Organisation and/or UN organisation is considered an asset.

Knowledge and Skills:

Technical skills & knowledge:

• Knowledge of internal and external best practices for monitoring, review and/or evaluation arrangements
• Solid knowledge of key national and regional contexts and issues;
• Demonstrated data collection and analytical writing skills, including ability to analyse and consolidate quantitative and qualitative information;
• Good operational, analytical and problem-solving skills;
• Demonstrated ability to produce high-quality written outputs, particularly guidance materials and analytical reports, and ability to present English and/or in the language of the region, including in facilitator roles.
• Demonstrated knowledge of country capacity strengthening in the context of WFP’s operations is highly desirable

Soft skills:

• Excellent ability to develop and maintain networks with a variety of stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, problem solving, communication, and interpersonal skills
• Ability to work independently in a timely and organised manner
• Willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work;
• Ability to work in a team and multi-task as needed.

Language:

Fluency in both oral and written communication in English is essential. Fluency or ability to work in any of the other official languages (Spanish, French, Arabic; Chinese and Russian) or working languages (Portuguese) of WFP considered an asset.

Terms and Conditions

WFP offers a competitive compensation package which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidate’s qualifications and experience.

Please visit the following websites for detailed information on working with WFP.

http://www.wfp.org Click on: “Our work” and “Countries” to learn more about WFP’s operations.

Deadline for applications: 24 August 2022

Ref.: VA No. 171394

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.

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