Monitoring and Reporting Consultant

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Job Title: Monitoring and Reporting Consultant

Type of Contract: Regular Consultancy (Level I)

Division: School-based Programmes

Duty Station (City, Country): Rome, Italy

Duration: 11 months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading organization fighting hunger worldwide, working with communities to improve nutrition, build resilience and address the growing challenges posed by climate change and rising inequality. For more than 50 years, WFP has been the leading organization in supporting countries with their school feeding programmes, which are widely prevalent throughout the world. Almost every country in the world has a national school feeding programme, making it the most widespread safety net. The interventions reach an estimated 388 million children and adolescents globally. Of these, WFP supports about 16 million children annually and provides technical assistance to governments ensuring the sustainability and effectiveness of government investments.

In the School Feeding Strategy 2020-2030, WFP committed to better programming, including improved analysis, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. To maximize and consolidate monitoring and evaluation efforts, SBP has established a unit to deliver the evidence and data necessary to support better programmatic decision-making. The role of the Monitoring and Accountability Officer will primarily focus on monitoring, data analysis, assurance, and reporting.

The Theory of Change (ToC) and the Theory of Action (ToA) guide monitoring efforts to measure progress towards achieving results. SBP has undertaken an analysis of internal monitoring systems and has identified the major system bottlenecks and gaps. Based on these findings, the MEAL unit will continue to develop new approaches to appropriately track planned and actual resources invested in school feeding and link them to results. At the global, regional and country level, key performance indicators will be developed for all the strategy work streams and actions identifying annual targets, as well as specific targets for 2025 and 2030.

The MEAL unit will develop an interactive Results Portal to showcase: (i) WFP’s yearly progress on the school feeding strategy, based on the results outlined in the TOC, and (ii) existing evidence. Additionally, a Help-desk function will be established to support COs and RBx with queries relating to monitoring and Reporting School feeding activities. The Monitoring and Accountability Officer will support the operationalization of this function, along with strengthening the monitoring capacity of key focal persons in COs and RBx, as needed.

The purpose of this position is to contribute to the development and implementation of the MEAL Plan for SBP, aligned to WFP corporate standards; to develop monitoring frameworks and support COs and RBs in reviewing and generating monitoring tools and plans; to generate quality evidence on the changes in lives of beneficiaries that will inform policy, strategy and programme design and implementation. This includes supporting and coordinating monitoring activities, coordinating global reporting exercises, developing and implementing standards for accountability and data analysis, contributing to thematic/mid-term reviews, and positioning WFP as a reliable and accountable organization and source for data and evidence relating to school-based programmes. Additionally, to contribute to the roll-out of the Theory of Change for the School-Feeding Strategy 2020-2030 along with generating methodology for collecting relevant indicators and support the monitoring of WFP school-based programmes at country and regional level.

ACCOUNTABITLITIES / RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Coordinate and contribute to monitoring efforts within the MEAL team through support on the implementation of specific donor funded projects (Dubai Cares, NORAD, GAC) and other tasks as necessary.
2. Lead the quality-assurance of McGovern-Dole (MGD) proposals, specifically with regards to logframes, indicator selection and monitoring plans. Provide technical support to countries implementing MGD programmes.
3. Lead the development and collection of indicators and evidence that fall outside the Corporate Results Framework (CRF) and evaluations and contribute to the implementation and roll-out of the MEAL Framework for SBP. Lead the quality assurance of theory of action indicators and support other technical teams within SBP to develop indicators to measure corporate performance.
4. Compile a compendium of existing school feeding monitoring tools in support of country office process and activity implementation monitoring. Liaise and coordinate with RAM on the inclusion of necessary toolkits in the survey designer tool.
5. Generate solutions to actively pursue and/or create innovative tracking/data collection mechanisms, including but not limited to a Results Portal on School Feeding, along with other digital solutions where relevant, to maximise monitoring efficiency,
6. Lead and coordinate the consolidation of SBP's inputs to the Annual Performance Report (APR) through analysis of annual data, drafting of inputs and coordination between units. Lead SBP's review of priority Annual Country Reports (ACRs) and develop overview of school feeding in 2022 ACRs. Generate additional guidance as necessary to promote better reporting in future.
7. Lead and coordinate the drafting of annual and final reports for the following projects: Breaking Barriers to Girls’ Education (BBGE), Dubai Cares, NORAD and GAC funded projects.
8. Coordinate the provision of inputs from the MEAL unit to the reviews of Country Strategic Plan (CSP) drafts in liaison with the SBP Programme Support Unit.
9. Provide support to COs and RBs through the Help-desk Function to ensure wide understanding and correct implementation of SBP MEAL Framework.
10. Take responsibility for integrating protection and gender perspectives in all areas of work, to ensure equal participation of women and men.

DELIVERABLES QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

1. Timely and effective support on the monitoring and learning deliverables of specific donor funded projects (Dubai Cares, NORAD, GAC etc)
2. MGD Proposals and projects coordinated at global level include robust logframes, indicators, and monitoring plans.
3. Theory of Action indicators selected and tracked
4. Monitoring toolkits compendium successfully compiled and necessary surveys included in the RAM survey designer tool.
5. SBP’s inputs to corporate reporting exercises (Annual Performance Report and Review of Annual Country Reports).
6. Completed 2022 yearly data analysis from corporate reporting.
7. Narrative Reports for donor funded projects are well written and finalized (BBGE, Dubai Cares, NORAD, GAC, etc)
8. Successful rollout of the SBP Results Portal Prototype and two-pager about the SBP Results Portal, based on the lessons learned from the prototype’s uptake and utility.
9. Timely support to country offices and regional bureaus on monitoring and performance.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

First University degree in Economics, Public Policy, International Development or Social Sciences or other relevant field with additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses. Advanced University degree desirable.

Experience:

Minimum 3 years of relevant experience

Knowledge and Skills:

• Has strong and proven expertise of development monitoring, reporting and accountability.

• Strong understanding of school feeding projects and proposals coordinated at global level.

• Proven experience with quality-assurance and reviews of monitoring frameworks and project reports.

• Strong monitoring experience, preferably with international organizations, including experience formulating M&E plans is an asset.

• Has strong communication skills and is able to communicate with a range of technical experts as well as non-technical staff effectively.

• Has ability to manage complex projects and multiple stakeholders with competing priorities.

• A good understanding of school feeding projects.

• Experience in reporting and report writing including drafting high-level documents or publications.

• Ability to work independently, with minimal supervision and has initiative to propose or initiate activities to the benefit of the team and of WFP

Languages:

English. Knowledge of another UN language would be an asset (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish)

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: 2 March 2023

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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