Evaluation Officer, RBN Evaluation Unit, NOC, Fixed Term

JOB TITLE:	Evaluation Specialist
TYPE OF CONTRACT:	NOC, Fixed Term
UNIT/DIVISION:	RBN Evaluation Unit
DUTY STATION (City, Country):	Nairobi, Kenya
DURATION:	12 months, renewable

Organizational Context

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. The Regional Bureau based in Nairobi, Kenya (RBN), provides strategic guidance, policy/technical support and direction to WFP operations and activities in nine countries: Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda.

The WFP Evaluation Policy 2016-2021 reaffirms WFP’s commitment to the value of evaluation in its performance management, accountability and learning systems, in compliance with the United Nations’ evaluation principles, norms and standards. WFP has selected a model for its evaluation function, which combines centralized evaluation with demand-led decentralized evaluation, in line with Strategic Plan commitments and related organizational strengthening initiatives. Since 2016, the organization has invested substantial resources in the development of evaluation capacity at country and regional level. Within this context, RBN has established a Regional Evaluation Unit and developed a Regional Evaluation Strategy to guide its efforts to oversee and support evaluations and related activities.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The Evaluation Specialist at the Regional Bureau Nairobi will work under the direct supervision of the Regional Evaluation Officer to oversee and provide timely support to the planning, commissioning, management, and use of evaluations and related activities across the region. The position will collaboratively support the implementation of the Regional Evaluation Strategy and achievement of its stated goals.

Key Accountabilities

Evaluation Planning & Management

1. Contribute to the management of evaluation processes and budgets to support the production of independent, credible evidence that meets high professional standards in line with UN norms and standards and codes of conduct for evaluation in the UN system, embodied in WFP’s Evaluation Quality Assurance System (EQAS). At the regional level, this entails:
   1. Overseeing and supporting country offices to effectively plan, commission, manage and use evaluations
   2. Supporting or directly managing multi-country and regional evaluations
   3. Ensure the consistent application of the Decentralized Evaluation Quality Assurance System (DEQAS) and use of related services across the region by means of coaching, technical support, and learning support to country office and regional bureau colleagues
   4. Quality assuring evaluation products, including terms of reference, inception reports, and evaluations.
   5. Supporting and reviewing country office evidence planning and budgeting tools

Evaluation Utilization

• Support WFP’s evaluation culture of accountability and learning, working with internal and external stakeholders to enhance learning from and use of evaluation evidence in policy, strategy and programme design and implementation, seeking advice where appropriate.
• Analyse evaluation evidence and contribute to the preparation of syntheses and/or summaries of evaluation findings and recommendations
• Contribute to the dissemination of and advocacy around evaluations and evaluation products, adapting messages to specific audiences and platforms.

Evaluation Capacity Development, Reflective Practice, & Partnerships

• WFP Evaluation Capacity Development & Reflective Practice
  • Contribute to the development of evaluation capacity of WFP staff and partners
  • Supporting the implementation of the corporate learning programme on evaluation in the region and strengthening of CO capacity for managing decentralized evaluations.
  • Support and/or lead the regional evaluation community of practice and its activities
  • Keep abreast of methodological developments in evaluation and contribute to the development of evaluation methodologies and tools to support continuous improvement in evaluation practice.
  • Participate in WFP evaluation community webinars or meetings and contribute to the sharing of experience and development of good practices.
• National Evaluation Capacity Development
  • Support the development of a regional implementation plan to support national evaluation capacity development goals
  • Advise and actively support country offices to identify entry points and implement activities to strengthen national evaluation capacity
• Partnerships
  • Support WFP collaboration with counterparts from other UN organizations, especially the United Nations Network of Evaluators in Sub-Saharan African (UNNESSA) Government institutions, academia as well as professional evaluation bodies

Others

• Support the management and use of information management systems for evaluation processes in the organization.
• Responsible for integrating protection and gender perspectives in all areas of work, to ensure equal participation of women and men.
• Contribute to the Evaluation function development and reporting.
• Manage junior staff members and guide as required to enable high performance, as well as act as officer in charge (OiC) in the absence of the Regional Evaluation Officer.
• Others as required.

WFP Leadership Framework: Common standards of behaviour

			Upholds WFP values,	Respects others	Stays focused and	Demonstrates
			principles, and	and values	calm under	humility and a
			standards	diversity	pressure	willingness to learn
			Demonstrates and	Values diversity	Stays focused and	Demonstrates humility
	Leads by Example		encourages others to	using respectful	calm when under	and a willingness to
		uphold the WFP	and inclusive	pressure,	learn and share
	with Integrity
		values, principles and	language, and	encourages others	knowledge, frequently
			standards	encourages others	to do the same, and	seeking and acting on
				to do the same	offers guidance and	feedback, and pursuing
					support to manage	opportunities to
					difficult situations	develop
			Delivers results for	Delegates	Adapts readily to
			maximum impact	appropriately	change
	Drives Results		Identifies and aligns	Delegates	Responds readily to
		objectives to the	responsibly and	change in different
	and Delivers on
		required outcomes,	provides	contexts and
	Commitments
		holding self and/or	appropriate	adapts accordingly
			others accountable for	support
			the delivery of results	empowering others
			for maximum impact	to deliver results
			Is inclusive and collaborative	Gives timely and constructive	Builds and shares new perspectives
				feedback
	Fosters Inclusive		Promotes inclusive	Supports	Seeks out, trusts
		teamwork and	development for	and listens
	and Collaborative
		psychological safety	others by giving	attentively to
			by encouraging	timely and	diverse views to
			colleagues to	constructive	capture, learn,
			collaborate by sharing	feedback	build and share
			ideas and openly		new perspectives
			raising issues
			Communicates and	Embraces	Analyses and	Considers the impact
			fulfils WFP’s vision	curiosity and new	evaluates data	of decisions
				ways of doing
				things
	Applies Strategic			Demonstrates	Gathers data and	Implements decisions,
	Thinking		Communicates and	different	considering the risks
		curiosity, designs
		perspectives,	and implications of
			fulfils WFP’s vision and	and implements
			shares knowledge	actions for teams,
			operational outcomes
			new ways of doing
			and uses evidence	projects and other
			to deliver meaningful
			things when
			to inform decision	initiatives
			solutions
			relevant
			making

FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES:

Capability Name	Description of the behaviour expected for the proficiency level
Strategic Management	Applies understanding of humanitarian and development actions in different contexts and understanding of monitoring requirements and/or the evaluation, mandate to identify and recommend improvements to WFP’s guidance, systems, and tools for monitoring and/or evaluation.
Performance Management	Demonstrates thorough understanding of WFP’s performance management system and ability to manage resources and relationships to deliver complex evaluations (including joint & inter-agency) of a variety of WFP programmes, processes or policies to WFP monitoring and/or evaluation quality standards.
Qualitative/Quantitative Methodology	Applies in-depth understanding of developing practice in analytical approaches, methods and tools for an appropriate mix to deliver quality complex evaluations on diverse topics relevant to WFP’s strategic and operational results frameworks.
Technical Communication	Able to tailor and synthesize evaluation evidence and engage diverse internal and external stakeholders proactively in appropriate ways to maximize learning and use of evaluation concepts and evidence for improving WFP programme performance
	performance.
Analysis	Demonstrates consistent ability to assess the relevance and quality of evidence from a wide range of WFP and external sources and to deepen independent and balanced analysis of complex internal and external drivers of WFP performance in the wider geo-political and policy environment.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Advanced University degree in International Development, Economics, Social Science or other relevant field, or First University degree with an additional years of related evaluation work experience and/or training/courses.

Experience:

• Minimum of five years of progressively responsible relevant professional work experience related to evaluation in international development or humanitarian work.
• Strong experience using a variety of quantitative and qualitative analytical tools and methods
• Strong experience within monitoring and evaluation, especially supporting and/or directly managing evaluations within WFP, is desired
• Strong experience working with and supporting national or sub-national government entities, especially related to monitoring and/or evaluation
• Experience guiding, supporting, mentoring, and/or coaching individuals to support learning goals
• Experience in knowledge management

Languages:

Fluency (level C) in English language. Intermediate knowledge (level B) of French is desired.

Deadline For Application:

The deadline to apply for this position is May 25th, 2023

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