Evaluation Advisor

The Independent Evaluation Office of UNDP supports the oversight and accountability functions of the Executive Board and the management of UNDP, UNCDF and UNV. The Office’s structural independence underpins and guarantees its freedom to conduct evaluations and report evaluation results to the Executive Board.

IEO conducts independent evaluations and other activities according to its programme of work approved by the Executive Board. The work of the IEO includes:

1. Conducting thematic programmatic and other independent evaluations, ensuring strategic and representative coverage of UNDP programmes and results against national, regional and global scales;
2. Developing evaluation standards, procedures, criteria and methodological guidance for UNDP evaluations, and contributing to innovation in evaluation methodology and dissemination of good practices;
3. Providing UNDP and its development partners with timely knowledge and lessons drawn from evaluations that can feed into development programming at global, regional and country levels;
4. Assessing the quality of decentralized evaluations of UNDP, UNCDF and UNV, and monitoring compliance with best international evaluation and data collection standards, including the UNEG norms and standards, code of conduct and ethical guidelines;
5. Communicating its evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations through multiple channels and maintaining a searchable, publicly accessible repository of all UNDP, UNCDF and UNV evaluations, and respective management responses and resulting actions;
6. Supporting the development of communities of practice, and partnering with professional evaluation networks to improve evaluation utility and credibility;
7. Supporting the harmonization of the evaluation function in the United Nations system, including contributing to the annual work programme of UNEG, participating in systemwide evaluations, and prioritizing joint evaluations with United Nations organizations;
8. (h) Promoting national ownership and leadership in evaluation through country-led and joint evaluations.

The Evaluation Adviser will work primarily conducting evaluations and producing knowledge products as planned by the IEO according to its annual work plan.  The position is currently located in New York HQ.

The Evaluation Advisor reports to the Chief of Knowledge and Data Management, with managerial and supervisory responsibilities. He/she works closely with the Chiefs of other Sections and the Directorate of IEO to support the Office’s efficient and full delivery of the Programme of Work.

Main duties and responsibilities are:

1. Lead and/or manage thematic or programmatic evaluations that are impartial, independent, and credible.
2. Ensure that evaluations are useful, and support follow-up of evaluation findings and recommendations.
3. Promote the evaluation culture in UNDP.
4. Effectively deploy and manage human and financial resources of IEO.

1) Conduct and/or manage evaluations that are impartial, independent, credible and meet professional standards.

• Carry out evaluations of complex programmes, policies and cross-cutting themes and lead evaluation teams.
• Supervise effectively evaluations conducted by staff members and consultants.
• Ensure that evaluations meet high professional standards in line with the UNDP Evaluation Policy and UN Evaluation Norms & Standards.
• Keep abreast of developments in the area of evaluation.
• Ensure that up-to-date evaluation techniques and approaches are applied.
• Cooperate with other UN evaluation units and professional evaluation bodies.

2. Promote the use of evaluations and support the follow-up of evaluation findings and recommendations.

• Report to management on recommendations and lessons learned drawn from evaluations.
• Organize meetings, workshops and other discussion forum to establish a dialogue on evaluation results.
• Advocate for the use of evaluation results in the design and appraisal of strategies, policies and projects/programmes.

3. Promote the evaluation culture in the Organization.

• Design and implement evaluation capacity development initiatives within the office and in other organizational units.
• Ensure continuous methodological improvement of and support to independent and decentralized evaluations.
• Contribute to the development and review of policies, guidance, systems, procedures and tools related to evaluation.
• Contribute to the Knowledge and Data Management workstream, supporting the integration of new methodologies to improve evidence analysis and learning lessons extraction.

4. Effectively deploy and manage human and financial resources of the Independent Evaluation Office.

• Plan evaluations and prepare budgets for individual evaluations.
• Manage effectively and efficiently the use of resources for evaluations.
• Select evaluation consultants based on post requirements.
• Supervise and coach staff and evaluation consultants.

Innovation: Ability to make new and useful ideas work

Level 6: Exercises stakeholder-centered design approaches for office / programme / division

Leadership: Ability to persuade others to follow

Level 6: Ensures teams are resourced for success  and empowered to deliver

People Management: Ability to improve performance and satisfaction

Level 6: Guides substantive specialists / teams and expands credibility and innovation capacity

Communication: Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform

Level 6: Creates confidence among stakeholders by delivering authoritative positions, compelling analysis, and contextual acumen

Delivery: Ability to get things done while exercising good judgement

Level 6: Accepts accountability for the outcomes of programme delivery and facilitates improvement and innovation in the delivery of products and services

Technical/Functional Competencies

Professional Foundations: Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Includes:

• Excellent, updated knowledge about evaluation ethics and UNEG Norms and Standards, can uphold ethics under pressure, and is able to maintain independence and impartiality under pressure; 
• Ability to critically analyze current issues in evaluation practice and theory; has excellent knowledge of social, economic and environmental issues and is able to ensure that evaluation design, questions and analysis incorporate this knowledge in all settings

Technical Evaluation Skills: Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Includes:

• Knowledge of various types of theories of change and logic models and is able use a systems approach in order to identify, recreate and facilitate the development of theories of change for complex programmes, policies or initiatives in order to facilitate evaluative thinking and learning among stakeholders 
• Excellent ability to develop high-quality terms of references for complex evaluations, demonstrating an ability to prioritize and focus evaluation questions
• Excellent knowledge of elaborating designs for complex evaluations, drawing on existing best practices as well as developing innovative approaches
• Excellent knowledge and the ability to apply and interpret a range of evaluation methods and approaches, both quantitative and qualitative, ensuring that appropriate evaluation data collection and analysis methods are used. Understands and ensures the appropriate use of multiple and mixed methods
• Knowledge and confidence in analyzing data from diverse sources, identifying key trends and gaps in information, being able to ensure that data and information used in evaluations are appropriate, accurate, of high quality and collected and analyzed from an ethical perspective
• Extensive quantitative and qualitative analytical skills to elaborate credible findings where evidence can be traced through the analysis into findings, which are placed within their context Uses analytical skills to synthesize data where relevant, and identifies intended and unintended results
• Excellent ability in reporting highly credible conclusions substantiated by evidence
• Ability to develop clear, realistic and feasible recommendations.
• Ability to proactively disseminate recommendations in order to ensure their use  to inform future programme and policy decisions

Management Skills: Level 5:Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Including a solid ability to:

• Determine the scope of an evaluation and to develop mechanisms to implement the evaluation 
• Develop a realistic work plan for a complex evaluation, to adjust the work plan as needed and to effectively oversee the budgeting and the use of evaluation resources
• Coordinate and supervise complex evaluation teams and processes
• Identify, manage and solve conflicts, drawing out lessons learned from challenging situations

Promoting a culture of learning for evaluation: Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Including:

• Solid knowledge of and ability to communicate to stakeholders the value of evaluation to policy and programming in the achievement of the SDGs

Education:

• Master’s degree in economics, public policy, political sciences, development studies or a related area.

Experience:

• A minimum of 10 years of experience in the conduct and management of evaluation and or research.
• Expert knowledge of current international development issues.
• Knowledge of the UN agencies and its challenges from evaluation perspective, highly desirable
• Experience in the use of various research methodologies.
• Experience in the usage of office and analytical software packages (R, Stata,SPSS, or Tableau)
• Experience in handling of web-based management systems

Language Requirements:

• Proficiency in English.
• Working knowledge of other UN language (Spanish, French, Arabic, or Russian) an advantage

Important information for US Permanent Residents ('Green Card' holders)

Under US immigration law, acceptance of a staff position with UNDP, an international organization, may have significant implications for US Permanent Residents. UNDP advises applicants for all professional level posts that they must relinquish their US Permanent Resident status and accept a G-4 visa, or have submitted a valid application for US citizenship prior to commencement of employment. 

UNDP is not in a position to provide advice or assistance on applying for US citizenship and therefore applicants are advised to seek the advice of competent immigration lawyers regarding any applications.

Applicant information about UNDP rosters

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

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