UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, Future

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. UNICEF and cooperating partners and stakeholders work to secure the rights of each child and the surrounding families, communities and nations.

Working through the country program of cooperation, and likewise through the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), UNICEF assists countries to realize the rights of all children. Evaluation is a critical function for understanding if, to what extent and how the development objectives have been met in a way that contributes to the progressive realization of children’s rights.

Representatives of are accountable for ensuring that the evaluation policy is implemented at country level. They lead in meeting the country-level evaluation commitments, which are primarily contained in the multi-year costed evaluation plan of the country office which is approved by the Executive Board concurrently with the country programme document. The CO receives support, guidance, technical assistance and oversight from the MENA RO on the implementation of the evaluation policy and meeting country-level evaluation commitments, and on evaluation conduct and use.

A TA Multi-Country (MC) Evaluation Specialist post, located in the MENA Regional Office, will temporarily provide oversight, support, guidance and technical assistance to the small and medium-size MENA Country Offices, on evaluation conduct and on the evaluation function. Additionally, the TA MC Evaluation Specialist post will contribute to the coordination of evaluation in the MENA region and will manage evaluations commissioned by the MENA Regional Office. A major part of the regional evaluations is the preparation and management of Country Programme Evaluations.

How can you make a difference? 

As an MC Evaluation Specialist, you work with country evaluation leads and Representatives in their duties across assigned countries.

You ensure the credibility, impartiality, and independence of the evaluation function in the Country Offices (COs) under your responsibility. You play an oversight role in relation to evaluation leadership, planning, funding, and use.

You are responsible for contributing to the design, effective conduct, and uptake of evaluations, in alignment with the UNICEF Evaluation Policy, the UNEG Norms and Standards for Evaluation, and UNICEF Evaluation Quality Standards. On a day-to-day basis, you work in close coordination with country office evaluation staff to support the conduct of evaluations.

You collaborate with COs to engage competent evaluators who perform their duties in accordance with UNICEF’s evaluation norms and standards. You also support Country Offices in managing their evaluation partnerships, and in coordinating with the Regional Office and Headquarters. Additionally, you contribute to specific evaluation activities of the Regional Office.

You report to the Regional Adviser, Evaluation (P-5) and operate within a matrix management structure, maintaining an indirect reporting line to the Representatives of the COs you support.

Your role spans coordination, guidance, oversight, and technical support to evaluation leads—and in certain cases, includes managing evaluations directly.

You perform your duties in full accordance with the UNEG Norms and Standards and the UNICEF Evaluation Policy, and you consult the Regional Adviser, Evaluation when major policy or strategic decisions are required.

Tasks and responsibilities : 

1 Evaluation Leadership

Support the Country Offices under his/her responsibility and their national partners to develop and implement a plan of evaluation activities that will provide meaningful and useful strategic information to manage Country Programmes and relevant national policies and programmes toward achieving results for children in both humanitarian and non humanitarian environments.

The TA Multi-Country Evaluation Specialist will work with assigned Country Offices:

• Monitor the evaluation performance indicators and provide guidance to the Country Office on adaptive measures when these indicators are not on track.
• Monitor the implementation of the costed evaluation plan, ensuring a close follow up on the implementation of planned activities, and support the country office in addressing evaluation in Country Management Teams (CMTs), and, where applicable, Mid-term Reviews (MTR), as well as other strategic moments.
• Provide guidance to the country office to ensure that evaluation findings and lessons learned are incorporated in planning, and reporting documents.

2 Evaluation Conduct and Use

Ensure that UNICEF-supported evaluations are designed and implemented meeting the established UN quality standards, resulting in evaluation reports of satisfactory quality and in the findings being disseminated in a timely fashion and used by stakeholders in order to improve programme performance and contribute to wider learning.

The Multi Country Evaluation Specialist will support Country Offices to:

• Assist Country Offices and their partners to formulate Terms of Reference and evaluation designs of high quality. The MC Evaluation Specialist is to sign off on the TORs before they can advance to recruitment of the evaluation team. Work with the country office evaluation specialist/focal point to manage the recruitment of appropriate and highly qualified consultants.
• The Specialist will closely monitor the implementation of the evaluation, quality review the deliverables and will indicate when the quality is high enough that it can be accepted.  As part of this role, she/he will help establish and manage the necessary governance bodies (Steering Committee; Reference Group) for their inputs into the quality assurance process. Ensure that evaluations undergo an ethical review when required.
• Support the CO evaluation lead in working closely with external evaluation consultants/teams to enable them to deliver results according to the agreed Terms of Reference. Exercise sufficient oversight on the quality of the process and the outputs, and detect any quality problems soon enough that timely remedial action is possible.
• Support the CO evaluation lead in developing and implementing a multi-method communication plan to disseminate the evaluation report to intended audiences via user-friendly methods. Fosters organizational accountability and learning based on the outcomes of the evaluations.
• Assist the COs to draft an EMR with stakeholders, and to monitor and report on the implementation of agreed management response actions.

The Multi Country Evaluation Specialist will support the Regional Office to:

• Manage evaluations commissioned by MENARO, and especially the Country Programme Evaluations
• support the conduct of evaluations in the MENA region, led by the Evaluation Office and involving the Country Offices and support the initiatives of the regional office to strengthen the quality of the evaluations in their design, implementation and use.
• Support or manage evaluation innovation initiatives of the MENARO

3.  Evaluation Capacity Strengthening and Partnership building

Ensure that evaluation capacities of Country Office staff and national partners – including government and civil society – are strengthened, enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead evidence generating processes.  Ensure that the Country Office is effectively linked to wider UNICEF capacity building developments in a way that both contributes to and benefits from organizational learning. 

The Multi Country Evaluation Specialist will support Country Offices to:

• Support COs in fostering policy-level and academic partnerships to support national evaluation capacity development initiatives.
• Support COs in strengthening strategic partnerships through networking and advocacy primarily with local/national governments, UN system agency partners and donors.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here:  2025_4_23 TA Request Form - TA MCES-replacement paternity leave-17 April Signed.pdf

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum requirements:

Education: An Advanced University Degree in the social sciences, economics, public policy, statistics, or in research methods is required.  A degree or certification/accreditation in Evaluation is a significant advantage.

A degree or certification/accreditation in Evaluation is a significant advantage. 

Work Experience:

• A minimum of 8 years of professional experience in the implementation of equity-focused evaluations and the management of the evaluation function at national and international level. Experience in development and/ or humanitarian settings is required.
• Experience in evaluation design and in conducting evaluations as per UNEG norms and standards for Evaluation.
• Experience with methods used in conducting ‘down-stream’ evaluations (e.g. focusing on delivery of programmes and projects) is required.

Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.

Desirables:

• Experience in evaluation design and in conducting evaluations as per UNEG norms and standards for Evaluation.
• Experience with methods used in conducting ‘down-stream’ evaluations (e.g. focusing on delivery of programmes and projects) is required.
• Experience in designing, contracting and managing Country Programme Evaluations is an asset.
• Experience with methods used in conducting ‘up-stream’ evaluations (e.g. focusing on policies, strategies and systems), is an asset.
• Experience in supporting national evaluation capacity development is an asset.
• Experience with procurement and consultancy hiring processes for evaluation services, and with evaluation contract management is an asset.
• Experience in related evidence functions is an asset, including Social Policy, Public Policy, Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analysis, Research, Programme Audit, and Programme Planning and Monitoring.  Experience in these areas cannot be substituted for the Evaluation experience but is an advantage.
• Experience in the MENA region is advantageous.
• Knowledge of Arabic and/or French is an asset.

Technical Knowledge

• Professional expertise in evaluation design, process management, dissemination of results, and utilization.
• Technical knowledge of the evaluation framework, including theory-based evaluation approaches, evaluation norms and principles, research designs, theory of change design, stakeholders analysis, quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection, validity/reliability testing of data, data and qualitative information analysis and interpretation, and statistical inference methods.
• Technical knowledge of experimental and quasi-experimental evaluation approaches is an advantage.
• Technical knowledge in routine monitoring systems; preferably those associated with Health, Nutrition, Education, Child Protection, Social Policy or WASH sectors
• Technical knowledge on utilization of evaluation and other evidence approaches to realize Gender Equality and Human Rights based development.
• Familiarity with ethics review processes.
• Familiarity with procurement for evaluation services.
• Exposure to innovative techniques for data collection and analysis, such as the use of AI for evaluation is an asset.
• Use of data and information quantitative and qualitative software for data analysis is an asset
• Knowledge of UNICEF & UNEG Evaluation norms & standards.
• Excellent communication skills (oral, written and in developing effective and user-targeted materials).
• Publications which show sound experience with evaluation methods are an advantage.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels..

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic background, and persons with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization. To create a more inclusive workplace, UNICEF offers paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. Click here to learn more about flexible work arrangements, well-being, and benefits.

According to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. In its Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy 2022-2030, UNICEF has committed to increase the number of employees with disabilities by 2030. At UNICEF, we provide reasonable accommodation for work-related support requirements of candidates and employees with disabilities. Also, UNICEF has launched a Global Accessibility Helpdesk to strengthen physical and digital accessibility. If you are an applicant with a disability who needs digital accessibility support in completing the online application, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable male from high income countries are encouraged to apply.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.