Closing date: Monday, 8 December 2014
Information Management Specialist, P-4, Nairobi, Kenya
Vacancy No: E-VN-2014-002991
Duty Station: Nairobi
Country: Kenya
Region: ESARO
Job Level: P-4
Position: 00090604
Application Close: 08-Dec-14
Contract Type: Long-term Staff (FT)
Purpose of the Position
Under the supervision of the Chief Health, the incumbent is to ensure that the UNICEF Kenya Country Office has useful, valid and reliable information on
1) The situation of children's and women's rights with regards to health, with a particular focus on maternal-newborn health and the major causes of under-five mortality.
2) The performance of UNICEF-supported health programmes including their relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and scalability; in emergency contexts, the coverage, coordination and coherence of UNICEF-supported emergency health programmes: ii) To build the capacity of national and county-level partners, particularly the MOH, in evidence-based planning and improved program monitoring for enhanced quality assurance and accountability.
iii) To develop, oversee, and support dissemination of operational research on effective mechanisms to improve MNCH service delivery for Kenya's most-vulnerable populations.
Key Expected Results
1. Programme Performance Monitoring
- Ensure that the Country Office has quality information to assess progress towards expected results established in annual work plans.
- Support UNICEF and county-level partners to monitor changes in bottlenecks affecting the supply, demand, coverage and quality of key health programs, with particular focus on maternal and newborn health and integrated community case management/ IMCI, consistent with UNICEF MORES guidelines.
- Working closely with donors, the UN Country Team and counterparts at the national MOH and County Health Teams, develop results frameworks including key programme performance indicators; provide technical oversight to monitor and update the results frameworks.
- Coordinate with partners to ensure that monitoring systems are properly designed, and that data collection and analysis from field visits are coordinated and standardised across programmes to the extent possible, to feed into to programme performance monitoring, with special attention to humanitarian response. This task includes supervision of and/or support for country office and field-based quality assurance and M&E personnel.
- Drawing on monitoring and analysis of key health program performance and management indicators, provide professional input to management reports, including relevant sections of the annual reports.
2. Situation Monitoring and Assessment
- Ensure that the Country Office and national partners have timely and accurate measurement of change in health conditions in the country or region, including monitoring of evolving bottlenecks related to supply, demand, and service quality to facilitate planning and to draw conclusions about the impact of programmes or policies.
- Support select county health teams and partners in the establishment and management county-level statistical databases (e.g., DHIS, community health information systems, databases for evidence-based planning), ensuring that key indicators are readily accessible for key stakeholders. Use lessons learned at the county level to advise the national MOH on changes to national public health data management systems.
- Support the preparation of country level statistical and analytic reports on the status of children's and women's health issues when opportunities emerge to influence developmental and social policies. This includes, in particular, the development and updating of County MNCH Investment Cases, equity analyses, and program reviews.
- In humanitarian response situations, provide professional support for one or more rapid assessments (inter-agency or independently if necessary) to be carried out within the first 48-72 hours.
3. M&E Capacity Building
- Ensure that the monitoring and evaluation capacities of Country Office staff and national partners - government and civil society - are strengthened enabling them to increasingly engage in and lead monitoring and evaluation processes.
- Collaborate to implement M&E capacity building strategies as a joint commitment with other developmental partners, targeting national and county-level health stakeholders and civil society.
- Particular emphasis shall be placed on supporting County Health Management Teams in most-deprived counties to take on their new responsibilities for planning, monitoring and evaluation to enhance service delivery and equity.
- Promote the awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of M& E function among all UNICEF health staff members in the country and field offices through communication, training, learning and development activities.
4. Research Design and Oversight/ IMEP
- Ensure that the UNICEF Kenya Country Office and national partners have a well-prioritised and realistic plan of operational research activities that provides relevant and strategic information needed to manage the Country Programme, translate priority national health policies into implementation in most-vulnerable counties, and to estimate impacts.
- Make professional contributions to and provide technical assistance for planning and establishing the major research and evaluation objectives, priorities, and activities in UNICEF's multi-year and annual health IMEP. Ensure coherence and synergy with the overall office IMEP and particularly similar work being done by the nutrition and WASH sections.
- Ensure that the results of operational research studies are packaged and disseminated effectively to multiple audiences within Kenya and internationally.
- In humanitarian response situations, within the first month, draft and recommend a simple one-month data-collection plan to cover key data gaps as required for the initial emergency response, focusing on protecting the health of affected mothers, newborns and young children.
- After the initial humanitarian response, support management of the medium-term response with a revised IMEP.
5) Evaluation
- Ensure that UNICEF-supported evaluations are designed and implemented to established UN quality standards, and the results are disseminated in a timely fashion to stakeholders in order to improve programme performance and contribute to wider learning.
- Technically support programme partners to formulate Terms of Reference and evaluation designs of high quality in compliance with the organization's programme evaluation policies and guidelines.
- Monitor and ensure the quality of the field work and data management during the implementation phase, and the quality of the analysis and ease of understanding during the report writing phase.
- Disseminate evaluation findings and recommendations to the intended audiences in user-friendly methods.
- Monitor and ensure that a management response to the findings and recommendations of the evaluation is completed, recorded, and followed up for implementation. Submit electronic copies of all evaluations to NYHQ via the Evaluation Data Base web portal, with full accompanying documentation.
6. Coordination and Networking
- Ensure that the UNICEF office is effectively linked to wider UNICEF M&E developments in a way that both contributes to and benefits from organizational learning on effective M&E management.
- Collaborate with Regional M&E Advisers, Regional Health Advisers, and HQ Health Division and Evaluation Office for overall coordination of priority research, monitoring and evaluation activities, especially those of regional scope requiring the coordinated effort of multiple countries.
- Partner with the Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Adviser and Regional Health Adviser, to ensure that current and accurate health-related M&E data and results are included in regional reports, multi-country studies, and knowledge sharing networks.
- Undertake lessons-learned reviews on successful and unsuccessful M&E practices and experience at the national level, and ensure they are shared as appropriate.
Qualifications of Successful Candidate
- Advanced university degree in relevant field such as: Geographic sciences, humanitarian affairs, political science, information technology, information systems, with desirable background in public health and particular emphasis on planning and M&E of health programs.
- Eight years of relevant work experience at international and/or national level.
- Professional work experience in a range of international public health program areas, including maternal and newborn health, child health, HIV and basic knowledge of WASH and nutrition.
- Experience in evidence-based planning methodologies required; expertise using common costing and impact projection tools preferred.
- At least one instance of exposure to emergency programming, including preparedness planning. Active involvement in a humanitarian crisis response programme preferred.
- Fluency in English and another UN language. Knowledge of the local working language (Kiswahili) of the duty station would be an asset.
Competencies of Successful Candidate
- Communicates effectively to varied audiences, including during formal public speaking.
- Sets high standards for quality of work and consistently achieves project goals.
- Able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment.
- Has good leadership and supervisory skills; co-ordinates group activities, ensuring that roles within the team are clear.
- Translates strategic direction into plans and objectives.
- Analyzes and integrates diverse and complex quantitative and qualitative data from a wide range of sources.
- Quickly builds rapport with individuals and groups; maintains an effective network of individuals across organizational departments.
- Identifies urgent and potentially difficult decisions and acts on them promptly; initiates and generates team- and department-wide activities.
- Demonstrates, applies and shares expert technical knowledge across the organization.
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.
