Country: Senegal
Closing date: 03 Nov 2019
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For every child, faire chance
The Sahel is a vast region with enormous potential for young people and future generations. It is however also, characterized by low rates of human development, with widespread poverty and very high rates of various deprivations affecting children, women and wider communities. The multiple, overlapping structural factors that explain low human development undermine the coping mechanisms of its population and the ability of national and local systems to withstand additional shocks and stresses. Against the backdrop of low human development climate change, environmental degradation, increasing insecurity, population growth, low agricultural productivity, rampant urbanization and underemployment, migration and epidemics further exacerbate the vulnerability of populations undermining hard-won development gains. Access to basic social services across the region is weak and services in place barely meet the needs of communities on an average day, let alone when emergencies strike. Inequities, especially in terms of access and utilization of basic social services and resources, are widespread. Livelihoods mainly consist of subsistence farming and highly mobile pastoralist livestock breading, which have since the 1970s increasingly been undermined by unpredictable rainfall, recurrent droughts and desertification and are further compounded by conflict and insecurity.
Each year in the Sahel, hundreds of thousands of children suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), especially during the lean season when food becomes scarce and malaria and diarrheal diseases increase.
In 2018, drought, high food prices and conflict have had a serious impact on acute hunger and malnutrition in parts of the Sahel. Across the six countries(Burkina Faso, Mali,Niger, Chad, Mauritania andSenegal)over 1.6 million children were at risk of severe acute malnutrition, 50 per cent more than in the Sahel’s last major nutrition crisis in 2012.Food insecurity, inadequate dietary practices at home for young children and mothers, lack of access to safe water and sanitation, as well as armed conflict and population displacement, cause high levels of malnutrition among children. Recurring food and nutrition crises have multidimensional consequences for children; including impact on physical and cognitive development, increased school dropouts, increased exposure to violence and exploitation, which often correlates with food crises and increased levels of distress migration from rural to urban areas that has associated risks for children on the move including break-down of service delivery.
In the highly disaster and conflict prone context of the Sahel, making communities resilient to withstand shocks and stresses is critical to reach and maintain socio-economic development, preserve their integrity and protect children. To invest in risk-informed and conflict-sensitive programmes is a prerequisite for countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the targets of the African Union Agenda 2063. Related approaches have been identified and inform in the UN Support Plan for the Sahel, the Global Alliance for Resilience (AGIR) and UNICEF’s Strategic Plan 2018-2021.
Based on that emerging need of building resilience in Sahel, underlined by the context described, a project is initiated by UNICEF WCARO in collaboration with three of the most affected country offices and, the financial support of BMZ.
Given the specificity of that project, and the huge number of emergencies, the Emergency Section in charge is dealing with, it appears relevant to strengthen the function of monitoring and evaluation in that area on intervention by hiring an additional workforce.
How can you make a difference?
PURPOSE OF THE TEMPORARY APPOINTMENT (TA)
The “building resilience in Sahel” M&E for Sahel (Mali, Niger, Mauritania and potentially extended to Chad and Burkina Faso) will provide overall oversight on monitoring and evaluation activities under the supervision of the Programme Manager. The staff will be responsible for coordinating with UNICEF Country Offices and partners (national governments, and INGOs) on the key areas of baseline, monitoring, post-distribution monitoring, evaluation, research and impact evaluation.
On the areas of evaluation and impact evaluation the post holder will work in close collaboration with the Regional Evaluation Advisor and the Chief of Monitoring, Data and Research, in UNICEF’s Regional Office for West and Central Africa. The position will be based in Dakar with extensive travel to the countries concerned by the programme.
3.1. Key accountabilities and End Results
The Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist will:
3.2. Specific Areas of Programme Interventions in the Project
Resilient education and peacebuilding: UNICEF will assist communities to increase the number of children who attend school in isolated and high-risk areas. Specific attention will be given to improve learning outcomes and strengthen capacities to provide conflict sensitive education. Education activities will cover out-of-school children and adolescents as well as at risk children to prevent school dropouts. Girls education will be at the center of the approach. The approach will contribute to children retention with an emphasis on girls by integrating school feeding into UNICEF education package.
Enhanced nutrition: because selected communities are particularly at risk, the proposed approach will combine early response to meet immediate needs whilst investing in achieving medium and longer-term nutrition solutions going beyond life-saving intervention. An innovative multi sectoral approach combining nutrition, health, water and sanitation, education, agriculture and social protection together with community-based interventions will be applied in selected communities.
Community health systemstrengthening: UNICEF will focus on primary health care and community systems (enabling environment, human resources, information systems, supply chain management, demand for care) to support an integrated approach which will include disease surveillance, epidemic response, basic service delivery – including quality maternal, newborn and child health services, health promotion and disease prevention. Particular attention will be given to fight gender-based inequalities including harmful practices.
Resilient WASH services: UNICEF will scale up WASH services in vulnerable communities, in particular communities facing multiple risks factors such as protracted displacement, cholera epidemics and malnutrition. WASH activities will bridge emergency and development programming in a climate change context. WASH in Nutrition interventions will be rolled out where there are high rates of severe and moderate acute malnutrition.
Protection services for all children: UNICEF will promote a community-based platform offering protection services for children in need including formigrant and displacedcommunities. The strategy will include promoting legal frameworks, the strengthening of case-management systems (including cross-border), the provision of psycho-social support as well as family tracing and reunification. For communities located on migratory routes, UNICEF will support governments identifying migrant children, offering emergency support and referring children to case management systems. UNICEF will set-up a one-stop welfare shop and deploy mobile teams.
Social Protection: UNICEF will support civil society organizations and other community platforms engagement for improved accountability of social protection and shock responsive preparedness and response. Shock responsive social protection - including safety nets will be strenghtened: UNICEF will support individuals, households and communities to become more self-reliant and able to mitigate the negative effects of shocks and stresses. Through this household and community focused approach social protection activities will focus on social transfers, programs to ensure access to services, social support and care services, contribution to legislation and policy reform to ensure equality and non-discrimination. UNICEF will reinforce cash transfer services (Cash Plus) linked to social services and economic development.
3.3. Strengthen regional evidence-based generation and advocacy
With the support of the RO Advisers (and the relevant members of their teams) for Child Protection, Education, C4D, Communication, Evaluation, Monitoring and Emergencies, in line with the specific activities within the project described above (3.1.), the Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist will:
Ensure close cooperation with the Regional Evaluation Adviser to ensure advancement in Impact measurement of UNICEF Resilience Model.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Education:
Advanced university degree in social sciences, statistics, planning development, planning or any related field. A first-level university degree with two additional years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of a Master degree.
Work Experience and Requirements:
Language Proficiency:
For every Child, you demonstrate commitment
UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.
View our competency framework at
http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.
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. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.
Remarks:
Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
How to apply:
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 organization. To apply, click on the following link http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/?job=527291